Boys, this chapter is for you. It is written and printed expressly for you. The author does not care very much if a single page is not read by grown men, but is very solicitous that every boy shall read each line thoughtfully and carefully, weighing well the facts presented, and the words of warning offered. You may find nothing to laugh at, nothing pleasing; but you will find something to think about, something worth pondering and remembering.

Genuine Boys

Real boys are scarce now-a-days. In the days of Methuselah, male human beings were still boys when nearly a century old; twenty-five years ago, boys were still such until well out of their "teens," now, the interval between infancy and the age at which the boy becomes a young man is so brief that boyhood is almost a thing of the past. The happy period of carefree, joyous innocence which formerly intervened between childhood and early manhood is now almost unobservable. Boys grow old too fast. They learn to imitate the vices and the manners of their seniors before they reach their teens, and are impatient to be counted as men, no matter how great may be their deficiencies, their unfitness for the important duties and responsibilities of life. The consequence of this inordinate haste and impatience to be old, is premature decay. Unfortunately, the general tendency of the boys of the rising generation is to copy the vices of their elders, rather than the virtues of true manliness. A strong evidence of this fact, if there were no other, is the unnaturally old-looking faces which so many of our boys present. At the present time the average boy of twelve knows more of vice and sin than the youth of twenty of the past generation.

Human Mushrooms

It is not so much for these human mushrooms, which may be not inaptly compared to toadstools which grow up in a single night and almost as speedily decay, that we write, but for the old-fashioned boys, the few such there may be; those who have not yet learned to love sin; those whose minds are still pure and uncontaminated; those who are not ashamed to be counted as boys, who are an ornament to boyhood, and a delight to their parents. Those who have already begun a course of vice and wickedness, we have little hope of reforming; but we are anxious to offer a few words of counsel and warning which may possibly help to save as brands plucked from a blazing fire, those whose moral sense is yet alive, who have quick and tender consciences, who aspire to be truly noble and good. We trust, however, that a few who may have already entered upon a course of sin, will heed the warnings given, and reform before they have been wholly ruined by the terrible consequences of vice.

"What are Boys for?"

This question was answered with exact truthfulness by a little boy, who, when contemptuously accosted by a man with the remark, "What are you good for?" replied, "Men are made of such as we." Boys are the beginnings of men. They sustain the same relation to men that a small shrub does to a full-grown tree. They are still more like the small green apples which first appear when the blossoms drop from the branches, compared with the ripe, luscious fruit which in autumn bends the heavy-laden boughs almost to breaking. Often, like the young apples, boys are green; but this is only natural, and should be considered no disgrace to them. If they grow up naturally, they will ripen with age, like the fruit, developing at each successive stage of life additional attractions and estimable qualities.

Boys, the Hope of the World

The worlds most valuable property is its boys. A nation which has poor, weakly, vicious boys, will have still weaker, more vicious and untrustworthy men. A country with noble, virtuous, vigorous boys, is equally sure of having noble, pious, brave, and energetic men. Whatever debases, contaminates, or in any way injures the boys of a country, saps and undermines the very foundation of the nation's strength and greatness. Save the boys from vice and crime, give them good training, physically, mentally, and morally, and the prosperity of the nation is assured.

Man, the Masterpiece

When a skillful artist perfects a work of art, a painting, a drawing, a statue, or some other work requiring great talent and exceeding all his other efforts, it is called his masterpiece. So man is the noblest work of God, the masterpiece of the Almighty. Numerous anecdotes are told of the sagacity of dogs, horses, elephants, and other animals, of their intelligence as shown in their ingenious devices for overcoming obstacles, avoiding difficulties, etc. Our admiration and wonder are often excited by the scarcely less than human wisdom shown by these lowly brothers of the human race. We call them noble animals; but they are only noble brutes, at best. Compared with man, even in his most humble form, as seen in the wild savage that hunts and devours his prey like a wild beast, a lion or a tiger, they are immeasurably inferior. And in his highest development, man-civilized, cultivated, Christianized, learned, generous, pious-certainly stands at the head of all created things.

Boys, do you love what is noble, what is pure, what is grand, what is good? You may each, if you will, be come such yourselves. Let us consider for a moment --

How a Noble Character is Formed

Every human being forms his own character. Various traits and characteristics may be inherited from parents; but character is built up by one's own efforts, and is good or bad as we ourselves make it. As a modern philosopher has said, "Our thoughts and our conduct are our own." A noble character is formed by the development of good qualities, and the suppression of bad ones. Real improvement is from within outward, and comes from an individual's own efforts. A boy can form a noble, elevated, lovable character by cultivating good and pure thoughts, which will certainly actuate to only good and pure actions. By constant effort, evil tendencies, which have been inherited, may be overcome; good traits may be so developed as to overshadow the evil of an unfortunate nature. Thus all may form noble characters, no matter how adverse the circumstances under which they live, or the natural disadvantages with which they have to contend.

How a Noble Character is Ruined

A bad character is formed by the development of bad traits or evil propensities. In other words, sin is the cause of the demoralization of character, the debasing of the mind, the loss of nobility, of which we see so much around us in the world. When one yields to temptations to wrong doing, either such as come from one's own evil nature, or from evil associates or surroundings, he makes a blemish upon his character which years may not remove. An ugly scar will ever remain to mar his character.

Sin is the violation of some law. There are two kinds of sin: that which is a transgression of the moral law, and that which is a transgression of physical law. In one sense, all sin is transgression of moral law; for it is the moral duty of every one to obey every law which relates to his well-being. Both classes of sin are followed by penalties. If a person violates the laws of health, he is just as certain to suffer as though he tells a falsehood, steals, murders, or commits any other crime. Perfect obedience to all of nature's laws, including, of course, all moral laws, is necessary to perfect health and perfect nobility of character. The nature of these laws and the result of transgression will be understood after we have taken a hasty glance at --

A Wonderful Machine

All the inventions and devices ever constructed by the human hand or conceived by the human mind, no matter how delicate, how intricate and complicated, are simple, childish toys compared with that most marvelously wrought mechanism, the human body. Its parts are far more delicate, and their mutual adjustments infinitely more accurate, than are those of the most perfect chronometer ever made.

In order to understand the structure of this wonderful machine, let us go back to the earliest period of its existence. At this time, we find it to be but a mere speck of matter, a single cell, a delicate little mass of jelly-like protoplasm so small that a hundred or two would not measure more than an inch if arranged in a row. Under proper circumstances, this little cell grows, expands, and finally subdivides into two, through the operations of the protoplasm, or living matter, which chiefly composes it. The same activity occasions another subdivision, making four cells of the two. Still another division produces eight cells.

Thus the processes of growth and division continue until the one original cell has developed into hundreds, even thousands and millions, under the active working of the protoplasm, which is the chief component of the cells, and the potent agent in their activities. Development and division still continue while a new process of folding is set up, layers of cells being formed, groups and subgroups being set off, which develop into special systems and organs, until by and by the whole complex organism which we call man is developed.

What the Microscope Reveals

To enable us to comprehend more fully how "fearfully and wonderfully made" is the "human form divine," let us examine with minute care, by the aid of a powerful microscope, one single part of the body, the blood. A prick of the finger secures a tiny drop of red blood, which we place upon a small slip of glass, and adjust under the microscope. The magical instrument presents to view a scene of such rare beauty as seldom meets the human eye. The red blood has faded out to a faint amber color, and the whole field is swarming with tiny creatures of the most delicate and symmetrical structure, which float about singly, or cling together in little groups. Here and there may be seen some a little larger than the others, though still so small that three thousand of them arranged in a row would extend but one inch, curious little round masses, so transparent as to be almost invisible. They are not very numerous, but scattered here and there about the field.

Presently we perceive that some are changing their form. A moment ago, the first one we inspected was as round as a watch crystal; now it has become elliptical in form. A few minutes later, we look again, and it has stretched itself out into a long filament like an angle-worm. Presently it begins to draw itself up into a round mass again; and in less time than is required to describe the action, it has assumed its original shape, but has changed its position. That is the way the little creature moves about. It makes itself into the shape of a worm, and crawls just as a worm does, by making one end fast, and drawing the rest of the body up.

But what does it move about for? Why may it not remain stationary? Shortly we shall see, if we watch carefully. Even now the reason is evident. Reader, just peep over our shoulder a moment. Put your eye down to the eye-piece of our microscope. Do you see the little fellow? Look sharp, and you will. A few seconds ago it was round as a full moon. Now there is a little pocket in one side. The pocket is growing deeper and deeper. What is the object of such a curious procedure? Let us put on another eye-piece. Now we have magnified the object a million times. See how much larger it looks. Now look at the pocket. The mystery is solved. There is a little speck of food which the little creature wishes to get, and so he has made a pocket to put it in.

The queerest part is yet to come, so we must watch patiently a moment more. Now the mouth of the pocket is closing up. Evidently, the little fellow is afraid he may lose the precious morsel, and so he is going to shut the pocket to prevent its escape. Now the opening is closed, and before we are aware of it, the pocket has itself disappeared, and there is the little particle inside.

This seems a marvelous process, but it is a peculiar way these little fellows have of taking their food. When they wish to eat, they make a mouth or a stomach on purpose for the occasion. If we wait a few moments, we shall see that the little particle so curiously swallowed has disappeared; it is now digested.

Thus we see, by studying the habits of these wonderful little creatures which live in the blood, that although having no legs, wings, or other organs of locomotion, they move from place to place at will; having no hands, they feel; having no mouths, they eat; though possessed of no stomach, they digest. They are born, develop, grow old and infirm, and die, just as larger creatures. Each has its own separate life, and its special duties to perform, just as have horses, oxen, dogs, and the human beings of whom they form a part.

Thus we learn that the blood is a stream, coursing through the various channels of the body, known as arteries and veins, carrying in each drop millions of creatures which live and grow in the limpid fluid like the fishes in our rivers, or like the birds in the air. These little creatures are known to science as blood corpuscles. Every part of the body is likewise composed of living creatures, which has each his special work to do. Those of the same class, or which have the same kind of labor to perform, are grouped together, just as glass-blowers, printers, and other persons of the same trade, are associated together in their work. All these groups of living beings, working together, make up that wonderful machine, the human body, the most important parts of which we will now proceed to study.

In order that an individual human being may live and develop, it is necessary that he should eat, drink, digest, and assimilate, and that he should be able to move about, to perceive; that is, to hear, see, feel, smell, taste, determine weight, and distinguish temperature, to think, and to express ideas in language. In order to keep his vital machinery in order, it is necessary that the body should also be able to repair injuries which may occur in consequence of wear or accident, and to remove worn-out material which would otherwise obstruct the working of the delicate machinery of which his body is constructed. Each of these functions requires special organs and apparatuses to carry on the work; and these we will now briefly consider: --

• The Nutritive Apparatus. This consists of organs for the purpose of taking in food or nourishment, digesting it, and distributing it throughout the body wherever it is needed. These are chiefly the mouth and teeth for receiving and chewing the food, the stomach and intestines for digesting and absorbing it, and the heart and blood-vessels for distributing it to the body.
• The Moving Apparatus. For the purpose of producing motion, we have the muscles and the bones, by which the food is received, masticated, and swallowed, the blood circulated, the body moved about from place to place, and speech, expression, respiration, and many other important functions performed.
• The Thinking and Feeling Apparatus.  The brain and nerves afford the means of thinking and feeling, also giving rise to all the activities of the body by the production of nerve force. To aid the brain and nerves, we have special organs provided, termed the organs of special sense; as the eye for sight, the ear for hearing, the nose for the detection of odors, the tongue for tasting, the skin and the mucous membrane for the sense of touch.
• The Purifying Apparatus. Waste matter accumulates in the body so rapidly that it is necessary to have abundant and efficient means to remove the same, and prevent death by obstruction. This work is performed by the lungs, liver, kidneys, skin, and mucous membrane.

Each organ and tissue possesses the power to repair itself. Animal heat, which is also necessary to life, is not produced by any special set of organs, but results incidentally from the various other processes named.

The Reproductive Apparatus

As there is a stomach to digest, a brain to think, a pair of lungs to breathe, etc., so there are special organs for reproducing the species or producing new individuals. Unlike all the other organs of the body, they are intended for use only after full development of manhood has been attained; consequently, they are only partially developed in childhood, becoming perfected as the person becomes older, especially after about the age of fourteen to eighteen, when puberty occurs. The lungs, the stomach, the muscles, and other organs must be used constantly from the earliest period of infancy, and hence are developed sufficiently for efficient use at birth. The fact that the sexual or reproductive organs are only fully developed later on in life, is sufficient evidence that they are intended for use only when the body has become fully matured and well developed.

The Down-Hill Road

In every large city, and in small ones too, even in little villages, we can scarcely step upon the street without being pained at meeting little boys who have perhaps scarcely learned to speak distinctly, but whose faces show very plainly that they have already taken several steps down the steep hillside of vice. All degrees of wickedness are pictured on the faces of a large proportion of the boys we meet upon the streets, loitering about the corners, loafing in hotels, groceries, and about bar-room doors. Everywhere we meet small faces upon which sin and vice are as clearly written as though the words were actually spelled out. Lying, swearing, smoking, petty stealing, and brazen impudence are among the vices which contaminate thousands and thousands of the boys who are by and by to become the men of this country, to constitute its legislators, its educators, its supporters, and its protectors. Is it possible that such boys can become good, useful, noble, trustworthy men? If the seeds of noxious weeds can be made to produce useful plants or beautiful flowers, or if a barren, worthless shrub can be made to bear luscious fruit, then may we expect to see these vicious boys grow up into virtuous, useful men.

But the vices mentioned are not the worst, whose traces we see stamped upon the faces of hundreds of boys, some of whom, too, would scorn to commit any one of the sins named. There is another vice, still more terrible, more blighting in its effects, a vice which defiles, diseases, and destroys the body, enervates, degrades, and finally dethrones the mind, debases and ruins the soul. It is to this vice that we wish especially to call attention. It is known as --

Self-Abuse

Secret vice, masturbation, and self-pollution are other names applied to the same awful sin against nature and against God. We shall not explain here the exact nature of the sin, as very few boys are so ignorant or so innocent as to be unacquainted with it. To this sin and its awful consequences we now wish to call the attention of all who may read these lines.

A Dreadful Sin

The sin of self-pollution is one of the vilest, the basest, and the most degrading that a human being can commit. It is worse than beastly. Those who commit it place themselves far below the meanest brute that breathes. The most loathsome reptile, rolling in the slush and slime of its stagnant pool, would not bemean itself thus. It is true that monkeys sometimes have the habit, but only when they have been taught it by vile men or boys. A boy who is thus guilty, ought to be ashamed to look into the eyes of an honest dog. Such a boy naturally shuns the company of those who are pure and innocent. He cannot look with assurance into his mother's face. It is difficult for any one to catch his eye, even for a few seconds. He feels his guilt, and acts it out, thus making it known to every one. Let such a boy think how he must appear in the eyes of the Almighty. Let him only think of the angels, pure, innocent, and holy, who are eye-witnesses of his shameful practices. Is not the thought appalling? Would he dare commit such a sin in the presence of his father, his mother, or his sisters? How, then, will he dare to defile himself in the presence of Him from whose all-seeing eye nothing is hid?

The Bible utters the most solemn warnings against sexual sins. The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone for such transgressions. Onan was struck dead in the act of committing a vileness of this sort. For similar vices the wicked inhabitants of Palestine were destroyed, and their lands given to the Hebrews. For a single violation of the seventh commandment, one of the most notable Bible characters, David, suffered to the day of his death. Those who imagine that this sin is not a transgression of the seventh commandment, may be assured that this most heinous, revolting, and unnatural vice is in every respect more pernicious, more debasing, and more immoral than what is generally considered as violation of the commandment which says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," and is a most flagrant violation of the same same commandment.

Those who imagine that they "have a right to do as they please with themselves," so long as no one else is immediately affected, must learn that we are not our own masters; we belong to our Creator, and are accountable to God, not only for the manner in which we treat our fellow-men, but for how we treat ourselves, for the manner in which we use the bodies which he has given us. The man who commits suicide, who takes his own life, is a murderer as much as he who kills a fellowman. So, also, he who pollutes himself in the manner we are considering, violates the seventh commandment, although the crime is in both cases committed against himself. Think of this, ye youth who defile yourselves in secret, and seek to escape the punishment of sin. In heaven a faithful record of your vile commandment-breaking is kept, and you must meet it by and by. You are fixing your fate for eternity; and each daily act in some degree determines what it shall be. Are you a victim of this debasing vice? Stop, repent, reform, before you are forever ruined, -- a mental, moral, and physical wreck.

Self-Murderers

Of all the vices to which human beings are addicted, no other so rapidly undermines the constitution and so certainly makes a complete wreck of an individual as this, especially when the habit is begun at an early age. It wastes the most precious part of the blood, uses up the vital forces, and finally leaves the poor victim a most utterly ruined and loathsome object. If a boy should be deprived of both hands and feet, and should lose his eyesight, he would still be infinitely better off than the boy who for years gives himself up to the gratification of lust in secret vice. For such a boy to become a strong, vigorous man is just as impossible as it would be to make a mammoth tree out of a currant bush. Such a man will necessarily be short-lived. He will always suffer from the effects of his folly, even though he shall marry. If he has children, -- he may become incapable, -- they will be quite certain to be puny, weak, scrofulous, consumptive, rickety, nervous, depraved in body and mind, or otherwise deprived of the happiness which grows out of the possession of "a sound mind in a sound body."

Let us notice a little more closely the terrible effects resulting from this most unnatural and abominable vice.

What Makes Boys Dwarfs?

How many times have we seen boys who were born with good constitutions, with force and stamina sufficient to develop them into large, vigorous men, become puny dwarfs. At the time when they ought to begin to grow and develop more rapidly than ever before, their growth is checked, and they cease to develop. They are, in fact, stunted, dwarfed, like a plant which has a canker-worm eating away at its roots. Indeed, there is a veritable canker-worm sapping their vitality, undermining their constitutions, and destroying their prospects for time and for eternity. Anxious friends may attribute the unhappy change to overwork, overstudy, or some similar cause; but from a somewhat extended observation, we are thoroughly convinced that the very vice which we are considering is the viper which blights the prospects and poisons the existence of many of these promising boys.

A boy who gives himself up to the practice of secret vice at an early age, say as early as seven to ten years, is certain to make himself a wreck. Instead of having a healthy, vigorous body, with strong muscles and a hardy constitution, he will be weak, scrawny, sickly, always complaining, never well, and will never know anything about that joyous exuberance of life and animal spirits which the young antelope feels as he bounds over the plain, or the vigorous young colt as it frisks about its pasture and which every youth ought to feel.

Scrawny, Hollow-Eyed Boys

Boys ought to be fresh and vigorous as little lambs. They ought to be plump, rosy, bright-eyed, and sprightly. A boy who is pale, scrawny, hollow-eyed, dull, listless, has something the matter with him. Self-abuse makes thousands of just such boys every year; and it is just such boys that make vicious, shiftless, haggard, unhappy men. This horrible vice steals away the health and vitality which are needed to develop body and mind; and the lad that ought to make his mark in the world, that ought to become a distinguished statesman, orator, clergyman, physician, or author, becomes little more than a living animal, a mere shadow of what he ought to have been

Old Boys

Often have we felt sad when we have heard fond mothers speaking in glowing terms of the old ways of their sons, and rather glorying that they looked so much older than they were. In nine cases out of ten, these old-looking boys owe their appearance to this vile habit; for it is exceedingly common, and its dreadful effects in shriveling and dwarfing and destroying the human form are too plainly perceptible, when present, to be mistaken. Oh, this dreadful curse! Why will so many of our bright, innocent boys pollute themselves with it?

What Makes Idiots?

Reader, have you ever seen an idiot? If you have, the hideous picture will never be dissipated from your memory. The vacant stare, the drooping, drooling mouth, the unsteady gait, the sensual look, the emptiness of mind, -- all these you well remember. Did you ever stop to think how idiots are made? It is by this very vice that the ranks of these poor daft mortals are being recruited every day. Every visitor to an insane asylum sees scores of them; ruined in mind and body, only the semblance of a human being, bereft of sense, lower than a beast in many respects, a human being hopelessly lost to himself and to the world, -- oh, most terrible thought! -- yet once pure, intelligent, active, perhaps the hope of a fond mother, the pride of a doting father, and possibly possessed of natural ability to become greatly distinguished in some of the many noble and useful walks of life; now sunk below the brute through the degrading, destroying influence of a lustful gratification.

Boys, are you guilty of this terrible sin? have you even once in this way yielded to the tempter's voice? Stop, consider, think of the awful results, repent, confess to God, reform. Another step in that direction, and you may be lost, soul and body. You cannot dally with the tempter. You must escape now or never. Don't delay.

Young Dyspeptics

If we leave out of the consideration the effects of bad food and worse cookery, there is in our estimation no other cause so active as this in occasioning the early breaking down of the digestive organs of our American boys. A boy ten or twelve years of age ought to have a stomach capable of digesting anything not absolutely indigestible; but there are to-day thousands and thousands of boys of that age whose stomachs are so impaired as to be incapable of digesting any but the most simple food. The digestion being ruined, decay of the teeth soon follows. Hardly one boy in a dozen has perfectly sound teeth. With a bad stomach and bad teeth, a foundation for disease is laid which is sure to result in early decay of the whole body.

A Cause of Consumption

In this awful vice do we find a cause, too, for the thousands of cases of consumption in young men. At the very time when they ought to be in their prime, they break down in health, and become helpless invalids for life, or speedily sink into an early grave.

Upon their tombstones might justly be graven, "Here lies a self-murderer." Providence is not to blame; nor is climate, weather, overwork, overstudy, or any other even seemingly plausible cause to be blamed. Their own sins have sunk them in mental, moral, and physical perdition. Such a victim literally dies by his own hand, a veritable suicide. Appalling thought! It is a grand thing to die for one's principles, a martyr to right and truth. One may die blameless who is the victim of some dire contagious malady which he could not avoid; even the poor, downcast misanthrope, whose hopes are blighted and whose sorrows multiplied, may possibly be in some degree excused for wishing to end his misery with his life; but the wretched being who sheds his life-blood by the disgusting maneuvers of self-pollution,-what can be said to extenuate his guilt? His is a double crime. He will perish, overwhelmed with his own vileness. Let him die, and return to the dust from which he sprang. Let him pass from the memory of his fellow-men.

The Race Ruined by Boys

The human race is growing weaker year by year. The boys of to-day would be no match in physical strength for the hale, sturdy youths of a century ago, their great-grandparents. An immense amount of skillful training enables now and then one to accomplish some wonderful feat of walking, rowing, or swimming; but we hear very little of remarkable feats of labor accomplished by our modern boys. Even the country boys of to-day cannot endure the hard work which their fathers did at the same age; and we doubt not that this growing physical weakness is one of the reasons why so large a share of the boys whose fathers are farmers, and who have been reared on farms, are unwilling to follow the occupation of their fathers for a livelihood. They are too weakly to do the work required by an agricultural life, even by the aid of the numerous labor-saving inventions of the age.

What is it that is undermining the health of the race, and sapping the constitutions of our American men? No doubt much may be attributed to the unnatural refinements of civilization in several directions; but there can be no doubt that vice is the most active cause of all. Secret sin and its kindred vices ruin more constitutions every year than hard work, severe study, hunger, cold, privation, and disease combined.

Boys, the destiny of the race is in your hands. You can do more than all the doctors, all the scientists and most eminent political men in the world, to secure the prosperity and future greatness of the nation, by taking care of yourselves, by being pure, noble, true to yourselves and to the demands of high moral principle.