of any one people. It is, therefore,
impossible to affirm whether there are such things as instinctive
gestures, expressions, caresses, etc., which all human beings
recognize as sexual stimuli. From the little that is known it seems
probable that the number of such tokens is not great,--even the kiss
is by no means general! We can only be sure of a universal tendency
to approach and to touch one another, and of a disposition to self
exhibition and coquetry as probably instinctive and of the special
forms which these tendencies take under the influence of imitation
and tradition as secondary causes. Caressing contact may then be
regarded as play when it is an end in itself, which is possible under
two conditions. First, when the pursuance of the instinctive
movements to their legitimate end is prevented by incapacity or
ignorance; and, second, when it is prevented by an act of the will on
part of the participants. Children exhibit the first case, adults
often enough the second. It is generally known that children are
frequently very early susceptible to sexual excitement, and show a
desire for contact with others as well as an enjoyment of it, without
having the least suspicion of its meaning." In the cases in which I
have recorded lifting each other as indicating sex-love, it was
unmistakably apparent that the lifting was not a trial of strength
but an indulgence in the pleasures of bodily contact, as was also
true of the scuffling. In few, if in any of the cases which I have
observed upon children of eight, have the participants been conscious
of the meaning of their actions, although I have sometimes seen them
attended by great sexual excitement. Schaeffer[7] believes that "the
fundamental impulse of sexual life for the utmost intensive and
extensive contact, with a more or less clearly defined idea of
conquest underlying it," plays a conspicuous part in the ring
fighting of belligerent boys. Bain[8] attaches very great importance
to the element of physical contact in sex-love. He says: "In
considering the genesis of tender emotion, in any or all of its
modes, I am inclined to put great stress upon the sensation of animal
contact, or the pleasure of the embrace, a circumstance not adverted
to by Mr. Spencer. Many facts may be adduced as showing this to be a
very intense susceptibility, as well as a starting point of
associations. (1) Touch is the fundamental and generic sense, the
first born of sensibility, from which