4 8o SCIENCE PROGRESS 



should be explained, or the child should be told truthfully, " I 

 can't explain the fact." It is, however, in my opinion a mistake 

 to lead the young child too far into experiences which an adult 

 alone can understand and appreciate in their full biological 

 significance. 



Sex and Education 



With the dawn of the sexual passion at puberty, a new and 

 intense emotional phase of existence occurs, which even when it 

 is mature and developed, may not be shown in daily conversa- 

 tion, yet as a deep and silent undercurrent of consciousness and 

 silent thought is continually influencing character and be- 

 haviour. Now and again, it reveals itself by springing to the 

 surface and bursting its bonds in a flood of passion ; still there 

 are many people who can and do go through life without mani- 

 festing to the external world the profound influence which the 

 sexual passion has on their behaviour. 



But " still waters run deep," and in the majority of people this 

 silent undercurrent of emotion, although not manifested to the 

 external world, nevertheless occupies a large place in the con- 

 scious and subconscious self; it suffuses silent thought and 

 consciousness with an emotional tone, which may find outward 

 expression in aesthetic and religious forms and observances. It 

 is a more important factor than any other in the formation of 

 character, for it must be conceded that human motives and con- 

 duct originate in great measure from the depths of the passion 

 engendered by the natural attraction of the sexes ; but inasmuch 

 as the bodily characters that distinguish the sexes are different, 

 so are the mental characters. Although each sex is represented 

 in all the cells of the body, the sexual organs peculiar to each 

 sex make dominant by their internal secretion the male or female 

 secondary sexual bodily and mental characters. Observation 

 and experiment show that the opposite sexual character is 

 present in the somatic cells, but it is latent or recessive. 



It is an important fact to bear in mind in the education of the 

 two sexes, that there is as radical a biological difference in the 

 mind of the woman to that of the man as there is bodily differ- 

 ence, and this different mental attitude peculiar to sex shows 

 itself especially in the contrast of emotional feelings and their 

 manifestations ; moreover a woman is different intellectually ; 

 she has quicker perception and association of ideas, she deliber- 



