The ideal world naturally unfolds itself to the boy or girl at puberty.

The magic of beauty, the instinct of modesty, the naturalness of self-restraint, the idea of unselfish love, the meaning of duty, the feeling for art and poetry, the craving for religious conceptions and emotions--all these things awake spontaneously in the unspoiled boy or girl at puberty.

I say "unspoiled," for if these things have been thrust on the child before puberty when they have yet no meaning for him--as is unfortunately far too often done, more especially as regards religious notions--then it is but too likely that he will fail to react properly at that moment of his development when he would otherwise naturally respond to them.

Under natural conditions this is the period for spiritual initiation.

Now, and not before, is the time for the religious or ethical teacher as the case may be--for all religions and ethical systems may equally adapt themselves to this task--to take the boy or girl in hand, not with any special and obtrusive reference to the sexual impulses but for the purpose of assisting the development and manifestation of this psychic puberty, of indirectly aiding the young soul to escape from sexual dangers by harnessing his chariot to a star that may help to save it from sticking fast in any miry ruts of the flesh.
Such an initiation, it is important to remark, is more than an introduction to the sphere of religious sentiment.