embryonic love of the youthful adolescent leads to a time when the
opposite sex is rather an object of dislike than of attraction, so the
fervour of early conversion is apt to lead to a time of desolation;
but just as the incomplete sex love of early adolescence finds its
antitype and fine flower in the later fully developed love of
honourable man and woman, so does the too rapturous and uncalculating
religious devotion of these early years revive after the period of
doubt, transfigured and glorified into the religious conviction and
devotion which makes the strength, the joy, and the guiding principle
of adult life.

Much depends on the circumstances and people surrounding the
adolescent. Her unbounded capacity for hero-worship leads in many
instances to a conscious or unconscious copying of parent, guardian,
or teacher; and although the ideals of the young are apt to far
outpace those of the adult whose days of illusion are over, yet they
are probably formed on the same type. One sees this illustrated by
generations in the same family holding much the same religious or
political opinions and showing the same aptitude for certain
professions, games, and pursuits. Much there is in heredity, but
probably there is still more in environment.




CHAPTER II.

OUR DUTIES TOWARDS ADOLESCENT GIRLS.