Bringing up the Boy [Illustration] “GIVE HIM THE LIGHT TELL HIM THE TRUTH SHOW HIM THE WAY!” Bringing up the Boy A Message to Fathers and Mothers from a Boy of Yesterday concerning the Men of To-morrow By CARL WERNER [Illustration] New York Dodd, Mead and Company 1913 Copyright, 1911, by THE BUTTERICK PUBLISHING COMPANY Copyright, 1913, by DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY Published, March, 1913 TO Mary Morris Werner A GOOD MOTHER WHOSE FINE SYMPATHY, KEEN PERCEPTION, AND DEVOUT SENSE OF DUTY ARE MOULDING THE CHARACTER OF AN AMERICAN BOY THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE FOREWORD xi I FROM BABY TO BOY 3 II THE SIMPLICITY OF DISCIPLINE 17 III AS THE TWIG IS BENT 33 IV A TALK AT CHRISTMAS TIME 48 V THE DYNASTY OF THE DIME NOVEL 63 VI THE SIN OF SEX SECRECY 77 VII THE WEED AND THE WINECUP 91 VIII OUT INTO THE WORLD 104 There; my blessing with thee! And these few precepts in thy memory See thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportioned thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch’d, unfledged comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice; Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy; rich, not gaudy; For the apparel oft proclaims the man. Neither a borrower nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend, And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. --Polonius to his son. _Hamlet_, Act I, Scene 3. FOREWORD