whole subject of sex. Many a mature woman secretly believes that she,
at least, is not guilty of harboring anything so "vulgar" as a
reproductive instinct, not realizing that if this were so, she would
be, in very truth, a freak of nature.

Of course, woman is by nature as fully endowed with sex instincts as
is man. Kipling portrays the female of the species as "deadlier than
the male" in that the very framework of her constitution outlines the
one issue for which it was launched,--stanch against any attack which
might endanger the carrying on of life. Feeling the force of this
instinctive urge, she braces herself against precipitancy in response
by what seems almost a negation.

Just as we lean well in when riding around a corner, in order to keep
ourselves from falling out, so by an "over-compensation" for what is
unconsciously felt to be danger woman increases her feeling of safety
by setting up a taboo on the whole subject of sex. It is time that we
freed our minds from the artificial and perverted attitude toward this
dominant impulse; time to rescue the word "sex" from its implications
of grossness and sensuousness, and to recognize the instinct in its
true light as one of the necessary and holy forces of life, a force
capable of causing great damage, but also holding infinite
possibilities for good if wisely directed.

Society only gets its members into trouble when, even by implication,
it attempts to deny its natural make-up, and allows little children to
grow up with the false idea that one of their strongest impulses is to
be shunned by them as a thing of shame. We cannot dam back the flood
by building a bulwark of untruth, and then expect the bulwark to hold.