The hollow, sunken eye, the blanched cheek, the withered hands, and
emaciated frame, and the listless life, have other sources than the
ordinary illnesses of all large communities.
When a child, after having given proofs of memory and intelligence,
experiences daily more and more difficulty in retaining and
understanding what is taught him, it is not only from unwillingness
and idleness, as is commonly supposed, but from a disease eating out
life itself, brought on by a self-abuse of the private organs.
Besides the slow and progressive derangement of his or her health, the
diminished energy of application, the languid movement, the stooping
gait, the desertion of social games, the solitary walk, late rising,
livid and sunken eye, and many other symptoms, will fix the attention
of every intelligent and competent guardian of youth that something is
wrong.
[Illustration: GUARD WELL THE CRADLE. EDUCATION CANNOT BEGIN TOO
YOUNG.]