chology of adolescence, but in this connection
refer to it as one of the many ways in which the adolescent spirit
shows its intensity, turbulence and capriciousness. I know of no
scientist who has given a careful analysis of the emotion as it is
seen in the adolescent. It is true that it has been the chosen theme
of the poet, romancer and novelist. But in the products of such
writers we may look for artistic descriptions of the emotion and for
scenes and incidents that very truly portray its nature; we have no
right to expect a scientific analysis.

Adults need only to recall their own youth or to observe even briefly
our grammar and high school boys and girls, to be convinced that love
between the sexes is one of the emotions that become conspicuously
apparent in early adolescence. This is what might reasonably be
expected since the emotion is derived from the sex instinct, and
pubescence marks the period of rapid acceleration in the growth of
the sex organs. With the increase in size and vigor of the
reproductive organs there comes the strong impulse for the organs to
function. Before civilization developed the system of sex inhibitions
that are considered an essential part of the ethical habits of our
young people, the impulse to function was not repressed and
pubescence marked the beginning of the distinctively sexual
experience of both sexes. This was true of primitive peoples, and is
generally true of the lower races that are living to-day. It is,
however, not limited to these races. A very large percentage of both
sexes of the civilized races begin their sexual life during early
adolescence. This is particularly true of the male half of the races.
The system of sex inhibitions which has gradually been developed by
civilization has been along the line of evolution and has been doing
away with promiscuity, polygamy and polyandry; it has been
establishing monogamy and postponing marriage until a period of
greater physiological and psychological maturity of both sexes. This
same inhibition of early sex functioning has lead to an increase in
the prevalence of such substitutes as masturbation, onanism,
pederasty, etc. Such facts bear upon the physiological results of
inhibition. On the psychological side are to be mentioned courtship
and those sex irradiations that have so profoundly influenced art,
literature, religion, polite society, sports and industry. Many of
the pathological sex psychoses, such as love for the