250 PLAIN FACTS FOR OLD AND YOUNG 



allowed to grow and unfold, instead of being promptly 

 nipped, it must not be considered remarkable that in 

 later years rank weeds of sin should flourish in the 

 soul, and bear their hideous fruit in shameless lives. 



Neglect to guard the avenues by which evil may 

 approach the young mind, and to erect barriers against 

 vice by careful instruction and a chaste example, leaves 

 many innocent souls open to the assaults of evil, and 

 an easy prey to lust. If children are allowed to get 

 their training in the street, at the corner grocery, or 

 hovering around saloons, they will be sure to develop 

 a vigorous growth of the animal passions. The fol- 

 lowing extract is from the writings of one whose pen 

 has been an inestimable blessing to American youth: 



*' Among the first lessons which boys learn of their 

 fellows are impurities of language ; and these are soon 

 followed by impurities of thought. . . . When this is 

 the training of boyhood, it is not strange that the pre- 

 dominating ideas among young men, in relation to the 

 other sex, are too often those of impurity and sensual- 

 ity. . . , We cannot be surprised, then, that the history 

 of most young men is, that they yield to temptation in 

 a greater or less degree and in different ways. With 

 many, no doubt, the indulgence is transient, accidental, 

 and does not become habitual. It does not get to be 

 regarded as venial. It is never yielded to without re- 

 morse. The wish and the purpose are to resist; but 

 the animal nature bears down the moral. Still, trans- 

 gression is always followed by grief and penitence. 



''With too many, however, it is to be feared it is 

 not so. The mind has become debauched by dwelling 

 on licentious images, and by indulgence in licentious 

 conversation. There is no wish to resist. They are 

 not overtaken by temptation; for they seek it. With 



