In the orchard there is a growing young tree, and on it a bud that has begun to open, spreading its folded little petals bit by bit until at last it becomes a lovely flower.

What is our attitude toward this phenomenon, in which we watch beauty coming into being? Not an attitude of anxiety and fear, nor of despair or pessimism. On the con-trary, it is one of joy and delight, for the green bud will turn tomorrow into a flower of dazzling color. We observe its slow growth without weariness or agitation; we await its full unfolding calmly and hopefully, and we take special care to nourish the plant, to protect it from all harm, and to come to its aid when necessary, so that it may grow strong and upright.

Adolescence is the age at which youth comes into flower. It is also the age that grown-ups have been accustomed to regard with apprehension and wariness. Today we see not the slightest cause or reason for this, for this stage of a girl's life is nothing but an astonishing phase of normal growth, holding all the wonder of the flower bursting forth from the dewy bud.

Adolescence has its problems. And which of us is without problems? But the girl herself is not a problem, and it is essential that we distinguish between the two things, so as to guard against the misunderstanding that prevents her from being given the guidance she needs.

The growth of girls and boys pro-ceeds in a parallel, similar fashion until somewhere between the ages of nine and eleven; after that, the girl's rate of growth exceeds the boy's for three or four years, since she enters puberty before he does; then the two return to keeping pace with each other in their degree of growth after sixteen or seventeen.

"The green bud will turn tomor-row into a flower of dazzling color; we observe its slow growth without weariness or agitation;

we await its full unfolding calmly and hopefully..."

But we notice great differences among individuals in this respect, so much so that we may say we cannot find two children who resemble each other exactly in the pattern of their growth or in the way they pass from childhood to adolescence and puberty. Woman, however, is distinguished from man by early maturity, and that is one of the characteristics of her sex.

Nor is maturity confined to a single kind. There is sexual maturity, which occurs with the appearance of menstruation in girls and is accompanied by visible growth in the reproductive

organs. There is mental maturity, the age of whose onset is very difficult to fix because it depends so heavily on external factors. And the same holds true of emotional or moral maturity. As a rule, growth stops in girls at the age of twenty and in boys at about twenty-five.

Among the marks of this age is its possessor's desire to grow, to create, and to invent — a new and insistent desire too large for the mind of a girl who has not yet outgrown childhood's ways of thinking; and because she is unable to give that desire a tan-gible form, she becomes prone to emotional disturbance, perplexity, and confusion.

In this state we must not cross her, for we should then collide with her

Woman: Body and Soul

The long-awaited book has appeared

Woman: Body and Soul

by Dr. Georges Hanna

Publishers: Dar al-Ahad — Beirut

Order it from the publishers and from the Farajallah Publications Company

The price of a copy: 200 piasters, or 230 millimes, or fils