n persistently neglected by practically
all the sex writers,--the emotional side of sex experience. Parents
and teachers have been afraid of it and distrustful of it. In not a
single one of all the books for young people that I have thus far
read has there been the frank, unashamed declaration that the climax
of sex emotion is an unsurpassed joy, something which rightly belongs
to every normal human being, a joy to be proudly and serenely
experienced. Instead there has been all too evident an inference that
sex emotion is a thing to be ashamed of, that yielding to it is
indulgence which must be curbed as much as possible, that all thought
and understanding of it must be rigorously postponed, at any rate
till after marriage.

We give to young folks, in their general education, as much as they
can grasp of science and ethics and art, and yet in their sex
education, which rightly has to do with all of these, we have said,
"Give them only the bare physiological facts, lest they be
prematurely stimulated." Others of us, realizing that the bare
physiological facts are shocking to many a sensitive child, and must
somehow be softened with something pleasant, have said, "Give them
the facts, yes, but see to it that they are so related to the wonders
of evolution and the beauties of the natural world that the shock is
minimized." But none of us has yet dared to say, "Yes, give them the
facts, give them the nature study, too, but also give them some
conception of sex life as a vivifying joy, as a vital art, as a thing
to be studied and developed with reverence for its big meaning, with
understanding of its far-reaching reactions, psychologically and
spiritually, with temperant restraint, good taste and the highest
idealism." We have contented ourselves by assuming that marriage
makes sex relations respectable. We have not yet said that it is only
beautiful sex relations that can make marriage lovely.

Young people are just as capable of being guided and inspired in
their thought about sex emotion as in their taste and ideals in
literature and ethics, and just as they imperatively need to have
their general taste and ideals cultivated as a preparation for mature
life, so do they need to have some understanding of the marvelous
place which sex emotion has in life.

Only such an understanding can be counted on to give them the self
control that is born of knowledge, not fear, the reverence that will
prevent premature or trivial c