ier
watched over on his sickbed by queenly women. These visions
always included an imagination of something heroic in my own
personality. No doubt they were the same kind of dreamings as are
present in multitudes of imaginative children; they are only of
interest in so far as a sexual element was present; and that was
algolagnic in character.

"I had a small fund of natural common sense; and my surroundings
were not favorable to sentimental imaginings; consequently I
believe I began to throw them off at an early age, though the
temperament which produced them is still a part of my nature.

"On the carnal side, the sexual instinct was decidedly
algolagnic. Masturbation is one of my earliest recollections;
indeed, it was not at first, so far as I remember, associated
with any sexual ideas at all; but began as a reflex animal act. I
do not remember its first occurrence. It soon, however, became
associated in my mind with algolagnic excitement, giving rise to
reveries which took the ordinary form of imagining oneself
stripped and whipped, etc., by persons of the opposite sex. The
_dramatis personae_ in my own algolagnic reveries were elderly
women; somewhat strangely, I did not associate physical sexuality
at this period with young and attractive women. If scientific
light on these matters were generally available in the practical
bringing up of children, persons in charge of young children
might refrain from exciting an algolagnic tendency or doing
anything calculated to awake sexual emotions prematurely. In my
own case, I recollect acts performed by older persons in
ignorance and thoughtlessness which undoubtedly tended to foster
and strengthen my algolagnic instinct.

"Little or nothing was done to prevent, discover, or remedy the
pernicious habit into which I was falling unknowingly.
Circumcision was perhaps little thought of in those days as a
preventive of juvenile masturbation; at any rate, it was not
resorted to in my case. I remember, indeed, that a nurse
discovered that I was practicing masturbation, and I think she
made a few half-hearted attempts to stop it. It was probably
these attempts which gave me a growing feeling that there was
something wrong about masturbation, and that it must be practiced
secretly. But they were unsuccessful in their main object. T