it deliberately (at about fortnightly intervals) as a substitute for copulation, for which he has never felt the least desire.  But occasionally, when sleeping with a male friend, he has emissions in the act of embracing.  The second is constantly and to an abnormal extent (I should say) troubled with erotic dreams and emissions, and takes drugs, by doctor’s advice, to reduce this activity.  He has recently developed a sexual interest in women, but for ethical and other reasons does not copulate with them.  Of the third I can say little, as he has not talked to me on the subject; but I know that he has never had intercourse with women, and has always had a natural and instinctive repulsion to the idea.  In all these, I imagine, the physical impulse of sex is less imperative than in the average man.  The emotional impulse, on the other hand, is very strong.  It has given birth to friendships of which I find no adequate description anywhere but in the dialogues of Plato; and, beyond a certain feeling of strangeness at the gradual discovery of a temperament apparently different to that of most men, it has provoked no kind of self-reproach or shame.  On the contrary, the feeling has been rather one of elation in the consciousness of a capacity of affection which appears to be finer and more spiritual than that which commonly subsists between persons of different sexes.  These men are all of intellectual capacity above the average; and one is actively engaged in the world, where he is both respected for his capacity and admired for his character.  I mention this particularly, because it appears to be the habit, in books upon this subject, to regard the relation in question as pathological, and to select cases where those who are concerned in it are tormented with shame and remorse.  In the cases to which I am referring nothing of the kind subsists.

    “In all these cases a physical sexual attraction is recognized as
    the basis of the relation, but as a matter of feeling, and partly
    also of theory, the ascetic ideal is adopted.

“These are the only cases with which I am personally and intimately acquainted.  But no one can have passed through a public-school and college life without constantly observing indications of the phenomenon in question.  It is clear to me that in a large number of instances there is no fixed line between what is called distinctively ‘friendship’ and love; and it is probably the influence of custom and public opinion that in most cases finally specializes the physical passion in the direction of the opposite sex.”

The classification of the varieties of homosexuality is a matter of difficulty, and no classification is very fundamental.  The early attempts of Krafft-Ebing and others at elaborate classification are no longer acceptable.  Even the most elementary groupings become doubtful when we have definitely to fit our cases into them.  The old distinction between