Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/77

42 refined gentleness which, without weakening the vigour, strains out the coarseness. Brought up under such "home influences," our youth betray either precocious vulgarity in the lower classes, or "studied" bashfulness (young Marlow-like) in the higher classes, of society. Either way there is the absence of 'naturalness;' which to a large extent accounts for the one peculiar characteristic, almost national, of so many of our homes; which, again, are not impure or unhappy, but uninvigorating. Work among our boys and youth, not expressly educational, has, therefore, to be directed towards evoking this verve—this instinctive fairness and natural fineness-in them. Not that efforts bearing directly on our question of social purity are quite superfluous. If the experience of teachers, watchful and themselves good, counts for aught, and if the painful tale often told by doctors of all denominations be even partially true, there are quite too many instances, often leading to grave consequences and at