166 SEX 



and biography that control and chastity 

 make marriages happy and nations strong, 

 while the corruptio optimi is already hell. 



(d) Without spoiling good botany and 

 natural history something may be done to 

 remove the facts of sex and reproduction 

 from their human and personal setting, to 

 show them in their natural setting which 

 often has an extraordinary charm and to 

 disclose from the long history the gradual 

 ennobling and enrichment of what we call 

 love. Even nature points the way to the 

 stars, and most teachers who are interested 

 in the life of plants and animals are agreed 

 that the study puts an end to morbid in- 

 quisitiveness and lets the open air into the 

 whole subject of sex. " For him to whom 

 sex is impure there are no flowers in Nature." 



(e) Beyond clearing-up the subject of sex 

 through the medium of sound botany and 

 zoology, many will at present decline to 

 advance. Others, who are perhaps more 

 thoroughly acquainted with the facts in 

 regard to the troubles and mistakes often 

 associated with adolescence, are convinced 

 that, for boys in particular, it is necessary to 

 go further. The medical inspection of school 

 children, though still incipient, has done good 

 service in showing how much suffering is 

 avoidable, and the idea at least has taken 

 possession of the public mind that, as Dr. 

 Leslie Mackenzie puts it, " the child shall 

 have, at every stage of his growth, his 

 maximum chance of attaining to physiological 

 fitness." The realisation of this ideal, already 

 in progress in individual inspections, in school 



