ay, lamentations upon
existing corruption, especially as regards the morals of children, and
panegyrics upon the morality of an earlier time. But when we examine the
documents of the past, we find adequate proof of the fact that morals
stood at no higher level in former times than to-day, and, more
particularly, we learn that the sexual morals of children were no better
then than now. If this were otherwise, how could we explain the fact
that, in the year 1527, for instance, the Town Council of Ulm issued an
order to the brothel-keepers of that town that they were no longer to
admit to the brothels boys of from twelve to fourteen years of age, but
rather were to drive them away with birch-rods. This fact, with many
others, is recorded by Hans Boesch;[73] and collectively they suffice to
prove, not merely that the children of former times were no whit more
moral than those of our own day, but also that the awakening of sexual
activity occurred just as early then as now.

But although I contest the alleged general influence of the life of
large towns and of modern civilisation upon the morality and the sexual
activities of children, I admit at once that peculiar conditions of
place and time may exert a great influence in these respects.
Frequently, no detailed analysis of these conditions is possible; but
sometimes such an analysis can be effected. Only by the assumption that
these special influences exist can we understand how it is that such
marked differences exist at different times in the same place. I know
certain schools in Berlin in which masturbation, and even mutual
masturbation, are widely diffused; and I know others regarding which in
this respect no unfavourable reports can be made. I know, indeed, of
schools about which I have received from former pupils, persons whose
trustworthiness I have absolutely no reason to doubt, reports which
prove that a remarkably high level of sexual morality must have existed
in these schools. On the other hand, ex-pupils of other schools,
attended by boys of very various classes of the population, have
informed me that at these schools there was hardly a boy who did not
masturbate. It is not always possible to ascertain the causes of such
differences. One child, perhaps, may corrupt an entire class. But I
believe also that the influence of the schoolmasters, and especially
that of the headmaster, may be of enormous importance in this respect.
Similar differences exist in the c