248 BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF HUMAN PROBLEMS 



male takes the initiative, while the female con- 

 sciously or unconsciously practices the art of coquetry 

 which presently makes so strong an appeal to the 

 masculine personality. 



Perhaps there is no human relationship in which 

 both innate qualities and breeding are more clearly 

 exposed than during courtship and its attendant 

 flirtatious expressions. The element of sexual attrac- 

 tion normally enters into this relationship, but its 

 prominence varies between the widest limits, and 

 is determined much more by temperamental reac- 

 tions than by the grade of cultivation or social posi- 

 tion. If a disgustingly active animal side of human 

 nature is revealed in some of the methods and pro- 

 cesses of flirtation among certain types of people, it 

 is equally certain that there is a highly refined play of 

 sex and intellect which distinguishes the amorous 

 advances of other sorts of men and women. Instinc- 

 tive feelings and reactions play a very large part in the 

 orientation of both male and female nervous systems 

 with respect to the meaning of the advances which 

 are made and the extent of the grossly sexual factor. 

 Thus women with discriminating nervous systems 

 often show great acumen in detecting the element of 

 coarseness in men, or the existence of a sexual attrac- 

 tion dissociated from affection and respect ; and this 

 largely intuitive cognizance may become the basis 

 of strong antipathies. Some men also have a partly 

 or wholly intuitive appreciation of the dangers that 

 lurk in the artful ways of some kinds of women, and 



