48 SEX-LORE 



will some day have personal experience in this respect. 

 All we can say is, that there is a tendency towards a 

 spirit of greater mutual comradeship between the 

 sexes. Girls are becoming more independent, and 

 expect appreciation and respect rather than chivalry. 

 Many things are permitted to them nowadays, which 

 were considered immodest in the time of our grand- 

 parents. Now there may be doubts how far this 

 change can be considered advantageous, but we must 

 not allow ourselves to be guided by prejudices. To 

 decide this question, there remains nothing for us 

 but to enter into a more detailed account of modesty 

 as a function of courtship. 



4. MODESTY. 



Modesty* develops with the advent of puberty, and 

 can thus be looked upon as one of the sexual charac- 

 teristics of human beings, and especially of the female 

 sex. We need only observe little children to see 

 that they are destitute of all physical shame. In 

 fact, it needs great perseverance to instil it into them, 

 and they are slow in learning to appreciate the 

 necessity of it. 



Modesty has its origin, like most human sexual 

 characteristics, in animal beginnings. Thus, among 

 the animals the female sternly refuses any advances 

 from the male at any other time than the mating season. 

 Even during the sexual season the female by no means 

 submits immediately to the male, but she plays, as 

 it were, " a game of refusal and acceptance." She 



* Modesty is used here in the sexual sense, like the French 

 pudeur. There exists no special word in English for this special 

 meaning of modesty. 



