It is a common notion, that
it is important to secure these virtues to one sex, more than to the
other; and, by a strange inconsistency, the sex most exposed to danger
is the one selected as least needing care. Yet a wise mother will be
especially careful that her sons are trained to modesty and purity of
mind.
Yet few mothers are sufficiently aware of the dreadful penalties which
often result from indulged impurity of thought. If children, in _future_
life, can be preserved from licentious associates, it is supposed that
their safety is secured. But the records of our insane retreats, and the
pages of medical writers, teach that even in solitude, and without being
aware of the sin or the danger, children may inflict evils on
themselves, which not unfrequently terminate in disease, delirium, and
death.
There is no necessity for explanations on this point any farther than
this; that certain parts of the body are not to be touched except for
purposes of cleanliness, and that the most dreadful suffering comes
from disobeying these commands. So in regard to practices and sins of
which a young child will sometimes inquire, the wise parent will say,
that this is what children can not understand, and about which they
must not talk or ask questions.
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