Raffalovich, Uranism. 45 



by his family. An amorous woman is not more foolish and 

 more prudent, more patient and more impatient. 



These manoeuvres may continue several years before, dur- 

 ing and after puberty. The child sees more and more clearly 

 his desires take definate form. At first he does not know what 

 he desires — some sort of contact, a kiss. Greek history then 

 informs him that Greek men loved each other ; that the Greeks 

 were beautiful, noble, admirable, that Greek love is not ap- 

 proved of by present customs, that Socrates and Alcibiades 

 slept under the same mantle, etc. It needs no more to excite 

 and fill the imagination of the child. "I am then an ancient 

 Greek," he says to himself He rather looks down upon the 

 moderns. He is still too far removed from modern life to be un- 

 easy about his inversion. On the contrary, it interests and 

 occupies him. 



At college the invert may remain innocent, while the 

 heterosexual may be trained there in a more or less permanent 

 way for homosexuality. The influence of the boarding school 

 is a very important matter and one very difficult to fathom. 

 All — or almost all — whom one questions and who will reply 

 are probably far beyond or far under the truth. The inverts, 

 for example, are either very reticent or very boastful. Many 

 of them have a craze for seeing their kind everywhere. The 

 heterosexuals who are not smitten with the passion for gossip 

 would probably deny it shamelessly from cowardice, shame, 

 indolence, or what-not. The masters, as may be easily con- 

 ceived, can neither tell nor see the truth in this matter. If it 

 is easy in the prisons, to indulge in unisexuality, the vicious or 

 inverted children are no less ingenious than the prisoners. The 

 very vicious at college are often inverted only by vice without 

 any other occasions. Children may debauch themselves with- 

 out for that reason being inverts. Many inverts have an exag- 

 gerated modesty which may shield them, though the dormitory 

 life is inimical to modesty. 



It is well to remark here that if any one observes in little 

 boys an instinctive modesty, especially in the presence of a man, 

 he should be mistrusted. Are we in the presence of an invert ? 



