Raffalovich, Uranism. 43 



inconsistency is common with both men and women ; with men 

 it is especially objectionable. It terminates in hypocrisy, in 

 weakness and in uselessness. Virtues apprehended by the in- 

 tellect merely, not by the will, cannot effect a cure. They often 

 do more harm than good. Fair speech and thought with a cor- 

 rupt life do more harm to young men than shameless debauch- 

 ery. He should not say too much about the ideal of chastity 

 and purity, for chaste words from a profligate seem too much 

 like the lassitude following the debauch to the eyes of the rude, 

 the young or the scoffers. 



The inverts follow out this inconsistency to its extreme. 

 For the most part there is a total difference between their the- 

 ories and their conduct ; they have propensities so etherial, 

 they are so conscientious (in their own estimation), and their 

 gratifications are both imperious and easy. When alone they 

 are siezed with sudden desire or they even seek out from time 

 to time a young and compliant friend, a friend more poor than 

 themselves, often one who who is married. These inverts are 

 not the worst. Their hypocrisy may be feebleness. They per- 

 vert others but little after their earliest youth. They have some 

 regard for their dignity. They are not chaste, but they are not 

 libertines. A young man might be entrusted to them without 

 danger. They do not spread the contagion. They are solicit- 

 ous of their honor and their reputation. Some succeed in con- 

 quering themselves after a fashion, in overcoming their youthful 

 errors, and if they pass the crisis, which is as frequent in the 

 man who has settled down as in the chaste woman, they may 

 die respectable and respected. 



The inverts not having chosen their own nature should be 

 credited with the desire of improving and purifying themselves ; 

 and if we should assert the superiority of the invert who re- 

 strains himself over the heterosexual man who abandons himself 

 to his sexuality, this would be nothing more than justice. 



The child (to return to the poor being) probably feels for 

 the domestics in livery or in their shirt sleeves the first touch of 

 that obsession of the uniform, an obsession which occurs in the 

 sexual life of the heterosexual. How many men love the 



