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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