The sense of shame is an inalienable acquirement of civilization; it is self-respect. But, as Havelock Ellis rightly remarks, in =completely developed= human beings self-respect keeps a tight rein on any excess of the sense of shame. Knowledge and culture give the death-blow to all false prudery. The cultured man looks the natural in the face; he recognizes its value and its necessity. To him the sexual is the indispensable preliminary of life; hence in its essential nature it is something =harmless, wholly comprehensible=; something that must not be underrated, but =above all must not be overrated=, as our virtuous hypocrites and fanatics of prudery invariably overrate it. The true league against immorality is the league against prudery. The apostles of the nude do more service to true morality than the men of the “Lex-Heinze,” than those who hold conferences on morality, than the German Christian League of Virtue. A natural conception of the nude--that is the watchword of the future. This is shown by all the hygienic, æsthetic, and ethical endeavours of our time. [72] G. Simmel, “Philosophy of Fashion” (Berlin, 1906, p. 27). [73] _Cf._ C. Lombroso and G. Ferrero, “Woman as Criminal and Prostitute.” [74] Karl von den Steinen, “Experiences among the Savage Races of Central Brazil” (Berlin, 1894, p. 199). [75] _Op. cit._, p. 66. [76] _Op. cit._, p. 64. [77] A discussion of the early manifestations of the sexual sense of shame as exhibited by savages and by primitive man would hardly be complete without an allusion to the theory mentioned by Robert Browning (“Bishop Blougram’s Apology,” Collected Works, 1889, vol. iv., p. 271): “Suppose a pricking to incontinence-- Philosophers deduce you chastity Or shame, from just the fact that at the first Whoso embraced a woman in the field, Threw club down and forewent his brains beside, So stood a ready victim in the reach Of any brother savage, club in hand; Hence saw the use of going out of sight In wood or cave to prosecute his loves: I read this in a French book t’other day.” [78] _Op. cit._, pp. 190, 191, 195. _Cf._ also the interesting remarks regarding the nudity of the indigens of South America by Alex. von Humboldt, “Journey in the Equinoctial Regions of the New Continent” (Stuttgart, vol. ii., pp. 15, 16). [79] Somewhat diverging from these views, Karl von den Steinen (_op. cit._, pp. 174, 178, and 186) is of opinion that man learned first by their use for practical ends the employment of the articles later utilized for adornment. Above all, in this connexion, he alludes to tattooing, which originated, he believes, in the practice of smearing the body with various coloured earths and with different kinds of clay, these at the same time serving to promote coolness and to afford a protection against the bites of insects. _Cf._ also Yrjö Hirn, “The Origin of Art” (Leipzig, 1904, p. 222).