>yAND ^ .y Yrj. C^x -^C4-sfr%A^d -h aw/D ? Tl^u JF7^ inus-CA-j. »/x '" - W INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE P of sowing, nor leave this to chance. And since, on one side, the supernatural virtue of purity, to have its effect, is conditioned, even in children, by exercise, and, on the other, this cannot take place by the repetition of acts ex- cept by a knowledge of the case, why do not educators profit — I do not say by the first oc- casion offering — but by the crisis of puberty to sow in the souls of children with art and discretion the seed of truth which will enable them to concentrate on this delicate point the combined efforts of nature and grace? Besides, it is impossible that at this mo- ment God should not come to the help of the children and of the educators. In the chil- dren this sane, progressive, sustained initia- tion, by a combined action of nature and grace, will always be less dangerous than any sort of initiation coming to them from it matters not, where and under a vicious form, at a time when they least expect it, and when they will not find themselves prepared for right de- fence. Nevertheless, the partisans of silence do not INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 105 yield. Possessed by the idea that the first ini- tiation, even reduced to a minimum, is calcu- lated to imperil the innocence of every child, whether raised in a Christian way or not, and persuaded that only with age does this first initiation (no matter whence it comes) lose its dangerous character, they will not listen to a virtue of chastity, natural or supernatural, which can only be acquired and developed in the light of knowledge, and they prefer to take refuge in the instinctive sense of modesty, whose instinctive character they would sup- plement by reflection. III. The Sentiment of Modesty in Educat- ing to Purity FoERSTER has noted with nicety that "in our intellectualist century too many persons have lost the power of comprehending the powerful defensive instincts of the unconscious life, which find their expression in the sentiment of modesty." 4 And if he intends by this that one has not the right, under the pretext that 106 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE science cures everything, to attack this senti- ment by gorging children with technical de- tails relative to the exercise of chastity, he is perfectly correct. Such details, exposed crudely and without measure to children, and even to some adults, whom one has not prepared by strengthening their will through an intensive moral educa- tion, are of a nature to wound modesty and make them lose their moral poise. But let us remark that in the hypothesis we assume there is no question of a scientific ini- tiation, and that, besides, the children for whom there is question of a first initiation have been raised in a Christian way and have become capable of self-mastery. It is clear that, even after the crisis of pu- berty, and, in every case, before the moral edu- cation of the child is assured, the educators ought jealously to respect his sentiment of modesty. "It is precisely because modesty pre- serves the sexual field from the full knowl- edge which reflection throws," again remarks Foerster, "that it has for the educator and for INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 107 the hygienist such a great value that nothing will ever replace it." The sentiment of modesty in a child is like the instinct of "wolf" in a lamb which has never before encountered such an animal, yet flees at its approach. The child divines that there is for him in the field of life's experi- ences a "reserved domain," and instinctively keeps on the outskirts of this domain, where he flees from a word, an image, or an expres- sion which, though its exact sense escapes him, urges him on in spite of himself. This instinctive feeling of modesty, even those who write unrestrainedly and pose as the champions of "full light," hold in respect be- fore some children. To cultivate this sentiment among chil- dren, and as long as the crisis of puberty does not put any troubling question to their spirit, is a mark of wisdom. In Scripture there are some terrible words addressed to those who, without reason or through malice, expose themselves "to scandalize one of these little ones." 108 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE Nevertheless, no one among us can keep a child from passing from the shadows of in- stinct to the mature light of reflection. A day comes when, in virtue of the manifold influences of one's nature, certain formidable questions propose themselves to his spirit, if not in precise terms, at least in vague ones, and whose indefiniteness even accentuates the peril. Is any one sure that at this moment the in- stinct of modesty is a sufficient weapon in his hand? Will it not be wiser to ally this instinct with reflection? The feeling of modesty, indeed, is not, as some seem to think, exclusively the expression of the unconscious life. In other words, the consciousness of evil, or rather of moral dan- ger, may ally itself perfectly with this sen- timent in some delicate and well-reared souls. It is necessary to have the cult of modesty, but not the superstition. Does one infalli- bly lose this sentiment in acquiring an exact, if not complete, notion of things about which it is concerned? Does modesty, whose very INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 109 name evokes the idea of whiteness, resemble the snow of the streets that melts at the first ray of the sun; or does it not recall rather the snow of the mountain-tops that the full sun cannot penetrate? For my part, I think that a certain teaching of young men and young women upon ques- tions that the crisis of puberty brings before their imagination or into their hearts with an extreme sharpness is perfectly compatible with a parallel education of modesty. I believe that there is a way of drawing the attention of children and of adolescents to certain physi- ological and psychological manifestations proper to their age and their sex, while at the same time cultivating their instinct of modesty. And it is not necessary for this to enter into useless technical details; a common- sense teaching, utilizing current words, and exactly adapted to the weak intellectual de- mands of children in these matters, is perfectly sufficient. For example, in the mouth of a truly Chris- tian mother, careful of the spiritual interests no INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE of her son or daughter, such teaching is clothed with modesty without losing anything of its relative and intended precision. There will be in the attitude of the mother at this solemn hour a sentiment of responsibility and an instinctive appreciation of the needs of her child that will dictate to her the necessary words, and an accent of goodness that will em- phasize the moral import. The child will remain a long time impressed, and, the re- membrance of the gravity of his mother being associated in his mind with the things re- vealed, his modesty will not suffer at all, but rather be strengthened. Let me repeat that everything depends upon the way. But I cannot bring myself to think that this manner is not within the reach of almost all mothers who from the first day have presided over the physical and moral de- velopment of their children; who have fol- lowed closely the unfolding of all their soul- needs; who, in place of satisfying all the ca- * prices of their children, have accustomed them * to conquer themselves ; who, at each new diffi- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE in culty, have helped them to victory by appeal- ing to all the resources of religion, of their heart, by cultivating their piety, by urging them to receive the Sacraments — in short, by organizing this pedagogy of chastity which prepares them in a close way for the passage from childhood to adolescence, from negative to positive innocence. That, in fact, too many parents do not raise their children in this way, and are more oc- cupied in "sissifying" than in "virilizing" them; that in many of our colleges and in- stitutions religious education is not yet inte- gral, and that sentiment plays a bigger part than intellect and will : this is a remark of pub- lic notoriety and eminently regrettable. But this assertion of fact does not touch upon the question of principle. Doubtless it is necessary to conclude from it that parents and superiors are bound in con- science to change their method of education, or rather to perfect it, in early habituating their children to struggle against their ten- dencies, their caprices, and their ease; to place ii2 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE their senses under the dominion of their will ; voluntarily to utilize their passions in place of abandoning themselves to the force of their inertia, and to do this with all the resources of grace and for the love of Christ, centre and model of all Christian life. But one has not the right to conclude that "the true principle in the matter of educating to purity, if one must give one, is that of silence and not of initiation"; nor to pretend, in generalizing this principle, that "ignorance and piety are the two guardians of virtue." Not only is this untenable theoretically, but nothing is more dangerous practically. Of two things, one must, indeed, be true: either the child whose education in purity is at stake has not been raised in a Christian manner — that is, has not received the prepara- tory moral education of the will that efficiently arms it against the real or imaginary danger of certain anticipated revelations (in this case, if there is yet time, his will ought to be strengthened by a pedagogy of chastity be- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 113 fore enlightening his intellect on the special subject of this virtue) ; or the child, on the contrary, has received this preparatory educa- tion, and then it is necessary to choose be- tween a measured and progressive initiation adapted by his educators to his moral and in- tellectual needs of the moment, or a chance initiation, which, brutal and unexpected, may destroy in a moment the results of many years of effort. Between these two initiations, has one a right to hesitate? This right, we have seen, is hardly maintainable in principle. It is not maintainable in fact when the social circum- stances accompanying the evolution of a child multiply at pleasure around him the sources of vicious revelations and the chances of an explosion in his senses. Now, who would dare to assert that this is not the case to-day for the greater part of the children in all classes of society? Never were the chances for an unforeseen and vicious initiation, in what concerns the ii4 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE purity of children, greater than to-day. Never, consequently, was the necessity of a voluntary and sane initiation on the part of their educators imposed with greater weight. 1 Taken altogether, this theory fails in every case to conform to the doctrine of St. Thomas. For St. Thomas, it is God who directly increases grace in us, but on two conditions: on condition of the reception of the Sacra- ments, and on condition of the exercise of our infused graces under the movement of charity, in which all our virtues are combined. A little baptized child who re- ceives the Eucharist without well understanding what it is doing receives an increase of grace because of the efficacy of the Sacraments, which always work of them- selves when no positive obstacle is placed in their way. But ordinarily, according to St. Thomas, God propor- tions the graces to the merit and intensity of our super- natural acts. Doubtless these acts can contribute to the increase of charity only as they are meritorious — that is to say, in so far as they proceed from charity; but to increase charity it is not sufficient that they be merito- rious; charity is not augmented by God except in pro/ portion to the intensity of the meritorious acts. The reason is that virtues, even supernatural ones, are modifi- cations of our powers, and cannot ordinarily increase except according to the manner of the powers that they INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 115 use; that is to say, by the repetition of acts proportioned in intensity. It is, indeed, hard to understand how a less intense act of charity, were it meritorious, contributes to the increase of charity. It is contrary to nature; and if one admits, ordinarily, that grace conforms to nature, one comprehends all the danger there would be in main- taining that it is not by exercise that the supernatural virtues increase. 1 am not ignorant that Suarez, who admits that super- natural virtues increase through exercise, pretends that it matters not what act of charity, even though of the least intensity, provided only it be meritorious, helps to increase grace. But to dare to maintain that his thought conforms with that of St. Thomas, it is necessary to contend that on this point St. Thomas is not clear. Suarez is alone in such an opinion, or almost so. Here are the passages in St. Thomas which those interested in 5^, these questions may profitably consult: II, ii, 2; XXIV, *^ a. 6; I, ii, 2; CXIV, a. 8 ad 3 ; II Sent., dist. XXVII, q. I, a. V ad 3; I Sent., dist. XVII, q. II, a. 3. 2 Here I except the case where the grace increases by means of Sacraments received ; but the sacramental graces themselves are ordinarily for action — that is, they have for their end to make us posit more intense meritorious actions, which will contribute to the increase of charity, thanks to their merit and intensity. 3 We shall have occasion to return to this point more at length, and to illustrate this doctrine by some ex- u6 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE amples, when we indicate the practical way in which we can facilitate the exercise of supernatural virtues by the help of the corresponding natural virtues. (Cf. Chap- ter V.) 4 Op. cit., pp. 6 1 et seq. CHAPTER IV IGNORANCE OF TO-DAY AND INNOCENCE OF TO-MORROW FROM our preceding analyses two con- clusions have already appeared with a certain clearness. Let us recall them briefly. The first regards the employment of the sci- entific method pure and simple in the matter of chastity. Used alone, without preparatory or parallel education of the will, this method cannot help being dangerous, whether it deal with individual education in purity, or, a for- tiori, with collective education. Further, even under the hypothesis of a preparatory or parallel moral education, the scientific method remains inapplicable and, even were this not so, it would he useless. It is inapplicable because neither can all the natural educators use it, nor are the ma- 117 u8 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE jority of children capable of profiting by it. And it is useless if one will carefully ob- serve that training in purity is more an art than a science, being, on the one hand, opposed to collective teaching, and, on the other, es- sentially dependent, from an individual point of view, upon an assemblage of factors where science has nothing to see and where com- mon sense and a certain number of moral qualities suffice. But, in default of a dangerous, inapplica- ble, and useless scientific method, does it fol- low that we must have recourse to the method of silence, and put off as long as possible, for all children, without consideration of age, sex, or environment, the time of initiation? In theory the method of silence seems pref- erable to the scientific method. There is at least this appreciable advantage, that it elimi- nates all collective initiation. But, from the individual point of view, it puts the difficulty off without solving it. Because, willy-nilly, a day comes when children must be initiated, whether children have been prepared morally, INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 119 by an appropriate education, voluntarily to resist the dangers inherent in every initiation, or whether they have not. If they have not, their innocence will not profit by a prolonged ignorance. If they have been prepared, it is in this moral preparation, and not in their ignorance, that their innocence will find a sup- port. Besides, is it not evident that the very troubling and delicate question of educating to purity concerns the will more than the in- tellect of children, and that having asked if it be better to tell all or to tell nothing, it is necessary to prepare them morally for what, according to the circumstances and their individual need of knowledge, one'thinks him- self obliged to reveal to them on this ques- tion? Thus put, the problem does not seem in- soluble. For it is stated, in the first place, in individual, not collective terms. Besides, this individual moral preparation which al- lows children, if the case arise, to guard against the dangers of a measured and pro- 120 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE gressive initiation is merely a matter of time and degree. Begun at the cradle with all the resources of nature and of grace, by consci- entious and watchful parents and superiors, it enables the children themselves, during the crisis of puberty and afterwards, to hold their own against the dangers which may come from a relatively forced initiation. By relative I mean relative to each child, to his need of knowing the difficulties of his temperament, and the different circumstances in which he is placed. Doubtless it remains true that all initiation in these matters implies some risk. But it is necessary to know if a prejudiced silence, un- der all circumstances, does not mean more dan- ger than a sane initiation, adapted to each particular case, under the condition of previ- ous morality that we have assumed. For our part, we believe that, on princi- ple, the will of the child being since its birth prepared by an intense moral and religious training, this relative and determined initia- tion will always be preferable to an absolute INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 121 silence, which does not guarantee against all chance of vicious initiation. In practice, in the actual circumstances of life, we think that no serious educator, taking account of his responsibility, will hesitate a moment between the hypothetical danger of a sane initiation, made by those who love the children and have care of them, and the quasi- certainty of a vicious initiation, made by any chance acquaintance without regard for the souls of the children. 7. Social Facts and Innocence MANY psychologists have asked why, in recent times, certain educators, justly busied with the question of educating to purity, have so loudly praised the method of silence. There are many reasons, of which the most weighty and important, it seems to me, are drawn from the manifest exaggerations of the scientific method. But still among these lat- ter it is necessary to distinguish between secu- lar and religious educators. The former have 122 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE an absolute faith in the efficiency of the sci- entific method ; the latter have only a relative faith. Secular educators believe that a scientific training may advantageously supplant a moral education, and that there is no danger in giv- ing it a collective character, even for the youngest and without distinction of sex. In proof of this they appeal to a purely academic experience. Religious educators, better informed and more experienced, are supported by the whole tradition of the Church in emphasizing the education of the will as contrasted with that of the intellect. Nevertheless, they believe that in what concerns chastity a scientific edu- cation ought to supplement a moral training, and not the least among them are not opposed to collective teaching. And this in part ex- plains the violent reaction working among the advocates of silence. These latter, one must admit, have seen only too well the dangers of a collective scientific initiation even among children raised in a INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 123 Christian way. They are convinced, with rea- son, that the psychology of groups does not obey the same laws as the individual psychol- ogy, and that it will always be dangerous to handle certain "explosives" in public. For experience has amply proved that serious chil- dren and young people do not exercise an in- fluence in direct proportion to their numbers, if indeed it does not diminish in the same ra- tio. The fear of appearing what they are will keep most (excepting the best) young folks from showing themselves to be what they should; and educators must always take ac- count of this strange but undeniable attitude. Besides, it has not been demonstrated that an individual scientific education should be a necessary complement of a vigorous moral education, partly because of its technical as- pect and its inability to influence the will of the children at the same time that it opens the gate of knowledge, and partly because of the notorious incapacity of the majority of educa- tors to give this technical teaching, and of the majority of children to receive it intelligently. 124 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE But it is not necessary, in rejecting the sci- entific method, to go to extremes and to op- pose it with a method of silence. Between science and ignorance there is plenty of room, we have seen, for an intermediary individual initiation which is more an art than a science. To each particular educator, according to the circumstances, belongs the delicate task of knowing what ought or ought not to be said to any child confided to him, when it should be said, and how. Nature and grace offer an infinity of resources in the intellectual and moral order, and he is strictly bound to use them wisely. We shall shortly try roughly to trace the programme of such an education, where common sense and experience are called upon to play the principal roles. It is in the use of this method of individual initiation, adapted to the circumstances of age, sex, temperament, and environment, that it is necessary to look for the tradition of the Church, and not in the employment of a method of crude enlightenment or of absolute ignorance, INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 125 "The Church in the first ages of the Chris- tian era," writes one of the most ardent ad- vocates of the method of silence, "spoke to the faithful a language that would not be tolerated to-day. But what does this prove? That the preachers adapted themselves to the under- standing of their hearers. At that time they were still in the midst of paganism; certain gross and repugnant terms were in current use ; they shocked no one; there is nothing surpris- ing in the Fathers and Doctors employing this terminology. But can any one tell us that the bishops would to-day permit such language in the pulpit, or in catechetical instruction, or in classes presided over by a priest or religious? . . . How, then, can educators in purity claim the Church as favorable to their system of tell- ing everything? In the seminaries there is for priests a course which gives the necessary teaching on this subject. But the conduct of the Church regarding this course, far from proving that she favors the system of telling everything, shows clearly that she holds it in aversion." i 2 6 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE In my turn, I ask, What does this prove? Evidently this proves against the secular ad- vocates of the scientific method pure and sim- ple, that they greatly deceive themselves in putting all their hope in science as a safe- guard for the purity of children, as if the Church's twenty centuries of experience did not demonstrate to the most obstinate that sci- ence is powerless and fatal where the will has not been armed morally against the crudity of its revelations. This proves, too, against the religious par- tisans of a collective or individual education in purity by means of the scientific method, that this method, far from being the neces- sary complement of a strong religious and moral education, is rather a dangerous instru- ment in collective, and at least useless in in- dividual, education. But it proves absolutely nothing against the use of a method of initiation in which com- mon sense replaces science, and which, meas- ured and progressive, takes special account of the needs of each particular child, without any INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 127 intention of telling everything, but with the sole care of saying what is necessary and in the proper way, giving to the training of the will the right of way over education of the intellect, so as exactly to proportion the neces- sary revelations to the moral power of re- sistance in the individual. For there is no question here of telling everything, as the partisans of silence imagine; nor of telling it from the pulpit, or in the catechism class, or at school. The method of relative initiation that we advocate is strictly individual, and its employment varies from one case to another in the intimate family cir- cle and in the confessional. Will any one say that this method does not accord with the traditions of the Church? Every one must grant that in the first cen- turies of Christianity the Fathers and Doctors were not watched so closely in these matters. In the Middle Ages preachers were not blamed for calling things in the pulpit by their names. Later on, certain saints, as St. Ber- nardine of Siena and St Vincent Ferrer, did 128 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE not beat about the bush in denouncing to their hearers the grossness of their lives. The Church to-day, some one says, would not tolerate such language, and this is true ; but such freedom is not in question. Besides, no matter what any one says, this at least proves that the Church, throughout the long course of her existence, has adapted her teaching to the necessities of the moment. But if the language of educators has been ennobled, will any one dare to maintain that the morals of to-day have been improved? Are we not, on the contrary, witnessing a veritable recrudescence of paganism? And if, at the different periods of demoralization among Christians, the Church has adapted her language to the needs of the faithful, will she not to-day, in the family or in the confessional, for the sole purpose of enabling children of themselves to react against the licentious morals they are every moment forced to wit- ness, allow educators to say to each one of these children, alone and according to their personal needs, in a language noble but pre- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 129 cise, what she once allowed to be cried aloud from the pulpit, in a crude, gross style, to crowds of the faithful? For it cannot be denied that from day to day children of all classes of society and of every age are now exposed to seeing or hear- ing things which endanger their purity. In this regard poor and rich alike are in the same boat. For the poor there is the school, whether mixed or not, where the companionship of bad children is always to be feared; after school, the precocious life of domestic ser- vice in the town or village or city; then the workshop ; then the tavern. For the rich there are almost the same dan- gers at the college or boarding-school ; or, at the university, in the conversation, the jour- nals, the reviews; then, in the world, the en- tertainments where young men and women are left to themselves without the surveillance of parents; dances, galleries, summer and win- ter resorts, in the mountains, at the sea-shore; theatres, concerts, and shows of all sorts. 130 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE For all there is the street, with its indecent posters, its salacious exhibitions, its porno- graphic post-cards, its suggestive advertise- ments, and its display of so-called artistic nudities. I grant that some children and youths, es- pecially if they be well brought up and guarded, may sometimes pass through this poisoned atmosphere, preserving their inno- cence in virtue of their ignorance. But they will always be the exception. Whereas, here more than elsewhere it is not the exception, but the rule that counts. And who would dare to maintain as a general rule that from twelve to eighteen years one can, without se- rious and proximate danger of intoxication, breathe a fetid air, where the poison of im- purity enters one, so to say, through every pore? Moreover, the strictest partisans of the method of silence in theory are obliged in practice to relax some of their rigor and make some concessions. They grant that, being given the deplorable circumstances in which INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 131 we live regarding social morals, it is allowed to the natural educators of the child, if they believe it is not prudent further to prolong his ignorance on questions relating to chastity, to give him some knowledge, but not a defi- nite knowledge. They wish this knowledge to be "indefinite," and they pretend to make this concession only on such a condition. Let us see what we should think of this at- titude. II. Indefinite Knowledge and Innocence Speaking of the dangers of the scientific method in these delicate matters, one of the most ardent and most intelligent defenders of the method of silence has made this remark: "In the first place, the child wishes to know. And in this field his natural curiosity will be sharpened by an instinct whose tendency he does not understand. It is intended that the initiation should be slow and progressive. But you are not able to initiate as you plan. It is he who manages his investigation. Where 132 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE will you stop your question, and on what pre- text?" If there is question of an exclusively scien- tific education in purity, where science re- places all moral education, this remark is profoundly true. For, in the name even of the science that one imposes on him, he has the right to know all ; and I do not know what pretext one can draw from science itself to place any bounds to his natural curiosity. But in a system of training to purity, where the education addresses itself more to the will of the child than to his intellect, it seems to me that the educator has a hundred motives of the natural and supernatural order to for- bid the child to see further than the scientific explanations given to him, and that the edu- cator reserves to himself to give when and how he pleases. There are innumerable things that well brought up children would do if they merely followed their instincts, and which they give up voluntarily out of obedi- ence and in the name of God. Will the natural need of knowing slip the bridle of INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 133 their will in this regard, when they know clearly that God, the Church, their parents and superiors wish them momentarily to hold a tight rein? And if this be true of a scientific initiation based on moral education, which we have seen is inapplicable and useless, much more ought this to be true about a common-sense, meas- ured and progressive, strictly individual ini- tiation, when, by reason of the moral and re- ligious authority that they exercise over their will, the natural educators of the child have the power of satisfying and restraining his natural curiosity, according to the needs of the moment, of which they remain the judges. Moreover, the adversaries of all initiation admit that, despite the need of knowing which is natural to a child, one can impose upon him, during long years, an absolute ignorance. Will it, then, be more difficult to impose upon him, appealing firmly to divine motives, and giving him a multitude of natural and super- natural means, a relative ignorance, otherwise H34 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE called a slow, progressive, common-sense ini- tiation? Let us recall, also, that the children to be initiated have been prepared long since, by an intensive and profoundly Christian cul- ture of their will, to react against the sup- posed danger of a sane initiation adapted to the temperament and to the mentality of each. Besides, let us recall that this strictly in- dividual initiation should not ordinarily be- gin before the crisis of puberty, and that dur- ing this crisis it is particularly the child's personal need of knowing that will furnish to the parents the measure and tone of the ini- tiation in question. Finally, let us note that we live at a time of such general moral deterioration that the symptoms, by their quality and number, have delivered us up to a contempt of all modesty, and have placed that of children in special danger at the time precisely when, under the influence of profound physiological transfor- mations, their little being is in a ferment and fever of knowing. INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 135 This being so, where is the mother, con- scious of her responsibility, of so little intel- ligence and ability that she cannot perceive in the looks, the attitude, on the lips of her child, these delicate and disturbing questions, and cannot find in her heart and soul the re- ply to give them, and the desired authority to forbid to the child to seek beyond her an- swer? Where is the mother who, having seen, during a dozen or more years, her son or daughter habituated to obey her, to act ac- cording to conscience, to master their growing senses, to place the will of God in the first rank as rule of all their conduct, to pray and to receive the Sacraments with this intention, will not feel the necessary authority to tell them, at the critical moment of a needed revelation, looking deep down into their eyes: "My child, do not worry. This is the point. I am not telling you everything, because you are not of an age to understand, but what you can understand I do tell you. You must not inquire further. Some day you will know the 136 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE whole truth ; but the little that you do know, since it is all true, ought to be enough. Look upon the desire to know more as a temptation. Later we shall take up this talk again. But now pray to God, obey your mother, keep to yourself what I have told you, and think no more about it." Such language from a mother whose good- ness has gained the confidence of the child, and whose authority has his respect, will cer- tainly be satisfactory. But let every one note that it will be so because of its very clearness, and not because of its confusion. For the child tries less to know everything than to understand the little that one has told him, and that he requires one should tell him. Or- dinarily he does not go beyond the questions that he asks, but this is on condition that one has not the air of evading him, of answering beside the mark, or in an unintelligible fash- ion. If, then, by "confused" knowledge certain educators, in the present question, mean an incomplete knowledge, nothing is better. INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 137 But the term is incorrect, for an incomplete knowledge is not necessarily confused. We do not know the whole of anything, but what we do know is not therefore confused. On the contrary, if by confused knowledge these educators mean an ambiguous, vague, uncertain knowledge, I believe that the rem- edy that they propose is more dangerous than ignorance. At least, as long as a child doubts nothing, he does not seek to know. But as soon as his soul awakes, if he perceives, from the intended vagueness of your language, that you are not answering his questions, or if he only suspects that you are deceiving him by answering beside the mark, he will himself seek elsewhere, in secret, the answer, and he will withdraw the confidence he had in you. We are, then, brought to this dilemma: whether indefinitely to prolong the ignorance of children after the crisis of puberty (but we have seen that this is morally impossible, especially at present) or to profit by this crisis to give with authority and clearness a com- 138 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE mon-sense initiation proportioned to their limited and progressive needs of knowing. I shall not, in closing, invoke my personal experience of youths, although it is entirely in favor of this last position. But I could invoke the witness of many Christian mothers, who have never had to repent of having so acted. By contrast one sees every day, on the mor- row of their marriage, for example, "well brought up" young women, whose innocence has been jealously guarded in favor of igno- rance, fall victims to the first initiation, and in an instant and forever lose their innocence. How many others are bound in marriage knowing nothing, and who, of their own will, had they known, would never have wished to marry, and would have made to God, in re- ligion or in the world, an offering of their virginity! It seems to me that these simple considera- tions are of a nature to make the reader re- flect, and that they stand in no need of com- ment. I do not insist further. CHAPTER V A TENTATIVE PROGRAMME OF EDUCATING TO PURITY ACCORDING TO THE COMMON- SENSE METHOD NEITHER crude illumination nor ab- solute ignorance — that is our motto ; we believe that we have justified it sufficiently. Not crude illumination; that is, not scien- tific education, either individual or collective. By itself, science not only does not beget morality, but will, by revealing their object, awaken in those abstracting from the control of an educated will the instincts of a dormant sensuality. Supported by a strong moral and religious education, science, under the technical aspect that characterizes scientific teaching, will re- main eminently dangerous as a method of col- lective education because of the peculiar 139 140 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE psychology characterizing all groups of young people; besides, I do not believe it is applica- ble by the majority of parents, or useful to the majority of children, even if considered as an instrument of individual education. But neither should we have absolute igno- rance. Neither in theory nor in practice is the method of silence a method of education successfully to tide over the crisis of puberty, where the natural need of knowing may awaken from one moment to another. Between the scientific method and the method of silence, however, there is a place for a method of strictly individual initiation, which supposes as a necessary condition a maximum of moral and religious education of the will, and which is more an art than a science. In theory this method of initiation, in which only the needs of the particular child govern the conduct and usage of the educators, is far preferable to the method of silence. In the first place, the moral foundation which it demands as a preliminary guarantees the sen- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 141 sibility of the child against the supposed dan- ger of a sane initiation; besides, it allows the child, by the progressive repetition of acts of chastity performed with a knowledge of the case, to acquire the habit of chastity un- der the influence and the guarantee of the corresponding infused virtue, and makes him naturally chaste, since habit is, beyond doubt, a second nature. In practice it protects the child against the certain dangers of a vicious initiation, whose sources, in this period of social demoraliza- tion, have been multiplied at will. It now remains for us to outline the pro- . gramme of educating to purity which the natural educators of the child ought to fol- low. This programme has two aspects, one negative and the other positive. Negatively, the educators ought to use all *j the forces they can to lessen, if not to suppress entirely, the innumerable sources of moral corruption that are the disgrace of our age. Positively, they should adapt the initiation &/ to the multiple needs of the children under 142 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE their care, taking strict account of their age, sex, individual temperament, and the dif- ferent surroundings where they have attained to virility or full moral maturity. /. Negative Education in Purity and the Social Sources of Corruption I DO not intend to study in detail each of the active sources of demoralization which seem to have sprung spontaneously from the depths of modern society, nor even to enumerate them all. Itwill suffice to indicate the prin- N cipal ones in order to throw into relief the remedy which all of good will, who wish to dam as soon as possible these currents of im- morality, should use. And first as to pornography. The whole world knows with what inso- lence and facility pornography is propagated to-day by the street, pictures, newspapers, novels, cabarets, moving pictures, theatres. M Berenger, speaking before the last annual re- union of the Societe d'ficonomie Sociale, 1 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 143 thus sums up the dangers of the street: "There is the kiosk, where the obscenity of the day is exposed; the shops, and even the big stores, where are found books with de- grading covers and suggestive titles to catch the eye. There is the second-hand bookseller, whose shop is open to every one, and who, side by side with old books which are all he has a right to sell, places modern produc- tions whose illustrations or titles proclaim their frank obscenity; there is the popular song shouted in the street with orchestral ac- companiment, and the refrain repeated in chorus by the crowd. . . . There is the bill- board, for which, it must be admitted, there is something to be said, but which from time to time offers open provocation to the pas- sionate glances of the youthful. There is the distribution of advertisements or shameful pictures; there is the spectacle of the circus, where the passer-by, without entering the booth, gathers something of the audacious clap-trap attracting the crowd. There is the poster of the show that no one has dared to i 4 4 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE present elsewhere, or, again, what is perhaps worse and more dangerous, saying, 'Children prohibited.' "And finally, beyond all, as the most deadly teaching of the street, there is prostitution to-day left mistress of the sidewalk, almost everywhere, almost at all hours, enjoying in certain quarters and at certain times the fullest liberty. "This is the sight that the street presents to-day. How do you expect children (I mean that great number who live on the street, and only there, from morning till night) to pass unharmed through so many ele- ments soliciting their curiosity, at an age when they do not yet know, and when they (especially those who are forbidden) wish to know all?" Doubtless, as M. Berenger himself remarks, thanks to the watchfulness of those who ac- company them, many children of the middle and upper classes escape, at least in part, the contamination of the streets. But the children of the people, those whose working parents INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 145 cannot keep watch, and who pass their days in the street, or merely a part of their day in going to or from school — how can they es- cape? They roam around, seeking everything that attracts their attention or strikes their fancy; and then from the kiosk, where is ex- posed the foul picture of an illustrated paper, they pass on to the book-shop, to the second- hand dealer, to the window of the artificial limb-maker, the hair-dresser, the woman's tailor; then to the circus and all that follows. This is the evil. But what is the remedy? The best thing would evidently be to col- lect these children of the people, during their hours of complete liberty, in the day-nurser- ies, circles, and homes, and to undertake their moral education. We shall return to this point. But, in the meantime, there is an- other remedy that presents itself, and that is v to improve the street." What the police can do to safeguard material property in the streets of Paris by prohibiting under fine the throwing of hand-bills, advertisements, and <* 146 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE other similar papers, will not the State at- tempt in order to protect moral property? The State long ago attempted this by laws concerning these matters: the law of 1881 on the liberty of the press; the law of 1881 against publications exposed or distributed on public conveyances and at the doors of the- atres ; the law of the 7th of June, 1908, wherein everything we have just described is expressly forbidden and penalized. For the most part the laws would be suffi- cient if they were enforced — but they are not enforced. M. Berenger, in the conference that I have just indicated, has furnished upon this point of the non-enforcement of the laws in Paris and in the provinces the most authori- tative and distressing evidence. He has been able to prove "that in the measure that the signs of depravity and the number of offences increase, the repression diminishes." This inertia of the authorities is found in every part of the administration. If you wit- ness some disgraceful thing in the street and call a policeman, he excuses himself under the INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 147 pretext "that he has no orders." Once some circular letters recommended vigilance to the magistrates; but for ten years no further in- struction has been sent out. There is the same inaction at the prefecture of police. No meas- ure has been taken regarding this abuse in theatres. It is known that scandals abound, and yet nothing is done. In view of this cowardice on the part of the public authorities, what can be done? M. Berenger has suggested certain remedies. The first is to exact a serious application of our laws. All should concentrate their efforts on this point. Afterwards he would work to obtain for the societies entrusted with the high mission of securing a strict enforcement of the law the right to carry cases directly to the tribunals. But, while seeing that the laws are better applied and that the right of direct interven- tion be given certain societies, there are other ways of reacting upon the public and upon individuals. *) 6A 148 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE Collective action is the great weapon of our time ; let us use it. Many societies already ex- ist. It only remains to form some new ones and to have them all meet, speak, act, and so create a public opinion that can no longer be resisted by the authorities. An international convention has already undertaken the study of defence against the rising tide of debauch- ery: so far six nations have joined it. In the latest diocesan congress of Paris M. de Lau- nay declared that the Ligue contre la Licence des Rues et contre la Pornographie (10 rue Pasquier) helps all who are willing to work against this evil, and he invited the parochial committees to enter the field. In addition he urges that every one join P^ the fight. The means of enforcing decency are not wanting. An individual remonstrance to the seller of the obscenity, a threat of buy- ing nothing more from him, a personal com- plaint to the magistrate, is often given greater attention than the official denunciation of a group. One can do much by these simple INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 149 means to purify the street; let each one use them according to his power. As to demoralizing literature, every one knows the circulation it has in our times and the injurious influence that it exercises on youth. If juvenile crime has increased in alarming proportions, it is not rash to assert that this literature is largely responsible. Among the effects of two children who mur- dered a whole family were found immoral writings and obscene songs. The motive for the greater part of the robberies committed by children is the desire, provoked and super- excited by unhealthy reading, to initiate them- selves into the worst pleasures of men. Some deadly theories, such as that of "art for art's sake," the inalienable rights of love, irresponsibility in crimes, noisily exploited be- fore the public and circulated by all sorts of literary and oratorical means, have falsi- fied the judgment of this generation. "From this doctrine of success," writes M. Charles Brun, "that one can correctly call 'the immorality of literature,' we pass directly to 150 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE the development of individualism, which is not simply a literary evil. . . . Contemporary literature, because it justifies passion, because it glorifies success, tends to I know not what wild apotheosis of the individual. It pro- claims the right of each one to remake and to live his own life, the right to happiness. And this mirage has deceived our youth, greedy for pleasure, and who do not know by what con- cessions and what wise restraint is attained human beatitude. "It has struck the hardest blows at the fam- ily: it has advertised divorce, excused seduc- tion, attended on free love, lighted incense in honor of the illegitimate child. It has placed the father and mother in humiliating positions in the presence of their children." 2 Assuredly a reaction against this demoraliz- ing literature has already set in among honor- able authors, Christian and non-Christian. MM. Bourget, Barres, Bazin, Bordeaux, to mention only the chief, have set themselves resolutely to the task of reform, and exercise over young people an influence that daily in- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 151 creases. But the public ought to help them in their work of restoring literature and morals. Why can we not have in France what has been successfully tried in Germany against immoral literature? In that country the law, by certain dispositions of the penal code (Art. 184 ff.) and of the commercial law (Gewer- beordnung, Art. 42a and 56), is enforced; the government, the administration, the munici- palities, and finally private initiative, act in- dependently, and very often unite to attack and reduce the evil. Here, for example, is the well thought out doctrinal programme by which our neighbors on the east have applied themselves to metho- dize their efforts. It comprises two parts: one positive, of which we shall speak again, and one negative. The following are recom- mended as negative means of bridling de- moralizing literature: "(a) The measures that the governmental, municipal, educational, and police authorities can take (to impose legal proscriptions and apply more strictly existing proscriptions). 152 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE "(b) Prohibition of the sale of certain pub- lications on the highways. "(c) Pressure exercised upon the publish- ers and the small dealers, with co-operation of the Commissioners of Publication. "(d) Surveillance of show-windows and shops. "(e) Listing the firms selling immoral lit- erature. "(/) Putting parents and children on their guard, through the schools and associations, against demoralizing literature." We may add the boycotting of books and of theatres where such literature is shamelessly exposed. An attempt of this kind has been recently made in an American city and has been perfectly successful. Some mothers threatened to avoid a theatre for a whole sea- son if a certain doubtful piece were not with- drawn; the director was compelled to defer to the wishes and threats of the public. But even in the best families a reaction is in order, for the sake of the children, against the introduction and display of works univer- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 153 sally unhealthy. Thanks to an unpardonable unconsciousness, which can only be partly ex- plained by the influence of the surrounding atmosphere, even some Catholic educators are deserving of grave reproach. I know many whose libraries, always open and ready to the hand of children, contain in novels or il- lustrated books the worst productions of mod- ern times. Others, in greater numbers, expose upon their drawing-room tables, alongside of collections of gross post-cards, the Illustration Thedtrale, which contains the "popular pieces" — that is, those in which, on each page, the morality of the home is held up to the greatest possible ridicule. Still others — especially mothers — who wish the innocence of their daughters to be above suspicion, and who would regard it as a mis- take personally to undertake in their regard a necessary initiation demanded by the cir- cumstances, consider it their duty to take them to shows that would make a sailor blush, with- out appearing to suspect that they can have any consequences. They foolishly count upon 154 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE the children's supposed ignorance to safeguard their hypothetical innocence. Such conduct betokens an inconsistency or a cowardice beyond comment. I do not charge you parents, positively, with the edu- cation of your children, if you have not the courage; but at least be brave enough not to endanger their virtue by the introduction into your homes of immoral books and inde- cent pictures, which, in spite of your vigilance, may fall under their eyes. Always lock your libraries and forbid your children to enter your salons; do not take them to suggestive theatres. In addition, watch your conversa- tion before them, and do not give them a taste for certain toilettes which make them appear as if they were undressed. There remains something to be said about contamination while at work. Whatever the age — twelve or thirteen as in France, or four- teen as in Belgium — of admitting young work- ers and apprentices, one cannot deny that it is at a critical period, when the passions are INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 155 stirring and experience fails. Would that all were even that old! "But in the factory," as M. Joseph Legrand observes very justly, "they will find persons of fourteen, fifteen, eighteen years, and they will work side by side with them. If it is a school or institution in which the divisions are mixed, the barriers between the courses of the minims, the younger, and the oldest have been broken down! Imagine what in such circumstances would be the state of soul of the foreman of division or the prefect of studies ! "And especially in the factory is the situa- tion complicated and aggravated by the fact that the foremen have not the zeal or the ex- perience of the prefects that we knew at school; it is further complicated and aggra- vated by the fact that the boys and girls, if they are not in the same room, have a thou- sand opportunities to meet on the stairs, at the entrance, or at the exit of the works." 3 There is every evidence to prove that here there is danger of moral contamination. One 156 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE cannot even dream of suppressing it, but only of lessening its effects. And for this there exist two classes of means: positive (of which we shall speak later), consisting of moral education at home, church, or school, before entrance into the factory; and negative, which we shall discuss now. In his report upon the employers' work in preserving youthful morality, presented at the annual meeting of the Societe d'Economie Sociale, May 29, 191 1, M. Legrand has enu- merated the chief means. 4 After having shown that at the beginning of the development of big business the em- ployers — even Christian ones — did not suffi- ciently consider this principal problem, he re- calls the splendid social reform movement that has taken place since 1870. This is the period when M. le Comte de Mun and M. le Marquis de la Tour du Pin founded the Catholic work- ingmen's circles; when congresses were held that emphasized the moral and social duties of employers towards their work-people; when M. Harmel in his famous factory of INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 157 Val-du-Bois, M. Feron-Vrau at Lille, M. Du- tilleul at Armentieres, M. Bayart at Roubaix, M. Dupres-Lepers atTourcoing, with a crowd of prominent and pious priests, busied them- selves with putting in practice the resolutions of the congresses. Such a conscientious employer is first occu- pied with separating the sexes; then he looks more to the recruiting of the force; fore- women are added, who, particularly well chosen, exercise a beneficial influence upon their subordinates. Then he comes gradually to group certain women in pious confraterni- ties; to gather some men into Christian cir- cles; to have retreats given to them, from which they come out determined to work for the conversion of their comrades. Such is a rough outline as regards the adults. But it is also an indirect way of at- tending to the children by purifying the moral atmosphere where they are obliged to work. The law of 1892 came to the help of well-intentioned individuals by abolishing the hateful abuse of night work for women and 158 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE children; by forbidding labor dangerous to morality; by asking employers to watch over the maintenance of good morals and public decency; by obliging them to keep a register always at hand which an inspector can consult without notice. The decree of November 20, 1904, was also the occasion of a very happy reform by for- bidding workingmen to eat their lunches in the rooms given over to labor, and by sug- gesting to certain zealous employers the idea of special lunch-rooms where the young men and women, each on their own side, may gather at noon under the direction of some woman equal to this delicate task. Meanwhile, no matter how numerous and efficacious may be these negative means of preserving morality on the street, in the fam- ily, or in the workshop, it is clear that by them- selves they will be insufficient. All the laws and regulations in the world will never ex- haust all the sources of social corruption. Thus positive education in purity, whether individual or collective, appears to be the INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 159 best pledge of the preservation of morality, especially if it is accompanied, at the mo- ment determined upon, by all the legal and social additions of which we shall speak. 77. Positive Education in Purity: Individ- _^ ual Method This programme comprises two periods, one concerning the education of childhood, and the other, that of adolescence. The period devoted to childhood is itself divided into two very distinct phases: the first extends from the cradle to the crisis of puberty; the second takes in the whole of this crisis and the critical passage from child- hood to youth, from negative to positive in- nocence. (1) Childhood. — We have established that A/ during the first phase of childhood, with rare exceptions, the education in purity ought to be indirect, and that the object is not to en- ^ lighten the child's mind upon this particular point, but to form his will. There will then 160 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE be no scientific initiation pure and simple. Until about ten or twelve, children do not generally show any need of knowing things concerning the sex problem, and to initiate them scientifically into such things, whether collectively or individually, without a prep- aration of their will, would be deliberately to expose them to the very dangers against which one pretends to guard them. There should be no initiation of any sort upon the precise point of chastity, even on the supposition of a previous moral education. Because, for one thing, no such question ordi- narily presents itself to the mind of children before the crisis of puberty; and besides, their will has not had the time to strengthen itself sufficiently to withstand the dangers that may come from any initiation, even though mild and healthy. Do we not know by faith, indeed, that all children, without exception, are born in an abnormal condition; that the consequences of original sin weigh upon each of them; that, in face of the inherited fire of concupiscence, their will, detached from God, INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 161 its living principle, is unstable and conse- quently incapable of mastering the instincts of sensuality that a precocious initiation would certainly arouse? Undoubtedly the grace received in Baptism establishes in its way the moral equilibrium destroyed by the Fall. But if grace perfects nature, it does not make up for its activity. The infused and supernatural virtue of chas- tity, with all the others that the child receives in Baptism, in order to give its share of help, needs to be used intelligently by the super- naturalized will; to be expressed by acts at the same time natural and supernatural, which develop in the sensitive faculties an acquired virtue of chastity, destined to serve as a ma- terial foundation for the infused virtue it- self which supernaturalizes it and in its turn uses it. In seeing that the child can himself effi- ciently employ his infused virtue of chastity, the following course is imposed upon those charged with his education: They should urge the child to receive the ** i62 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE Sacraments and to practise piety; for it is of faith that the Sacraments received in the de- sired conditions — that is, as long as no ob- stacle is placed to them — increase sanctifying grace in us, and through it all the virtues of of which it is the source. At the same time our merits obtain for us from God a direct increase of grace and virtue. So that, when the time comes for the child knowingly to exercise the virtue of chastity, he will find it strong and able to conquer the obstacles that it may encounter in his little nature, incom- pletely educated and curbed. But this prac- tice of piety and use of the Sacraments ought to be organized in an intelligent way by par- ents. I mean that they should not be culti- vated for themselves, but that they should be made to serve an integral religious education of the child's will and all his faculties. In that consists the great art of education. One sees, indeed, some parents who early train their children to the practice of piety, to the frequentation of the Sacraments, but who neglect to knit this up with their daily life. INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 163 Thus they destroy with one hand what they build with the other. This is absolutely il- logical. Since it is a matter of faith that all the vir- tues are connected together in charity, and that, besides, the increase of the supernatural virtues is partly conditioned by the exercise of the corresponding natural virtues acquired under the impulsion of charity and with the co-operation of the supernatural virtues: let us not, then, separate in the education of our children what God has joined together. Let them pray, confess, and communicate, but so that their prayers, confessions, and commun- ions help them to become more and more docile, respectful, industrious, conscientious, modest, mortified, self-controlled, energetic, unselfish, self-denying, and very far from the example of pious children who are disobe- dient, disrespectful, presumptuous, lazy, pleas- ure-seeking, grumbling, effeminate, and vain. There is a complete physical, moral, and intellectual gymnastic to give them methodi- cally, by appealing to all the resources of 1 64 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE nature and grace, such as the practice of piety and the use of the Sacraments; elevated mo- tives of action, as the love of God, the imita- tion of our Saviour and the saints ; the author- ity of the Church, of parents, of teachers; the love of the Ideal residing in the humblest cir- cumstances; the devotion to duty under all forms; respect for conscience; the instinctive horror of sin; the fear of judgment, death, hell; the attraction of heaven; the force of good example; the sentiment of responsibility. Negative innocence, in which one would keep them so long as there is no good reason to remove their ignorance, would not allow this method of integral religious education, followed continually until the crisis of pu- berty and beyond. For during this time their will should be formed, their moral power of resisting increased. Habituated, by repeated acts of self-control, to react against the excesses of the imagina- tion and the senses, they will be completely armed to resist, when the time comes, the dangers that may arise from necessary revela- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 165 tions. All the natural and supernatural mo- tives and means of action that they will have used from childhood to conquer the defects and acquire the virtues proper to their age, they will spontaneously concentrate upon this particular point of positive education in pur- ity. The supernatural virtue of chastity that God will have increased in them in propor- tion to their merits, they can then use naturally and intelligently, without this knowledge (which has become necessary, but should be imparted with wisdom and according to the needs of their weak personal exigencies) im- peding right action. In these conditions of elevated morality and of previous education of the will of children, the question of positive training in purity, employing a sane and progressive and strictly individual method, does not present any se- rious difficulty. The problem is different, however, if it concerns children badly brought up, open to the caprices of their imagination, never hav- ing struggled to conquer themselves nor to 166 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE utilize, in such self-conquest, all the motives and means of action furnished by nature and by grace. Now, at bottom, it is because it is too often thus — it is because parents do not fulfil their whole duty as Catholic educators — that so many eminent moralists and psychologists dread the dangers of any initiation what- ever, scientific or otherwise, and have such a decided preference for the method of si- lence. From their point of view — that is, con- sidering the problem of educating in purity relatively to the children badly brought up or not brought up at all — they are correct. Their mistake is in generalizing, and prefer- ring in theory and in practice, for all chil- dren, the method of silence to every other. Unfortunately, this is not a remedy, especially in the actual circumstances where it does not depend upon parents and teachers indefinitely to prolong this ignorance by destroying all the evil individual or social sources of corruption. Let us unite both parties by giving to Chris- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 167 tian educators the method of silence during the first phase of childhood, at least until the crisis of puberty, and show to all educators the dangers of scientific initiation. Let us further agree to oblige parents to give to their children during this period an integral religious education. But let us loy- ally acknowledge that for those children for whom has come the hour of necessary revela- tions, it is better for us generally to submit to the necessity of healthily initiating them instead of placing them in the necessity of a vicious initiation by blinding ourselves to cir- cumstances or by shoving off on God and grace what God and nature have placed partly in our hands. As to badly reared children, that is an- other and a thorny question. We shall obtain nothing from the parents, and it is undoubt- edly better to ask nothing. The heavy task, then, falls upon us priests, confessors, teach- ers, to remake on better lines a badly begun education, and to instruct them individually, 168 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE according to the measure of their needs and our resources. Those who individually escape us we can reach in our catechetical classes, our schools and day-nurseries, instructing them collec- tively and attempting to perfect, according to our means, their moral education: negatively, by subtracting as much as possible from the dangers of the home, the workshop, and the street; positively, by working for the forma- tion of their intellect and their heart, and by encouraging in them the habits of piety and of frequenting the Sacraments. (2) From Childhood to Adolescence. — Suppose, then, that we are considering well brought up children, accustomed from their earliest years to conquer themselves and spon- taneously to have recourse to God, to their parents, or their confessor each time a new difficulty arises. The crisis of puberty comes. For all sorts of physiological, psychological and moral reasons, which vary from one child to an- other, and which would take too long to enu- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 169 merate here, there happens in their little lives a profound change whose secret escapes them, but which forces itself on their attention by its effects. If these children really have ab- solute confidence in their mother, for ex- ample; if each time an embarrassing question has presented itself they have instinctively turned towards her to obtain its solution; so now, too, they will go to her. It is impossible to say beforehand under what form they will present their difficulties and express their doubts, suspicions, sufferings to her. That will depend upon the mentality and tempera- ment of each one. But their mother, who has their confidence and who knows them intimately from having followed them for ten years or more, will know beforehand of their need. Something or other will make her divine the state of soul in which they are struggling. She will help them, with an art peculiar to mothers, to formulate their questions, because she knows their vocabulary, their cast of mind, and their way of understanding or not understanding a 170 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE hint. Here, where science would be impo- tent, her common sense, sustained and guided by her affection and the very vivid sense of her responsibility, will amply suffice. Recently I saw a mother who has half a dozen children, the oldest seventeen years old and the youngest about ten. As we talked about this question of training to purity, she told me that she had instructed all, even the youngest, as to the way in which children come into the world. The reasons that she gave me for this initiative were perfectly con- vincing. I then asked what impression these revelations had made upon the spirit of her daughters. "An excellent impression," she replied. "The youngest, in particular, was so enrap- tured that she cried out: 'When I am grown I shall have many children, because now I know that they will be good to me!'" This was naive, but how touching! "Were your explanations enough," I in- quired further, "or did they not seek to know more?" ■fj^vJLif INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 171 "No," she replied, "because I have accus- tomed my children never to seek elsewhere, nor for more than I tell them. They are con- vinced that I have told them the truth, that the rest does not concern them, and that it would be wrong to pass beyond my prohibi- tion. Now, they have such a horror of what is wrong that, for example, they cannot under- stand how any one can laugh at an evil action cleverly performed, or at a funny lie, a bold robbery, a crime astutely committed." The partisans of silence will undoubtedly object that this is an exceptional case. Cer- tainly; but it is necessary to call attention to what makes it exceptional. Now the exception does not concern the initiation itself, but the education of these children. And the excep- c*^a. tion, from this point of view, can easily be- come the rule. It is because these children were exceptionally well reared that they could be so easily initiated. If all Christian moth- ers would take the trouble to bring up their children as this one brought up hers, the posi- 172 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE tive education in purity would not present so many difficulties. On the other hand, if some children pass- ing through the crisis of puberty preserve their innocence in virtue of their ignorance, this also is an exception, but this exception cannot become the rule. Observe the differ- ence, for it is essential. But, some one may ask, what if some chil- dren, more curious by disposition and more anxious to know, press their mother with questions more difficult than those concern- ing maternity; if from the effect they wish immediately to ascend to the cause, what at- titude should the mother take? This will depend upon the children and the peculiar needs of each one. A mother whose son, about sixteen years of age, had to leave home for the university, one day took him aside. "My child," she said in substance, "you are soon to leave us for surroundings that are not at all like home. Certainly, in this environment, if you are not prepared, you will learn things that I do not Jt INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 173 want you to learn from any one but me." And she then placed before him, with admirable simplicity, the difficult problem of the sexes. For reply, the young man, more moved by this confidence of his mother than by what he had heard, put his arms around her neck and embraced her. Since then he has given her an affection and recognition of which his father might well be jealous; for it is to his mother, and to the revelations she made, that he owes his safety. Another exception, some one will object. Yes, but one which, if mothers or confessors know how to get the confidence of youths, can become the rule. The lesson which stands out from this example, taken from a thousand, is very instructive. Until his seventeenth year this young man was content to know what his mother had been pleased to tell him of the problem of maternity. On the advice or com- mand of his mother, he had not sought fur- ther. Admitting that seventeen years is the extreme limit when a young man will not try to satisfy his curiosity on these delicate 174 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE matters, and that at fifteen, if not before, he pressed his mother or his confessor for more precise knowledge, does the problem of edu- cating to purity therefore change its com- plexion? It does not seem so. Indeed, one cannot, a priori, assign the age or the exact measure of necessary revelations. What is certain is that, made by a mother or a confessor in whom the child has absolute confidence, and to a child who has received an integral religious education, these revela- tions do not bring any danger. In every case they mean less danger than a prolonged igno- rance, which, to-day or to-morrow, will leave the child at the mercy of circumstances and vicious companions. Suppose the young man goes to the univer- sity? Immediately he will be exposed to the influence of strong spirits who will take a malignant delight in enlightening him. My experience of university life, in the capacity of a teacher of young men, has made me very sure on this point. Suppose he goes to work? The absolute or INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 175 relative promiscuity of the sexes, the conver- sation of comrades, their freedom of gesture and language, will quickly destroy his igno- rance and forever compromise his innocence. What if he goes on a farm, or into service in a village, or clerks in a big firm or store? This precocious menial condition will deliver him up, bound hand and foot, to the most nefarious influences — to those of the cellar during the day, the garret at night, the street during hours of leisure. Hence the only question that always re- mains the same is: Between the certain dan- gers of a vicious initiation and the hypotheti- cal danger of a healthy initiation has one the right to hesitate? I have said nothing as yet of young women of the world, and for a reason. Is it not ad- mitted, in theory, that they wish to know nothing before marriage, and that one ought not to trouble their peace? Before such a prejudice can be dissipated it must run its time. The facts, however, are all against such a position. I am willing to 176 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE admit that young women, since they remain longer than young men under the protection of the home, do not encounter the same dan- gers. On this head their relative ignorance can be prolonged. But are not our actual customs profoundly at variance with the holiest laws of the family? Is it not between fifteen and seventeen years of age that young women make their entrance into the world? — and such a world! Is it not a fact that at all en- tertainments and sports and reunions, all trips, theatre parties, and concerts, young men and women are associated? Is it not true that they are exposed to the seeing, hearing and reading of everything? Is not the danger of flirting, thanks to the worldly usages that the majority of Christian parents feel obliged to follow, constantly close to them? Consequently, is it better to leave them to themselves, under cover of ignorance often more feigned than real, or, before launching them into society, to call their attention to cer- INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 177 tain delicate points, by appealing to all the resources that a primary Christian education has given them? I leave to the reader the conclusion, sure in advance, if he is not the victim of prejudice, that he will decide in favor of a sane and progressive initiation, made to each particular child by his natural educators. III. Positive Education in Purity: Collec- tive Method (1) Moral Education of Adolescence. — So far we have only spoken of the individual method of educating to purity. But is there not room, once the individual education is assured, for a collective education? Integral education in purity, then, em- braces three very distinct phases. During the first period, which includes childhood prop- erly speaking up to the crisis of puberty, the educators concentrate their efforts upon the moral preparation of the child. They are to be occupied entirely with the formation of 178 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE his will, and should leave his intellect in igno- rance of questions concerning chastity. During the second phase, which extends throughout the crisis of puberty, they will ap- ply themselves to making the child pass from negative to positive innocence, by means of a common-sense initiation, whose measure and progress will be governed by the peculiar mentality of each child and the particular circumstances under which his need of know- ing is manifested. The third period embraces adolescence proper. This period includes all the young men and women whom their parents and teachers and confessors have individually ini- tiated into the mysteries of chastity by basing their teaching upon an integral religious edu- cation. It is only, then, for such young men and women that the question arises whether it would be well to complete their individual initiation by a collective moral education. Let the reader weigh well these words: collective moral education. There is no ques- tion here of collective scientific education. INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 179 Such an education implies technical teaching. Now I do not believe it would be easy to form a group of young men, even though serious, who would apply themselves earnest- ly to the necessities of this teaching. There would always be some in the number who, in order to appear before the others as less chaste than they are and less serious than they ought to be, would pun upon the crudest words or turn into ridicule the most circumstantial technical details. Besides, this scientific collective education, where the technical explanation appears on the ground floor, is not necessary. For young people already individually initiated, a moral education suffices. But what would it embrace and what ad- vantages are to be gained by making it collec- tive? This remains to be shown. The collective moral education of which we are now speaking differs essentially from the scientific education in that it contains no technical or direct teaching made to a group concerning the problem of the sexes. There 180 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE is no question of establishing, for the use of young people already individually initiated, a course in medicine or gynecology, but sim- ply of calling their attention, in appropriate lectures, to certain social prejudices relative to chastity which occur in the different sur- roundings in which they will be thrown; the dangers of a certain camaraderie in the shop, at the university, and especially where the literary and athletic customs of to-day as- semble young people; the injurious influence of bad conversation, of romantic or gamy lit- erature, of theatres, moving-pictures, cafes, concerts, gambling; the respect due to all women, no matter what they are; the nature and impropriety of flirting; the disastrous consequences of immorality from the individ- ual, family, and social side; the possibility and good effects of chastity, despite the ab- surd theories whose echo will have reached even them; the beauty of true and healthy love such as the Church contemplates in mar- riage and the home; the Christian atmosphere that ought to surround their friendships; the INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 181 natural and supernatural means that they ought to use to cultivate in themselves the delicate flower of purity, and to make its per- fume exhale around them. This programme, as one sees, is at the same time definite and vast. To realize its neces- sity, one has only to reflect that in a few months these young people will leave home or college and find themselves in a completely different environment, where, doubtless, they will be well surrounded, whether it be at a university or elsewhere, with perfectly organ- ized institutions, but free to enter or not, and in any case they will not remain more than an hour or so a week. Left to themselves be- tween times, what will they do if they are en- tirely ignorant of the difficulties attending them, and which I shall point out? And even if they were for a long time con- versant with these difficulties and firmly de- termined to overcome them, they do not know on what side of them are young people shar- ing the same ideas and asking only for union in order to support the struggle. 182 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE That, then, is why it is advisable that such a moral education should have a collective character. On finding themselves in the world, in the shop, the university, the tech- nical school, these young people, nourished together with the same ideas, leavened with the same zeal, will instinctively approach each other, and, alongside the groups of pleasure- seekers bent merely upon amusement and gathering others into the orbit of their de- baucheries, will form other groups, big and little, which will have no other aim than to guard inviolate their virtue and to make it shine forth without boasting, but with firm- ness, in their conversation and conduct. They will assess the group in order to have good books and recreative and improving enter- tainments. Together they will go to church, frequent the libraries, the lecture halls, the associations of young people that priests and zealous and intelligent lay folk have organ- ized for our youth. Should any one say that this collective moral education is impossible, is it not the INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 183 fault of the educators rather than of the young folks? In our fairly large parishes, however, and even in our villages, but espe- cially in our colleges, it will not be difficult to find a priest capable of gathering together the elite of our young people, and organizing lectures for their benefit. There will be less question of eloquence than of speaking from the heart and with the authority of the priest- hood, utilizing intelligently the articles and books, so numerous to-day, that have treated these questions from a frank and Christian point of view. The problem is a little more delicate where our young women are concerned, but it is not more insoluble there. I know a boarding- school where the chaplain gathered together the oldest of the last year, and with perfect tact, without entering at all into useless tech- nical details, seriously prepared them to meet the world, to react against its prejudices and its customs, and to prepare themselves in the light of the foundation and organization of a home. 1 84 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE Under these conditions, is the chastity of adolescents guaranteed forever? Assuredly not. This collective moral education ought to be continued wherever it is possible to as- semble the youth of the schools, of the work- aday world, and of society. But on this point there has already been undertaken much ad- mirable work, such as retreats for adult men and women; retreats for workingmen; study classes for young men and women; students' libraries, lecture halls, courses of religious in- struction, apologetic lectures, popular moving pictures, athletic clubs and others which, if they have some real inconveniences, at least have the advantage of drawing our young people for some hours from surroundings where their virtue would be seriously endan- gered. There is still much to do, but the impor- tant thing is that notice is being taken and a beginning made. Now there is no doubt that we are as observant in France as elsewhere. The works that I am going to cite show faith, INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 185 and it is proper that I should enumerate them all. "In many factories," M. Legrand tells us, "once or twice a week, the young workers are assembled for the teaching of the cate- chism, church history, and religion. Fre- quently for the women it is a religious, the Sister of the factory, who has this duty; else- where it is the wife or daughter of the em- ployer; for the boys it is often the chaplain of the village institutions or the curate of the parish. The course is optional, but it is usually well attended. . . . There are also the retreats which have formed an elite of Catholic workingmen and workingwomen who have been the most valuable allies of the employers in improving the moral tone of the factories. "For three or four years this method has been applied to the young workingmen. As a start they have been assembled in small groups in the protectories for two or three days. Almost four hundred children profited by this last year. Encouraged by the success 1 86 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE of these attempts, it is planned to construct a house to give retreats to adolescents. There will issue thence an elite class upon which we can count to perfect the moral formation of their comrades." 5 We have already remarked that in Ger- many the imperial government and the va- rious states and municipalities have applied themselves to organize their efforts upon the basis of a thought-out doctrinal programme, of which we have quoted the negative part. Here are the positive measures that are prin- cipally recommended for the struggle against demoralizing literature: "(a) The satisfaction given to the youthful imagination by a healthy literature (in the schools and public libraries, lecture halls, as- sociations of young people, by the publication of juveniles), by varied bodily exercise, such as walking, sports, games and manual labor. "(b) The opposing of the excessive desire of children to read, by exciting to physical exercises." (2) /Esthetic Education. — There is no INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 187 manual for education in purity that does not recommend to educators the withdrawal from children of all licentious images, insolent nudities, and pornographic pictures. One cannot, indeed, insist too much upon this point in our age of shameless literature and so- called art. But how can one guard against all dangers in this field ! What child can walk along a busy street without having his atten- tion attracted to some obscenity, or to some shocking reproduction of a pretended master- piece? If children wish to buy post-cards, their choice must be made in the presence of more or less immoral views exposed in the show-cases, or they are obliged to consult al- bums containing all the nudities of our sa- lons. Despite their good will, their most intimate feelings will be bruised if they resist the temptation to look, or wonderfully trou- bled if they yield for the slightest moment to an unhealthy curiosity. Besides, it is not only shameless post-cards that at one time or another may compromise the purity of children and of adolescents. 1 88 INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE Are not our galleries and museums on cer- tain days open to all ? But why should I speak of museums and galleries! In some of our churches, in many of our cathedrals, in our most famous palaces, in our public parks, are there not statues and groups upon which the eyes of our young men and women naturally fall? Nevertheless, it would not occur to any one to remove all such works, or to for- bid children to gaze upon them. Hence I ask if the means of lessening this danger of the eyes be not early to teach chil- dren carefully to guard their glances and to accustom them as much to a horror of ugliness as of evil, and to a love of the beautiful as well as of the good? In other words, I ask if in our programme of studies we cannot in- troduce, with the secondary object of protect- ing the souls of our children, a strong aesthetic education? Let no one distort my idea. I do not pre- tend for a moment that there should be for children a complete course in aesthetics, where, INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE 189 for instance, the question of the nude in art would be discussed with proofs. It is with aesthetic education as with educa- tion in purity. To make it efficient, account must be taken of the modesty of children and of the peculiar needs of each age. In the first phase of childhood one can, without too much trouble, awaken in them the taste for the beautiful by calling their attention to the spec- tacles of nature, to the masterpieces of re- ligious art which throng our churches, and whose artistic reproductions are now within the reach of the whole world. Later, when they are able to reflect, it will be possible to show them that there is a way of seeing in the purest masterpieces of reli- gious or profane art something else than the glorification of the flesh. Is there not, indeed, a real danger in mak- ing adolescents see the nude only under an aspect of immorality? Is not this to make it a fixed idea with them, so that they will con- sider their morals shattered if by chance a i 9 o INNOCENCE AND IGNORANCE little nudity should be called to their atten- tion? One thing is certain, it is necessary to ap- peal to their delicacy of soul, to their love of virtue, to keep them from exposing themselves to temptation out of gaiety of heart. But if this strong moral education has been com- pleted by a serious aesthetic study, do we not in advance guarantee many of our young people against vain scruples, and, what is more important, against the instinctive ten- dency to seek after "forbidden fruit"? We shall say no more on this point. The question has not yet been settled, and it is full of difficulties. But when the purity of chil- dren is at stake we ought to spare no pains in helping them to furbish their weapons in the battle for the Ideal, and to show all the valor of honorable and Christian men. 1 La Reforme Sociale, Paris, 191 1, 1-16 aout, p. 129. 2 Id., aout, 191 1, p. 153. 3 Id., 16 Octobre, 191 1, pp. 435 et seq. 4 Id., pp. 433-442. B Id., pp. 439, 44L "Life is too short for reading inferior books." — Bryce Clean literature and clean womanhood are the keystones of civilization — and MY UNKNOWN CHUM ("AGUECHEEK") Foreword by HENRY GARRITY "is the cleanest and best all-round book in the English Language" "An Ideal Chum." You will read it often and like it better the oftener you read it — once read it will be your chum as it is now the chum of thousands. You will see France, Belgium, England, Italy and America — men and women in anew light that has nought to do with the horrors of war. 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