50 REMARKS ON AN IMPORTANT BRANCH 



they will detect and omit the words and phrases which refer to any 

 of these interdicted subjects. And how has this knowledge been 

 obtained ? Not through the legitimate means of a simple commu- 

 nication from the mother or teacher, but by some indirect, and often 

 polluted, channel. Or should a girl escape this temptation, and in 

 her simplicity ask the meaning of any expression she does not un- 

 derstand, instead of hailing and encouraging this frankness, the 

 parent or instructor generally gives some evasive answer, or has 

 recourse to the infallible sedative to all curiosity, " Never mind." — 

 Never mind ! Can any woman be so utterly blind and forgetful as 

 to suppose that a girl will " Never mind ?" No ; but, repulsed in 

 her straight-forward inquiries, she will resort to other sources of 

 information. Keep her out of the way of servants, she will con- 

 verse with companions a little older than herself: separate her 

 from these, still she will contrive some way of gratifying her curio- 

 sity. The partial information she acquires will excite further acti- 

 vity of mind ; and thus will her thoughts restlessly dwell and re- 

 main awake upon topics which, had her first inquiries been ration- 

 ally and judiciously answered, would have made comparatively 

 little impression. Habits of concealment are generated, and a pro- 

 mising foundation is laid for future mischief. 



Keep the girl as ignorant as you please, you cannot prevent her 

 growing up ; and love is a matter which she does and must hear dis- 

 cussed, and in which she is naturally interested. Still the system 

 is pursued which seems invented to teach affectation and produce 

 imprudent conduct. If she speak her thoughts to those who in- 

 struct her, she is generally chilled by ridicule ; and finding that the 

 natural expression of her sentiments is laughed at, she learns if she 

 have any feeling, to conceal those sentiments from the people who 

 sneer at them. But as the mind has naturally — particularly during 

 youth — a restless craving for sympathy, and longing to utter what 

 passes within it, she probably finds some one near her own age 

 with whom to converse, and these two inexperienced girls build one 

 another up in their crude and romantic ideas. Let it be remember- 

 ed, too, that these conversations have all along the excitement of 

 secrecy and concealment from their elders. 



Now, is all this right ? Is such treatment correct in its princi- 

 ple, or desirable in its results ? I shall dwell a little on these two 

 questions, and then suggest whether some better course be not prac- 

 ticable. 



First. " Is it correct in its principle ?" God has formed us in- 

 telligent and responsible beings ; he has " created us male and fe- 



