sent plan of union with the youth
just referred to, he will feel that his life has been crowned by
what is for him the best possible end; otherwise, he declares, he
would not care to live at all.

He admires male beauty passionately. Feminine beauty he perceives
objectively, as he would any design of flowing curves and
delicate coloring, but it has no sexual charm for him whatever.
Women have put themselves in his way repeatedly, but he finds
himself more and more irritated by their specifically feminine
foibles. With men generally he is much more patient and
sympathetic.

The first literature that appealed to him was Plato's dialogues,
first read at 20 years of age. Until then he had not known but
what he stood alone in his peculiarity. He read what he could of
classic literature. He enjoys Pater, appreciating his attitude
toward his own sex. Four or five years, later he came across
Raffalovich's book, and ever since has felt a real debt of
gratitude to its author.

M.O. has no wish to injure society at large. As an individual he
holds that he has the same right to be himself that anyone else
has. He thinks that while boys of from 13 to 15 might possibly be
rendered inverts, those who reach 16 without it cannot be bent
that way. They may be devoted to an invert enough in other ways
to yield him what he wishes sexually, but they will remain
essentially normal themselves. His observations are based on
about 30 homosexual relationships that have lasted various
lengths of time.

M.O. feels strongly the poetic and elevated character of his
principal homosexual relationships, but he shrinks from appearing
too sentimental.

With regard to the traces of feminism in inverts he writes:--

"Up to the age of 11 I associated much with a cousin five years
older (the one referred to above) and took great delight in a
game we often played, in which I was a girl,--a never-ending
romance, a non-sexual love story.

"Somewhat later and until puberty, I took great delight in
acting, but generally took female roles, wearing skirts, shawls,
beads, wigs, head-dresses. When I was about 13 my family began to
make fun of me for it. I played secretly for a while, and then
the desire for it left, never to return.

"There still lingers, however, a minor interest, which began