To know how far a happy ignorance may prolong the innocence of children, you must live among rude and simple people.  It is a sight both touching and amusing to see both sexes, left to the protection of their own hearts, continuing the sports of childhood in the flower of youth and beauty, showing by their very familiarity the purity of their pleasures.  When at length those delightful young people marry, they bestow on each other the first fruits of their person, and are all the dearer therefore.  Swarms of strong and healthy children are the pledges of a union which nothing can change, and the fruit of the virtue of their early years.

If the age at which a man becomes conscious of his sex is deferred as much by the effects of education as by the action of nature, it follows that this age may be hastened or retarded according to the way in which the child is brought up; and if the body gains or loses strength in proportion as its development is accelerated or retarded, it also follows that the more we try to retard it the stronger and more vigorous will the young man be.  I am still speaking of purely physical consequences; you will soon see that this is not all.

From these considerations I arrive at the solution of the question so often discussed—­Should we enlighten children at an early period as to the objects of their curiosity, or is it better to put them off with decent shams?  I think we need do neither.  In the first place, this curiosity will not arise unless we give it a chance.  We must therefore take care not to give it an opportunity.  In the next place, questions one is not obliged to answer do not compel us to deceive those who ask them; it is better to bid the child hold his tongue than to tell him a lie.  He will not be greatly surprised at this treatment if you have already accustomed him to it in matters of no importance.  Lastly, if you decide to answer his questions, let it be with the greatest plainness, without mystery or confusion, without a smile.  It is much less dangerous to satisfy a child’s curiosity than to stimulate it.

Let your answers be always grave, brief, decided, and without trace of hesitation.  I need not add that they should be true.  We cannot teach children the danger of telling lies to men without realising, on the man’s part, the danger of telling lies to children.  A single untruth on the part of the master will destroy the results of his education.

Complete ignorance with regard to certain matters is perhaps the best thing for children; but let them learn very early what it is impossible to conceal from them permanently.  Either their curiosity must never be aroused, or it must be satisfied before the age when it becomes a source of danger.  Your conduct towards your pupil in this respect depends greatly on his individual circumstances, the society in which he moves, the position in which he may find himself, etc.  Nothing must be left to chance; and if you are not sure of keeping him in ignorance of the difference between the sexes till he is sixteen, take care you teach him before he is ten.