Permanent relations of
friendship sprang up in most instances. He admitted that he
looked after these persons and helped them with his social
influence and a certain amount of pecuniary support--setting one
up in business, giving another something to marry on, and finding
places for others.
Among the peasantry in Switzerland, I am informed, homosexual
relationships are not uncommon before marriage, and such relationships are
lightly spoken of as "Dummheiten". No doubt, similar traits might be found
in the peasantry of other parts of Europe.
What may be regarded as true sexual inversion can be traced in Europe from
the beginning of the Christian era (though we can scarcely demonstrate the
congenital element) especially among two classes--men of exceptional
ability and criminals; and also, it may be added, among those neurotic and
degenerate individuals who may be said to lie between these two classes,
and on or over the borders of both. Homosexuality, mingled with various
other sexual abnormalities and excesses, seems to have flourished in Rome
during the empire, and is well exemplified in the persons of many of the
emperors.
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