In the love-making of children we can distinguish two different modes, according to the age of the child. In the first period, between three and eight years of age, the child is perfectly ignorant of the meaning of sex. Still it may indulge in the pleasure of bodily contact with an individual of the opposite sex. During the second period, between eight to twelve years of age, the children are aware of the difference and even meaning of sex, still the erethism in the organs is still absent. The presence of the emotion of love in children of the first period is shown in many ways. Children of the opposite sex fall in love with one another. They seek each other’s company. They sit close to each other and indulge in kissing, embracing, and lifting each other. They often present gifts to, and make sacrifices for each other. Even jealousy is not absent. The lover tries to monopolize the allegiance of the beloved one. This love in early childhood is characterized by the absence of shyness or of any sense of shame, which shows the complete sexual anaesthesia. With the appearance of shyness and modesty in children of the second period, the love-making may be traced to the conscious sex instinct. The instinct is manifested by the tendency to conceal the love affairs. Modesty is a characteristic trait of the young lovers. When in each other’s presence they feel embarrassed and ill at ease. They appear awkward when left alone to themselves. They try to avoid each other and may even appear to the casual observer to hate each other. Especially does the boy try to simulate resentment. The girl is, on the whole, more aggressive in these early love affairs. The woman’s innate love of being wooed comes to surface later on when she has reached maturity. Yet even the boy’s emotions are discernible by the keen observer. The emotions of infatuated children may assume all the appearances of true love, with its joys and sorrows. Yet any thought of the reproductive organs is entirely absent. _Puberty._—Before puberty the sexual activity of the child consists thus in the desire and gratification of the impulse of contrectation. This contrectation does not cause yet a state of tumescence in the child, and without tumescence the impulse of detumescence is also absent. The first state of spontaneous tumescence is called into existence by internal messages.