|
|
somewhere about a million.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Taking all its forms _en bloc_, as they are known to the police,
homosexuality is seen to possess formidable proportions. Thus in France,
from official papers which passed through M. Carlier's bureau during ten
years (1860-70), he compiled a list of 6342 pederasts who came within the
cognizance of the police; 2049 Parisians, 3709 provincials, and 584
foreigners. Of these, 3432, or more than the half, could not be convicted
of illegal acts.
[2] The chief general collection of data (not here drawn upon) concerning
homosexuality among animals is by the zoölogist Prof. Karsch, "Päderastie
und Tribadie bei den Tieren," _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol.
ii. Brehm's _Tierleben_ also contains many examples. See also a short
chapter (ch. xxix) in Hirschfeld's _Homosexualität_.
[3] H. Sainte-Claire Deville, "De l'Internat et son influence sur
l'education de la jeunesse," a paper read to the Académie des Sciences
Morales et Politiques, July 27, 1871, and quoted by Chevalier,
_L'Inversion Sexuelle_, pp. 204-5.
[4] M. Bombarda, _Comptes rendus Congrès Internationale de l'Anthropologie
Criminelle_, Amsterdam, p. 212.
[5] Lacassagne, "De la Criminalité chez les Animaux," _Revue
Scientifique_, 1882.
[6] Steinach, "Utersuchungen zu vergleichende Physiologie," _Archiv für
die Gesammte Physiologie_, Bd. lvi, 1894, p. 320.
[7] Féré, _Comptes-rendus Société de Biologie_, July 30, 1898. We may
perhaps connect this with an observation of E. Selous (_Zoölogist_, May
and Sept., 1901) on a bird, the Great Crested Grebe; after pairing, the
male would crouch to the female, who played his part to him; the same
thing is found among pigeons. Selous suggests that this is a relic of
primitive hermaphroditism. But it may be remembered that in the male
generally sexual intercourse tends to be more exhausting than in the
female; this fact would favor a reversion of their respective parts.
[8] E. Selous, "Sexual Selection in Birds," _Zoölogist_, Feb., 1907, p.
65; ib., May, p. 169. Sexual aberrations generally are not uncommon among
birds; see, e.g., A. Heim, "Sexuelle Verirrungen bei Vögeln in den
Tropen," _Sexual-Probleme_, April, 1913.
[9] See Moll, _Untersuchungen über die Libido Sexualis_, 1898, Bd. i, pp.
369, 374-5. For a summary of facts concerning homosexuality in animals see
F. Karsch, "Päderastie und Tribadie bei den Tieren auf Grund der
Literatur," _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. ii, 1899, pp.
126-154
[10] Muccioli, "Degenerazione e Criminalità nei Colombi," _Archivio di
Psichiatria_, 1893, p. 40.
[11] _L'Intermédiare des Biologistes_, November 20, 1897.
[12] R.I. Pocock, _Field_, 25 Oct., 1913.
[13] R.S. Rutherford, "Crowing Hens," _Poultry_, January 26, 1896.
[14] This has now been very thoroughly done by Prof. F. Karsch-Haack in a
large book, _Das Gleichgeschlechtliche Leben der Naturvölker_, 1911. An
earlier and shorter study by the same author was published in the
_Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iii, 1901.
[15] See a brief and rather inconclusive treatment of the question by
Bruns Meissner, "Assyriologische Studien," iv, _Mitteilungen der
Vorderasiatischen Gesellschaft_, 1907.
[16] _Monatshefte für praktische Dermatologie_, Bd. xxix, 1899, p. 409.
[17] Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualität_, p. 739.
[18] Beardmore also notes that sodomy is "regularly indulged in" in New
Guinea on this account. (_Journal of the Anthropological Institute_, May,
1890, p. 464.)
[19] I have been told by medical men in India that it is specially common
among the Sikhs, the finest soldier-race in India.
[20] Foley, _Bulletin Société d'Anthropologie de Paris_, October 9, 1879.
[21] See, e.g., O. Kiefer, "Plato's Stellung zu Homosexualität," _Jahrbuch
für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. vii.
[22] Bethe, op. cit., p. 440. In old Japan (before the revolution of 1868)
also, however, according to F.S. Krauss (_Das Geschlechtsleben der
Japaner_, ch. xiii, 1911), the homosexual relations between knights and
their pages resembled those of ancient Greece.
[23] _Archiv für Kriminal-Anthropologie_, 1906, p. 106.
[24] _Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft_, 1914, Heft 2, p. 73.
[25] Among the Sarts of Turkestan a class of well-trained and educated
homosexual prostitutes, resembling those found in China and many regions
of northern Asia, bearing also the same name of _batsha_, are said to be
especially common because fostered by the scarcity of women through
polygamy and by the women's ignorance and coarseness. The institution of
the _batsha_ is supposed to have come to Turkestan from Persia. (Herman,
"Die Päderastie bei den Sarten," _Sexual-Probleme_, June, 1911.) This
would seem to suggest that Persia may have been a general center of
diffusions of this kind of refined homosexuality in northern Asia.
[26] Morache, art. "Chine," _Dictionnaire Encyclopédique des Sciences
Médicales_; Matignon, "La Péderastie en Chine," _Archives d'Anthropologie
Criminelle_, Jan., 1899; Von der Choven, summarized in _Archives de
Neurologie_, March, 1907; Scié-Ton-Fa, "L'Homosexualité en Chine," _Revue
de l'Hypnotisme_, April, 1909.
[27] _Moeurs des Peuples de l'Inde_, 1825, vol. i, part ii, ch. xii. In
Lahore and Lucknow, as quoted by Burton, Daville describes "men dressed as
women, with flowing locks under crowns of flowers, imitating the feminine
walk and gestures, voice and fashion of speech, ogling their admirer with
all the coquetry of bayaderes."
[28] _Voyages and Travels_, 1814, part ii, p. 47.
[29] A. Lisiansky, _Voyage, etc._, London, 1814, p. 1899.
[30] _Ethnographische Skizzen_, 1855, p. 121.
[31] C.F.P. von Martius, _Zur Ethnographie Amerika's_, Leipzig, 1867, Bd.
i, p. 74. In Ancient Mexico Bernal Diaz wrote: _Erant quasi omnes sodomia
commaculati, et adolescentes multi, muliebriter vestiti, ibant publice,
cibum quarentes ab isto diabolico et abominabili labore_.
[32] Hammond, _Sexual Impotence_, pp. 163-174.
[33] _New York Medical Journal_, Dec. 7, 1889.
[34] J. Turnbull, "_A Voyage Round the World in the Year 1800_," etc.,
1813, p. 382.
[35] _Annales d'Hygiène et de Médecine Coloniale_, 1899, p. 494.
[36] Oskar Baumann, "Conträre Sexual-Erscheinungen bei die
Neger-Bevölkerung Zanzibars," _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_, 1899, Heft 6,
p. 668.
[37] Rev. J.H. Weeks, _Journal Anthropological Institute_, 1909, p. 449. I
am informed by a medical correspondent in the United States that inversion
is extremely prevalent among American negroes. "I have good reason to
believe," he writes, "that it is far more prevalent among them than among
the white people of any nation. If inversion is to be regarded as a
penalty of 'civilization' this is remarkable. Perhaps, however, the Negro,
_relatively to his capacity_, is more highly civilized than we are; at any
rate his civilization has been thrust upon him, and not acquired through
the long throes of evolution. Colored inverts desire white men as a rule,
but are not averse to men of their own race. I believe that 10 per cent,
of Negroes in the United States are sexually inverted."
[38] Among the Papuans of German New Guinea, where the women have great
power, marriage is late, and the young men are compelled to live separated
from the women in communal houses. Here, says Moskowski (_Zeitschrift für
Ethnologie_, 1911, Heft 2, p. 339), homosexual orgies are openly carried
on.
[39] C.G. Seligmann, "Sexual Inversion Among Primitive Races," _Alienist
and Neurologist_, Jan., 1902. In a tale of the Western Solomon Islands,
reported by J.C. Wheeler (_Anthropophyteia_, vol. ix, p. 376) we find a
story of a man who would be a woman, and married another man and did
woman's work.
[40] Hardman, "Habits and Customs of Natives of Kimberley, Western
Australia," _Proceedings Royal Irish Academy_, 3d series, vol. i, 1889, p.
73.
[41] Klaatsch, "Some Notes on Scientific Travel Amongst the Black
Populations of Tropic Australia," Adelaide meeting of _Australian
Association for the Advancement of Science_, January, 1907, p. 5.
[42] In further illustration of this I have been told that among the
common people there is often no feeling against connection with a woman
_per anum_.
[43] Chevalier (_L'Inversion Sexuelle_, pp. 85-106) brings forward a
considerable amount of evidence regarding homosexuality at Rome under the
emperors. See also Moll, _Konträre Sexualempfindung_, 1899, pp. 56-66, and
Hirschfeld, _Homosexualität_, 1913, pp. 789-806. On the literary side,
Petronius best reveals the homosexual aspect of Roman life about the time
of Tiberius.
[44] J.A. Symonds wrote an interesting essay on this subject; see also
Kiefer, _Jahrbuch f. sex. Zwischenstufen_, vol. viii, 1906.
[45] See L. von Scheffler, "Elagabal," _Jahrbuch f. sex. Zwischenstufen_,
vol. iii, 1901; also Duviquet, _Héliogabale (Mercure de France_).
[46] The following note has been furnished to me: "Balzac, in _Une
Dernière Incarnation de Vautrin_, describes the morals of the French
_bagnes_. Dostoieffsky, in _Prison-Life in Siberia_, touches on the same
subject. See his portrait of Sirotkin, p. 52 et seq., p. 120 (edition J.
and R. Maxwell, London). We may compare Carlier, _Les Deux Prostitutions_,
pp. 300-1, for an account of the violence of homosexual passions in French
prisons. The initiated are familiar with the fact in English prisons.
Bouchard, in his _Confessions_, Paris, Liseux, 1881, describes the convict
station at Marseilles in 1630." Homosexuality among French recidivists at
Saint-Jean-du-Maroni in French Guiana has been described by Dr. Cazanova,
_Arch. d'Anth. Crim._, January, 1906, p. 44. See also Davitt's _Leaves
from a Prison Diary_, and Berkman's _Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist_; also
Rebierre, _Joyeux et Demifous_, 1909.
[47] D. McMurtrie, _Chicago Medical Recorder_, January, 1914.
[48] See Appendix A: "Homosexuality among Tramps," by "Josiah Flynt."
[49] _Inferno_, xv. The place of homosexuality in the _Divine Comedy_
itself has been briefly studied by Undine Freün von Verschuer, _Jahrbuch
für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. viii, 1906.
[50] Hirschfeld and others have pointed out, very truly, that inverts are
less prone than normal persons to regard caste and social position. This
innately democratic attitude renders it easier for them than for ordinary
people to rise to what Cyples has called the "ecstasy of humanity," the
emotional attitude, that is to say, of those rare souls of whom it may be
said, in the same writer's words, that "beggars' rags to their
unhesitating lips grew fit for kissing because humanity had touched the
garb." Edward Carpenter (_Intermediate Types among Primitive Folk_, p. 83)
remarks that great ethical leaders have often exhibited feminine traits,
and adds: "It becomes easy to suppose of those early figures--who once
probably were men--those Apollos, Buddhas, Dionysus, Osiris, and so
forth--to suppose that they too were somewhat bisexual in temperament, and
that it was really largely owing to that fact that they were endowed with
far-reaching powers and became leaders of mankind."
[51] English translation, _Primitive Folk_, in Contemporary Science
series.
[52] R. Horneffer, _Der Priester_, 2 vols., 1912. J.G. Frazer, in the
volume entitled "Adonis, Attis, Osiris" (pp. 428-435) of the third edition
of his _Golden Bough_, discusses priests dressed as women, and finds
various reasons for the custom.
[53] Edward Carpenter, _Intermediate Types among Primitive Folk_, 1914.
[54] Westermarck, _Origin and Development of Moral Ideas_, vol. ii, ch.
xliii.
[55] "Italian literature," remarks Symonds, "can show the _Rime
Burlesche_, Becadelli's _Hermaphroditus_, the _Canti Carnascialeschi_, the
Macaronic poems of Fidentius, and the remarkably outspoken romance
entitled _Alcibiade Fanciullo a Scola_."
[56] The life of Muret has been well written by C. Dejob, _Marc-Antoine
Muret_, 1881.
[57] F.M. Nichols, _Epistles of Erasmus_, vol. i, pp. 44-55.
[58] Burckhardt, _Die Kultur der Renaissance_, vol. ii, _Excursus_ ci.
[59] F. de Gaudenzi in ch. v of his _Studio Psico-patologico sopra T.
Tasso_ (1899) deals fully with the poet's homosexual tendencies.
[60] Herbert P. Horne, _Leonardo da Vinci_, 1903, p. 12.
[61] S. Freud, _Eine Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo da Vinci_, 1910.
[62] See Parlagreco, _Michelangelo Buonarotti_, Naples, 1888; Ludwig von
Scheffler, _Michelangelo: Ein Renaissance Studie_, 1892; _Archivo di
Psichiatria_, vol. xv, fasc. i, ii, p. 129; J.A. Symonds, _Life of
Michelangelo_, 1893; Dr. Jur. Numa Praetorius, "Michel Angelo's
Urningtum," _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. ii, 1899, pp,
254-267.
[63] J.A. Symonds, _Life of Michelangelo_, vol. ii, p. 384.
[64] Sodoma's life and temperament have been studied and his pictures
copiously reproduced by Elisár von Kupffer, _Jahrbuch für sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, Bd. ix, 1908, p. 71 et seq., and by R.H. Hobart Cust,
_Giovanni Antonio Bazzi_.
[65] Cellini, _Life_, translated by J.A. Symonds, introduction, p. xxxv,
and p. 448. Queringhi (_La Psiche di B. Cellini_, 1913) argues that
Cellini was not homosexual.
[66] See the interesting account of Duquesnoy by Eekhoud (_Jahrbuch für
sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. ii, 1899), an eminent Belgian novelist who
has himself been subjected to prosecution on account of the pictures of
homosexuality in his novels and stories, _Escal-Vigor_ and _Le Cycle
Patibulaire_ (see _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iii, 1901).
[67] See Justi's _Life of Winkelmann_, and also Moll's _Die Konträre
Sexualempfindung_, third edition, 1899, pp. 122-126. In this work, as well
as in Raffalovich's _Uranisme et Unisexualité_, as also in Moll's
_Berühmte Homosexuelle_ (1910) and Hirschfeld's _Die Homosexualität_, p.
650 et seq., there will be found some account of many eminent men who are,
on more or less reliable grounds, suspected of homosexuality. Other German
writers brought forward as inverted are Platen, K.P. Moritz, and Iffland.
Platen was clearly a congenital invert, who sought, however, the
satisfaction of his impulses in Platonic friendship; his homosexual poems
and the recently published unabridged edition of his diary render him an
interesting object of study; see for a sympathetic account of him, Ludwig
Frey, "Aus dem Seelenleben des Grafen Platen," _Jahrbuch für sexuelle
Zwischenstufen_, vols. i and vi. Various kings and potentates have been
mentioned in this connection, including the Sultan Baber; Henri III of
France; Edward II, William II, James I, and William III of England, and
perhaps Queen Anne and George III, Frederick the Great and his brother,
Heinrich, Popes Paul II, Sixtus IV, and Julius II, Ludwig II of Bavaria,
and others. Kings, indeed, seem peculiarly inclined to homosexuality.
[68] Schultz, _Das Höfische Leben_, Bd. i, ch. xiii.
[69] _De Planctu Naturæ_ has been translated by Douglas Moffat, _Yale
Studies in English_, No. xxxvi, 1908.
[70] P. de l'Estoile, _Mémoires-Journaux_, vol. ii, p. 326.
[71] Laborde, _Le Palais Mazarin_, p. 128.
[72] Thus she writes in 1701 (_Correspondence_, edited by Brunet, vol. i,
p. 58): "Our heroes take as their models Hercules, Theseus, Alexander, and
Cæsar, who all had their male favorites. Those who give themselves up to
this vice, while believing in Holy Scripture, imagine that it was only a
sin when there were few people in the world, and that now the earth is
populated it may be regarded as a _divertissement_. Among the common
people, indeed, accusations of this kind are, so far as possible, avoided;
but among persons of quality it is publicly spoken of; it is considered a
fine saying that since Sodom and Gomorrah, the Lord has punished no one
for such offences."
[73] Sérieux and Libert, "La Bastille et ses Prisonniers," _L'Encéphale_,
September, 1911.
[74] Witry, "Notes Historiques sur l'Homosexualité en France," _Revue de
l'Hypnotisme_, January, 1909.
[75] In early Teutonic days there was little or no trace of any punishment
for homosexual practices in Germany. This, according to Hermann Michaëlis,
only appeared after the Church had gained power among the West Goths; in
the Breviarium of Alaric II (506), the sodomist was condemned to the
stake, and later, in the seventh century, by an edict of King
Chindasvinds, to castration. The Frankish capitularies of Charlemange's
time adopted ecclesiastical penances. In the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries death by fire was ordained, and the punishments enacted by the
German codes tended to become much more ferocious than that edicted by the
Justinian code on which they were modelled.
[76] Raffalovich discusses German friendship, _Uranisme et Unisexualité_,
pp. 157-9. See also Birnbaum, _Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd.
viii, p. 611; he especially illustrates this kind of friendship by the
correspondence of the poets Gleim and Jacobi, who used to each other the
language of lovers, which, indeed, they constantly called themselves.
[77] This letter may be found in Ernst Schur's _Heinrich von Kleist in
seinen Briefen_, p. 295. Dr. J. Sadger has written a pathographic and
psychological study of Kleist, emphasizing the homosexual strain, in the
_Grenzfragen des Nerven- und Seelenlebens_ series.
[78] Alexander's not less distinguished brother, Wilhelm von Humboldt,
though not homosexual, possessed, a woman wrote to him, "the soul of a
woman and the most tender feeling for womanliness I have ever found in
your sex;" he himself admitted the feminine traits in his nature. Spranger
(_Wilhelm von Humboldt_, p. 288) says of him that "he had that dual
sexuality without which the moral summits of humanity cannot be reached."
[79] Krupp caused much scandal by his life at Capri, where he was
constantly surrounded by the handsome youths of the place, mandolinists
and street arabs, with whom he was on familiar terms, and on whom he
lavished money. H.D. Davray, a reliable eyewitness, has written "Souvenirs
sur M. Krupp à Capri," _L'Européen_, 29 November, 1902. It is not,
however, definitely agreed that Krupp was of fully developed homosexual
temperament (see, e.g., _Jahrbuch f. sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. v, p.
1303 et seq.) An account of his life at Capri was published in the
_Vorwärts_, against which Krupp finally brought a libel action; but he
died immediately afterward, it is widely believed, by his own hand, and
the libel action was withdrawn.
[80] Madame, the mother of the Regent, in her letters of 12th October, 4th
November, and 13th December, 1701, repeatedly makes this assertion, and
implies that it was supported by the English who at that time came over to
Paris with the English Ambassador, Lord Portland. The King was very
indifferent to women.
[81] Anselm, Epistola lxii, in Migne's _Patrologia_, vol. clix, col. 95.
John of Salisbury, in his _Polycrates_, describes the homosexual and
effeminate habits of his time.
[82] Pollock and Maitland, _History of English Law_, vol. ii, p. 556.
[83] Coleridge in his _Table Talk_ (14 May, 1833) remarked: "A man may,
under certain states of the moral feeling, entertain something deserving
the name of love towards a male object--an affection beyond friendship,
and wholly aloof from appetite. In Elizabeth's and James's time it seems
to have been almost fashionable to cherish such a feeling. Certainly the
language of the two friends Musidorus and Pyrocles in the _Arcadia_ is
such as we could not use except to women." This passage of Coleridge's is
interesting as an early English recognition by a distinguished man of
genius of what may be termed ideal homosexuality.
[84] See account of Udall in the _National Dictionary of Biography_.
[85] _Complete Poems of Richard Barnfield_, edited with an introduction by
A.B. Grosart, 1876. The poems of Barnfield were also edited by Arber, in
the English Scholar's Library, 1883. Arber, who always felt much horror
for the abnormal, argues that Barnfield's occupation with homosexual
topics was merely due to a search for novelty, that it was "for the most
part but an amusement and had little serious or personal in it." Those
readers of Barnfield, however, who are acquainted with homosexual
literature will scarcely fail to recognize a personal preoccupation in his
poems. This is also the opinion of Moll in his _Berühmte Homosexuelle_.
[86] See appendix to my edition of Marlowe in the _Mermaid Series_, first
edition. For a study of Marlowe's "Gaveston," regarded as "the
hermaphrodite in soul," see J.A. Nicklin, _Free Review_, December, 1895.
[87] As Raffalovich acutely points out, the twentieth sonnet, with its
reference to the "one thing to my purpose nothing," is alone enough to
show that Shakespeare was not a genuine invert, as then he would have
found the virility of the loved object beautiful. His sonnets may fairly
be compared to the _In Memoriam_ of Tennyson, whom it is impossible to
describe as inverted, though in his youth he cherished an ardent
friendship for another youth, such as was also felt in youth by Montaigne.
[88] A scene in Vanbrugh's _Relapse_, and the chapter (ch. li) in
Smollett's _Roderick Random_ describing Lord Strutwell, may also be
mentioned as evidencing familiarity with inversion. "In our country," said
Lord Strutwell to Rawdon, putting forward arguments familiar to modern
champions of homosexuality, "it gains ground apace, and in all probability
will become in a short time a more fashionable vice than simple
fornication."
[89] These observations on eighteenth century homosexuality in London are
chiefly based on the volumes of _Select Trials_ at the Old Bailey,
published in 1734.
[90] Numa Praetorius (_Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, Bd. iv, p.
885), who has studied Byron from this point of view, considers that,
though his biography has not yet been fully written on the sexual side, he
was probably of bisexual temperament; Raffalovich (_Uranisme et
Unisexualité_, p. 309) is of the same opinion.
[91] A youthful attraction of this kind in a poet is well illustrated by
Dolben, who died at the age of nineteen. In addition to a passion for
Greek poetry he cherished a romantic friendship of extraordinary ardor,
revealed in his poems, for a slightly older schoolfellow, who was never
even aware of the idolatry he aroused. Dolben's life has been written, and
his poems edited, by his friend the eminent poet, Robert Bridges (_The
Poems of D.M. Dolben_, edited with a Memoir by R. Bridges, 1911).
[92] A well-informed narrative of the Oscar Wilde trial is given by
Raffalovich in his _Uranisme et Unisexualité_, pp. 241-281; the full
report of the trial has been published by Mason. The best life of Wilde is
probably that of Arthur Ransome. André Gide's little volume of
reminiscences, _Oscar Wilde_ (also translated into English), is well worth
reading. Wilde has been discussed in relation to homosexuality by Numa
Praetorius (_Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen_, vol. iii, 1901). An
instructive document, an unpublished portion of _De Profundis_, in which
Wilde sought to lay the blame for his misfortune on a friend,--his
"ancient affection" for whom has, he declares, been turned to "loathing,
bitterness, and contempt,"--was published in the _Times_, 18th April,
1913; it clearly reveals an element of weakness of character.
[93] T. Wright, _Life of Edward Fitzgerald_, vol. i, p. 158.
[94] Most of these were carelessly lost or destroyed by Posh. A few have
been published by James Blyth, _Edward Fitzgerald and_ '_Posh_,' 1908.
[95] It is as such that Whitman should be approached, and I would desire
to protest against the tendency, now marked in many quarters, to treat him
merely as an invert, and to vilify him or glorify him accordingly. However
important inversion may be as a psychological key to Whitman's
personality, it plays but a small part in Whitman's work, and for many who
care for that work a negligible part. (I may be allowed to refer to my own
essay on Whitman, in _The New Spirit_, written nearly thirty years ago.)
[96] I may add that Symonds (in his book on Whitman) accepted this letter
as a candid and final statement showing that Whitman was absolutely
hostile to sexual inversion, that he had not even taken its phenomena into
account, and that he had "omitted to perceive that there are inevitable
points of contact between sexual inversion and his doctrine of
friendship." He recalls, however, Whitman's own lines at the end of
"Calamus" in the Camden edition of 1876:--
"Here my last words, and the most baffling,
Here the frailest leaves of me, and yet my strongest-lasting,
Here I shade down and hide my thoughts--I do not expose them,
And yet they expose me more than all my other poems."
[97] Whitman's letters to Peter Doyle, an uncultured young tram-conductor
deeply loved by the poet, have been edited by Dr. Bucke, and published at
Boston: _Calamus: A Series of Letters_, 1897.
[98] Whitman acknowledged, however (as in the letter to Symonds already
referred to), that he had had six children; they appear to have been born
in the earlier part of his life when he lived in the South. (See a chapter
on Walt Whitman's children in Edward Carpenter's interesting book, _Days
with Walt Whitman_, 1906.) Yet his brother George Whitman said: "I never
knew Walt to fall in love with young girls, or even to show them marked
attention." And Doyle, who knew him intimately during ten years of late
life, said: "Women in that sense never came into his head." The early
heterosexual relationship seems to have been an exception in his life.
With regard to the number of children I am informed that, in the opinion
of a lady who knew Whitman in the South, there can be no reasonable doubt
as to the existence of one child, but that when enumerating six he
possibly included grandchildren.
[99] While the homosexual strain in Walt Whitman has been more or less
definitely admitted by various writers, the most vigorous attempts to
present the homosexual character of his personality and work are due to
Eduard Bertz in Germany, and to Dr. W.C. Rivers in England. Bertz has
issued three publications on Whitman: see especially his _Der
Yankee-Heiland_, 1906, and _Whitman-Mysterien_, 1907. The arguments of
Rivers are concisely stated in a pamphlet entitled _Walt Whitman's
Anomaly_ (London: George Allen, 1913). Both Bertz and Rivers emphasize the
feminine traits in Whitman. An interesting independent picture of Whitman,
at about the date of the letter to Symonds, accompanied by the author's
excellent original photographs, is furnished by Dr. John Johnston, _A
Visit to Walt Whitman_, 1898. It may be added that, probably, both the
extent and the significance of the feminine traits in Whitman have been
overestimated by some writers. Most artists and men of genius have some
feminine traits; they do not prove the existence of inversion, nor does
their absence disprove it. Dr. Clark Bell writes to me in reference to the
little book by Dr. Rivers: "I knew Walt Whitman personally. To me Mr.
Whitman was one of the most robust and virile of men, extraordinarily so.
He was from my standpoint not feminine at all, but physically masculine
and robust. The difficulty is that a virile and strong man who is poetic
in temperament, ardent and tender, may have phases and moods of passion
and emotion which are apt to be misinterpreted." A somewhat similar view,
in opposition to Bertz and Rivers, has been vigorously set forth by
Bazalgette (who has written a very thorough study of Whitman in French),
especially in the _Mercure de France_ for 1st July, 1st Oct., and 15th
Nov., 1913.
[100] Lepelletier, in what may be regarded as the official biography of
Verlaine (_Paul Verlaine_, 1907) seeks to minimize or explain away the
homosexual aspect of the poet's life. So also Berrichon, Rimbaud's
brother-in-law, _Mercure de France_, 16 July, 1911 and 1 Feb., 1912. P.
Escoube, in a judicious essay (included in _Préférences_, 1913), presents
a more reasonable view of this aspect of Verlaine's temperament. Even
apart altogether from the evidence as to the poet's tendency to passionate
friendship, there can be no appeal from the poems themselves, which
clearly possess an absolute and unquestionable sincerity.
[101] Sir Richard Burton, who helped to popularize this view, regarded the
phenomenon as "geographical and climatic, not racial," and held that
within what he called the Sotadic Zone "the vice is popular and endemic,
held at the worst to be a mere peccadillo, while the races to the north
and south of the limits here defined practice it only sporadically, amid
the opprobrium of their fellows, who, as a rule, are physically incapable
of performing the operation, and look upon it with the liveliest disgust."
He adds: "The only physical cause for the practice which suggests itself
to me, and that must be owned to be purely conjectural, is that within the
Sotadic Zone there is a blending of the masculine and feminine
temperaments, a crasis which elsewhere only occurs sporadically" (_Arabian
Nights_, 1885, vol. x, pp. 205-254). The theory of the Sotadic Zone fails
to account for the custom among the Normans, Celts, Scythians, Bulgars,
and Tartars, and, moreover, in various of these regions different views
have prevailed at different periods. Burton was wholly unacquainted with
the psychological investigations into sexual inversion which had, indeed,
scarcely begun in his day.
[102] Spectator (_Anthropophyteia_, vol. vii, 1910), referring especially
to the neighborhood of Sorrento, states that the southern Italians regard
passive _pedicatio_ as disgraceful, but attach little or no shame to
active _pedicatio_. This indifference enables them to exploit the
homosexual foreigners who are specially attracted to southern Italy in the
development of a flourishing homosexual industry.
[103] It is true that in the solitude of great modern cities it is
possible for small homosexual coteries to form, in a certain sense, an
environment of their own, favorable to their abnormality; yet this fact
hardly modifies the general statement made in the text.
[104] See especially Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualität_, chs. xxiv and xxv.
[105] Ulrichs, in his _Argonauticus_, in 1869, estimated the number as
only 25,000, but admitted that this was probably a decided underestimate.
Bloch (_Die Prostitution_, Bd. i, p. 792) has found reason to believe that
in Cologne in the fifteenth century the percentage was nearly as high as
Hirschfeld finds it today. A few years earlier Bloch had believed
(_Beiträge_, part i, p. 215, 1902) that Hirschfeld's estimate of 2 per
cent, was "sheer nonsense."
[106] Hirschfeld mentions the case of two men, artists, one of them
married, who were intimate friends for a great many years before each
discovered that the other was an invert.
[107] See articles by Numa Praetorius and Fernan, maintaining that
homosexuality is at least as frequent in France (_Sexual-Probleme_, March
and December, 1909).
[108] Dr. Laupts, _L'Homosexualité_, 1910, pp. 413, 420.
[109] Näcke, _Zeitschrift für Sexualwissenschaft_, 1908, Heft 6.
[110] It is a fact significant of the French attitude toward homosexuality
that the psychologist, Dr. Saint-Paul, when writing a book on this
subject, though in a completely normal and correct manner, thought it
desirable to adopt a pseudonym.
[111] A well-informed series of papers dealing with English
homosexuality generally, and especially with London (L. Pavia, "Die
männliche Homosexualität in England," _Vierteljahrsberichte des
wissenschaftlich-humanitären Komitees_, 1909-1911) will be found
instructive even by those who are familiar with London. And see also
Hirschfeld, _Die Homosexualität_, ch. xxvi. Much information of historical
nature concerning homosexuality in England will be found in Eugen Dühren
(Iwan Bloch), _Das Geschlechtsleben in England_.
[112] This: is doubtless the reason why so many English inverts establish
themselves outside England. Paris, Florence, Nice, Naples, Cairo, and
other places, are said to swarm with homosexual Englishmen.
CHAPTER II.
THE STUDY OF SEXUAL INVERSION.
Westphal--Hössli--Casper--Ulrichs--Krafft-Ebing--Moll--Féré--Kiernan--
Lydston--Raffalovich--Edward Carpenter--Hirschfeld.
Westphal, an eminent professor of psychiatry at Berlin, may be said to be
the first to put the study of sexual inversion on an assured scientific
basis. In 1870 he published, in the _Archiv für Psychiatrie_, of which he
was for many years editor, the detailed history of a young woman who, from
her earliest years, differed from other girls: she liked to dress as a
boy, only cared for boys' games, and as she grew up was sexually attracted
only to women, with whom she formed a series of tender relationships, in
which the friends obtained sexual gratification by mutual caresses; while
she blushed and was shy in the presence of women, more especially the girl
with whom she chanced to be in love, she was always absolutely indifferent
in the presence of men. Westphal--a pupil, it may be noted, of Griesinger,
who had already called attention to the high character sometimes shown by
subjects of this perversion--combined keen scientific insight with a rare
degree of personal sympathy for those who came under his care, and it was
this combination of qualities which enabled him to grasp the true nature
of a case such as this, which by most medical men at that time would have
been hastily dismissed as a vulgar instance of vice or insanity. Westphal
perceived that this abnormality was congenital, not acquired, so that it
could not be termed vice; and, while he insisted on the presence of
neurotic elements, his observations showed the absence of anything that
could legitimately be termed insanity. He gave to this condition the name
of "contrary sexual feeling" (_Konträre Sexualempfindung_), by which it
was long usually known in Germany. The way was thus made clear for the
rapid progress of our knowledge of this abnormality. New cases were
published in quick succession, at first exclusively in Germany, and more
especially in Westphal's _Archiv_, but soon in other countries also,
chiefly Italy and France.[113]
While Westphal was the first to place the study of sexual inversion on a
progressive footing, many persons had previously obtained glimpses into
the subject. Thus, in 1791, two cases were published[114] of men who
showed a typical emotional attraction to their own sex, though it was not
quite clearly made out that the inversion was congenital. In 1836, again,
a Swiss writer, Heinrich Hössli, published a rather diffuse but remarkable
work, entitled _Eros_, which contained much material of a literary
character bearing on this matter. He seems to have been moved to write
this book by a trial which had excited considerable attention at that
time. A man of good position had suddenly murdered a youth, and was
executed for the crime, which, according to Hössli, was due to homosexual
love and jealousy. Hössli was not a trained scholar; he was in business at
Glarus as a skillful milliner, the most successful in the town. His own
temperament is supposed to have been bisexual. His book was prohibited by
the local authorities and at a later period the entire remaining stock was
destroyed in a fire, so that its circulation was very small. It is now,
however, regarded by some as the first serious attempt to deal with the
problem of homosexuality since Plato's _Banquet_.[115]
Some years later, in 1852, Casper, the chief medico-legal authority of his
time in Germany,--for it is in Germany that the foundations of the study
of sexual inversion have been laid,--pointed out in Casper's
_Vierteljahrsschrift_ that pederasty, in a broad sense of the word, was
sometimes a kind of "moral hermaphroditism," due to a congenital psychic
condition, and also that it by no means necessarily involved sodomy
(_immissio penis in anum_). Casper brought forward a considerable amount
of valuable evidence concerning these cardinal points, which he was the
first to note,[116] but he failed to realize the full significance of his
observations, and they had no immediate influence, though Tardieu, in
1858, admitted a congenital element in some pederasts.
The man, however, who more than anyone else brought to light the phenomena
of sexual inversion had not been concerned either with the medical or the
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