So derangement and distortion have come to my mind.

If I could have followed my inclinations freely during those fruitful
years between fifteen and twenty-five, I should have been a serene
person, a little sensual, perhaps, and perhaps a little cynical, but I
should certainly not have become violent.

The morality of our social system has disturbed and upset me.

For this reason I hate it cordially, and I vent upon it in full measure,
as best I may, all the spleen I have to give.

I like at times to disguise this poison under a covering of art.




THE VEILS OF THE SEXUAL LIFE


I am unable to feel any spontaneous enthusiasm for fecundity such as
that which Zola sings. Moreover, I regard the whole pose as a
superstition. I may be a member of an exhausted race,--that is quite
possible,--but between the devotion to our species which is professed by
these would-be re-peoplers of countries, and the purely selfish
preoccupation of the Malthusians, my sympathies are all with the latter.
I see nothing beyond the individual in this sex question--beyond the
individual who finds himself inhibited by sexual morality.

This question must be faced some day and cleared up, it must be seen