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[Illustration: Book Cover]




  The Renewal of Life




BY MISS MORLEY

  A SONG OF LIFE. 12mo        $1.25

  LIFE AND LOVE. 12mo          1.25

  THE BEE PEOPLE. 12mo         1.25

  THE HONEY-MAKERS. 12mo       1.25

  LITTLE MITCHELL. 12mo        1.25

  THE RENEWAL OF LIFE. 12mo    1.25

  _Each fully illustrated_


A. C. McCLURG & CO.
CHICAGO




  The Renewal of Life

  _How and When to Tell the Story to the Young_


  By

  Margaret Warner Morley

  Author of "A Song of Life," "Life and Love," etc.

  Illustrated

  [Illustration: Publisher's Logo]

  Chicago
  A. C. McClurg & Co.
  1906


  COPYRIGHT BY
  A. C. McCLURG & CO.
  1906

  Published September 15, 1906
  THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.




Contents


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE

     I. THE RENEWAL OF LIFE                                            9

    II. WHO IS TO TELL THE STORY, AND WHEN IS IT TO BE TOLD?          17

   III. HOW TO TELL THE STORY                                         27

    IV. TELLING THE TRUTH                                             36

     V. ON NATURE STUDY                                               40

    VI. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SEED                                   52

   VII. THE FERTILIZATION OF THE FLOWER                               87

  VIII. WHAT CAN BE LEARNED FROM THE LIFE OF THE FISH                107

    IX. AMPHIBIOUS LIFE                                              127

     X. THE BIRD                                                     137

    XI. THE MAMMAL                                                   154

   XII. VIGILANCE                                                    169

  XIII. THE TRANSFORMATION                                           178


  LIST OF BOOKS HELPFUL IN STUDYING PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE            193




_The Renewal of Life_

_How and When to Tell The Story to the Young_




I

THE RENEWAL OF LIFE


Every human being must sooner or later know the facts concerning the
origin of his life on the earth. One of the most puzzling questions is
how and when such information should be given to the young.

There is nothing the parent more desires than that his child should have
a high ideal in regard to the sex-life and that he should live in
accordance with that ideal, yet nowhere is careful and systematic
education so lacking as here.

What parent would allow his child to go untaught in the particulars
concerning truth-telling, honesty, cleanliness, and behavior, trusting
that in some way the child would discover the facts necessary to the
practice of these virtues and live accordingly? And yet with apparent
inconsistency one of the prime virtues is neglected; one of the most
vital needs of every human being--the understanding of his
sex-nature--is too often left entirely to chance. Not only is the youth
uninstructed, but no proper way of learning the truth is within his
reach. It is as though he were set blindfold in the midst of dangerous
pitfalls, with the admonition not to fall into any of them. Those who
ought to tell the facts will not, consequently the facts must be
gathered from chance sources which are too often bad, poisoning mind and
heart. Even the physiologies, with the exception of those large, and to
the average reader inaccessible, volumes used in medical schools,
scarcely ever touch upon the subject. Of course these larger books give
only the physiological facts couched in scientific terms. How and where,
then, can the youth learn what he needs to know?

It is true there is a noble effort being made for young men, and to a
less extent for young women, by certain organizations that exist for
the help of the young, to supply this curious defect in our educational
system; but these efforts reach but comparatively few members in a
community, and come too late in the life of the young to give them their
first impressions on the subject. Perhaps the most encouraging sign for
the future is the interest that thousands of mothers in all walks of
life are to-day taking in the best methods of training their children to
a right understanding and noble conception of sex-life. Innumerable
mothers' clubs give the subject a place in the curriculum of the club
work, at stated times discussing, reading, consulting all available
authorities which may be of help. Some of these mothers live in poor
homes in neighborhoods where their children are exposed to all sorts of
evil communications and temptations. Others have sheltered homes, from
which the children go out among refined associates from whom there may
be little danger of learning that which is evil. Yet others live in
moderate circumstances, where the home influences may be good, but
where the children are liable to mingle with a heterogeneous society in
their school and perhaps in their social life.

Moreover, in all these homes there are children of different
natures,--some with temperaments which make it easy for them to imbibe
harmful information, while others as naturally resent such information.

Nor is the child of rich parents living in a costly home necessarily the
child least likely to make mistakes. The facts quickly refute any such
idea. It is the child most carefully trained at home, with the most
inspiring counsel and the wisest guidance in all directions, who has the
best chance for successful living, the child whose parents not only
secure the best outside assistance where such is necessary, but who
themselves take a vital and continuous interest in his education. Such
parents, where the help of nurses and teachers is necessary in the home,
see to it that these helpers are wholesome, high-minded companions for
the growing minds put under their charge.

The poorest child is the child of wealthy parents, who is turned over to
hirelings, chosen more for their accent of a foreign tongue than for
their knowledge of child life and of the laws which govern the growing
mind and body. Such children not infrequently become as depraved as the
most neglected and exposed child of the slums, later poisoning the minds
or shocking the sensibilities of children in the schools they attend.

One of the difficulties every mother has to encounter is the presence of
undesirable companions in the school. The argument that a child coming
from a sheltered home will not be influenced by such companions is only
in part true. He may not be influenced, or, again, he may. Among older
children, if the wrongdoer be dazzling in manner, looks, social
position, or even in power to lavish money, he will acquire a certain
ascendency over many of his companions, who, if not safeguarded against
his allurements by a clear knowledge of the facts of life, may fall into
his snares.

How, then, can all these various situations be dealt with? How, how
much, when, and where shall the youth be safeguarded against influences,
misconceptions, and mistakes which may mar his whole after-life? These
are the questions which in part this book endeavors to answer.

The answers come from the writer's experience of many years' work with
mothers interested in this subject, especially from the testimony and
the questions of thousands of such mothers in all walks of life who
possessed children of all temperaments.

The book is not meant to be either exhaustive or arbitrary. It is
written with the single desire of helping the mother who may be groping
her way in this matter, its aim being twofold,--to indicate methods of
procedure among which the mother may find one adapted to her special
needs and circumstances, or at least from which she may get hints which
she can herself follow in her own way, and to indicate sources of
information.

One trivial difficulty has presented itself in preparing the succeeding
chapters, and that is the lack in the English language of a pronoun
including both genders. The English impersonal pronoun, being masculine
in form, is liable to create the impression that "he" or "his" exclusive
of "she" or "her" is the subject of discourse. This is not so. Generally
the masculine pronoun is used impersonally in this discussion, and the
discerning reader can easily decide from the context where this is not
the case.

As a help to the busy mother in selecting books for herself and her
children, a list is given at the end of the book. This list is by no
means exhaustive. There are many other and doubtless equally good books.
The books given are reliable, are prettily illustrated, are now in
print, and are easily obtainable at any book-store. If they are not in
stock the book-seller will be glad to send for them. Further, to aid in
selecting and ordering, the retail price is added. A small circulating
library of well chosen books adds greatly to the usefulness of a
mother's club, and such a library can be collected at small cost.

Where the club is composed of heterogeneous members it is advisable that
the president, or some member chosen for the purpose, should lead the
discussion, which should be on some one topic selected and made known
beforehand. This leader should not only guide the discussion, but be
ready to explain the books and make the subject clear to those tired and
overworked mothers who have had fewer educational advantages but who are
in need of such knowledge as will enable them to guide their children.

A mother unconnected with a club, and unable to afford all the books she
wants, can find many of those here recommended in the village or city
library; and where this is not the case the library is generally willing
to make such purchases as its patrons request.




II

WHO IS TO TELL THE STORY, AND WHEN IS IT TO BE TOLD?


Every thoughtful guardian of a child is sooner or later confronted with
three questions in connection with this subject,--

Who is to tell the story to the child?

When should it be told?

How should it be told?


_Who shall tell the story?_

The best teachers in this subject are undoubtedly the child's parents.

Since the mother generally spends more time with him and is more
accustomed to instruct him in manners and morals it naturally belongs to
her to give him his first instruction here, and it is an opportunity
which no mother understanding its value can afford to miss.

Nothing draws a child so close to his mother as the knowledge, rightly
conveyed, of how truly he is a part of her. Almost without exception the
young boy learning the truth from the lips of his mother has a new
feeling of reverence and love for her. Countless are the testimonies of
mothers as to the result of telling this fact. One illustration will
answer as an example of hundreds of similar ones. A certain little boy
listened open-eyed to the story; then, the blood mounting to his cheeks,
he threw himself into his mother's arms, exclaiming, "Oh, mamma, that is
why I love you so!"

Moreover, if the right kind of confidence is established between mother
and child, the child will come to his mother with his questions and
difficulties instead of trying to satisfy his curiosity elsewhere.

The question is often asked, Will not close companionship and sympathy
between mother and child in a general way produce the same result,
causing the child to confide in the mother in case of needing
information, without any previous talks on the subject?

Of course the closer the relationship between the two the more easily
will the child confide everything; yet with very many children, if this
one subject is avoided (and particularly is this true as the child grows
older), it will not be introduced by the child, no matter how much he
may desire the knowledge, or how intimate in other ways may be his talks
with his mother. The judicious mother can get a hold upon her son
through this subject that nothing else gives; she can keep him closer to
her, and oftentimes can guide him safely over difficult places. What is
true of the son is of course true of the daughter. The little girl will
respond as readily as her brother to confidences of this kind, and will
find them as helpful. She very often escapes much that her brother in
his freer life meets, yet undoubtedly in the great majority of cases the
instruction is as vitally necessary to her as to him.

While the earliest teachings seem to fall most naturally to the mother,
the father should also share the responsibility and the privilege,
talking with frank confidence upon the subject whenever occasion
offers.

The question is often asked, Is it not better for the father to talk to
the boys, the mother to the girls?

There no doubt are cases where this might be wise, but the mother,
understanding the close relationship between her son and herself that
may come through such talks,--a relationship continuing and increasing
in value as the years go on,--would feel that she could not afford to
lose anything so precious to both her boy and herself.

While the establishment of this relationship might be difficult or even
impossible later, it is easily begun in childhood and as easily
continued. Moreover, many boys are specially helped by talking with
their mother. They often feel in her a quicker sympathy and a more
perfect understanding of