Then, I did not suspect him;
and it was not until he was leaving at eighteen for the University
that we talked the matter over, on his initiative. Then I found that
he had been bullied into impurity at eleven, and was now a helpless
victim. After two years at the University he wrote me that, though the
temptation now came less frequently, he seemed absolutely powerless
when it did come; that he despised himself so much that the impulse to
suicide often haunted him; but that the cowardice which had kept him
from games at school would probably prevent his taking his life. With
the assistance of an intense and devoted religious life he gradually
began to gain self-mastery. It is some years now since he has
mentioned the subject to me.
These are merely specimen cases. Cases A, B, and C illustrate my
assertions that parents are wonderfully blind; Cases B and E, that
quite exceptional refinement in a boy gives no protection from
temptation to impurity; Case D, that a boy, even in an extreme case,
does not know that the habit is injurious. In respect of their
severity, C, D, and E are not normal but extreme cases.
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