peopling the earth we may suppose this to have been his process of thought. So you see that sex comes as a wondrous gift from God, a gift endowed with a marvelous power, and therefore to be held most sacred. When I spoke of you as being almost a man it was with the thought that now is being conferred upon you this gift of sex." Carl looked up with some surprise. "Why, I have always been a boy." "True. And a boy is a being who will become a man. But he is not endowed with the functions of sex until he is about fourteen years old. Then sex begins to make itself felt in his whole being. He grows taller rapidly; he gains in breadth; he begins to see the long-looked-for mustache; he notices the growth of the special organs of sex; he begins to feel more manly; to enjoy the society of girls as never before; and desires to treat them with more attention. This is a time when, if he is wrongly taught, he may fall into great wrong-doing and injure himself, and not that alone, but those who are to come after him. I have not yet told you of the great responsibilities that come with this gift of sex." Dr. Barrett rose and, bringing a book from the shelves, opened it and showed Carl an illustration, saying; "Did you ever see such a picture as this?" [Illustration] "What are they?" asked he. "They look like pollywogs." "As much like them as anything. But they are not pollywogs. They have a bigger sounding name than that. They are called _spermatozoa_, or each one is a _spermatozoon_. They are so tiny that they are not visible except with the aid of a microscope, and yet they are alive and very active. They live and move in a fluid called _semen_, and they are the living principle contributed by the male to the formation of a new creature. Each one contains in itself all the particular traits, characteristics or talents which the father would confer on the child of which this spermatozoon would form a part. You are like your father in some things, I suppose." "Yes, I am like papa in size and in my love for mathematics. He says I have his quick temper, too." "That leads me to speak of another fact. You see that you were a part of your father during his whole life, and you were affected by all that affected him. You were changed or modified by his habits. If he tried to curb his quick temper, it has made it easier for you to control yourself; but if he allowed it full sway, it has made it harder for you. If he were truthful and honest, it has made it easy for you to be the same; but if he were wild and dissipated, it would make it easier for you to yield to the same temptations." "Was that what he meant when he said he was not surprised that Will Grey was so bad a boy, for his father was a very wild young man?" "Yes, that was exactly what he meant." "If that is so why don't fathers tell their boys about it so that they can behave better when they are young?"