choly thus induced was a factor in his success as a
novelist. Goethe, it has been asserted, at one time masturbated to excess;
I am not certain on what authority the statement is made, probably on a
passage in the seventh book of _Dichtung und Wahrheit_, in which,
describing his student-life at Leipzig, and his loss of Aennchen owing to
his neglect of her, he tells how he revenged that neglect on his own
physical nature by foolish practices from which he thinks he suffered for
a considerable period.[343] The great Scandinavian philosopher, Soeren
Kierkegaard, suffered severely, according to Rasmussen, from excessive
masturbation. That, at the present day, eminence in art, literature, and
other fields may be combined with the excessive practice of masturbation
is a fact of which I have unquestionable evidence.

I have the detailed history of a man of 30, of high ability in a
scientific direction, who, except during periods of mental
strain, has practiced masturbation nightly (though seldom more
than once a night) from early childhood, without any traceable
evil results, so far as his general health and energy are
concerned. In another case, a schoolteacher, age 30, a hard
worker and accomplished musician, has masturbated every night,
sometimes more than once a night, ever since he was at school,
without, so far as he knows, any bad results; he has never had
connection with a woman, and seldom touches wine or tobacco.
Curschmann knew a young and able author who, from the age of 11
had masturbated excessively, but who retained physical and mental
freshness. It would be very easy to refer to other examples, and
I may remark that, as regards the histories recorded in various
volumes of these _Studies_, a notable proportion of those in
which excessive masturbation is admitted, are of persons of
eminent and recognized ability.

It is often possible to trace the precise mechanism of the relationship
between auto-erotic excitement and intellectual activity. Brown-Sequard,
in old age, considered that to induce a certain amount of sexual
excitement, not proceeding to emission, was an aid to mental work. Raymond
and Janet knew a man considering himself a poet, who, in order to attain
the excitation necessary to compose his ideal verses, would write with one
hand while with the other he caressed his penis, though not to the extent
of producing ejaculation.[344] We