And Metchnikoff, more recently, from the scientific side, speaking especially as regards women, declares that knowledge is so indispensable for moral conduct that "ignorance must be counted the most immoral of acts" (_Essais Optimistes_, p.

420).
The distinguished Belgian novelist, Camille Lemonnier, in his _L'Homme en Amour_, deals with the question of the sexual education of the young by presenting the history of a young man, brought up under the influence of the conventional and hypocritical views which teach that nudity and sex are shameful and disgusting things.

In this way he passes by the opportunities of innocent and natural love, to become hopelessly enslaved at last to a sensual woman who treats him merely as the instrument of her pleasure, the last of a long succession of lovers.

The book is a powerful plea for a sane, wholesome, and natural education in matters of sex.

It was, however, prosecuted at Bruges, in 1901, though the trial finally ended in acquittal.
Such a verdict is in harmony with the general tendency of feeling at the present time.
The old ideas, expressed by Daudet, that the facts of sex are ugly and disillusioning, and that they shock the mind of the young, are both alike entirely false.