at intervals between me and the son of the village doctor,
a youth about two years older than myself, and precociously
immoral. I did not really care for him much, but he was my chief
companion. Then I became a school-assistant, and for about six
years managed to control myself, only, alas, to fall again.
Another resolution I kept for eight years, one long fight with my
nature. Again I sinned in three instances, extending over three
or four years. I now come to a very painful and eventful episode
in my unhappy life which I would gladly pass over were it
possible. It was a case, in middle life, of sin, discovery, and
great folly in addition.

"Before going into details, so far as may be necessary, I cannot
help asking you to consider calmly and dispassionately my exact
condition compared with that of my fellow-creatures as a whole.
In my struggles to resist in the past, I have at times felt as if
wrestling in the folds of a python. I again sinned, then, with a
youth and his friend. Oddly enough, discovery followed through a
man who was actuated by a feeling of revenge for a strictly right
act on my part. The lads refused to state more than the truth,
and this did not satisfy the man, and a _third_ lad was
introduced, who was prepared to say anything. This was not all;
some twelve or fifteen more boys made similar accusations! The
general belief, in consequence, was that I had committed
'nameless' crimes in all directions, _ad lib_. If you were to ask
me for an explanation of the action of all these boys beyond the
_third_, who, of course, had some special inducements, I can
offer none. They may have thought that the original trio were
regarded rather in the light of _heroes_; why should _they_ not
be heroes, too?

"I might well feel crushed under such a load of accusations, but
that does not excuse the incredible folly of my conduct. I denied
alike the modicum of truth and the mass of lying, and went off to
America. However, as time passed on and my mind got into a proper
state, I felt that the truth must be told some time or other. I
accordingly wrote from America to the proper quarter a full
confession of my sin with regard to the two youths who had told
merely the truth, at the same time pointing out the falsehood of
all the rest of the accusations.

"I remained i