or forbidden.  It is a mistake to suppose that this is an indication of viciousness or perversity.  It appears to be an impulse that occurs quite naturally in altogether innocent women.  The exciting charm of the risky and dangerous naturally arises on a background of feminine shyness and timidity.  We may trace its recognition at a very early stage of history in the story of Eve and the forbidden fruit that has so often been the symbol of the masculine organs of sex.  It is on this ground that many have argued the folly of laying external restrictions on women in matters of love.  Thus in quoting the great Italian writer who afterwards became Pope Pius II, Robert Burton remarked:  “I am of AEneas Sylvius’ mind, ’Those jealous Italians do very ill to lock up their wives; for women are of such a disposition they will mostly covet that which is denied most, and offend least when they have free liberty to trespass.’"[20]

It is the spontaneous and natural instinct of the lover to desire modesty in his mistress, and by no means any calculated opinion on his part that modesty is the sign of sexual emotion.  It remains true, however, that modesty is an expression of feminine erotic impulse.  We have here one of the instances, of which there, are so many, of that curious and instinctive harmony by which Nature has sought the more effectively to bring about the ends of courtship.  As to the fact itself there can be little doubt.  It constantly forces itself on the notice of careful observers, and has long been decided in the affirmative by those who have discussed the matter.  Venette, one of the earliest writers on the psychology of sex, after discussing the question at length, decided that the timid woman is a more ardent lover than the bold woman.[21] “It is the most pudent girl,” remarked Restif de la Bretonne whose experience of women was so extensive, “the girl who blushes most, who is most disposed to the pleasures of love,” he adds that, in girls and boys alike, shyness is a premature consciousness of sex.[22] This observation has even become embodied in popular proverbs.  “Do as the lasses do—­say no, but take it,” is a Scotch saying, to which corresponds the Welsh saying, “The more prudish the more unchaste."[23]

It is not, at first, quite clear why an excessively shy and modest woman should be the most apt for intimate relationships with a man, and in such a case the woman is often charged with hypocrisy.  There is, however, no hypocrisy in the matter.  The shy and reserved woman holds herself aloof from intimacy in ordinary friendship, because she is acutely sensitive to the judgments of others, and fears that any seemingly immodest action may make an unfavorable opinion.  With a lover, however, in whose eyes she feels assured that her actions can not be viewed unfavorably, these barriers of modesty fall down, and the resulting intimacy becomes all the more fascinating to the woman because of its contrast with the extreme reserve she is