alone brothers and sisters
indulge together in obscene conversation and even improper practices.
Unquestionably, the lack of sexual sympathy between brothers and sisters
depends upon a deeply rooted psychological causation. Above all, in this
connexion, we have to bear in mind the slight degree of influence each
exercises on the senses of the other, precisely in consequence of the
long-continued, comparatively unrestrained intercourse between them.
Further, the conventional factors implanted in mankind from earliest
childhood play their part. Many, perhaps, will see an additional cause
in teleological considerations, aiming at the avoidance of in-and-in
breeding.

Many lovers incline to the romantic transfiguration of the object of
their affection, a process in which the imagination plays an important
part; but for this to be possible, it is, of course, necessary that an
age should have been attained at which the imagination is sufficiently
active. The age at which the child has learned to delight in fairy-tales
is here of importance; from the contents of such fairy-tales all kinds
of ideas are transferred to the sexual sphere. Romantic embellishment
plays a great part not merely in childhood, but also later in life; but
in childhood, this tendency often exists to an extraordinary degree. The
person whom a boy loves must be very highly placed; for example, during
the period of the undifferentiated sexual impulse, he prefers a boy of
the highest possible birth. Similarly, a young girl who loves a boy will
invest him in imagination with every possible attribute of distinction
and high rank. Often the love is directed towards a person of no
concrete existence, or towards one who is unattainable.[35] We may
sometimes be in doubt whether we have to do with sexual love, or whether
some other sentiment may not be in operation. For example, the devotion
to some saint of either sex may overpower all other feelings. Where a
child is enamoured of some definite individual, self-deception occurs
just as it does in adults similarly situated. The faults of the beloved
one are imaginatively transmuted into virtues, or any possible excuse is
found for them. Is a boy attracted by a girl known to be habitually
untruthful? Especially when himself unaware that his interest is sexual,
he looks out for every merit she may possibly possess, in order that his
fondness may be justified. Her untruthfulness is transfigured as caution
and cleverne