[Dbdom-devel] In London; and Beth accepted it, and went with su

[Detullio M. <wil...@dn...>]

Have his mother to thank for his virtues. Depravity
is oftener acquired than inherited. As a rule, the girl's surroundings
safeguard her from the acquisition; but when they do not, she
becomes
as bad as the boy. The boy, on the contrary, especially if he is sent
to
a public school,

is systematically trained to be vicious.
He learns the Latin grammar from his masters, and from the habitual
conversation of the other boys, the books
secretly circulated by them, and their
traditional code of vice, he becomes familiarised
with the most hoggish habits. He may escape the practical initiation
by a miracle at the time;

but it

is from the mind familiar with ideas of vice that the vicious impulse
eventually springs; and the seed of corruption once sown in it, bears
fruit almost inevitably. Alfred had escaped this contamination by
being kept at home at a day-school, and when Beth knew him he was as
refined and high-minded as he was virile for his age, and as
self-restrained as she