The flower of sex that blossoms in the body at puberty has its spiritual counterpart which at the same moment blossoms in the soul.

The churches from of old have recognized the religious significance of this moment, for it is this period of life that they have appointed as the time of confirmation and similar rites.
With the progress of the ages, it is true, such rites become merely formal and apparently meaningless fossils.

But they have a meaning nevertheless, and are capable of being again vitalized.

Nor in their spirit and essence should they be confined to those who accept supernaturally revealed religion.

They concern all ethical teachers, who must realize that it is at puberty that they are called upon to inspire or to fortify the great ideal aspirations which at this period tend spontaneously to arise in the youth's or maiden's soul.[38] The age of puberty, I have said, marks the period at which this new kind of sexual initiation is called for.