herself if he or she
finds such condition of affairs existing in his or her case. For it
is nothing for which they are to blame. It is a misfortune and not
a fault. It is only the result of inherited and inculcated (the word
inculcated means _kicked in_) ideas to which all "well bred" youths
have been subjected for centuries; the idea being that the closer they
were kept in the realm of innocence, which is only another name for
ignorance, the better "bred" they are. And to pry one's self loose, to
break or tear one's self away from such a mental view and condition
as heredity and such years of rigorous restraint have developed, is no
small task. Indeed, it often takes months, and sometimes years, wholly
to rid one's self of these deep seated and powerful, wrong views and
prejudices.

Remember this: that _to the pure all things are pure._ But do not
make the mistake of thinking that this much abused sentence means that
purity means _emptiness_! It does no such thing. On the contrary,
it means _fullness_, to _perfection_. It means that one should be
possessed of the right kind of stuff, and that the stuff should be of
supreme quality. So, in studying to obtain a knowledge of sex organs
and sex functions, in the human family, the reader should not try to
divest himself or herself of all sex-passion and desire; but, on the
contrary, to make these of a sort of which he or she can be _proud_,
rather than _ashamed_ of, rejoice in, rather than suffer from.

So, then, let the reader of these lines, first, get a correct _mental
attitude_ toward what is about to be said. Banish all prurient
curiosity, put aside all thought of shame or shock, (these two will
be hardest for young women to overcome, because of their training in
false modesty and prudishness) and endeavor to approach the subject in
a reverent, open-eyed, conscientious spirit, as one who wishes, above
everything else, to know the honest truth in these most essential
matters that pertain to human life. Get into this frame of mind, and
_keep in it_, and what is here written will be read with both pleasure
and profit.

Once more, for we must make haste slowly in these delicate affairs, if
the reader should find himself or herself unduly excited, or perhaps
shocked, while reading some parts of what is here written, so that the
heart beats too fast, or the hand trembles, it may be well to suspend
the reading for a time, divert the mind into other channels for a
while,