Where is there a boy, or for the matter of that a grown-up man, even in these materialistic times to whom the call of the wild and the open road does not appeal?

Maybe it is a primitive instinct - anyway it is there. With that key a great door may be unlocked, if it is only to admit fresh air and sunshine into lives that were otherwise grey.

But generally it can do more than this.

The heroes of the wild, the frontiersmen and explorers, the rovers of the sea, the airmen of the clouds are Pied Pipers to the boys.

Where they lead the boys will follow, and these will dance to their tune when it sings the song of manliness and pluck, of adventure and high endeavour, of efficiency and skill, of cheerful sacrifice of self for others.

There's meat in this for the boy; there's soul in it.

Watch that lad going down the street, his eyes are looking far out. Is his vision across the prairie or over the grey-backed seas? At any rate, it isn't here. Don't I know it!

Have you never seen the buffaloes roaming in Kensington Gardens? And can't you see the smoke from the Sioux Lodges under the shadow of the Albert Memorial? I have seen them there these many years.

Through Scouting the boy has now the chance to deck himself in a frontier kit as one of the great Brotherhood of Backwoodsmen. He can track and follow signs, he can signal, he can light his fire and build his shack and cook his grub. He can turn his hand to many things in pioneer- and camp-craft.

His unit is the natural gang of the boy, led by its own boy leader.

He may be one of a herd, but he has his own entity. He gets to know the joy of life through the out-of-doors.

Then there is a spiritual side.

Through sips of nature lore imbibed in woodland hikes the puny soul grows up and looks around. The outdoors is par excellence the school for observation and for realising the wonders of a wondrous universe.

It opens to the mind appreciation of the beautiful that lies before it day by day. It reveals to the city youngster that the stars are there beyond the city chimney-pots, and the sunset clouds are gleaming in their glory far above the roof of the "cinema" theatre.

The study of nature brings into a harmonious whole the question of the infinite, the historic, and the microscopic as part of the Great Creator's work. And in these, sex and reproduction play an honoured part.

Scoutcraft is a means through which the veriest hooligan can be brought to higher thought and to the elements of faith in God; and, coupled with the Scout's obligation to do a Good Turn every day, it gives the base of Duty to God and to Neighbour on which the parent or pastor can build with greater ease the form of belief that is desired.

"You can dress a lad as Cowboy, as a Tommy or a Jack; You can drill him till he looks as smart as paint; But it does not always follow when you come to scratch his back; That he's really either hero or a saint."

It is the spirit within, not the veneer without that does it.

And the spirit is there in every boy when you get him, only it has to be discovered and brought to light.

The Scout Promise (or Oath) to carry out, on his honour, as far as in him lies, and the Scout Law is our binding disciplinary force, and with ninety-nine out of a hundred it pays. The boy is not governed by don't, but is led on by do. The Scout Law is devised as a guide to his actions rather than as repressive of his faults. It merely states what is good form and expected of a Scout.

- Lord Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell (Founder of Scouting)