The s.e.xual Life of the Child.
by Albert Moll.
INTRODUCTION
Dr. Moll is a gifted physician of long experience whose work with those problems of medicine and hygiene which demand scientific acquaintance with human nature has made him well known to experts in these fields. In this book he has undertaken to describe the origin and development, in childhood and youth, of the acts and feelings due to s.e.x; to explain the forces by which s.e.x-responses are directed and misdirected; and to judge the wisdom of existing and proposed methods of preventing the degradation of a child"s s.e.xual life.
This difficult task is carried out, as it should be, with dignity and frankness. In spite of the best intentions, a scientific book on s.e.x-psychology is likely to appear, at least in spots, to gratify a low curiosity; but in Dr. Moll"s book there is no such taint. Popular books on s.e.x-hygiene, on the other hand, are likely to suffer from a pardonable but harmful delicacy whereby the facts of anatomy, physiology, and psychology which are necessary to make their principles comprehensible and useful, are omitted, veiled, or even distorted. Dr.
Moll honors his readers by a frankness which may seem brutal to some of them. It is necessary.
With dignity and frankness Dr. Moll combines notable good sense. In the case of any exciting movement in advance of traditional custom, the forerunners are likely to combine a certain one-sidedness and lack of balance with their really valuable progressive ideas. The greater sagacity and critical power are more often found amongst the men of science who avoid public discussion of exciting social or moral reforms, and are suspicious of startling and revolutionary doctrines or practices. It is therefore fortunate that a book on the s.e.xual life during childhood should have been written by a man of critical, matter-of-fact mind, of long experience as a medical specialist, and of wide scholarship, who has no private interest in any exciting psychological doctrine or educational panacea.
The translation of this book will be welcomed by men and women from many different professions, but alike in the need of preparation to guide the s.e.x-life of boys and girls and to meet emergencies caused by its corruption by weakness within or attack from without. Of the clergymen in this country who are in real touch with the lives of their charges, there is hardly a one who does not, every so often, have to minister to a mind whose moral and religious distress depends on an unfortunate s.e.x history. Conscientious and observant teachers realize, in a dim way, that they cannot do justice to even the purely intellectual needs of pupils without understanding the natural history of those instinctive impulses, which, concealed and falsified as they are under our traditional taboos, nevertheless retain enormous potency. The facts, so clearly shown in the present volume, that the life of s.e.x begins long before its obvious manifestations at p.u.b.erty, and that the direction of its vaguer and less differentiated habits in these earlier years is as important as its hygiene at the more noticeable climax of the early "teens, increase the teacher"s responsibility. Moreover, there is probably not a teacher of ten years" standing who has not faced--or by ignorance neglected--some emergency where moderate insight into the laws whereby the vague instincts of s.e.x are turned into healthy and unhealthy habits, and form right and wrong att.i.tudes, could have rescued a boy or girl from years of wretched anxiety, or degraded conduct, or both.
The social worker, still more emphatically, knows his or her need of a surer equipment for the wise direction of the life of s.e.x in childhood and its protection from the abominable suggestions of those who are themselves s.e.xually diseased or depraved. The casual questioning of medical or legal friends, reminiscences of vague references in the Bible or cla.s.sic literature, and the miscellaneous experiences which life itself throws in one"s way, are hopelessly inadequate.
The conscientious pract.i.tioner of medicine, too, will gladly add to the scanty, though accurate, knowledge of the s.e.x-instinct and its pathology which is all that even the best medical course can compa.s.s, the facts presented by a specialist in this field. The easiest way for those parents who accept the responsibility for rational guidance of their children in matters of s.e.x-behavior to discharge this responsibility is by the aid of the family physician. For the physician in such cases to gain the child"s confidence, understand his individual dangers and possible false att.i.tudes, and give more than perfunctory general counsel, knowledge of the psychology of s.e.x-behavior, as well as its physiology, is necessary. In general, also, modern medical practice must look after the _prevention_ of bad habits and unnecessary anxieties in respect to the s.e.x-life as well as their cure; and the science of preventive medicine in this field receives a substantial contribution from this summary of the s.e.x-life of childhood.
There are now many men and women who are dissatisfied with doing for their children merely what outgrown customs decree, who are willing to give time and study, as well as money and affection, in their service, and who are eager to see or hear or read anything pertinent to their welfare. For many such parents, if they are of the scientific, matter-of-fact type, Dr. Moll"s book may prove the means of answering many troublesome questions and of prompting to a wiser cooperation with church, school, and the medical profession in safeguarding their own--and, we may hope, all other--children against blunders and contaminations.
One word of caution is perhaps necessary for those readers who are unused to descriptions of symptoms of diseases, abnormalities, and defects. Such readers are likely to interpret perfectly ordinary facts as the symptoms which they have been studying. So the medical student at the beginning of his reading, fears appendicitis when he has slight indigestion, and sees incipient tuberculosis in every household! So the embryonic psychologist finds "degenerates" in every crowd of boys, "hypnotic suggestion" in every popular preacher, and "aphasia" in any friend who forgets names and faces! Dr. Moll gives more protection against such exaggerated inferences than is commonly given in books on pathology, but many of his readers will do well to be on their guard lest they interpret perfectly innocent behavior as a symptom of abnormality. The mischief done by our present ignorance and neglect of important features of s.e.x-behavior should be prevented without the incidence of mischief from exaggerated expectations and unwise meddling.
It would be evasive to shirk mention of the fact that many of the most devoted servants of health and morals object to public discussion of the facts of s.e.x. They discard enlightenment about s.e.x as relatively unimportant because a clean ancestry, decency in the family and neighborhood, and n.o.ble needs in friendship, love, and marriage must, in any case, be the main roots of healthy direction and ideal restraint of the s.e.x-instinct. Or they fear enlightenment as a possible stimulus to undesirable imagination and experimentation. Or they dislike, even abhor, it as esthetically repulsive--shocking to an unreasoned but cherished craving for silence about these things--a craving which the customs of our land and time have made an unwritten law of society.
Of the first of these three att.i.tudes, it may be said briefly that the relative unimportance of enlightenment is a fact, but no argument against it. Modesty, austerity, and clean living on the part of parents will counterbalance much negligence in direct guidance or protection.
But the former need be in no wise lessened by improving the latter. Of the second, I dare affirm that if the men and women in America should stop whatever they are doing for an evening and read this book, there would be less harmful imagination as a result than from the occupations which its reading would replace. Of all the causes of s.e.xual disorder, the reading of scientific books by reputable men is surely the least!
The third--that is, the esthetic--repulsion toward publicity in respect to the natural history of s.e.x, I will not pretend to judge. Only we must not strain at gnats and swallow camels. It is no sign of true esthetic or moral sensitiveness for a person to be shocked by "Ghosts," "Mrs.
Warren"s Profession," or "The s.e.xual Life of the Child," who finds pleasant diversion in the treatment of s.e.x-behavior in the ordinary novel, newspaper, or play.
On the whole, the gain from giving earnest men and women the facts they need, seems likely to outweigh by much the harm done to such light minds as will be misled, or to such sentimental minds as will be wounded, by enlightenment about s.e.x. No harm will be done to those men and women whose interest in the welfare of children makes them eager to face every problem that it involves, and whose faith in the ideal possibilities of love between the s.e.xes is too well-grounded to be disturbed by the facts of its natural history.
EDWARD L. THORNDIKE.
MAY, 1912.
PREFACE
The number of books and essays dealing with s.e.xual topics published during recent years is by no means small; but although some of the works in question have added considerably to our knowledge, the advance of s.e.xual science as a whole has not been proportionate to the extent of these contributions. The reason is that insufficient attention has been paid to special problems; and the majority of writers have either repeated what has already been said by another, in identical or equivalent words, or else they have published comprehensive treatises on the s.e.xual life, which may, perhaps, be of interest to the laity, but do not in any way enrich our science. Further advances in our knowledge of the s.e.xual life can be effected only by the investigation of special problems. Such work is, indeed, laborious; but that it is also fruitful, has been clearly shown, not only in the first instance by von Krafft-Ebing, but more recently, above all, by Havelock Ellis, whose special studies have contributed more to the advance of s.e.xual science than the work of dozens of other writers.
The recognition of the need for specialised investigations has led me, in this province of scientific work as in other departments, to devote myself to the elucidation of certain definite problems. For several reasons I determined to study the s.e.xual life of the child. In the first place, I believe that an advance in our knowledge of the s.e.xual life of the child will indirectly enrich our knowledge also of the s.e.xual life of the adult. In order to understand the s.e.xual life, the gradual development of that life must be recognised, and for this purpose it is essential that we should study the s.e.xual life of the child. Moreover, the modern movement in favour of the s.e.xual enlightenment of young persons renders indispensable the possession of precise knowledge of the s.e.xuality of the child; and such knowledge is no less necessary to all instructors of youth, especially to those to whom the psychical life of children is a matter of concern. Judges and magistrates also, as we shall see in the seventh chapter, are very greatly interested in this matter: it is, in fact, hardly open to question that erroneous legal decisions and the unjust condemnation of reputed criminals can only be avoided by giving our judicial authorities the opportunity of obtaining sound knowledge concerning the s.e.xual life of children in all its modes of manifestation. By all these considerations I have been induced to study the problem of the s.e.xuality of children from the most widely different points of view. Although other writers, such as Freud, Bell, and Kotscher, have contributed certain data towards the solution of these questions, no comprehensive study of the subject has. .h.i.therto been attempted. My material does not consist only of the reports of patients.
In addition, in order to avoid a one-sided dependence upon pathological considerations, I have accepted with greater confidence the reports concerning the s.e.xual life of children which I have received from healthy individuals, both men and women. I take this opportunity of tendering my most heartfelt thanks to all those who have a.s.sisted me in this manner.
ALBERT MOLL.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY AND HISTORICAL
To speak of "the s.e.xual life of the child" seems at first sight to involve a contradiction in terms. It is generally a.s.sumed that the s.e.xual life first awakens at the on-coming of p.u.b.erty (the attainment of s.e.xual maturity of manhood or womanhood); the on-coming of p.u.b.erty is regarded as the termination of childhood; in fact the term _child_ is usually defined as the human being from the time of birth to the on-coming of p.u.b.erty. But this contradiction is apparent merely, and depends on the a.s.sumption that the on-coming of p.u.b.erty is indicated by certain outward signs (more especially the first menstruation and the first seminal emission), insufficient attention being paid to the long period of development which usually precedes these occurrences. And yet, during this period of preliminary development, the occurrence of certain manifestations of the s.e.xual life is plainly demonstrable.
The period of childhood is subdivided into several sub-epochs, but the delimitation and nomenclature of these varies so much with different investigators, that to avoid misunderstanding I must first define the subdivisions which I myself propose to employ. If we regard the beginning of the fifteenth year as the termination of childhood, we may divide childhood into two equal periods, the first extending from birth to the completion of the seventh year, the second from the beginning of the eighth to the end of the fourteenth year. I shall in this work designate these two periods as the _first_ and the _second period of childhood_ respectively. In the first period of childhood, the first year of life may be further distinguished as the _period of infancy_.[1]
The first and second periods of childhood comprise childhood in the narrower sense of the term. The years that immediately follow the beginning of the fifteenth year I shall denote as the _period of youth_.
Inasmuch as the symptoms of this latter come to differ from those of childhood proper, not abruptly, but gradually, the first years, at least, of youth will often come under our consideration, and I shall speak of this period of life as the _third period of childhood_.
Although childhood in the narrower sense comprises the first and second periods only, childhood in the wider sense includes also the third period. It is hardly possible that any misunderstanding can arise if the reader will bear in mind that whenever I speak of childhood without qualification, I allude only to the period of life before the beginning of the fifteenth year. For all these periods of childhood, first, second, and third, I shall for practical convenience when speaking of males use the word _boy_, and when speaking of females, the word _girl_.
The use of this terminology must not be regarded as implying that the distinctions indicated correspond in any way to fixed natural lines of demarcation; on the contrary, individual variations are numerous and manifold. Not only does the rate of development differ in different races (in the Caucasian race, more especially, the age of p.u.b.erty comes comparatively late, so that among the members of this race childhood is prolonged); but further, within the limits of one and the same race, notable differences occur. More than all have we to take into account the differences between the s.e.xes, childhood terminating earlier in the female s.e.x than in the male--among our own people [the Germans] this difference is commonly estimated at as much as two years. In addition, in this respect, there are marked differences between different cla.s.ses of the population, a matter to which we shall return in Chapter VI.
It is also necessary to point out here in what sense I employ the term _p.u.b.erty_ (nubility, s.e.xual ripeness, or maturity), and the a.s.sociated terms, _nubile_ and _s.e.xually mature_. Much confusion exists in respect of the application of these terms. Some use _p.u.b.erty_ to denote a period of time, others, a point of time, and in various other ways the word is differently used by different authors. Similarly as regards the term _nubile_; some consider an individual to be nubile as soon as he or she is competent for procreation, others speak of anyone as nubile only when the development of the s.e.xual life is completed. Obviously, these two notions are very different; for instance, a girl of thirteen who has begun to menstruate may be competent for the act of procreation, and yet her s.e.xual development may still be far from complete. The confusion as regards the use of the substantive _p.u.b.erty_ is no less perplexing. One writer uses it to denote the time at which procreative capacity begins, and believes he is right in a.s.suming that in the male this time is indicated by the occurrence of the first involuntary s.e.xual o.r.g.a.s.m.[2] I may point out in pa.s.sing that there is a confusion here between procreative capacity and competence for s.e.xual intercourse, for as a rule the first seminal emissions contain no spermatozoa. But, apart from such confusions, the term p.u.b.erty is used in various senses. Thus, a second writer denotes by p.u.b.erty the point of time at which the s.e.xual development is completed; a third means by p.u.b.erty the period which elapses between the occurrence of the first involuntary o.r.g.a.s.m and the completion of s.e.xual development; a fourth uses the word to denote the entire period of life during which procreative capacity endures; and finally, a fifth includes under the notion of p.u.b.erty the whole course of life after the completion of s.e.xual development. In this work I shall mean by _p.u.b.erty_ the period of life between the completion of s.e.xual development and the extinction of the s.e.xual life. The period during which the state of p.u.b.erty is being attained will be spoken of as the _period of p.u.b.eral development_, and I shall therefore speak of the _beginning_ and the _end_ of the p.u.b.eral development. The terms _nubility_, _s.e.xual maturity_, _nubile_, and _s.e.xually mature_, will be used with a similar signification. As regards the p.u.b.eral development, let me at the outset draw attention to the fact that it takes place very gradually; and further, as we shall see, that it begins much earlier than is commonly believed. In the young girl, from the date of the first menstruation to the time at which she has become fitted for marriage, the average lapse of time is a.s.sumed by Ribbing[3] to be two years. This is a fair estimate, but it does not correspond to the totality of the period of the p.u.b.eral development. If we estimate that period from its true beginning its duration greatly exceeds two years, for the first indications of the p.u.b.eral development are manifest in the girl long before the first menstruation, and in the boy long before the first discharge of s.e.m.e.n. The approach of p.u.b.erty is indicated by numerous symptoms, some of which are psychical and some physical in character. In perfectly healthy children, as will be shown in the sequel, individual symptoms may make their appearance as early as the age of seven or eight, and further symptoms successively appear during succeeding years, until the p.u.b.eral development is completed.
What methods are available for the study of the s.e.xual life of the child? Three methods have to be considered: first, the observation of children; secondly, experiment; and thirdly, reports made by individuals regarding their own experiences. As regards the last mentioned, we must distinguish clearly between accounts reproduced from memory long after the incidents to which they relate, and accounts given by children of their state at the time of narration. But both varieties of clinical history are defective. The child is often incompetent to describe his sensations--think, for instance, of the processes of the earliest years of life. Even when the child is able to make reports, a sense of shame will often interfere with the truthfulness of his account. Whilst as regards the memory-pictures of adults, recourse to this method often fails us because the experiences are so remote as to have been largely, if not entirely, forgotten. The autobiographies of s.e.xually perverse individuals have drawn my attention to the fallacious nature of memory.
Its records are uncertain, but that especially is recorded which has aroused interest. Not only the interest felt in the experiences at the time determines what shall be recorded, but also the interest felt later when reviving these experiences in memory. Childish experiences are very readily forgotten, either if they were uninteresting at the time, or if subsequently they have become uninteresting. During childhood, a h.o.m.os.e.xual woman has experienced s.e.xual feeling, directed now towards boys, now towards girls. Later in life, when the h.o.m.os.e.xuality has developed fully, the memory of the inclination towards boys fades away, and her h.o.m.os.e.xual sentiments only are remembered. As a result, we often find that the h.o.m.os.e.xual woman--and the converse is equally true of the h.o.m.os.e.xual man--declares at first, when inquiries are made, that she has never experienced any inclination for members of the other s.e.x; whereas, at any rate in a large proportion of cases, a stricter examination of her memory, or the reports of other individuals, will reveal beyond dispute that in childhood heteros.e.xual inclinations were not lacking.
A further defect of memory has been made manifest to me by the study of perversions. Processes which in childhood were entirely devoid of any s.e.xual tinge, but which later became a.s.sociated with s.e.x-feelings, very readily acquire false s.e.xual a.s.sociations also when they are revived in memory. Consider, for instance, the case of a h.o.m.os.e.xual man. He remembers that, as a small boy, he was very fond of sitting on his uncle"s knees, and he believes that the pleasure he formerly experienced was tinged by s.e.xual feeling. In reality this was by no means the case.
His uncle took the boy on his knee in order to tell him a story.
Possibly, also, the riding movements which the uncle imitated by jogging his knees up and down gave the child pleasure, which, however, was entirely devoid of any admixture of s.e.xual feeling. But in the consciousness of the full-grown man, in whom h.o.m.os.e.xual feeling has later undergone full development, all this becomes distorted. The non-s.e.xual motives are forgotten; he believes that even in early childhood he had h.o.m.os.e.xual inclinations, and that for _this_ reason it gave him pleasure to ride on his uncle"s knees.
Nor is observation in any way adapted to furnish us with a clear picture of the s.e.xual life of the child. So little can be directly observed, that in the absence of reports much would remain entirely unknown. From the moment when the children gain a consciousness, however obscure, of the nature of s.e.xual processes, they almost invariably endeavour to conceal their knowledge as much as possible, so that we shall discover its existence only by a rare chance. None the less, the results of direct observation are often important; sometimes because we are able to watch children when they are unaware of our attention, and sometimes because they do not as yet fully understand the nature of the processes under observation, and for this reason are less secretive.
The third method, that of experiment, is available to us only in the form of castration. I need not dilate on the inadequacy of this application of the experimental method, even apart from the fact that it subserves our purposes almost exclusively in respect of the male s.e.x--for in the case of young girls, castration (ooph.o.r.ectomy) is almost entirely unknown.
Thus we see that all our methods of investigation exhibit extensive lacunae, and further, that they are all in many respects fallacious; we shall therefore endeavour to supplement each by the others, in order to arrive at results which shall be as free from error as possible. Thus guided, we learn that s.e.xual incidents occur in childhood far more frequently than is usually supposed. So common are they, that they cannot possibly escape the notice of any practising physician or educationalist who pays attention to the question, provided, of course, that he enjoys the confidence of the parents. These latter have often been aware of such s.e.xual manifestations in their children for a long time, but a false shame has prevented them from asking the advice of the physician. They have been afraid lest he should regard the child as intellectually or morally deficient, or as the offspring of a degenerate family. In addition, we have to take into account self-deception on the part of the parents, who, indeed, often deceive themselves willingly, saying to themselves that the matter is of no importance, and that the symptoms will disappear spontaneously.
Having given this brief account of the terminology to be employed and of the methods of investigation, I propose to sketch no less briefly the history of the subject.
Casual references to the s.e.xual life of the child are to be found even in the older scientific literature. In the latter half of the eighteenth century, and at the beginning of the nineteenth, interest in the subject became more general. Two works, in especial, published almost simultaneously, attracted the attention of physicians and educationalists. One of these, Rousseau"s _emile_, discusses the proper conduct of parents and elders in relation to the awakening s.e.xual life, and what they should do in order to delay that awakening as much as possible. The other, the celebrated work of Tissot, depicts the dangers of masturbation, but deals chiefly with persons who have attained s.e.xual maturity. None the less, in consequence of this book, much attention was directed to the s.e.xual life of the child. Earlier works on masturbation, such as that of Sarganeck, for instance, had not succeeded in arousing any enduring interest in this question. But Rousseau"s and Tissot"s books induced a large number of physicians and educationalists to occupy themselves in this province of study. Thus at this early day many authorities were led to advocate the s.e.xual enlightenment of children, in order to guide them in the avoidance of the dangers of the s.e.xual life. An excellent historical and critical study of this movement, written by Thalhofer, has recently been published.[4] Among the educationalists who took part in it may be mentioned Basedow, Salzmann, Campe, and Niemeyer. The modern movement in favour of s.e.xual enlightenment originated chiefly in the endeavour to prevent the diffusion of venereal diseases; but the earlier movement, occurring at a time when much less was known about venereal diseases, had a different aim. This was rather to prevent masturbation and other s.e.xual excesses, on account of their direct effect upon the organism; an aim not neglected by the modern movement for s.e.xual enlightenment, though subsidiary to the object of the prevention of the venereal diseases.
Teachers of that day touched, of course, upon the subject of the s.e.xual life of the child. But this was done cursorily, for when instruction was given on the s.e.xual life, not the actual experience of children, but the s.e.xual life of mature persons, was the subject of discourse. This must be said also of the works of those physicians who, like Hufeland in his _Makrobiotik_ (written as a sequel to the work of Tissot), spoke of the dangers of masturbation.
A few of the numerous medical books dealing with the p.u.b.eral development deserve mention in this place; for instance, Marro, _La p.u.b.erta_ (first edition, published in 1897), and Bacque, _La p.u.b.erte_ (Argenteuil, 1876). A number of recent works on masturbation have also touched on the topic of the s.e.xual life of the child.
Apart from these recent special investigations, the older and the more recent medical and anthropological literature contains numerous observations which concern the subject of this book. More especially do we find reports of cases in which the external manifestations of s.e.xual maturity appeared in very early childhood. Now we find an account of a girl menstruating at four years of age, now an account of a three-year-old boy who exhibited many of the external signs of s.e.xual maturity. Even in the older, purely psychological works we find occasional references to the s.e.xual life of the child--a fact that will surprise no one who is acquainted with the high development of the empirical psychology (_Erfahrungspsychologie_) of that day (1800). The _Venus Urania_ of Ramdohr, for instance, a work on the psychology of love, emphasises the frequency of amatory sentiments in children.
In works dealing with the history of civilisation, we also encounter occasional references to our subject. Take, for instance, the knightly _Code of Love_ (_Liebeskodex_), a work highly esteemed in the days of chivalry, and legendarily supposed to have originated in King Arthur"s Court. Paragraph 6 of this _Code_ runs: "A man shall not practise love until he is fully grown." According to Rudeck,[5] from whom I quote this instance, the aim of the admonition was to protect the youth of the n.o.bility from unwholesome consequences. Obviously, the love affairs of immature persons must have been the determining cause of any allusion to the matter. We may also draw attention in this connexion to many marriage laws, which show that the subject has come under consideration, either because they expressly sanction the marriages of children, or, conversely, because they forbid such unions. At the present day, among many peoples (as, for instance, the Hindus), child-marriages are frequent; and in many countries in which such marriages are now illegal, they were sanctioned in former ages. Many works on prost.i.tution also touch on our chosen subject. Parent-Duchatelet, in his great book, refers to girls who had become prost.i.tutes at the ages of twelve or even ten years. I shall show later that in individual instances such early prost.i.tution is directly dependent upon the s.e.xuality of the children concerned. Many ethnological works also contribute to our knowledge of the s.e.xual life of the child, describing, as they do, in certain races, the early awakening of s.e.xual activity.
Remarkably little material do we find, however, in many works in which we might have expected to find a great deal. I refer to works on education and on the psychology of the child. In exceptional instances, indeed, as I have already indicated, the educationalists have taken part in the movement in favour of s.e.xual enlightenment. But when we consider the enormous importance and great frequency of the s.e.xual processes of the child, we are positively astounded at the manner in which this department of knowledge has been ignored by those who have written on the science and art of education, and by those psychologists who have occupied themselves in the study of the mind of the child. Has it been a false notion of morality by which these investigators have been withheld from the elucidation of the s.e.xual life of the child? Or has the reason merely been their defective powers of observation? As a matter of fact, I suppose that both these causes have operated in producing this remarkable gap in our knowledge.
A certain amount of material is to be found in a number of books on zoology, and also in a few quite recent works on comparative psychology.
Among works of the former cla.s.s I mention especially that of Brehm, who has reported a considerable number of individual details; of books on comparative psychology, one of the most useful for our purposes is that of Groos,[6] who gives us much valuable information regarding love-games of young animals.
I may also point out that in the autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, &c., of celebrated persons, we find much information regarding premature amatory sentiments. Goethe, in his _Wahrheit und Dichtung_, relates that as a boy of ten or so he fell in love with a young Frenchwoman, the sister of his friend Derones. Of Alfred de Musset, his brother and biographer, Paul Musset, records that at the early age of four he was pa.s.sionately in love with a girl cousin. It is on record that Dante fell in love at the age of nine, Canova at five, and Alfieri at ten. Well known also is the story of Byron"s love, at eight years of age, for Mary Duff. Mobius tells us of himself that when a boy of ten he was desperately enamoured of a young married woman. We are told of Napoleon I. that when a boy of nine he fell in love with his father"s cousin, a handsome woman of thirty, then on a visit to his home, and that he caressed her in the most pa.s.sionate manner. Belonging to an earlier day was Felix Platter, the celebrated Swiss physician of the sixteenth century, who tells us in his autobiography that when he was a child he loved to be kissed by a certain young married woman. In _Un Coeur Simple_, Flaubert describes the development of the love-sentiments. "For mankind there is so much love in life. At the age of four we love horses, the sun, flowers, shining weapons, uniforms; at ten we love a little girl, our playmate; at thirteen we love a buxom, full-necked woman. The first time I saw the two b.r.e.a.s.t.s of a woman, entirely unclothed, I almost fainted. Finally, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, we love a young girl, who is a little more to us than a sister and a little less than a mistress; and then, at sixteen, we love a woman once more, and marry her."
Most charmingly Hebbel describes his first experience of love, when but four years old. "It was in Susanna"s dull schoolroom, also, that I learned the meaning of love; it was, indeed, in the very hour when I first entered it, at the age of four. First love! Who is there who will not smile as he reads these words? Who will fail to recall memories of some Anne or Margaret, who once seemed to him to wear a crown of stars, and to be clad in the blue of heaven and the gold of dawn; and now--but it would be malicious to depict the contrast! Who will fail to admit that it seemed to him then as if he pa.s.sed on the wing through the garden of the earth, flitting from flower to flower, sipping from their honey-cups; pa.s.sing too swiftly, indeed, to become intoxicated, but pausing long enough at each to inhale its divine perfume!... It was some time before I ventured to raise my eyes, for I felt that I was under inspection, and this embarra.s.sed me. But at length I looked up, and my first glance fell upon a pale and slender girl who sat opposite me: her name was Emily, and she was the daughter of the parish-clerk. A pa.s.sionate trembling seized me, the blood rushed to my heart; but a sentiment of shame was also intermingled with my first sensations, and I lowered my eyes to the ground once more, as rapidly as if I had caught sight of something horrible. From that moment Emily was ever in my thoughts; and the school, so greatly dreaded in antic.i.p.ation, became a joy to me, because it was there only that I could see her. The Sundays and holidays which separated me from her were as greatly detested by me as in other circ.u.mstances they would have been greatly desired; one day when she stayed away from school, I felt utterly miserable. In imagination she was always before my eyes, wherever I went; when alone, I was never weary of repeating her name; above all, her black eyebrows and intensely red lips were ever before my eyes, whereas I do not remember that at this time her voice had made any impression on me, although later this became all-important."