16.  CRIMINALS AND HEREDITY.  Wm. M.F.  Round was for many years in charge of the House of Refuge on Randall’s Island, New York, and his opportunities for observation in the work among criminals surely make him a competent judge, and he says in his letter to the New York Observer:  “Among this large number of young offenders I can state with entire confidence that not one per cent. were children born of criminal parents; and with equal confidence I am able to say that the common cause of their delinquency was found in bad parental training, in bad companionship, and in lack of wholesome restraint from evil associations and influences.  It was this knowledge that led to the establishing of the House of Refuge nearly three-quarters of a century ago.”

17.  BAD TRAINING.  Thus it is seen from one of the best authorities in the United States that criminals are made either by the indifference or the neglect of parents, or both, or by too much training without proper judgment and knowledge.  Give your children a good example, and never tell a child to do something and then become indifferent as to whether they do it or not.  A child should never be told twice to do the same thing.  Teach the child in childhood obedience and never vary from that rule.  Do it kindly but firmly.

18.  IF YOUR CHILDREN DO NOT OBEY OR RESPECT YOU in their childhood and youth, how can you expect to govern them when older and shape their character for future usefulness and good citizenship?

19.  THE FUNDAMENTAL RULE.  Never tell a child twice to do the same thing.  Command the respect of your children, and there will be no question as to obedience.

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CHASTITY AND PURITY OF CHARACTER.

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1.  CHASTITY is the purest and brightest jewel in human character.  Dr. Pierce in his widely known Medical Adviser says:  For the full and perfect development of mankind, both mental and physical, chastity is necessary.  The health demands abstinence from unlawful intercourse.  Therefore children should be instructed to avoid all impure works of fiction, which tend to inflame the mind and excite the passions.  Only in total abstinence from illicit pleasures is there safety, morals, and health, while integrity, peace and happiness are the conscious rewards of virtue.  Impurity travels downward with intemperance, obscenity and corrupting diseases, to degradation and death.  A dissolute, licentious, free-and-easy life is filled with the dregs of human suffering, iniquity and despair.  The penalties which follow a violation of the law of chastity are found to be severe and swiftly retributive.

2.  THE UNION of the sexes in holy Matrimony is a law of nature, finding sanction in both morals and legislation.  Even some of the lower animals unite in this union for life and instinctively observe the law of conjugal fidelity with a consistency which might put to blush other animals more highly endowed.  It seems important to discuss this subject and understand our social evils, as well as the intense passional desires of the sexes, which must be controlled, or they lead to ruin.