ent life--especially as regards girls. How many girls
enter upon marriage quite ignorant and altogether inexperienced. They
commit themselves to the keeping of a man of whom they know hardly
anything at all. The parents are often satisfied with the most meagre
information. It is considered improper to ask for detailed information
regarding the husband's past life, and hence it often happens that a
girl is delivered up to an unscrupulous man suffering from venereal
infection, simply because she has never been adequately informed
regarding the serious step she is undertaking, regarding the completely
new mode of life upon which she is so suddenly entering. We thus see
that there are ample grounds for explaining to a girl in good time
precisely what she will undertake in entering the married state.

A question of importance is at what _age_ the sexual enlightenment can
most wisely be effected. Some advise that enlightenment should begin
with our answers to the first questions the child propounds upon the
subject; others contend that it is better to wait till it is somewhat
older than this. There is truth in both these views; but the matter and
manner of our communications must be appropriate to the age of the child
with which we are dealing. When a young man is being sent to the
university, it is wise to instruct him concerning the dangers of
venereal infection; but to inform him that human beings come into the
world as the result of an act of sexual intercourse would be altogether
superfluous. Conversely, if a child asks its parents where its little
brother has come from, we do not need to say anything about syphilis and
gonorrhoea; but none the less we can give such a child an account
suitable for one of its age of the way in which human beings come into
the world. Speaking generally, it may be said that the biology and
physiology of reproduction--that is to say, the objective processes--may
be described at a comparatively early age; but that cautions regarding
masturbation should not, _in average cases_, be given before the age of
thirteen or fourteen; and that instruction about the risks of venereal
infection should be deferred until even later than this. In the case of
boys, in so far as enlightenment in the school is concerned, information
about venereal infection may, for practical reasons, best be given about
the time the boys are preparing to leave for a higher school. In the
case of girls, for whom a caution again