humid leaves, drawing a terrible pleasure from the contact.  Afterward, though he never suspected it, desire for him became a consuming passion, and I remember on one occasion, when on a holiday, I occupied the same bed with him, the excitement of his propinquity brought on such a formidable attack of heart palpitation that my father called in the family physician on our return home.  Needless to say my heart was found quite sound.  The desire still remains after all these years, and nothing excites me more even now than the memory of my father in his morning bath.

“The whole world for me in my early childhood was peopled with imaginary beings.  While still a young child I would invent stories and relate them to any listener I could find, one such story lasting three years.  I was an omnivorous reader, but my favorite reading was poetry.  At 7 I could repeat the greater part of Longfellow’s poems; Scott followed; then Milton captivated me when I was 14; then came Tennyson, Arnold, Swinburne, and Morris.  Later came the Greek and Latin poets.  From 7 years on I wrote verses to my father.  Till 8 years I was excessively timid of the dark and, indeed, of all loneliness.  This passed, however, and developed into an extreme sensitiveness of seeing or meeting people.  Even on a country road I would walk miles out of my way to avoid meeting the ordinary yokel.  At this period my day-dreams were my favorite occupation.  Even to the present day my visions take up the greater part of my life.  Though timid I was not wanting in courage.  At an early age I would fight boys even older than myself.  Later I have risked my life many times in various parts of Europe.  As regards sports, I can do a little of everything:  swimming, riding, fencing, shooting,—­a little of each.  Cricket and football I also played passably, but sports never interested me much.  Literature became and is the passion of my life and for some years has remained my sole occupation.

“At 8 years the sexual inversion began to manifest itself, though till I had attained 10 years of age I was practically quite innocent.  At 8 years of age, my family removed to another country and I made the acquaintance of a little boy who attracted me sexually.  We masturbated in company, without any reason except the pleasure of seeing each other exposed.  Then I had connection with him in anum.  This really at that time was an exception to my ordinary tastes which speedily developed into an intense desire of fellatio and later on of intercrural pleasures.  This latter perhaps may be accounted for by the visit to our house of a small boy with whom I slept for about a year.  Every night during this period, I had intercrural connection with him twice and sometimes three times.  Then came a consuming passion for all young boys and very old men.  Boys after 14 or 15 ceased to attract me, more particularly when the hair of the pubes began to develop.