SEX-EDUCATION 161 



and assumes a wrong point of view, both often 

 referable to sexually perverted or precocious 

 acquaintances of whom there is always a 

 small percentage in every community, and who 

 seem to have abnormal success in infecting 

 others with their own unwholesomeness. 



The mental content covered by the word 

 sex is so intimately personal that there is 

 truth in what some ha~ r e said in regard to the 

 danger of bursting into the youth's reserve 

 of mind. The danger must be admitted 

 especially in reference to girls; and the 

 answer is that we must learn to give without 

 violence such instruction as experiment proves 

 to be most useful. 



THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF SEX INSTINCTS 

 IN MAN. It is important to notice that while 

 man has strong, innate sex-impulses, the 

 associated sex-instincts are general rather 

 than precise. Among some of the lower 

 animals, such as Insects, where instinctive 

 behaviour prevails, there are often very 

 definite reproductive instincts of a compli- 

 cated sort, which sweep their possessors 

 through an intricate routine of courtship, 

 pairing, and preparation for the young often 

 never seen 1 Among backboned animals 

 also (see Chapter VI) there are numerous 

 examples of complex reproductive instincts, 

 though they rarely exhibit the same degree 

 of intricacy that is seen in many insects. 

 In man, however, the reproductive and sexual 

 instincts remain very general. This is per- 

 haps because of man's language, prolonged 

 family life, and social traditions, through 

 which the need of very precise instincts has 



