A child left to itself, though very bashful, is wholly devoid of
modesty.[5] Everyone is familiar with the shocking _inconvenances_ of
children in speech and act, with the charming ways in which they
innocently disregard the conventions of modesty their elders thrust upon
them, or, even when anxious to carry them out, wholly miss the point at
issue: as when a child thinks that to put a little garment round the neck
satisfies the demands of modesty. Julius Moses states that modesty in the
uncovering of the sexual parts begins about the age of four. But in cases
when this occurs it is difficult to exclude teaching and example. Under
civilized conditions the convention of modesty long precedes its real
development. Bell has found that in love affairs before the age of nine
the girl is more aggressive than the boy and that at that age she begins
to be modest.[6] It may fairly be said that complete development of
modesty only takes place at the advent of puberty.[7] We may admit, with
Perez, one of the very few writers who touch on the evolution of this
emotion, that modesty may appear at a very early age if sexual desire
appears early.[8] We should not, however, be justified in asserting that
on this account modesty is a purely sexual phenomenon. The social impulses
also develop about puberty, and to that coincidence the compound nature of
the emotion of modesty may well be largely due.
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