Youth for every soul is the season of blossoming, and it can be divided into three stages: early youth, the middle part of youth, and the last stage of youth.

There is great difficulty in the training of youth, because in youth a child becomes less receptive. The child is passive and therefore easy to guide, but youth is the time of rising energy, both physical and mental; therefore youth is expressive, and what is expressive cannot be receptive at the same time. Parents make a great mistake when they continue the same method with a youth which they applied in his childhood. There is the time of ploughing, there is the time of sowing, and there is the time of reaping the harvest; it is not all done at the same time.

In youth a child is most susceptible to influences, and at the same time most repellent of influences which fall beneath its standard. The child which has believed and obeyed its parents in its childhood does not necessarily believe and obey them during the time of its youth. The parents must realize this and change their manner of correcting and guiding the child from the beginning of its youth.

Youth makes the child inclined to look on its parents or guardians as old-fashioned people. The present education given in schools and the child's own experience of things around it support it in this idea. If the parents force their ideas on the youth, he first plays with them, making them think that he agrees with them; but in the next stage he avoids them, and in the third stage he argues with them and opposes them. Once a youth has arrived at this third stage he stands on his own feet, and there is little hope that the parents can guide him; they are then obliged to let him take his own way whether right or wrong.

Among a hundred youths one may take a right way by himself, and five out of the hundred may find their way through the dark but ninety-five are lost owing to the absence of guidance. Life is a sea upon which it is difficult to find one's way, and as direction is necessary when travelling on the sea, so guidance is most necessary during the period of youth.

The principal thing one has to remember concerning the education of young people is to help them, without their knowing it, to think for themselves. The nature of youth, and especially that of the youth of today, is such that as soon as he feels that he is directed by someone he feels that he is harnessed to a carriage, and in this he feels the absence of freedom. An essential thing in guiding the youth is to make lines of thought and to place them before him, in order that he may use the lines as a track to follow. True virtue comes from independent thinking, not from being under subjection. But at the same time it must be remembered that the independent spirit which is expressed without consideration is devoid of beauty. It is desirable that a youth should show consideration in his thought, speech, and action, for freedom without consideration lacks beauty.

In the guidance of youth the same five directions of development must be considered as in the education of children: physical, mental, moral, social, and spiritual.

While considering the physical development of a youth one should remember that youth is the time of full blossom, the most delicate and important time in everyone's life. If the blossom is ruined the fruit is lost. Therefore youth is the golden opportunity. It is the time when a person is not yet set in his ideas, not addicted to certain habits, ready to accept new ideas. An intellectual youth generally seeks for new ideas. Youth is a time when one is most inclined to changes of every sort, and therefore youth is not fixed in particular habits.

Very often the parents, not knowing what it involves when their child grows too rapidly, do not consider many things concerning its life which may harm it later. It is essential that special attention be given to the balance between activity and repose, to the sleep, food, and recreation of the youth. In a child a nervous temperament is a sign of intelligence; a genius is generally nervous in his youth.

Youth is the time when, if the child is sensitive to conditions, every little thing around it will go to its heart. If there is disharmony around a youth, if there is sorrow, disagreement among his people, depression, it all weighs upon him, at a time when he is capable of feeling and yet incapable of helping the situation. It is not fair to draw sympathy from the youth, and especially from the one who has a feeling heart, for one's pains and troubles; for there is a time for every experience and that time comes later. If pain is sown in the heart of the youth decay develops at the root of his life, making him bitter all through life.

Wise parents or guardians must know that youth is the springtime of every soul, the kingliness which is given once to every soul to experience. No soul may be debarred from nature's kingdom. It is the duty of parents and guardians to respect youth and take care that this springtime is given free to the youth, without burdening his life with the woes of worldly life which await every soul.

What is called youth in general terms is particularly the springtime of the physical body; and therefore if the child is physically well nourished and well drilled, so that he shows power and energy in every movement, it makes him fit for any sort of work that he may desire to learn, and for making his way in life. Seeing the youth enthusiastic and vigorous, the parents sometimes do not consider the fact that every burden, physical or mental, which might weigh him down is most injurious at this period of his life, although at a later age the same burden would not be so harmful. Youth being the time of full bloom, if the child does not show abundant energy and enthusiasm then at what other time will it do so? Therefore it is necessary that by physical exercise, proper rest, and good nourishment the youth is kept in perfect balance.

In youth an extra energy is born which expresses itself in passion and emotion; if the parents do not know how to deal with it the child can easily abuse it. There is no end of abuse of energy to be found in the world today in spite of all the attention that seems to be awakening in various educational centers. The idea is that it is no use watching a child, for this shows lack of trust; nor is it right to correct a child when it has gone too far in a certain playful tendency. There is no end of temptation which attracts a youth. It is natural for a youth who has just passed his period of playfulness to continue to play in the ways which to him seem harmless. An important part of the education of a youth is therefore to be told things plainly, and to be made aware of the advantages and disadvantages of various interests in life. It is not much use for a child to read books concerning the life of youth. Personal advice on the subjects in question will prove to be more effective.

Very often, before the parents could ever imagine their child's inclination towards things of a serious nature, the child happens to have already experienced them, while being absolutely ignorant of the consequences. The younger generation seems to be declining every day in physical health, in enthusiasm, compared with the people of the past. So it is most necessary that in the present age special care should be taken to ensure that youth is trained to realize the great importance in life of good physical health, upon which depend happiness, prosperity, and success.

Mental strength in youth depends upon single-mindedness, and youth is inclined to look in a thousand directions instead of keeping its mind fixed on one object at a time. A youth who is helped, or who is naturally inclined, to keep his mind in one single direction without wavering, is sure to have success life.

Youth also has an inclination to be impatient, for it is the time when energy is working with great force, and this makes youth impulsive and lacking in patience. But if the child were taught patience when it is not already inclined to it by nature, it would surely succeed in all that it might undertake in life.

The time of youth has a certain influence on the life of the child, in that it makes its mind too active; and too much activity produces confusion in its life. Besides the physical energy beating constantly through the pulse of the youth brings about difficulties in his life. Therefore guardians who are eager for his studies and progress should take care of the mind of the youth, which needs to be clear, poised, and balanced; without this the child is a trouble to his parents and a difficulty for himself. Youth with thought and consideration is like a flower with a beautiful color and fragrance.

The moral education of the youth is also of the greatest importance. A child must grow to recognize a father in every elderly man, a mother in every elderly woman, a sister in girls of his age, and a brother in boys like himself. In this way the obligations of one soul to another in this world will be better understood. When a youth considers his duty only to someone closely related to him, and not to the others, he becomes limited; his point of view becomes narrowed. How much better the world would be if every young man considered it his duty to take care of and be responsible for every young girl as he would for his own sister; there would not be so much sorrow and disappointment. The greatest moral a youth could be taught is to understand his obligations to others, in order to fill his place fittingly in the scheme of life.

Youth should be taught to recognize the great power of honesty, instead of considering honesty only as a virtue. The child must be taught to make an ideal for itself and to live up to it. It is no use giving an ideal to a child, for the ideal of one person is not made for another.

A young man who realizes that his word engages his honor is an example for the present age when the word, even supported by twenty seals and stamps and a signature on a paper, does not hold good. A youth with this sense of honor and dignity, whose heart is awakened to human sympathy, who has a keen sense of duty and who shows thought and consideration for others, is a model for the present generation in molding its personality.

Moral development does not consist only of acquiring an ideal and good manners, but also of the power to endure all the jarring influences that one meets in everyday life. Besides the consciousness of one's obligations towards everyone that one meets in life is an elementary part of moral education. A youth can be without regard for delicacy of thought, but if his morality is developed he will act morally with greater ease than those who have learned morals later in life.

Life is nature, time makes it; once a person becomes hardened in a certain way his soul becomes a mold of that particular nature, and all he says or does in life shows the design of this mold.

Very often it happens that a person arrives at the realization of the great value of moral qualities in the later part of his life, and yet cannot act according to the ideal he values most. It is just like an earthen pot which, having been put into the mold before it was properly finished, comes out of the fire hardened; the potter may want to change the shape of the pot, but it cannot be done any more. If parents and guardians only realized what an opportunity the time of youth is in life, they would make out of youth what the Indians call the "plant of wishes", which bears as its fruit all one's desires.

In youth there is hope, and there is an object to look forward to. In accomplishing this object a youth requires two powers: the power of will and the power of the beauty of thought, speech, and action. Many people in this world, with all their power, physical, mental, and every other form of power, even with an army at their disposal, prove helpless through the lack of beauty, the power of which is sometimes greater than any other. it is the balance. of will and beauty that results in wisdom; and in a youth these three qualities form a trinity, which is the ideal of perfection.