ay that it is forced to regard the act to which it owes
its own existence as something which must have rendered its parents
unclean. It has to be admitted that at times it is by no means easy, in
these matters, to find the right way; its discovery demands, not
interest merely, but also intelligence; it is, perhaps, an art. But
often the right course is not so very difficult to find; and if we only
exercise reasonable care in the repression of hypocrisy and of perverse
moral ideas, we shall be able to educate the child in such a way that he
will come to understand that exposure of his person is not a matter of
pure indifference, and yet will not regard nakedness as something
unclean. The little girl who draws her petticoats too high, will stop
doing so when her mother forbids it. A child will not always ask the
reason for such a prohibition; and if it does ask, all the mother need
answer in this case, as in so many others in which the child is not yet
competent to understand the reason, is that it will understand well
enough when it is older. When the child is older, and when its
understanding has enlarged, the mother need make no difficulty about
explaining the true reason in a suitable manner.

In respect also of the sentiment of disgust, exaggerations must
carefully be avoided. From a feeling of shame, and for fear of arousing
disgust in others, many young girls refrain, when in the company of
other persons, from retiring to satisfy the calls of nature. The
physician knows that this may result not merely in discomfort, but in
consequences by no means indifferent to health. In this respect also, a
just mean must be the aim of education. The child has to be taught that,
alike for aesthetic and for hygienic reasons, the evacuation of the
excreta must be effected in a retired place. But it is necessary to
avoid going to the extreme of producing in the child the impression that
there is something disgusting in the faintest intimation of such a
physical need, or of making it feel that there is something essentially
shameful in the fulfilment of these natural functions. The same
considerations apply also to the sentiment of disgust in relation to the
sexual life. In this also overstatement must be avoided. The education
of young girls aims to a large extent at inducing them to regard the
sexual act, not merely as something of which they should be ashamed, but
as something in itself disgusting. It is well known that quite a nu