1 66 Some Implications of the Incarnation [CH. 



beauty of life that is founded on the struggles of millions 

 of past years, not one of which but has left its indelible 

 mark. We are left to grub out our knowledge from the 

 muckheap; and it is naturally associated with muck in 

 our minds. Few but the garbage-mongers and those 

 whom they have lured into believing in the desirability 

 of garbage, speak of the physical realities of part of our 

 life. If we ask for knowledge and true instruction we are 

 met with shifty avoidance of the issue. We are told 

 that no one talks of these things except very wicked 

 people. What wonder some seek elsewhere the know- 

 ledge that has been denied them by their guides? What 

 wonder that one and all associate facts that are in 

 themselves beautiful, with sin, or at least with a sense 

 of shame? What wonder that we -hesitate and use 

 periphrases when we in our turn are asked questions? 

 For we are blankly ignorant ourselves of the reali ty ; we 

 only know the sordid side we have been taught. And 

 if we do by chance find someone who will teach us 

 simply and cleanly as simply and cleanly as they used 

 to teach us mathematics at school in a perfectly matter 

 of fact way, what a help it is to us ! How we begin to 

 understand, and understanding, to reverence, the life 

 process ! 



Thank God a change is already upon us. Clean, 

 matter-of-fact teaching about fatherhood and mother- 

 hood, about reproductive organs as well as about 

 stomachs and brains and blood-vessels, is at length 

 becoming fairly common. There is no fear that the 

 beauty and mystery and sacred secrecies will be lost. 

 These are far more appreciated where accurate know- 

 ledge exists, learned as simply as other knowledge, than 

 where natural interest has been fed first on lies and then 

 on filth self-gathered from the dunghill. 



The result of the change will quickly become visible. 

 Nervous diseases will be less common, for instead of 



