The dangers of this period are great and manifest. The chief of these, far greater
even than the dangers of intemperance, is that the sexual elements of soul and
body will be developed prematurely and disproportionately. Indeed, early
maturity in this respect is itself bad. If it occurs before other compensating and
controlling powers are unfolded, this element is hypertrophied and absorbs and
dwarfs their energy and it is then more likely to be uninstructed and to suck up
all that is vile in the environment. Far more than we realize, the thoughts and
feelings of youth center about this factor of his nature. Quite apart, therefore,
from its intrinsic value, education should serve the purpose of preoccupation,
and should divert attention from an element of our nature the premature or
excessive development of which dwarfs every part of soul and body. Intellectual
interests, athleticism, social and esthetic tastes, should be cultivated. There
should be some change in external life. Previous routine and drill-work must be
broken through and new occupations resorted to, that the mind may not be left
idle while the hands are mechanically employed. Attractive home-life,
friendships well chosen and on a high plane, and regular habits, should of course
be cultivated. Now, too, though the intellect is not frequently judged insane, so
that pubescent insanity is comparatively rare, the feelings, which are yet more
fundamental to mental sanity, are most often perverted, and lack of emotional
steadiness, violent and dangerous impulses, unreasonable conduct, lack of
enthusiasm and sympathy, are very commonly caused by abnormalities here.
Neurotic disturbances, such as hysteria, chorea, and, in the opinion of some
physicians, sick-headache and early dementia are peculiarly liable to appear and
become seated during this period. In short, the previous selfhood is broken up
like the regulation copy handwriting of early school years, and a new individual
is in process of crystallization. All is solvent, plastic, peculiarly susceptible to
external influences.
Between love and religion, God and nature have wrought a strong and
indissoluble bond. Flagellations, fasts, exposure, excessive penances of many
kinds, the Hindoo cultus of quietude, and mental absorption in vacuity and even
one pedagogic motive of a cultus of the spiritual and supernatural, e. g. in the
symposium of Plato, are all designed as palliatives and alteratives of degraded
love. Change of heart before pubescent years, there are several scientific reasons
for thinking means precocity and forcing. The age signalized by the ancient
Greeks as that at which the study of what was comprehensively called music
should begin, the age at which Roman guardianship ended, as explained by Sir
Henry Maine, at which boys are confirmed in the modern Greek, Catholic,
Lutheran and Episcopal churches, and at which the child Jesus entered the