the other he caressed his penis, though not to the extent of producing ejaculation.[344] We must not believe, however, that this is by any means the method of workers who deserve to be accepted seriously; it would be felt, to say the least, as unworthy.  It is indeed a method that would only appeal to a person of feeble or failing mental power.  What more usually happens is that the auto-erotic excitement develops, pari passu and spontaneously, with the mental activity and at the climax of the latter the auto-erotic excitement also culminates, almost or even quite spontaneously, in an explosion of detumescence which relieves the mental tension.  I am acquainted with such cases in both young men and women of intellectual ability, and they probably occur much more frequently than we usually suspect.

In illustration of the foregoing observations, I may quote the following narrative, written by a man of letters:  “From puberty to the age of 30 (when I married), I lived in virgin continence, in accord with my principle.  During these years I worked exceedingly hard—­chiefly at art (music and poetry).  My days being spent earning my livelihood, these art studies fell into my evening time.  I noticed that productive power came in periods—­periods of irregular length, and which certainly, to a partial extent, could be controlled by the will.  Such a period of vital power began usually with a sensation of melancholy, and it quickened my normal revolt against the narrowness of conventional life into a red-hot detestation of the paltriness and pettiness with which so many mortals seem to content themselves.  As the mood grew in intensity, this scorn of the lower things mixed with and gave place to a vivid insight into higher truths.  The oppression began to give place to a realization of the eternity of the heroic things; the fatuities were seen as mere fashions; love was seen as the true lord of life; the eternal romance was evident in its glory; the naked strength and beauty of men were known despite their clothes.  In such mood my work was produced; bitter protest and keen-sighted passion mingled in its building.  The arising vitality had certainly deep relation to the periodicity of the sex-force of manhood.  At the height of the power of the art-creative mood would come those natural emissions with which Nature calmly disposes of the unused force of the male.  Such emissions were natural and healthy, and not exhaustive or hysterical.  The process is undoubtedly sane and protective, unless the subject be unhealthy.  The period of creative art power extended a little beyond the end of the period of natural seed emission—­the art work of this last stage being less vibrant, and of a gentler force.  Then followed a time of calm natural rest, which gradually led up to the next sequence of melancholy and power.  The periods certainly varied in length of time, controlled somewhat by the force of the mind and the mental will to create; that is to say, I could somewhat