ee nothing wrong in what
they are doing. That which is immoral in the adult is not necessarily
immoral in the child, who is merely led by curiosity, and by his
astonishment at the changes taking place in his body, to study these
changes closely. It is not immoral for a child to wish to study _in
propria persona_ matters about which information has been withheld.
Adults are far too ready to interpret the actions of children in the
light of their own feelings--a mistake which cannot be too strongly
condemned.

The curiosity of the child about his own body is often intermingled
with fear; above all in the perfectly innocent, completely unenlightened
child, the first seminal emission, whether it occurs during sleep or in
the waking hours, and in the girl, the first appearance of the menstrual
flow, may readily cause serious alarm. It must not be supposed that such
alarm is of rare occurrence. Even in large towns, which our moralists
are apt to regard as altogether corrupt, we sometimes find that a boy of
fifteen or sixteen may be greatly alarmed, on waking, to discover that
he has had a seminal emission, for which he has been prepared neither by
experience nor by instruction.

Additional wider influences of the sexual life of the child cannot here
be fully discussed. But when we see that in great poets and other
artists much of their creative work may be effected in childhood, and
when, on the other hand, we observe the connexion of many artistic
productions with the psychosexual sphere, we cannot fail to admit the
possibility that the sexual life of the child is to some extent related
to art. Thus, we sometimes see children endeavouring, however
imperfectly, to express their feelings in verse; and in cases in which
nothing of the kind occurs, the erotic feelings of childhood may still
exercise influence later in life. As examples from world-literature, I
may mention: Heine, who was still a boy when he was so greatly attracted
by his Sefchen, the executioner's niece, whose personality made a
definite impression on the poet's maturer work;[107] Goethe, whose
friendship with the sister of the little Derones, likewise had certain
artistic results; Dante, who first met his Beatrice at the age of nine
years, and ever thenceforward remained under her spell. If in such cases
we inquire as to the impressions of childhood, we unquestionably find,
in poets and artists, traces, sometimes of direct, but more frequently
of indirect in