178 THE CONTROL OF LIFE 



or, often, there is a mingling of three. (1) There may 

 be indulgence which is apt to mean damaged health 

 — mental as well as bodily. It often has punishment 

 out of proportion to the offence. (2) There may be 

 a morbid repression, which takes the form of finding 

 fictitious substitutes for the activities which should 

 naturally accompany or follow normal sex-arousal. 

 This ' substitute gratification ' is apt to lead to mental 

 troubles called ' anxiety-neuroses.' (3) But thirdly, 

 the outcome may be a strengthened control, an enriched 

 life, and a love which, when it finds its mate, will not die. 



Things often go badly wrong in adolescence, as every 

 one knows, and tragedy results, often without there 

 being any terrible wickedness when all is said and 

 done. The frequent misery is leading many to ask for 

 more definite sex-instruction in adolescence at least. 

 As Mr. H. G. Wells says, " The cardinal thing in life 

 sneaks in to us darkly and shamefully like a thief in the 

 night." We should let in more daylight, more sun- 

 light. Many will agree with Samuel Butler that muddle 

 is largely our enemy, and that there has been far too 

 much reserve. " Get at," he said, " the best opinion of 

 our best medical men, and let us have it out." There 

 should be added, however, the best opinion of our best 

 biologists, psychologists, and morahsts. 



One knows only a small number of cases, and it is dan- 

 gerous to generahse, but there is perhaps a tendency 

 to exaggerate — especially as regards girls — the part 

 that sex-calls play in the conscious fife of adolescence. 

 Perhaps, furthermore, there is a tendency to make a 



