The Scented Garden

35 Of these tribadism is rather artificial, and hardly to be distinguished from ordinary masturba- tion : so that the balance is strongly in favour of man. This explains why very few women are ex- clusively Sapphists, but many bimetallists ; and enables one to comprehend the hatred of woman for sodomy, and the toleration with which men re- gard Sapphism. 8. I cannot too strongly urge my readers to se- lect their lovers from their equals in rank and for- tune. It is the only safeguard against betrayal ; further, it fulfills the Greek ideal, and silences the voice of adverse criticism. A. L. Solon properly forbade the practice of sodomy to slaves ; and perhaps after all the English, slaves at heart as they are, do well to observe his law. Ed. 9. Besides all this, there is the question of “ na- ture ” and “ against nature.” “ Praise Lacedaemon, and despise Corinth ! God gave me Daphne ; I won Hyacinth.” All our modern devices, though applications of na- ture, are against and above nature ; therefore of God. Nature’s man is the cave-man. We take no paternal pride in the pariah dog, the product of Nature ; in the highly bred setter, the product of man’s genius applied to nature’s very raw material, through centuries and chiliads of struggle, we do. There is no poetry in the panting Puritan prone on his puffing and perspiring Priscilla : the love of Adrian and Antinous is a monument for all ages. Is there better poetry in the world than Wilde’s “...on Adrian’s gilded barge The laughter of Antinous ” or F....’s “ the splendid Syrian youth with scarlet mouth Standing upon the summit of the world ? ” Why, to kiss my boy is a canzonet, to suck him off a sonnet ; his mouth is a madrigal, his lips are lyrics, and his eyes idylls ; to be be-