The very gradual growth of mankind from lower to higher forms of social life, makes the study of the relation of the sexes a very complicated one; but a sure guide may be found in the great truths of physiology, viewed in their broad relation to human progress, and it is on the solid foundation of these truths that correct principles of education must be based. The tendency of our age, in seeking truth, is to reject theories and study facts—facts, however, on the largest and most comprehensive scale. Every physician knows that nothing is more stupid than routine practice; nothing more unreliable than theories unsupported by well-observed facts; and, at the same time, nothing more misleading than partial facts. The laws of the human constitution itself, as taught by the most comprehensive investigations of science, must be carefully studied. We must learn what reason, observing the facts of physiology, lays down as the true laws which should govern the relations of men and women—laws whose observance will secure the finest development of our race, and serve as a guide in directing the education of our children.

The relations of human beings to each other, depend upon the nature and requirements of individuals. It is, therefore, essential to know what the nature of the individual human being really is; how it grows and how it degenerates. Such knowledge must necessarily form the basis of all true methods of education.

We find throughout Nature, that every creature possesses its peculiar type, towards which it must tend, if it is to accomplish the purpose of its creation. There is a capacity belonging to the original germ, which, if the necessary conditions are presented, will lead it through the various stages of growth and of development, to the complete attainment of this type.

This type or pattern is the true aim of the individual. With the process by which it is reached, it constitutes its nature.

In order to determine the nature of any creature, both the type it should attain and the steps by which alone that type can be attained, must be taken into consideration, or we are led astray in our judgment of the nature of the individual. Thought is often confused by a vague use of the term ‘nature.’ The educated man is more natural than the savage, because he approaches more nearly to the true type of man, and has acquired the power of transmitting increased capacities to his children. What is popularly called a state of nature, is really a state of rudimentary life, which does not display the real nature of man, but only its imperfect condition.

Striking instances of unusual imperfection may often be observed in the physical structure of the individual, for there are blind as well as intelligent forces at work, in the long and elaborate process of forming the complete human being. Thus, sometimes we find that the developmental process of the body goes wrong, and produces six fingers instead of five through successive generations, or the formative power of some organ runs blindly into excess, producing the diseased condition of hypertrophy. Arrest of development, also, may take place at any stage of youthful life as well as before birth, the consequence being deficiency of organic power, or even defective organs, although in such cases growth and repair continue, and even long life may be attained. These conditions are not natural, because, although they exist, they are contrary to the type of man. For the same reason the cannibal must be regarded as unnatural.

In studying the individual human type, we find some points in which it resembles the lower animals, some points in which it differs from all others, and some temporary phases during which it passes from the brute type to the human. If it stop short at any stage of the regular sequence or development, it fails in its essential object, and, although living, it is unnatural.

When we seek for the distinguishing type of the human being—the type for which the slow and careful elaboration of parts is necessary—we find it in the mental, not in the physical, capacity of man. Physical power and the perfection of physical instincts are attained by the lower animals in a higher degree than by man. It is only when we observe the uses and education of which the physical powers are susceptible, and the development of which the mental powers are capable, that we perceive the immense superiority of the human race, and recognise the type—viz., the true nature of man, towards the attainment of which all the elaborate processes of growth are directed. The more carefully we examine the intellectual growth of the lower animals, tracing the reflex movements and instinctive actions of the invertebrata, through the intelligent mental operations of the dog or the elephant, the more clearly we perceive the distinguishing type of Man. This type is that union of truth and good which we name Reason. Reason is the clear perception of the true relation of things, and the love of their harmonious relations. It includes judgment, conscience—all the higher intellectual and moral qualities.

Reason, with the Will to execute its dictates, is the distinguishing type of man. It is towards this end that his faculties tend; in this consists his peculiarity, his charter of existence. Any failure to reach this end, is as much an arrest of development as is a case of spina bifida, or the imperfect closure of the heart’s ventricles. We cannot judge of the Nature of man, without the clear recognition of this distinctive type, and it is impossible to establish sound methods of education, without constantly keeping in view, both the true nature of man and the steps by which it must be reached. These steps—i.e., the method by which man grows towards his distinctive type in creation—constitute the fundamental question in the present inquiry.

One distinguishing feature of human growth is its comparative slowness. No animal is so helpless during its infancy, none remains so long in a state of complete dependence on its parents. During the first few years, the child is quite unable either to procure its own food, or to keep itself from accidents, and it attains neither its complete bodily nor mental development, until it is over twenty years of age. We find this slow growth of faculties to be an essential condition of their excellence. It is observed to be a law of organized existence that the higher the degree of development to be reached, the slower are the processes through which it is attained, and the longer is its period of dependence on parental aid.

The forces employed in the elaboration of the human being, differ in their manifestation at various stages of its growth. There are two marked forces to be noted, often confounded together, but important to distinguish—viz., the power of growth and the power of development, the former possessed throughout life, the latter at certain epochs only. The capacity for growth and nutrition, by means of which the human frame is built up and maintained out of the forces derived from food and other agents, is shown until the last breath of life, by the power of repair, which continues as long as the human being lives. All action of the organism, every employment of muscular or nervous tissue, uses up such tissue. The body is wasted by its own activities, and it is only by the exact counterpoise of these two forces—disintegration and repair—that health and life itself are maintained. In youth, in connection with very rapid waste of tissue, exists a great excess of formative power, which excess enables each complete organ to enlarge and consolidate itself. The reduction of this excess of formative power to a balance with the waste of tissue, marks the strength of adult life. Its diminution below the power of repair marks the decline of life.

The force of development, however, is shown, not in the enlargement and maintenance of existing parts, but in the creation of new tissues or organs or parts of organs, so that quite new powers are added to the individual. After birth these remarkable efforts of creative force belong exclusively to the youth of the individual. They are chiefly marked by dentition, by growth of the skeleton and the brain, and still more by the addition of the generative powers. With this work of development the adult has nothing to do; it is a burden laid especially upon the young: it is a work as important and exclusively theirs, as child-bearing is the exclusive work of the mother.

One of the first lessons, then, that Physiology teaches us in relation to the healthy growth of the human being, is the slow and successive development of the various faculties. Although the complete type of the future man exists potentially in the infant, long time and varying conditions are essential to its establishment, and the type will never be attained, if the necessary time and conditions are not provided.

The second physiological fact to be noted is the order observed in human development. The faculties grow in a certain determined order. First, those which are needed for simple physical existence; next, those which place the child in fuller relations with Nature; and, lastly, those which link him to his fellows. As digestion is perfected before locomotion, so muscular mobility and activity exist before strength, perception before observation, affection and friendship before love. The latest work of Nature in forming the perfect being is the gift of sexual power. This is a work of development, not simply of growth. There are new organs coming into existence, and the same necessary conditions of gradual consolidation and long preparation for special work exist as in the growth of all the organs of animal life. At the age of puberty, when the special life of sex commences, the other organs of relation—skeleton, muscles, brain—are still carrying on their slow process of consolidation. ‘At eighteen the bones and muscles are very immature. Portions of the vertebræ hardly commence to ossify before the sixteenth year. After twenty, the two thin plates on the body of the vertebræ form, completing themselves near the thirtieth year. Consolidation of the sacrum commences in the eighteenth year, completing after the twenty-fifth. The processes of the ribs and of the scapula are completed by the twenty-fifth year; those of the clavicle begin to form between eighteen and twenty; those of the radius and ulna, of the femur, tibia, and fibula, are all unjoined at eighteen, and not completed until twenty-five. The muscles are equally immature; they grow in size and strength in proportion to the bones, and it is not until twenty-five years of age, or even later, that all epiphyses of the bones have united, and that the muscles have attained their full growth.’[16]

As a necessary consequence of this slow order of natural growth, the individual is injured when sufficient time for growth is not allowed, or when faculties which should remain latent, slowly storing up strength for the proper time of unfolding, are unduly stimulated or brought forward too soon. The writer above quoted remarks: ‘It is not only a waste of material, but a positive cruelty, to send lads of eighteen or twenty into the field.’[17] The evil effect of undue stimulation to a new function is twofold. The first effect is to divert Nature’s force from the consolidation of faculties already fully formed, and, second, to injure the substantial growth of the later faculty, which is thus prematurely brought forward. Thus the child compelled to carry heavy burdens will be deformed or stunted; the youth weighed down by intellectual labour will destroy his digestion or injure his brain. So, if the faculty which is bestowed as the last work of development, that which requires the longest time and the most careful preparation for its advent—the sexual power—be brought forward prematurely, a permanent injury is done to the individual, which can never be completely repaired.

The marked distinction which exists between puberty and nubility should here be noted. It is a distinction based upon the important fact that a work of long-continued preparation takes place in the physical and mental nature, before a new faculty enters upon its complete life. Puberty is the age when those changes have taken place in the child’s constitution, which make it physically possible for it to become a parent, but when the actual exercise of such faculty is highly injurious. This change takes place, as a general rule, from fourteen to sixteen years of age. Nubility, on the other hand, is that period of life when marriage may take place, without disadvantage to the individual and to the race. This period is generally reckoned, in temperate climates, in the man at from twenty-three to twenty-five years of age. About the age of twenty-five commences that period of perfect manly vigour, that union of freshness and strength, which enables the individual to become the progenitor of vigorous offspring. The strong constitution transmitted by healthy parents between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five indicates the order of Nature in the growth of the human race. The interval between these two epochs of puberty and confirmed virility, is a most important period of rapid growth and slow consolidation. Not only is the lifelong work of the body going on at this time, with much greater activity than belongs to adult life—i.e., the work of calorification, nutrition, and all that concerns the maintenance of the body during its unceasing expenditure of mechanical and mental force—but the still more powerful actions of development and growth are being carried on to their last and greatest perfection. Although, as will be shown later, the influences brought to bear upon the very young child strongly affect its later growth in good or evil, yet this period between fourteen and twenty-five is the most critical time of preparation for the work of adult life.

Another important fact announced by physiological observation, is the absolute necessity of establishing a proper government of the human faculties, by the growth of intelligent self-control. Reason, not Instinct, is the final guide of our race. We cannot grow, as do the lower animals, by following out the blind promptings of physical nature. From the earliest moment of existence, intelligence must guide the infant. At first this guiding intelligence is that of the mother, and through all the earlier stages of life, a higher outside intelligence must continue to provide the necessary conditions of growth, until the gradual mental development of the child fits it for independent individual guidance. The great difficulty of education lies in the adjustment of intelligence, for there are antagonisms to be encountered. There is first of all to be considered the adaptation of parental intelligence to the large proportion of indispensable physical instinct, with which each child is endowed by Nature. There is next the adjustment of the two intelligences, the parental and filial. These relations are constantly changing, and the true wisdom of education consists in meeting these changes rightly.

It is very important to observe that each new phase of life, each new faculty, begins in the child-like way—that is to say, there is always a large proportion of the blind, instinctive element which absolutely needs a higher guidance. The instinctive life of the body always necessarily exists, and, therefore, constantly strives to make itself felt. This life of sensation will (in many different ways) obtain a complete mastery over the individual, if Reason does not exist, and grow into a controlling force. This danger of an undue predominance of the instinctive force is emphatically true of the life of sex. It begins, child-like, in a tumult of overpowering sensations—sensations and emotions which need as wisely-arranged conditions and as high a guiding influence as does the early life of the child. At this period of life, an adjustment of the parental and filial intelligence is required, quite as wisely planned as in childhood, in order to secure the gradual growth of intelligent self-control in the young life of sex. If we do not recognise this necessity, or fail to exercise this directing influence, we do not perceive the crowning obligation of the older to the younger generation. However much parents may now shrink from this obligation, and, owing to incorrect views of sex, be really unable to exercise the kind of influence required, the necessity for such influence, nevertheless, exists as a law of human nature, unchangeable, rooted in the human constitution. It is Nature’s method, that every new faculty requires intelligent control from the outset, but only gradually can this guidance become self-control.

This necessity is seen more clearly as we continue our physiological inquiry. The preceding considerations refer chiefly to the slow processes by which the various parts of the body must be built up step by step, under the guidance of outside intelligence, which furnishes the proper conditions of physical growth. Equally certain, and within the legitimate scope of true physiology, is the influence which the mind of the individual exercises upon the growth of the body. This difficult half of the subject presents itself in increasing importance as science advances. The particular theory of mind held by individuals does not affect our inquiry. Everyone understands the term, and gives to its influence a certain importance. Our perception of the degree of power exercised by the mind over the body, and the importance of that power, will continually grow as we observe the facts around us. It is a fact of every-day experience, that fright will make the heart beat, that anxiety will disturb digestion, that sorrow will depress all the vital functions, whilst happiness will strengthen them. How often does the physician see the languid, ailing invalid converted from mental causes—through happiness—into a bright, active being! Medical records are full of accumulated facts showing the extent to which such mental or emotional influence may go; how the infant has been killed when the mother has nursed it during a fit of passion, or the hair turned gray in a single night, through grief or fright.

We find that the mind, acting through the nervous system, affects not only the senses and muscles—the organs of animal life, under the direct influence of the cerebro-spinal axis—but that it may also extend its influence to those processes of nutrition and secretion which belong to the vegetative life of the body. Emotion can act where Will is powerless, but a strong Will also can acquire a remarkable power over the body. It has been remarked ‘that men who know that there is any hereditary disease in their family, can contribute to the development of that disease, by closely directing their attention to it, and so throwing their nervous energy in that direction.’ It was a remark of John Hunter ‘that he could direct a sensation to any part of his body.’

‘As in the case of other sensations, the sexual, when moderately excited, may give rise to ideas, emotions, and desires of which the brain is the seat, and these may react on the muscular system through the intelligence and Will. But when inordinately excited, or when not kept in restraint by the Will, they will at once call into play respondent movements, which are then to be regarded as purely automatic. This is the case in some forms of disease in the human subject, and is probably also the ordinary mode of operation in some of the lower animals.... In cases, however, in which this sensation is excited in unusual strength, it may completely over-master all motives to the repression of the propensity, and may even entirely remove the actions from volitional control. A state of a very similar kind exists in many idiots, in whom the sexual propensity exerts a dominant power, not because it is in itself peculiarly strong, but because the intelligence being undeveloped it acts without restraint or direction from the Will.’[18]

The mental power exercised by the Will over the body is strikingly shown in the control exerted by human beings over the strongest of all individual cravings—the craving of hunger. The exigencies of human society have caused this tremendous power of hunger to be kept so completely in check, that the gratification of it, except in accordance with the established laws (of property, etc.), is considered as a crime. In spite of the terrible temptation which the sight of food offers to a starving man, society punishes him if he yield to it. Still stronger than the established laws are those unwritten laws which are enforced by ‘public opinion,’ in obedience to which, countless people in all civilized countries suffer constant deprivation—even starving more or less slowly to death—rather than transgress universally accepted principles, and subject themselves to social condemnation by taking the food which does not belong to them. Another curious and important illustration of mental action is shown in the accumulating instances of self-deception, of contagious hallucination, and of emotional influence acting upon the physical and mental organizations, so strikingly depicted by Hammond and other writers in the accounts of pretended miracles, ecstasies, visions, etc.

Of all the organic functions, that of secretion is the one most strongly and frequently influenced by the mind. The secretion of tears, of bile, of milk, of saliva, may all be powerfully excited by mental stimuli, or lessened by promoting antagonistic secretions. This influence is felt in full force by those of the generative system, ‘which,’ writes a distinguished author, ‘are strongly influenced by the condition of the mind. When it is frequently and strongly directed towards objects of passion, these secretions are increased in amount to a degree which may cause them to be a very injurious drain on the powers of the system. On the other hand, the active employment of the mental and bodily powers on other objects, has a tendency to render less active, or even to check altogether, the processes by which they are elaborated.’[19]

That the mind must possess the power of ruling this highest of the animal functions, is evident, from its uses, and from the nature of man. The faculty of sex comes to perfection when the mind is in full activity, and when all the senses are in their freshest youthful vigour. Its object is no longer confined to the individual, it is the source of social life, it is the creator of the race. Inevitably, then, the human mind (the Emotions, the Will) must control this function more than any other function. It assumes a different aspect from all other functions, through its objective character. The individual may exist without it—the race not. Every object which addresses itself to the senses or the mind acts with peculiar force upon this function. Either for right or for wrong, the mind is the controlling power. The right education of the mind is the central point from which all our efforts to help the younger generation must arise. It will thus be seen that the standpoint of education changes in childhood and in youth, the first period being specially concerned with the childhood of the body or of the individual, the second period representing more particularly the childhood of sex or of the race. In neither childhood nor youth must either of the double elements of our nature—mind and body—be neglected, but in childhood the body comes first in order, in youth the mind.

The higher the character of a function and the wider its relations, the more serious and the more numerous are the dangers to which it is exposed. A physiologist remarks, ‘In youth the affinity of the tissues for vital stimuli seems to be greater when the development is less complete.’ That which the strong adult may endure with comparative impunity destroys the growing youth, whose nature, from the very necessities of development, possesses a keener sensitiveness to all vital stimuli. This important remark is true of mental as well as physical youth, and applies with especial force to the prevention of the dangers of premature sexual development. More care is needed to secure healthy, strengthening influences for the early life of sex than for any other more simply physical function.

In the preceding considerations, the faculty of sex has been regarded chiefly in its individual aspect, and the principles laid down by means of which the largest amount of health and strength can be secured for each individual. But this half-view is entirely insufficient in considering those physiological peculiarities of the function of sex, which must determine the true aim of education. There are two other physiological facts to be considered—viz., the Duality of Sex, and its Results.

The power we are now considering enters into a different category from all other physical functions, as being, first, the faculty of two, not of one only, and, second, as resulting in parentage. Directly a physical function is the property of two, it belongs to a different class from those faculties which regard solely the individual. That very fact gives it a stamp, which requires that the relations of the two factors should be considered. No faculty can be regarded in the light of simple self-indulgence, which requires two for its proper exercise. The consideration of such faculty in its imperfect condition as belonging to one-half only is an essentially false view. It is unscientific, therefore, to regard this exceptional faculty simply as a limited individual function, as we regard the other powers of the human body. Its inevitable relations to man, to woman, and to the race must always stand forth as a prominent fact in determining the aim of education. If this be so, the moral education of youth, with the necessary physiological guidance given to their sexual powers, must always be influenced by a consideration of these two inevitable physiological facts—viz., duality and parentage, and the training of young men and women, should mould them into true relations towards each other and towards offspring.

The question of the hereditary transmission of qualities, of the influence of both mind and body in determining the character of offspring, is a question of such vital importance that it cannot be disregarded even in the narrowest view of family welfare, and still less in any rational view of education, which lies at the base of national progress. This great question is still in its infancy, collected facts comparatively few, and the immense power of future development contained in it, hardly suspected by parents and philanthropists. We know already that various forms of disease, physical peculiarities, and mental qualities may all become hereditary; also that the tendency to drunkenness and to sensuality may be transmitted as surely as the tendency to insanity or to consumption. If we compare the mental and moral status of women in a Mahommedan country with the corresponding class of women in our own country, we perceive the effect which generations of simply sensual unions have produced on the character of the female population. The Christian idea of womanly characteristics is entirely reversed. The term ‘woman’ has become a by-word for untruth, irreligion, unchastity, and folly.[20]

The same observation may be made in so-called Christian countries under Mahommedan rule, in independent countries in close proximity to this degrading influence, and wherever the influence of unions whose key-note is sensuality, prevails. The woman is considered morally inferior. ‘She is man’s help, but not his helpmate. He guards and protects her, but it is as a man guards and protects a valuable horse or dog, getting all the service he can out of her, and rendering her in turn his half-contemptuous protection. He uncovers her face and lets her chat with her fellows in the courtyard, but he watches over her conduct with a jealous conviction that she is unable to guard herself. It is a modification, yet a development, of the Mussulman idea, and he seems to think if she has a soul to be saved he must manage to save it for her.’[21] Everyone who has observed society in Eastern Europe must be aware of the constant relation existing between the prevalence of sensuality and this moral degeneration of female character. This influence on the character is due, not only to the customs, religion, and circumstances which form the nation, but also to the accumulating influence of inherited qualities. The hereditary action produces tendencies in a particular direction in the offspring, which renders its development easier in that direction. It is only gradually, through education and the influence of heredity in a different direction, that the original tendency can be removed. But if all the circumstances of life favour its development, the individual, the family, and the nation will certainly display the result of these tendencies in full force.

A striking illustration of this subject has been published in the report of the New York Prison Association for 1876. An inquiry was undertaken by one of the members of the association, to ascertain the causes of crime and pauperism, as exhibited in a particular family or tribe of offenders called ‘The Jukes,’ which for nearly a century has inhabited one of the central counties of the State. The investigation is carried back for some five or six generations, the descendants numbering at least 1,200, and the number of persons whose biographies are condensed and collated is not less than 709. The facts in these criminal lives, which have grown in a century from one family into hundreds, are arranged in the order of their occurrence and the age given at which they took place, so that the relative importance of inherited tendencies and of immediate influences may be measured. The study of this family shows that the most general and potent cause, both of crime and pauperism, is the habit of licentiousness, with its result of bastardy and neglected and miseducated childhood. This tribe was traced back on the male side to two sons of a hard drinker named Max, living between 1720 and 1740, who became blind in his old age, transmitting blindness to some of his legitimate and illegitimate children. On the female side the race goes back to five sisters of bad character, two of whom intermarried with the two sons of Max, the lineage of three other sisters being also traced. In the course of the century, this family has remained an almost purely American family, inhabiting the same region of country in one of the finest States of the Union, largely intermarrying, and presenting an almost unbroken record of harlotry and crime. ‘The Jukes,’ says the report, ‘are not an exceptional race; analogous families may be found in every county of the State.’[22]

Conspicuous facts such as these, display in a striking manner the indubitable influence of mind in the exercise of the highest—the parental—function. We see as a positive fact that mental or moral qualities quite as much as physical peculiarities, tend to reproduce themselves in children. The mental quality or character of the parent must then be considered physiologically, as a positive element in the parental relation; thought, emotion, sensation, are all mental qualities. In human unions this great fact must be borne in mind. Any sneer at ‘sentiment’ proceeds from ignorance of facts. Happiness is as vivifying as sunshine, and is a potent element in the formation of a child. Hence arises the necessity of love between parents—love, the mental element, as distinguished from the simple physical instinct.

To understand the true relations of men and women in their bearing upon the race (relations which must determine the moral aim of education) the duality of sex and the peculiarity of the womanly organization must be recognised. Woman, having a special work to perform in family life, has special requirements and sharpened perceptions in relation to this work. She demands the constant presence of affection, an affection which alone can draw forth full response, and she possesses a perception which is almost a special instinct for detecting coldness or untruthfulness in the husband’s mental attitude towards her. The presence of unvarying affection has a real, material, as well as a moral power on the body and soul of a woman. Indifference or neglect is instantly felt. Sorrow, loneliness, jealousy, all constantly depressing emotions, exercise a powerful and injurious effect upon the sources of vital action. This physiological truth and the necessity of securing the full assent of the mother in the joint creation of superior offspring, are important facts bearing on the character and happiness of one-half of the human race, and influencing through that half the quality of offspring. These facts have not yet received the attention which so weighty a subject demands.

In pursuing the physiological inquiry, we are met by one remarkable fact which it is impossible to ignore, and which remains from age to age as a guide to the human race. This guide is found in the physiological fact of the equality in the birth of the sexes. This is a clear indication of the intention of Providence in relation to sexual union, a proof of the fundamental nature of the family group. Boys and girls are born in equal numbers all over the world, wherever our means of observation have extended, a slight excess of boys alone existing. Sadler writes: ‘The near equality in the birth of the sexes is an undoubted fact; it extends throughout Europe and wherever we have the means of accurate observation, the birth-rate being in the proportion of twenty-five boys to twenty-four girls.’[23] The injurious inequality which we so often find in a population is not Nature’s law, but is evidence of our social stupidity. It proves our sin against God’s design in the existence of brutal wars and our careless squandering of human life. All rational efforts for the improvement of society must be based upon Nature’s true intention—viz., the equality of the sexes in birth and in duration of life, not upon the false condition of inequality produced by our own ignorance. It is essential always to bear in mind this distinction between the permanent fact and the temporary phenomenon.

The foregoing facts illustrate fundamental physiological truths. They show the Type of creation towards which the human constitution tends and the distinctive methods of growth by which that type must be reached. In brief recapitulation, these truths are the following—viz., the slowness of human growth; the successive development of the human faculties; the injury caused by subverting the natural order of growth; the necessity of governing this order of growth by the control of Reason; the influence of Mind—i.e., Thought, Emotion, Will—on the development or condition of our organization; the necessity of considering the dual character of sex; the transmission of qualities by parents to their children; the natural equality in the creation of the sexes.

These truths, which are of universal application to human beings, furnish a Physiological Guide, showing the true laws of sex, in relation to human progress. We find that the laws of physiology point in one practical direction—viz., to the family—as the only institution which secures their observance; they show the necessity of the self-control of chastity in the young man and the young woman, as the only way to secure the strong mental and physical qualities requisite in the parental relation, whilst they also prove the special influence exerted by mutual love in the great work of Maternity. The preparation, therefore, of youth for family life should be the great aim of their sexual education.

Experience as well as Reason confirms the direct and indirect teaching of Physiology; they both point to the natural family group as the element out of which a healthy society grows. It is only in the family that the necessary conditions for this growth exist. The healthy and constantly varying development of children naturally constitutes the warmest interest of parents. Brothers and sisters are invaluable educators of one another; they are unique associates, creating a species of companionship that no other relation can supply. To enjoy this interest, to create this young companionship, to form this healthy germ of society, marriage must be unitary and permanent. A constantly deepening satisfaction should exist, arising from the steady growth together through life, from the identity of interest and from the strength of habit. Still farther we learn that such union should take place in the early period of complete adult life. Children should be the product of the first fresh vigour of parents. Everything that exhausts force or defers its freshest exercise is injurious to the Race. Customs of society or incorrect opinions which obstruct the union of men and women in their early vigour, which impair the happiness of either partner, or prevent the strong and steady growth of their union, impair their efficacy as parents, and are fatal to the highest welfare of our Race.