self healthy, except in so
far as his perversion was concerned, the offspring turned out
disastrously. The eldest child was an epileptic, almost an imbecile, and
with strongly marked homosexual impulses; the second and third children
were absolute idiots; the youngest died of convulsions in infancy (Fere,
_L'Instinct Sexuel_, p. 269 et seq.) No doubt this is not an average case,
but the numerous examples of the offspring of similar marriages brought
forward by Hirschfeld (op. cit., p. 391) scarcely present a much better
result.

[262] It is scarcely necessary to add that the same principle is adaptable
to the case of homosexual women. "In all such cases," writes an American
woman physician, "I would recommend that the moral sense be trained and
fostered, and the persons allowed to keep their individuality, being
taught to remember always that they are different from others, rather
sacrificing their own feelings or happiness when necessary. It is good
discipline for them, and will serve in the long run to bring them more
favor and affection than any other course. This quality or idiosyncrasy is
not essentially evil, but, if rightly used, may prove a blessing to others
and a power for good in the life of the individual; nor does it reflect
any discredit upon its possessor."

[263] The existence of an affinity between homosexuality and the religious
temperament has been referred to in ch. i as recognized in many parts of
the world. See, for a more extended discussion, Horneffer, _Der Priester_,
and Bloch, _Die Prostitution_, vol. i, pp. 101-110. The psychoanalysts
have also touched on this point; thus Pfister, _Die Frommingkeit des
Grafen von Zinzendorf_ (1910), argues that the founder of the pietistic
sect of the Herrenhuter was of sublimated homosexual (or bisexual)
temperament.

[264] Forel, _Die Sexuelle Frage_, p. 528. Such ideas are, of course,
often put forward by inverts themselves.

[265] Roman law previously seems to have been confined in this matter to
the protection of boys. The Scantinian and other Roman laws against
paiderasty seem to have been usually a dead letter. See, for various notes
and references, W.G. Holmes, _The Age of Justinian and Theodora_, vol. i,
p. 121.

[266] Epistle to the Romans, chapter i, verses 26-7.

[267] In practice this penalty of death appears to have been sometimes
commuted to ablation of the sexual organs.

[268] For a full sketch of the legal enactments against homosexua