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"Now," said Mr. Midith, "may I ask you how _you_ prevent, or try to prevent premature maternity? Do you prevent it by statute law? Public opinion and the evil consequences attending premature maternity are all the forces that you employ to prevent it. You have no penal laws that punishes premature maternity, and if you had they would be powerless. Our system of sex relation has all the advantage over yours on this point then.
"We _teach_ our children all the sex relation we can, so that they may learn the evil of its abuse. You seem to hide all sexual knowledge from them. We endeavor to make the evil consequences a deterrent; you endeavor to make ignorance the safeguard of their virtue. The knowledge of a burn, and not the ignorance of it, deters a person from putting his hand against a hot stove. We act on the assumption that a clear knowledge of sexual abuse will likewise prevent that also. This is one great point in our favor then. We trust in knowledge; you, in ignorance.