III. Preparation of the Mind

177. - 1. Nothing will benefit the mind itself more than the greatest esteem for purity, indeed a tender affection for it, whence it is preserved intact with a solicitous mind as a noble treasure.

Whether you regard the natural or the supernatural order, we are by no means lacking in suitable arguments. Compare what was handed down above, nos. 94 and 97.

And nothing prevents the vigor of a chaste body and the flourishing freshness of a chaste mind from being celebrated and extolled to adolescents who are near puberty, while black bile, sadness, and diminished strength await corrupt young persons; but corrupters are struck with fear by Christ Himself.

It will be of no slight utility, by appealing to historical facts, to bring it about that adolescents bear deeply impressed and engraved in their minds how artfully moral good is joined with a great and happy life, but vice with a sad and ignoble life. Let the Reverend Father Goretti be heard in his treatise on experimental psychology:

"It therefore pertains to right education suitably to enlarge the field of consciousness of the young, taking care, however, that undue connections not be established in it, such as those of images and ideas referring to vicious actions with images and ideas of well-being and happiness, or of repulsive and painful images with images and ideas of virtue. On the contrary, it will be fitting strongly to join and associate in youthful imaginations phantasms of good actions with phantasms of reward and satisfaction, and images of wicked actions with phantasms of sorrow and punishment. This is obtained admirably by an apt illustration of well-chosen historical facts, since these, by their very nature, give a broader field for the formation of compact and well-organized imaginative systems."

2. The cultivation of modesty in which they have been educated by pious parents can be rendered firmer in younger persons. But we judge it to be of little use that modest customs be distinctly mentioned, since they can differ in different homes, and care must be taken lest an adolescent begin to do with a scrupulous or even bad conscience the things which he had been accustomed to perform in an innocent and simple manner. We approve still less that an exhortation to modesty should begin from the history of the drunken Noah, which can suggest laughter to adolescents ¹.

¹ Wherefore I would not dare to approve the common exhortation to modesty such as is proposed by Kraus and Gatterer.

3. Moreover, from tender years, positive devotion to the guardian angel, to the patrons of youth, and especially to the Blessed Virgin Mary will be of no slight assistance to children and adolescents in fostering chaste counsels and purposes. The impious Nyström himself did not dare to deny the power which the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary has had for ennobling the female sex and assisting purity ².

² For the otherwise impious passage, cf. pp. 66-67.

4. Then, frequent approach to the Most Holy Eucharist, besides the fact that it bestows upon us a supernatural communication in the life of Christ, so persuades us concerning our dignity and the rights of God that it also has a most efficacious natural power for inculcating zeal for chastity. A lengthy preparation for First Communion is accustomed to furnish a most opportune aid for cultivating chastity.

It will also be worthwhile that rectitude of conscience be commended; and that adolescents be taught sincerely and openly to question a prudent confessor concerning their doubts.

These things can again be handed down both in private conversations and in common exhortations.

Thus is obtained what even non-Catholics confess, for example Mendousse ³ in these words: "In colleges directed by the Jesuits or the clergy, the exceptions (young men sheltered from the solitary vice) are a little more numerous than elsewhere, because of the incomparable value attributed to purity by religious education." He himself reports, on p. 26, this statement by Renan ⁴, "that the sermons of his masters on purity sufficed to render him chaste throughout his entire youth."

³ Op. cit., L'âme de l'adolescent, p. 19.

⁴ Souvenirs, p. 12.

5. Furthermore, vain loves among adolescents, whether of the same or a different sex, are to be dissuaded ⁵.

⁵ Mendousse errs not a little in this matter, pp. 57-60 or 62, since he does not dare clearly to condemn them.

For in these relations young persons squander time, are called away from serious studies, increase their own venereal appetite, detract from the manly spirit of a male adolescent, and from the ingenuous confidence of a girl (who is generally deceived). Dr. Francotte writes very well ⁶: "He (the young man) will be put on his guard against everything of a nature to overexcite the generative appetite: no frivolous reading, and especially no licentious reading, no light spectacle, no flirting. Common sense says it with Forel: 'Whoever wishes to live continently for religious or other reasons must not excite himself perpetually by contact that is too intimate or by relations that are too frequent with the other sex; on the contrary, he must avoid everything that excites his appetite and foster everything that blunts it.'"

⁶ De quelques points de morale sexuelle, etc.

178. - We are treating of those vain loves which pave no way toward matrimony.

For if an altogether honorable friendship has united a boy and a girl of equal condition (which is sometimes observed from tender years), it happens that a love of noble rationale thence arises which keeps the young man immune from the stain of impurity. Therefore let us not condemn such friendships immediately and universally, but let us prudently weigh the individual circumstances.

Wherefore also honorable betrothals can be a protection for honorable morals, provided that they proceed from true love and are not contracted for the sake of money or sensuality. A. Nast greatly extols the utility of betrothals in Mariage et préjugés ⁷.

⁷ Le relèvement social, Saint-Étienne, 1906.