is tolerated under the same restrictions as normal sexuality; and
according to Carlier, formerly Chief of the French Police, Paris is not
more depraved in this matter than London. Italy in 1889 also adopted the
principles of the Code Napoleon on this point. For further considerations
with regard to the Law, see Appendix, pp. 164 and 165.
[51] For further instances, see Appendix, pp. 143-148.
[52] See Müller’s “History and Antiquities of the Doric Race.”
[53] Müller.
[54] Cf. the incident at the end of Plato’s “Lysis,” when the tutors of
Lysis and Menexenus come in and send the youths home.
[55] For a useful little manual on this subject, see “How We are Born,”
by Mrs. N. J. (Daniel, London, price 2/-). For a general argument in
favour of sex-teaching see “The Training of the Young in Laws of Sex,” by
Canon Lyttelton, Headmaster of Eton College (Longmans, 2/6).
[56] See J. G. Wood’s “Natural History of Man,” vol. “Africa,” p. 324
(the Bechuanas); also vol. “Australia,” p. 75.
[57] With the rapid rise which is taking place, in scope and social
status, of the state day-schools, it is probable that some change of
opinion will take place with regard to the wisdom of sending young
boys of ten to fourteen to upper-class boarding-schools. For a boy of
fifteen or sixteen and upwards the boarding-school system may have
its advantages. By that time a boy is old enough to understand some
questions; he is old enough to have some rational ideal of conduct, and
to hold his own in the pursuit of it; and he may learn in the life away
from home a lot in the way of discipline, organization, self-reliance,
etc. But to send a young thing, ignorant of life, and quite unformed of
character, to take his chance by day and night in the public school as it
at present exists, is--to say the least--a rash thing to do.
[58] It should be also said, in fairness, that the fear of showing undue
partiality, often comes in as a paralysing influence.
[59] “Studies in the Psychology of Sex,” vol. ii., p. 173.
[60] See ch. ii. _supra_, also _Ioläus_, an Anthology of Friendship, by
E. Carpenter.
[61] Mr. Jones became Mayor of Toledo; but died at the early age of 53.
See also “Workshop Reconstruction,” by C. R. Ashbee, Appendix, _infra_,
p. 146.
[62] “Whitman: ein Charakterbild,” by Edward Bertz (Leipzig, Max Spohr).
[63] John Addington Symonds.
[64] See Appendix, pp. 172-174.
APPENDIX
“In this country [Britain] we have too long, from a sense of mock
modesty, neglected the science relating to sex. In Germany this is not
so. There we find workers who have elaborated for themselves a new
science, and who have given to the world knowledge which is of the very
utmost importance. We now know that there are females with strong male
characteristics, and _vice-versa_. Anatomically and mentally we find all
shades existing from the pure genus man to the pure genus woman. Thus
there has been constituted what is well named by an illustrious exponent
of the science ‘The Third Sex’.”--Dr. JAMES BURNET, _The Medical Times
and Hospital Gazette_, vol. xxxiv., No. 1497, 10th November, 1906. London.
“Every citizen of age to fulfil his duties as a citizen, whether he be
a father or husband, teacher or pupil, master or servant, official or
subordinate, has the right, and owes it as a duty, to know the facts of
sexual inversion, to combat and to prevent debauchery, crime and vice,
to learn and to teach others the place of inversion in Society, and its
morals, the duties of the invert towards himself, and towards other
inverts, towards the normal man, and towards women and children. And
the duties of the normal man towards the invert are no less--no less
difficult, no less indispensable.”--M. A. RAFFALOVICH, “Uranisme et
Unisexualité.” Paris, 1896.
“That sex inversion is not a chance phenomenon … appears from the
fact that it has been observed at all times and in all places, and
among peoples quite separate from each other.”--A. MOLL, “Die Conträre
Sexualempfindung,” 2nd Edition, p. 15. Berlin, 1893.
“Concerning the wide prevalence of sexual inversion, and of homosexual
phenomena generally, there can be no manner of doubt. In Berlin, Moll
states that he has himself seen between six hundred and seven hundred
homosexual persons, and heard of some two hundred and fifty to three
hundred others. I have much evidence as to its frequency both in England
and the United States. In England, concerning which I can naturally speak
with most assurance, its manifestations are well-marked for those whose
eyes have been opened.… Among the professional and most cultured element
of the middle class in England there must be a distinct percentage of
inverts, which may sometimes be as much as five per cent., though such
estimates must always be hazardous. Among women of the same class the
percentage seems to be at least double--though here the phenomena are
less definite and deepseated.”--HAVELOCK ELLIS, “Psychology of Sex,”
vol. _Sexual Inversion_, pp. 29, 30. Philadelphia, 1901.
“According to the information of De Joux in ‘The Disinherited of Love,’
the number of Urnings in all Europe is about five millions; about 4.5
per cent. of all males in Europe are Urnings, while only 0.1 per cent.
of females are Urningins. A malady therefore--if malady it should be
called--which is so widespread certainly demands our deepest interest;
and it is strange that it is only since the ’70’s that this subject has
been discussed in scientific literature.
“It is owing to this ignorance that the public mind has been
dominated, and still is dominated, by the prejudice, that psychical
hermaphroditism and sex-inversion are nothing but crimes, wilful crimes,
whereas they proceed necessarily out of the inborn nature of such
individuals.”--NORBERT GRABOWSKY, “Die verkehrte Geschlechtsempfindung,”
p. 16. Leipzig, 1894.
Dr. HIRSCHFELD, in his “Statistischen Untersuchunge über den
Prozentensatz der Homosexuellen,” gives the result of various statistical
investigations on this subject; and their remarkable agreement enables
him to speak with some confidence. He says (p. 41), “Now we _know_
that we must reckon the numbers of those who vary from the normal,
not by fractions of thousands but by fractions of hundreds. The fact
that, as a result of these circular enquiries and commissions about the
same figure has emerged (for the proportion of exclusively homosexual
persons), namely, a figure in the neighbourhood of 1½ per cent.--this
extraordinary agreement cannot possibly be a chance, but must rest on a
law--a law of nature--namely, that only 90 to 95 per cent. of mankind
are normally sexual by birth; that about 1½ to 2 per cent. are born pure
homosexuals (say about 1,000,000 in Germany); and that between the two
classes there remain some 4 per cent. who are bisexual by nature.”
And again (p. 60), “But what do these figures show? They show that of
100,000 inhabitants on the average only 94,600 are sexually normal,
while 5,400 vary from the normal. Of these latter 1,500 are exclusively
homosexual, and 3,900 bisexual. While of these last again 700 are
_predominantly_ homosexual; so that of 100,000 Germans, 2,200 (or 2.2
per cent.) are either exclusively or predominantly homosexual--making
1,200,000 for the whole German Fatherland.”
“Sexual inversion has usually been regarded as psycho-pathological, as a
symptom of degeneration; and those who exhibit it have been considered
as physically unfit. This view, however, is falling into disrepute,
especially as Krafft-Ebing, its principal champion, abandoned it in the
later editions of his work. None the less, it is not generally recognised
that sexual inverts may be otherwise perfectly healthy, and with regard
to other social matters quite normal. When they have been asked if they
would have wished matters to be different with them in this respect,
they almost invariably answer in the negative.”--O. WEININGER, “Sex and
Character,” ch. iv. Heinemann, London, 1906.
“It is a common belief that a male who experiences love for his own
sex must be despicable, degraded, depraved, vicious, and incapable of
humane or generous sentiments. If Greek history did not contradict this
supposition, a little patient enquiry into contemporary manners would
suffice to remove it.”--J. ADDINGTON SYMONDS, “A Problem in Modern
Ethics,” p. 10.
“Mantegazza rightly insists that Urnings are found by no means only among
the dregs of the people, but that they are rather to be noted in circles
which in respect of culture, wealth, and social position rank among
the first. Thus, among the aristocracy without doubt a great number of
Urnings are to be found.”--A. MOLL, _op. cit._ p. 76.
“In no rank are there so many Urnings as among servants. One may say that
every third male domestic is an Urning.”--DE JOUX, “Die Enterbten des
Liebesglückes,” p. 193. Leipzig, 1893.
“It is therefore certain, as we have seen, that many Urnings come from
nervous or pathologically disposed families.… All the same, I must say
that there is no proof to hand in _all_ cases of sex-inversion among
men, that the individuals concerned are thus hereditarily weighted. And
besides, there is the consideration that the extension, according to some
authors, of hereditary trouble is at present so great that one may prove
a tendency to nervous or mental maladies in almost everybody.”--A. MOLL,
_op. cit._, p. 221.
“The truth is that we can no more explain the inverted sex-feeling than
we can the normal impulse; all the attempts at explanation of these
things, and of Love, are defective.”--_Ibid_, p. 253.
“Among the _penchants_ of Urnings one finds not infrequently a great
partiality for Art and Music--and indeed, for active interest in the
same as well as passive enjoyment … the Actor’s talent is especially
noticeable among some.… But it must not be thought that Urnings are only
capable of a special activity of the imagination. On the contrary, there
are undoubted cases in which they contribute something in the scientific
direction.… Also in Poetry do Urnings occasionally show exceptional
talent; especially in love-verses addressed to men.”--_Ibid_, p. 80.
“An examination of my cases [of Inverts] reveals the interesting fact
that 68 per cent. possess artistic aptitude in varying degree. Galton
found, from the investigation of nearly 1,000 persons that the average
showing artistic tastes in England is only about 30 per cent.”--HAVELOCK
ELLIS, “Sexual Inversion,” p. 173.
“In Antiquity, especially among the Greeks, there seem to have been
numbers of men who in their emotional natures were hermaphrodites. I
think that the study of psychical hermaphrodisy is most important,
and will throw yet greater light on the psychology of Love itself.
Observation so far already shows that the same individual at differing
times can experience quite different sexual feelings.”--A. MOLL, _op.
cit._, p. 200.
“The Urning is capable, through the force of his love, of making the
greatest sacrifices for his beloved, and on that account the love of the
Urning has been often compared with Woman’s love. Just as the Woman’s
love is stronger and more devoted than that of the normal man, just
as it exceeds that of the Man in inwardness, so, according to Ulrichs
should the Urning’s love in this respect stand higher than that of the
woman-loving Man.”--_Ibid_, p. 118.
“Womanish men often know how to treat women better than manly men do.
Manly men, except in most rare cases, learn how to deal with women only
after long experience, and even then most imperfectly.”--O. WEININGER,
“Sex and Character,” ch. v.
“Is it really the case that all women and men are marked off sharply from
each other, the women on the one hand alike in all points, the men on the
other?… There are transitional forms between the metals and non-metals,
between chemical combinations and simple mixtures, between animals and
plants, between phanerogams and cryptogams, and between mammals and
birds.… The improbability may henceforth be taken for granted of finding
in Nature a sharp cleavage between all that is masculine on the one side
and all that is feminine on the other; or that any living being is so
simple in this respect that it can be put wholly on one side, or wholly
on the other, of the line.”--WEININGER, _Ibid_, introduction, p. 2.
“Upon this, Chéron made a rather strange observation. ‘We have,’ she
said, ‘with regard to sexual distinctions, notions that were not dreamed
of by the primitive simplicity of the people of the age now gone by. From
the fact that there are two sexes, and only two, they for a long time
drew false inferences. They concluded that a woman is simply a woman,
and a man simply a man. In reality this is not so; there are women who
are very much women, and women who are very little so. Such differences,
concealed in former times by costume and mode of life, and masked by
prejudice, stand out clearly in our society. And not only so, but they
become more accentuated and apparent in each generation.’”--ANATOLE
FRANCE, “Sur la Pierre Blanche,” p. 301.
“In _every_ human being there are present both male and female elements,
only in normal persons (according to their sex) the one set of elements
is more greatly developed than the other. The chief difference in the
case of homosexual persons is that in them the male and female elements
are more equalized; so that when, in addition, the general development
is of a high grade, we find among this class the most perfect types of
humanity.”--Dr. ARDUIN, “Die Frauenfrage,” in _Jahrbuch der Sexuellen
Zwischenstufen_, vol. ii., p. 217. Leipzig, 1900.
“The notion that human beings were originally hermaphroditic is both
ancient and widespread. We find it in the book of Genesis, unless indeed
there be a confusion here between two separate theories of creation. God
is said to have first made man in His image, male and female in one body,
and to have bidden them multiply. Later on He created the woman out of
part of this primitive man.” (See also the myth related by Aristophanes
in Plato’s Symposium.)--HAVELOCK ELLIS, “Sexual Inversion,” p. 229.
“When the sexual instinct first appears in early youth, it seems to be
much less specialised than normally it becomes later. Not only is it, at
the outset, less definitely directed to a specific sexual end, but even
the sex of its object is sometimes uncertain.”--_Ibid_, p. 44.
“In me the homosexual nature is singularly complete, and is undoubtedly
congenital. The most intense delight of my childhood (even when a tiny
boy in my nurse’s charge) was to watch acrobats and riders at the circus.
This was not so much for the skilful feats as on account of the beauty of
their persons. Even then I cared chiefly for the more lithe and graceful
fellows. People told me that circus actors were wicked and would steal
little boys, and so I came to look on my favorites as half-devil and
half-angel. When I was older and could go about alone, I would often
hang around the tents of travelling shows in hope of catching a glimpse
of the actors. I longed to see them naked, without their tights, and used
to lie awake at night, thinking of them and longing to be embraced and
loved by them.”--_Ibid_, “case” ix., p. 62.
“I was fifteen years and ten-and-a-half months old when the first erotic
dream announced the arrival of puberty. I had had no previous experience
of sex-satisfaction, either in the Urning direction or in any other.
This occurrence therefore came about quite normally. From a much earlier
time, however, I had been subject partly to tender yearnings and partly
to sensual longing without definite form and purpose--the two emotions
being always separate from each other and never experienced for one and
the same young man. These aimless sensual longings plagued me often in
hours of solitude; and I could not overcome them. They showed themselves
first, during my fifteenth year, when I was at school at Detmold, in the
following two ways:--First, they were awakened by a drawing in Normand’s
“Saülen-ordnungen,” of the figure of a Greek god or hero, standing there
in naked beauty. This image, a hundred times put away, came again a
hundred times before my mind. (I need not say it did not _cause_ the
Urning temperament in me; it merely awoke what was slumbering there
already--a thing that any other circumstance might have done.) Secondly,
when studying in my little room, or when I lay upon my bed before going
to sleep, the thought used suddenly and irresistibly to rise up in my
mind--“If only a soldier would clamber through the window and come into
my room!” Then my imagination painted me a splendid soldier-figure of
twenty to twenty-two years old; and I was, as it were, all on fire.
And yet my thoughts were quite vague, and undirected to any definite
satisfaction; nor had I ever spoken a word with a real soldier.”--K. H.
ULRICHS, “Memnon,” §77. Leipzig, 1898. See also “A Problem in Modern
Ethics,” p. 73.
“The friendships of this kind which I formed at School were two in
number--I shall never forget the absorbing depth and intensity of them.
I never talked about them to anyone else, they were much too sacred and
serious for that, nor--strange as it may seem--did I ever speak of them
to the boys themselves, or indeed, show any signs of affection towards
them. If they had been told that I was devoted to their welfare, and
willing to sacrifice myself and all I had to it (which was indeed the
fact) they would have been simply astonished; more especially as they
were both young boys not yet arrived at puberty.
“I am at present somewhat bitterly conscious that in these cases one
of the strongest influences for good that ever came into my life was
nine-tenths wasted. How much better it all might have been under more
favourable surroundings it is impossible to imagine. Still, it was
not without its good influence on me, though (owing to their complete
ignorance of my feelings) it could have had none whatever on the boys.
I was conscious of a bracing and inspiring effect on my whole nature,
a confirmed health of body, and most of all, of a greatly increased
capacity for work. And doubtless all this might have been intensified
a thousand fold if I had been ever so little guided and encouraged by
public opinion sanctioning these friendships.
“The Public School boy has after all strong feelings of honour and
fairness: and I am sure much might be done by cultivating the Public
Opinion of the school: making devoted and disinterested friendships
highly thought of and praised, and condemning as base and mean the least
attempt to befoul a young boy’s purity through a gross and selfish desire
for personal gratification. School public opinion would, I am sure, tend
quite readily to flow in such channels. But this would demand an openness
of treatment of the whole question such as does not at present exist.
That the greatest force the schoolmaster has at his command should be so
ignored (and so needlessly) is more than absurd: it is monstrous. And it
concerns him as a teacher quite as much as the boys themselves in their
relations with each other. I believe that gaining a boy’s affection is
the necessary preliminary to really _teaching_ him anything. Otherwise
you do not really teach him at all.”--_Private letter._
“I could tell you a good deal of another equally strong friendship I
formed (myself twenty-five, boy fourteen) which was one of the happiest
events of my life. It was acknowledged on both sides, but perfectly
restrained and pure: and we saw a great deal of each other during most
of the school holidays for about a year. I could have done anything with
that boy, my influence over him was for the time being I should say
unlimited: and undoubtedly _immense_ good accrued to us both.”--_Ibid_.
“In my own school-life--as a day scholar--I had two such friendships,
though of course in a day school there was not the same possibility of
their development. One was with an elder boy some five years my senior,
and the other with a master some twelve years older than myself. I was
a shy, timid youngster, and not having a robust physique did not enter
much into the ordinary athletics of the school. My elder friend was a
very delicate, gentle, refined boy with a purity and loftiness of mind in
striking contrast to the filthy moral atmosphere of the school at that
time, but he was never censorious or self-righteous. I feel that this
friendship was the most powerful influence in my early life in keeping a
high ideal of conduct before me--much more powerful than the influence of
home, which I do not think I was at all conscious of.
“After he left school, for Cambridge, we used to write regularly to one
another--long letters, hardly ever less than three sheets in length. I
remember I used to think him the most handsome man I knew, but looking
now at his photo, taken about that time and comparing it with others, I
see that his features were inferior to many others of my school-fellows.
At the end of his second year he died of consumption. It was during the
Long Vacation, and I was abroad at the time. I remember I used to sit
up late into the night writing very long letters to him about all I had
seen, to interest him during his illness. I did not know how ill he
really was, but I had a terrible fear that I should not see him again.
When I got back and found he had just died the shock was awful. For weeks
I felt as if I had not a friend in the whole world. I have never felt any
loss so keenly either before or since.…
“The other friendship with my mathematical master, though not so
intimate, was still of a very affectionate character. I feel I owe a
great deal to it--he laid the foundation of my ideal of a teacher’s duty
to his pupils.”--_Private letter._
“It is not new in itself; this, the feeling that drew Jesus to John, or
Shakespeare to the youth of the sonnets, or that inspired the friendships
of Greece, has been with us before, and in the new citizenship we shall
need it again. The Whitmanic love of comrades is its modern expression;
Democracy--as socially, not politically conceived--its basis. The thought
as to how much of the solidarity of labour and the modern Trade-Union
movement may be due to an unconscious faith in this principle of
comradeship, is no idle one. The freer, more direct, and more genuine
relationship between men, which is implied by it, must be the ultimate
basis of the reconstructed Workshop.”--C. R. ASHBEE, “Workshop
Reconstruction and Citizenship,” p. 160.
A case of passionate attachment between two Indian boys was told to
the author of the present book by a master at a school in India. The
boys--who were about sixteen years of age--were both at the same school,
and were devoted friends; but the day came when they had to part. One was
taken away by his parents to go to a distant part of the country. The
other was inconsolable at the prospect. When the day arrived, and his
companion was removed, he soon after went quietly to a well in the school
precincts, jumped in, and was drowned. The news, sent on by wire, reached
the departing friend while still on his journey. He said little, but at
one of the stations left the train and disappeared. The train went on,
but at a little distance out, the boy ran out of the bushes by the line,
threw himself on the rails, and was killed.
The following is taken from one of the “cases” recorded by Havelock
Ellis in his “Sexual Inversion”; “The earliest sex-impression that I am
conscious of is at the age of nine or ten falling in love with a handsome
boy who must have been about two years my senior. I do not recollect ever
having spoken to him, but my desire, as far as I can recall, was that
he should seize hold of and handle me. I have a distinct impression yet
of how pleasurable even physical pain or cruelty would have been at his
hands.”--HAVELOCK ELLIS, _op. cit._, “case” xiii., p. 71.