this I think most of our English head-masters would agree with me.  Till this age, a day school or a tutor should be had recourse to, and when the time comes for sending him off to school, at least we can refuse to place the boy anywhere, either at a private or public school, where there is not some woman to mother and look after the boys and exert a good womanly influence over them.  A head-master keenly alive to moral dangers, with a capable wife ready to use her womanly influence in aiding and abetting his efforts, I have found the best possible combination.

But if it is decided that the boys are to be brought up at the day school, your range of choice will probably be very small.  You will have to look wholly to your home influence and teaching to counteract any evil influence they may encounter in their school life.  But as your boys will never be separated from you, what may not that home influence and teaching, with knowledge and forewarning to direct it,—­what may it not accomplish?

II

Let us, then, think out the best ways in which you can warn and guard your boy and fulfil your responsibility of being his moral teacher.

Let us begin with the simplest measure which you can take, and which can present no difficulty to anyone.  Before sending your boy to school get him quietly by himself and say to him some such words as these:  “My boy, you know, or will come to know, that when boys get together they often talk of nasty things, and even do nasty things.  Give me your word of honor as a Christian and a gentleman that you will never say or do anything that you know you would be ashamed to tell me, that you know would bring a blush to your sister’s cheeks.  Always remember that dirty talk, and still more dirty deeds, are only fit for cads.  Promise me faithfully that you will never let any boy, especially an elder boy, tell you ‘secrets.’  If you were to consent through curiosity, or because you feel flattered at one of the elder fellows taking you up, be sure he means you no good.  Whatever you want to know ask me, and so far as I can I will tell you.”  Some such words as these said solemnly to a boy the day before he leaves home for the first time, either for a boarding-school, or even a day school, will make your womanhood a sort of external conscience to your boy, to guard him from those first beginnings of impurity, in the shape of what are technically called “secrets,” which lead on to all the rest.  I know one mother who, from her boy’s earliest years, has made a solemn pact with him, on the one hand, if he would promise never to ask any questions about life and birth of anyone but her, she, in her turn, would promise to tell him all he wanted to know; and from first to last there has been that perfect confidence and friendship between mother and son which is, and ever must be, a boy’s greatest safeguard.

Only remember that with young boys men who have had the greatest experience are generally agreed that it is better not to put the stress on religious motives.  Practically, for a young boy, it is better to treat the whole thing as dirty, nasty, and blackguardly.  And the whole subject must always be spoken of with reserve, without any emotion, and with much “dry light.”