168 ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST 



plete emancipation possible to a properly-organized 

 mind are confronted first by the lag of our institu- 

 tions and traditions, and secondly by the unconcealed 

 suspicion of all those — and they are as yet the large 

 majority — in which the conflicts arising out of sex 

 are unresolved. It is from the sum of those con- 

 flicts that the spirit prevalent with regard to sex 

 to-day derives its character — shocked and shamefaced 

 as regards one's own sexual life, vindictive and 

 grudging as regards the difficulties of others. The 

 bulk of men and women cannot treat sexual prob- 

 lems in a scientific spirit, because of the store of bot- 

 tled-up emotion in the wrong place that they have 

 laid up for themselves by their failure to come to 

 proper terms with their sexual instincts. The soul 

 should grow to deserve the words Crashaw wrote of 

 St. Theresa — "O thou undaunted daughter of de- 

 sires!" But this the soul of such disharmonic beings 

 can never do. 



This brings us to our other pressing question. 

 Should the results of psycho-analytic methods, the 

 knowledge that the sex instinct is fundamental and 

 is interwoven into the roots of the highest spiritual 

 activities — should the inculcation and demonstration 

 of this be part of education? Some would say yes, 

 and would argue that to know oneself is essential to a 

 proper realization of one's capacities. Personally I 

 am extremely doubtful of the correctness of this an- 

 swer. Knowledge of the processes of digestion is 



