The result should be written down with
some fulness and put before the young of both sexes as soon as they
are old enough to understand such matters at all. There should be no
mystery or reserve. None but the corrupt will wish to corrupt facts;
honest people will accept them eagerly, whatever they may prove to
be, and will convey them to others as accurately as they can. On
what pretext therefore can it be well that knowledge should be
withheld from the universal gaze upon a matter of such universal
interest? It cannot be pretended that there is nothing to be known
on these matters beyond what unaided boys and girls can be left
without risk to find out for themselves. Not one in a hundred who
remembers his own boyhood will say this. How, then, are they
excusable who have the care of young people and yet leave a matter of
such vital importance so almost absolutely to take care of itself,
although they well know how common error is, how easy to fall into
and how disastrous in its effects both upon the individual and the
race?
Next to sexual matters there are none upon which there is such
complete reserve between parents and children as on those connected
with money. The father keeps his affairs as closely as he can to
himself and is most jealous of letting his children into a knowledge
of how he manages his money. His children are like monks in a
monastery as regards money and he calls this training them up with
the strictest regard to principle.
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