the truth in a manner suitable to its age. When
this is impossible, every child who knows that no reasonable
explanation is ever refused it will be satisfied with the answer: "You
are too young now to understand that; I will tell you when you are
older." Every child who speaks openly to its mother asks sooner or
later how children come into the world. It is easier to reply to this
when the child has had the opportunity of observing the same thing in
animals. Why should the mother conceal the fact that it is nearly the
same in man as in animals? The child never thinks of blushing or
laughing at natural phenomena.

The initiation of children into the mechanism of reproduction is best
obtained by the study of botany and zoology. If no mystery is made of
these things in the case of plants and animals, why should not
instruction be given in human reproduction? On this point Madame
Schmid remarks as follows:

"The father or the master should instruct the boys in this subject,
and the mother or mistress the girls. Parents will then be able more
easily to abandon their old and absurd prejudices, which they
preserve, not so much because they attach any great importance to
them, but because they shrink from the difficulty of explaining
themselves to their children. We often see mothers, who would never
have touched on the question with a child still ignorant of sexual
matters, abandon the reserve hitherto observed in their language in
the presence of the child, as soon as they perceive that it has become
more or less acquainted with sexual phenomena. This is quite
characteristic, and what is more so is that these mothers, and often
also the fathers, frequently make equivocal jokes on the subject with
their children instead of seriously discussing it.

"It is regrettable that so few pedagogues take up these questions, and
that the instruction of children on the sexual question is left to the
most impure sources--domestic servants, depraved companions,
pornographic books, etc. This results in a deplorable estrangement
between the children and their parents or masters, which destroys
mutual confidence.

"If we wish to contend with sexual perversions acquired at an early
age, or the precocious development of an unhealthy sexual appetite,
this is not to be effected by prudery or vague moral preaching, but by
affection and frankness. In this case, evasive replies, combined with
so-called strict morals, only lead to estrangement, d