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publication of this anecdote is the first opportunity afforded him to gratify. His secrecy during his involuntary pupilage, was not the result of an innate sense of wrong or shame, but was induced solely by the subtle representations of his seductress.
The custom of permitting children of different sexes to sleep in the same bed, or in the same room, is surprisingly common in this country, even where the excuse of poverty is wanting. The mere matter of convenience, or of innocent solicitation is often deemed sufficient to warrant a practice which can have but disastrous results, if nothing more comes of it than undue familiarity with the differences of organization. It is astonishing what small credit we give these little people for powers of observation and comparison, while the least intimation of the possession of them, by the wondering query of word or look, is frowned down or rudely checked, with no sufficient explanation of its impropriety. Instances are by no means rare, of girls sleeping with their younger brothers long after womanhood, and the fashion is to retort upon those who remonstrate with the parent, "Evil to him that evil thinks." It is a truth, proven by the experience of ages, that separation of the sexes should begin early, at least at four or five years, for the impressions of early childhood are the most ineradicable of life. Concupiscence, though the strongest and most injurious, is far from being the only passion needlessly and wrongfully developed in boys; those of cupidity, extravagance, dishonesty, and faithlessness are notable. "Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined," is a homely adage, inclosing a deal of Gospel truth, which it is nowadays the fashion to ignore almost as completely as Solomon's aphorism, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." With every allowance for the vast differences in temperament
