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1. CHASTITY is the purest and brightest jewel in human character. Dr.
Pierce in his widely known _Medical Adviser_ says: For the full and
perfect development of mankind, both mental and physical, chastity is
necessary. The health demands abstinence from unlawful intercourse.
Therefore children should be instructed to avoid all impure works of
fiction, which tend to inflame the mind and excite the passions. Only
in total abstinence from illicit pleasures is there safety, morals,
and health, while integrity, peace and happiness are the conscious
rewards of virtue. Impurity travels downward with intemperance,
obscenity and corrupting diseases, to degradation and death. A
dissolute, licentious, free-and-easy life is filled with the dregs of
human suffering, iniquity and despair. The penalties which follow a
violation of the law of chastity are found to be severe and swiftly
retributive.
2. THE UNION of the sexes in holy Matrimony is a law of nature,
finding sanction in both morals and legislation. Even some of the
lower animals unite in this union for life and instinctively observe
the law of conjugal fidelity with a consistency which might put to
blush other animals more highly endowed. It seems important to discuss
this subject and understand our social evils, as well as the intense
passional desires of the sexes, which must be controlled, or they lead
to ruin.
3. SEXUAL PROPENSITIES are possessed by all, and these must be held in
abeyance, until they are needed for legitimate purposes. Hence parents
ought to understand the value to their children of mental and physical
labor, to elevate and strengthen the intellectual and moral faculties,
to develop the muscular system and direct the energies of the
blood into healthful channels. Vigorous employment of mind and body
engrosses the vital energies and diverts them from undue excitement of
the sexual desires.
_Give your young people plenty of outdoor amusement; less of
dancing and more of croquet and lawn tennis. Stimulate the methods
of pure thoughts in innocent amusement, and your sons and daughters
will mature to manhood and womanhood pure and chaste in character._
4. IGNORANCE DOES NOT MEAN INNOCENCE.--It is a current idea,
especially among our good common people, that the child should be
kept in ignorance regarding the mystery of his own body and how he was
created or came into the world. This is a great mistake. Parents must
know that the sources of social impurity are great, and the child is a
hundred times more liable to have his young mind poisoned if
entirely ignorant of the functions of his nature than if judiciously
enlightened on these important truths by the parent. The parent must
give him weapons of defense against the putrid corruption he is sure
to meet outside the parental roof. The child cannot get through the A,
B, C period of school without it.
5. CONFLICTING VIEWS.--There is a great difference of opinion regarding
the age at which the child should be taught the mysteries of nature:
some maintain that he cannot comprehend the subject before the age of
puberty; others say "they will find it out soon enough, it is not best
to have them over-wise while they are so young. Wait a while." That is
just the point (_they will find it out_), and we ask in all candor,
is it not better that they learn it from the pure loving mother,
untarnished from any insinuating remark, than that they should learn
it from some foul-mouthed libertine on the street, or some giddy girl
at school? Mothers! fathers! which think you is the most sensible and
fraught with the least danger to your darling boy or girl?
6. DELAY IS FRAUGHT WITH DANGER.--Knowledge on a subject so vitally
connected with moral health must not be deferred. It is safe to say
that no child, no boy at least in these days of excitement and unrest,
reaches the age of ten years without getting some idea of nature's
laws regarding parenthood. And ninety-nine chances to one, those ideas
will be vile and pernicious unless they come from a wise, loving and
pure parent. Now, we entreat you, parents, mothers! do not wait; begin
before a false notion has had chance to find lodgment in the childish
mind. But remember this is a lesson of life, it cannot be told in one
chapter, it is as important as the lessons of love and duty.
7. THE FIRST LESSONS.--Should you be asked by your four or five-year
old, "Mamma, where did you get me?" Instead of saying, "The doctor
brought you," or "God made you and a stork brought you from Babyland
on his back," tell him the truth as you would about any ordinary
question. One mother's explanation was something like this: "My
dear, you were not made any more than apples are made, or the little
chickens are made. Your dolly was made, but it has no life like you
have. God has provided that all living things such as plants, trees,
little chickens, little kittens, little babies, etc., should grow from
seeds or little tiny eggs. Apples grow, little chickens grow, little
babies grow. Apple and peach trees grow from seeds that are planted
in the ground, and the apples and peaches grow on the trees. Baby
chickens grow inside the eggs that are kept warm by the mother hen
for a certain time. Baby boys and girls do not grow inside an egg, but
they start to grow inside of a snug warm nest, from an egg that is
so small you cannot see it with just your eye." This was not given at
once, but from time to time as the child asked questions and in the
simplest language, with many illustrations from plant and animal
life. It may have occupied months, but in time the lesson was fully
understood.
8. THE SECOND LESSON.--The second lesson came with the question, "But
_where_ is the nest?" The ice is now broken, as it were; it was an
easy matter for the mother to say, "The nest in which you grew, dear,
was close to your mother's heart inside her body. All things that
do not grow inside the egg itself, and which are kept warm by the
mother's body, begin to grow from the egg in a nest inside the
mother's body." It may be that this mother had access to illustrations
of the babe in the womb which were shown and explained to the child,
a boy. He was pleased and satisfied with the explanations. It meant
nothing out of the ordinary any more than a primary lesson on the
circulatory system did, it was knowledge on nature in its purity and
simplicity taught by mother, and hence caused no surprise. The subject
of the male and female generative organs came later; the greatest
pains and care was taken to make it clear, the little boy was taught
that the _sexual organs_ were made for a high and holy purpose, that
their office at present is only to carry off impurities from the
system in the fluid form called urine, and that he must never handle
his _sexual organs_ nor touch them in any way except to keep them
clean, and if he does this, he will grow up a bright, happy and
healthy boy. But if he excites or _abuses_ them, he will become
puny, sickly and unhappy. All this was explained in language pure and
simple. There is now in the boy a sturdy base of character building
along the line of virtue and purity through knowledge.
9. SILLY DIRTY TRASH.--But I hear some mother say "Such silly dirty
trash to tell a child!" It is not dirty nor silly; it is nature's
untarnished truth. God has ordained that children should thus be
brought into the world, do you call the works of God silly? Remember,
kind mother, and don't forget it, if you fail to teach your children,
boys or girls, these important lessons early in life, they will
learn them from other sources, perhaps long ere you dream of it,
and ninety-nine times out of one hundred they will get improper,
perverted, impure and vile ideas of these important truths; besides
you nave lost their confidence and you will never regain it in these
matters. They will never come to mamma for information on these
subjects. And, think you, that your son and daughter, later in life
will make you their confidant as they ought? Will your beautiful
daughter hand the first letters she receives from her lover to mamma
to read, and seek her counsel and advice when she replies to them?
Will she ask mamma whether it is ever proper to sit in her lover's
lap? I think not; you have blighted her confidence and alienated her
affections. You have kept knowledge from her that she had a right
to know; you even failed to teach her the important truths of
menstruation. Troubled and excited at the first menstrual flow, she
dashed her feet in cold water hoping to stop the flow. You know the
results she is now twenty-five but is suffering from it to this day.
You, her mother, over fastidious, _so very nice_ you would never
mention "_such silly trash_" but by your consummate foolishness and
mock modesty you have ruined your daughter's health, and though in
later years she may forgive you, yet she can never love and respect
you as she ought.
10. "KNOWLEDGE THE PRESERVER OF PURITY."--Laura E. Scammon, writing on
this subject, in the Arena of November, 1893, says: "When questions
arise that can not be answered by observation, reply to each as simply
and directly as you answer questions upon other subjects, giving
scientific names and facts, and such explanations as are suited to
the comprehension of the child. Treat nature and her laws always with
serious, respectful attention. Treat the holy mysteries of parenthood
reverently, never losing sight of the great law upon which are founded
all others the law of love. Say it and sing it, play it and pray it
into the soul of your child, that _love is lord of all_."
11. CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER.--Observation and common sense
should teach every parent that lack of knowledge on these subjects and
proper counsel and advice in later years is the main cause of so
many charming girls being seduced and led astray, and so many bright
promising boys wrecked by _self-abuse or social impurity_. Make your
children your confidants early in life, especially in these things,
have frequent talks with them on nature, and you will never, other
things being equal, mourn over a ruined daughter or a wreckless,
debased son.
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