Raffalovich, Uranism. 5 1 



creased ; it might also be revised. It does not contain, for in- 

 stance the great Conde, the victor of Rocroy, and Moll cites 

 many debauched and feeble princes. 



Greece — but if the superior invert truly fathoms the his- 

 tory of homosexuality in Greece, he will recognize that the in- 

 vert there was scarcely more fortunate than in Europe at pres- 

 ent. The young man well born had to protect his honor and 

 his reputation like a virgin of our day. The young men of to- 

 day have more liberty than the young Greeks and they would 

 find it intolerable to conduct themselves with such circumspec- 

 tion. Greece was not the paradise of the inverts. Far from it. 

 Among exotic peoples whether north or south (for climate has 

 no influence upon homosexuality, as is claimed), among the Es- 

 quimaux, the Annamites, or the Mexicans before the conquest, 

 the inverts could perhaps satisfy their inclinations ; but they 

 perhaps also had to register in a class apart (as we see it among 

 many peoples), having certain privileges and a paradoxical con- 

 sideration. 



The superior invert has no right to think himself born out 

 of his epoch or his country. Even the Orient of today where 

 pederasty is practiced without difficulty would not offer him the 

 intellectual pleasures to which he is accustomed, music, the 

 theater, etc., etc. He will see with a smile that most of the 

 new Greeks would have been considered too sickly or too 

 greatly malformed to be reared by the Spartans. He will see 

 with more or less courage that the satisfaction of the sexual 

 appetite cannot be the sine qua noii of existence to a modern 

 man, to a civilized man. Civilized man has enough other neces- 

 sities ; and when we speak of the injustice of fate and of so- 

 ciety, when we ask for a different method of treating the inverts, 

 why not think of other recognized and admitted injustices? 

 For example, a young man, heterosexual, poor, hard worked, 

 not able to marry and disdaining low and repulsive women, not 

 having the means to give a more attractive woman that which 

 she expects, neither able nor willing to be the paramour of a 

 venal or wealthy woman, and not desirous of availing himself of 

 adultery with all which that involves, — this man, from the sex- 



