A CHAPTER FOR BOYS 381 



change to overwork, overstudy, or some similar cause; 

 but from a somewhat extended observation, we are 

 thoroughly convinced that the very vice which we are 

 considering is the viper which blights the prospects 

 and poisons the existence of many of these promising 

 boys. 



A boy who gives himself up to the practice of secret 

 vice at an early age, say as early as seven to ten years, 

 is certain to make himself a wreck. Instead of hav- 

 ing a healthy, vigorous body, with strong muscles and 

 a hardy constitution, he will be weak, scrawny, sickly, 

 always complaining, never well, and will never know 

 anything about that joyous exuberance of life and ani- 

 mal spirits which the young antelope feels as he bounds 

 over the plain, or the vigorous young colt as it frisks 

 about its pasture, and which every youth ought to feel. 



Scrawny, Hollow-Eyed Boys.— Boys ought to be 

 fresh and vigorous as little lambs. They ought to be 

 plump, rosy, bright-eyed, and sprightly. A boy who 

 is pale, scrawny, hollow-eyed, dull, listless, has some- 

 thing wrong with him. Self-abuse makes thousands 

 of such boys every year ; and it is such boys that make 

 vicious, shiftless, haggard, unhappy men. This hor- 

 rible vice steals away the health and vitality which are 

 needed to develop body and mind; and the lad who 

 ought to make his mark in the world, who ought to 

 become a distinguished statesman, orator, clergyman, 

 physician, or author, becomes little more than a living 

 animal, a mere shadow of what he ought to have been. 



Old Boys,— Often have we felt sad when we have 

 heard fond mothers speaking in glowing terms of the 

 old ways of their sons, and glorying that they looked 

 so much older than their years. In nine cases out of 

 ten, these old-looking boys owe their appearance to 



