No doubt the illusions of love would be little known, and passion would see a diminution of its transports.

But is it passion that in general ennobles human affairs?
We need honest attachments and delicate delights, and all these we may obtain while still preserving our common-sense....

Such nakedness would demand corresponding institutions, strong and simple, and a great respect for those conventions which belong to all times" (Senancour, _De l'Amour_, vol.i, p.

314).
From that time onwards references to the value and desirability of nakedness become more and more frequent in all civilized countries, sometimes mingled with sarcastic allusions to the false conventions we have inherited in this matter.

Thus Thoreau writes in his journal on June 12, 1852, as he looks at boys bathing in the river: "The color of their bodies in the sun at a distance is pleasing.