A Great Pioneer

Havelock Ellis : Philosopher, of Love. By Houston Peterson. (George Allen and Unwin. _ 18s.) Havelock Ellis : Philosopher, of Love. By Houston Peterson. (George Allen and Unwin. _ 18s.) Mn. HOUSTON PETERSON has performed a useful service in producing this sensible and adequate life of Havelock Ellis ; for it is important that we should see the work of Mr. Ellis in clear and sane perspective. It has been Mr. Ellis's fate to be underrated and somewhat neglected in this country, while almost overrated, or at any rate unintelligently rated,

in America.

As Mr. Peterson points out, the life and works of Havelock

Ellis fall into two sharply defined categories. On the one hand, Mr. Ellis has been a considerable litterateur, a contributor. to the Yellow Book, the. author of numerous volumes, essays, reflections, and of one novel. Possessed of a delicate and

beautiful English prose style and with ideas which were,_ at any rate when he first wrote them, of great originality, he will always hold an honoured place in English letters. But his highest achievement is undoubtedly his contribution

to science. Convinced at an early age that the problems of man's sexual life are amongst the most important and obscure with which the' human mind- is confronted, he deter-: mined to devote himself to their elucidation. To that end, after some years of deep .reflection in the Australian bush,: he became a fully qualified- doctor. of • medicine and lavished: the labour of his best _years in collecting those great volumes of Studies which will long remain one of the principal source-: honks giving a plain, scientific and, so far as possible, reliable: account of *hat' the sexual life of humati beings - really is.` That Ellis himself regarded . this as his great work seen clearly by the admirable introduction which precedes:: the studies ." I do not wish any mistake to be made. regairdsex as the', central problem of life. And now that the problem of religion: has practically been settled, and that the problem of laboUr has tir least been placed on a practical foundation, 'the question of sex'--_-with the racial _question,s. that rest on it—stands before the coming generations as the chief jproblenj for solution. Sex- lies at the Mot Of life, and we can never learn to reverence life until We knoW hOW to tindenitatid aiex. 'SO, at least; it seems to 'me:" This was written in the 'nineties, and, though we may smile a little at the Victorian's calm faith that !' the problem of labour has at least been placed on a practical foundation,"' we may endorse the prescience with which he singled out .the

other great question which the last, century left unsolved.

< , • The spirit-in which he attacked it is shown in another citation from this same preface " In. this particular field the evil of ignorance is magnified by our efforts to suppress that which never can-be suppressed, though in the effort of suppression it may-become perverted. I have at least tried to find out what are the facts, among normal people as well as among abnormal people ; for while it seems to Me that the physician's training- is necessary in- nrder - to . ascertain the facts, the physician for the most part only obtains the abnormal facts, which alone bring, little light. I have tried to get at the facts, and, -having got at the facts, to look them simply and squarely in 'the face. If -I Cannot perhaps turn the loek Myself,' I bring the key which can alone in the end rightly open the door : the key of sincerity. That. is my one panacea : sincerity."

Yet despite these calm and dignified words; this was the book which in 1897 suffered prosecution in the famous Bedborough trial. The Recorder used these words about-it - " But it is impossible for anybody with a head on his shoulders to open the hook without seeing_ that it is a. pretence and a sham, and that it is merely entered into for the purpose of selling this obscene publication.'

Even now Havelock Ellis' Studies have not been published in England.

Havelock Ellis' own reason for describing man's sexual life has surely never been better stated since he first made it in volume I cif -his Studies : " Suppose that eating, and drinking was never spoken of openly, save in veiled or poetic language, and that no one ever ate food publicly, because it was considered immoral and immodest to reveal the myeteries of this natural function.- We -know - what would occur. A considerable proportion of the community, more especially the more youthful members, possessed by an. instinctive and legitimate curiosity, would concentrate their thoughts on the subject. They would have so many problemes to putzle 'over: How often ought I to eat ? What ought I to eat ? Is it wrong to eat fruit, which .I like ? Ought I to eat grass, which I don't like.? , Instinct notwithstanding, we may ,be quite sure that only a small minority would succeed -in eating reasonably and whole- somely. The sexual secrecy of life is Oven*More •disestrcius than such -a- nutritive secrecy would be ; partly -because -we expend such a wealth of moral energy in directing or misdirecting it, partly because the sexual impulse normally develops at the same time as the intellectual impulse, not in the early years of life; when wholesome instinctive habits might be forined. And- there is always some ignorant and foolish friend who is prepared 'still further to muddle things. Eat a meal every . Other day ! .Eat twelve Meals a day ! Never eat fruit ! Always eat grass ! The advice' emphatically giVen in Seine' matters is usually not legs absurd than this."

It has been left to later authorities to build upon the work of Havelock' Ellis. Mr: Houston Peterson recounts the events of Ellis's long life with good sense and ability. He is no

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biographer -of genius able to explain to us the thyAtertes of

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greatness. Nor perhaps is such a service required in the case of so simple and unified a 'character as that of Ellis. But he shows interestingly the effect of Ellis's work on the Freu- dians and on other schools Of later workers. There will now be no excuse for ignorant misrepresentation of Mr. Ellis by prejudiced persons. '