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FUNCTION. OF GENERATION. 133
of their own ages, and still later, they respond
to the
affections of those who are much younger than them
selves. These are the wise harmonies of nature ; and
we gain nothing by ignoring them, or opposing.their
influence. Such loves, at this period, are the most
suitable that can be formed, and the least dangerous.
Youthful ardor and impetuosity are tempered and guided
by the wisdom of experience ; but where two very
young persons are thrown together, their passions
burn out themselves, and leave but cinders of their pos
sessors.
The first love of either man or woman, eternal as it
may seem to them, is not usually lasting; and if any
effort is made to compel it to constancy by the bonds
of a legal marriage, it a generally proves disastrous ex
Left to itself, the illusion vanishes, or the
periment.
love settles into a calm and beautiful friendship.
But when the period of puberty has fully arrived,
there comes a wonderful change over the whole being.
No after change, till death itself comes, is so rapid and
important. Soul and body expand with new powers
and new feelings. The boy finds a beard sprouting oil
his chin, and hair also springing on the pubes. His
neck increases in size by the expansion of the cerebel
lum behind, and the larynx in front. With the expan
sion of the larynx, his voice sinks a full octave in depth.
He finds his to penis growing what seems to him an
extraordinary size. The testicles also increase. He
has frequent erections; and his mind is filled with
ideas of voluptuousness.
His ideas of women are not
bo entirely romantic as before; still it is left for his
dreams to give him to the full power of his senses.