factor in the economy of man. Boys are more liable to be morbidly
excited when secluded from the society of girls, and vice versa. Again,
when the sexes are accustomed to associate, the passions are not apt to
be aroused, because of the natural antagonistic constitutional elements.
The influence of the one refines, and ennobles the other. Let children
be taught to understand their natures, and knowing them, they will learn
self-government. "As man rises in education and moral feeling he
proportionately rises in the power of self-restraint; and consequently
as he becomes deprived of this wholesome law of discipline he sinks into
self-indulgence and the brutality of savage life.

The passions may be aroused by the language, appearance or dress of the
opposite sex. A word spoken without any impure intent is often construed
in a very different sense by one whose passions color the thought, and
is made to convey an impression entirely unlike that which was intended
by the speaker. Also, the dress may be of such a character as to excite
the sexual passion. The manner in which the apparel is worn is often so
conspicuous as to become bawdy, thereby appealing to the libidinous
desires, rather than awakening an admiration for the mental qualities.

OBSCENE LITERATURE. Literature is a powerful agent either for good or
evil. If we would improve the morals, _choice_ literature must be
selected, whether it be that which realizes the ideal, or idealizes the
real. Obscene literature, or books written for the express purpose of
exciting or intensifying sexual desires in the young, goads to an
illicit gratification of the passions, and ruins the moral and physical
nature.

It not unfrequently happens that a child is born with a vigorous, mental
organism which promises a brilliant future, but manhood finds him