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404 ESOTERIC ANTHROPOLOGY.
Bathing, clothing, bedding, air, food, exercise, every
thing should be pure and healthy. In little girls, care
should be taken in washing to keep the genital organs
free from any cause of irritation. Both girls and boys
should be kept from those " evil communications"
which "
corrupt good manners."
And as soon as the child is old enough to understand
any subject whatever, it should be taught by its father
and mother the uses and laws of the generative func
tion. Were it possible to keep children in ignorance,
where can be the use ? But it is not. The animals
and the very insects will be their teachers. They will
learn enough for evil ; but not enough for good. A
pure, thorough, scientific knowledge should come from
the parent, at an early age, and when the child reposes
unlimited confidence in its natural protectors. I have
seen children who were early educated in a knowledge
of the laws of the passions,
and I have seen none more
modest, more pure, or more capable of taking care of
themselves. Depend upon it, the best and the only
safeguard to chastity is knowledge. Thousands of poor
and ruined from
children, of both sexes, are corrupted
sheer ignorance. The boy who has been instructed in
the nature and evils of vice, is warned and armed
against it. The girl who understands the physiology
of the passions, will neither plunge into solitary de
bauchery, nor can she be seduced, as the ignorant girl
can who falls a victim to some artful man, in a moment
of passionate weakness, before she knows what she is
doing. Be assured, that knowledge is the best safe
guard of purity.
But when this habit is formed, and is producing its