132 THE NEXT GENERATION 



it really is, and what relation the generations of the past bear 

 to those of the future. It is just now that passions become 

 strong. It is during these years that boys meet some of the 

 great temptations of life. If they can keep their craft steady 

 as it whirls through the adolescent years, they may be trusted 

 to guide it safely thereafter. 



On every side great subjects appeal to the imagination 

 and spread themselves before the eager gaze of boys who 

 first really begin to grasp the splendor of life during their 

 years of rapid change. At the same time these boys grow 

 so fast that hands and feet seem to be in the way. They 

 are awkward in the presence of older people and of girls. 

 They begin to shave and to think more about their per- 

 sonal appearance. They wish to do such things as seem 

 most manly. 



It is during this period that many boys, if they are igno- 

 rant of scientific facts about tobacco, begin to smoke. They 

 do this innocently, not knowing about the harm which may 

 follow. They take to smoking not because the odor or the 

 taste or the sight of tobacco pleases them, but simply be- 

 cause just now smoking seems to them a great and manly 

 deed. The mere fact that a boy begins to smoke in his teens 

 shows that he is passing through the period of life when he 

 wishes to be counted manly. Almost unconsciously he aims 

 for the admiration of his fellows. Sometimes he is even 

 lawless for the same reason. 



Friends who watch the changing boy wait anxiously for the 

 outcome. Sometimes he himself is perplexed. He should be 

 told that, whether he wills it so or not, he himself is the 

 prophet of his own future. He must know that while imag- 

 ination and ambition have their hold on the rudder of his 

 craft, self-control and will power stand there, too. He must 



