THE WAY LIFE BEGINS 77 



civilization would be impossible with a free play of sexual 

 impulse, realizing itself in temporary and promiscuous union, 

 in degeneracy, and in the wide spread of social diseases which 

 follow. Society exists because a sufficient number of people 

 live clean and strong lives. Our customs are therefore basi- 

 cally right in suppressing and penalizing these racially dis- 

 advantageous, for such they are, expressions of sex. Social 

 regulations are usually blind and irrational in their modes of 

 operation, if not in their intentions. They are lamentably 

 weak and their failure to control is expressed by the existence 

 of such classes of men and women as those who are openly 

 depraved and defiant of the moral order; those who secretly, 

 and to them, profitably, desecrate the ethical ideals of the 

 race; and those who, in conforming to the moral mandates 

 of society, do so at such cost to themselves in inner suffering 

 that mental derangements frequently follow. 



We must say again, in conclusion, as we have said before, 

 the mitigation of the miseries and wastes of human life that 

 arise from the misuse and misdirection of sex does not lie in 

 continuing ignorance of the facts of life, or in more arbitrary 

 suppression of the natural tendencies in youth. It equally 

 does not lie in granting more license to the individual in 

 realizing his sexual desires; nor does it lie in merely acquiring 

 biological facts. 



If there is any justification for sex education it must be 

 because it offers definite help in solving the intimate problems 

 of life as far as sex is concerned. The broader sex education 

 proposes to enlist the cooperation of youth's own intelligence. 

 It opens for him the vistas of nature and discovers to him the 

 vital and necessary place that sex has occupied in the living 

 world, thus aiding in the translation of a personal interest, 

 liable to perversion, into the appreciation of a universal and 

 pivotal principle of creation. New avenues for the employ- 

 ment of the energies of body and mind are to be provided in 

 order that the outward-going forces may not be turned back 

 upon themselves. Though parents and teachers do their best, 

 the hour of trial will come, and, if circumstances are adverse, 

 it will come repeatedly; it is now that a victory over the sub- 



