230 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
as well as to every physical exercise, one must pay attention in youth. From our present point of view we should counsel avoiding among physical exercises those which bring with them- selves a prolonged friction of generative organs, as climbing, descending along ropes, sliding with extended body upon the bars of the staircase.
In climbing trees it is useful to bring the most strain upon the soles of the feet set against the trunk of the tree, so that, the greatest pressure being in this direction, the danger is avoided of pressure against the thighs.
Swimming, on the contrary, is to be recommended for the refreshment that accompanies the exercise.
A still greater attention must be paid to mental occupation. Extremely delicate for the education of youth is the estimate of the notions that young people must have of sexual functions and the degree of attention they come to pay to them. Where thought runs, there innervation is awakened and the blood flows more fully. Such an excitement brought upon generative organs awakens them earlier to activity, and with greater fre- quency and impulsion than is useful for the physical and moral conservation of young people.
Among the Romans, in the presence of the young men who still wore the toga praetexta, it was forbidden to speak freely of things referring to the sexes. We know that the senator Man- lius was condemned for having kissed his wife in presence of his daughter.
Licentious books, speeches, and paintings must be banished from youth, and every unchaste spectacle, as so many springs of corruption ; and we may give heed to Horace when he says : Saepius irritant animos demissa per aures Quam quae sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et quae Ipse sibi tradet spectator.
The counsel already given not to let young people stay late in bed in the morning finds its reason in this last condition.
On the other side, it must be acknowledged that the mystery with which sexual organs and functions are surrounded exercises upon the attention of youth not a small attraction. So great is
