ACD

this obviously very imperfect world of very imperfect humankind. (As a matter of fact, we could not even reach agreement on the question: "What is perfection?" Of course, it is difficult to be reasonable when one is badly hurt. All the same, it seems to me that the anti-social person needs to see beyond his own case, needs to see society in perspective. If a man has in truth been the victim of some injustice, there in no reason why he should have to kid himself into believing that the opposite is true. Too much psychotherapy seems to aim at persuading people that they have not gotten rotten breaks, that they have not been treated badly by life, when in fact they have. But it seems to me that if a man has received some social injury it is best for him to take the attitude: "Sure, I got a Σαν deal, and ΠΟ mistake. But I'm damned if I am going to let that embitter my whole life. I'm damned if I'm going to let past experience sour me on the world for all the future. There's a hell of a lot that's rotten in this world. There's also a lot that's good." From this position he can work against injustice on the one hand, pursue the good things of life on the other, all in a spirit of good

will.

Love is not very effective without reason to implement it. A rationcl morajity, however, is not enough. From the standpoint of pragmatic reason there is nothing wrong with making soap from the lard of human corpses when a nation has a shortage of soap. What could be more efficient than that? It solves a prac tical problem in a matter-of-fact, practical way. But something is missing. It is the prime moral ingredient of love for, regard for, respect for our fellow humans which makes this an immoral and revolting thing. The more rationally and intelligently love

operates the better a 'love it is, that's

for sure. We are right to insist that reason be an ingredient of morality, an indispensible ingredient, but it is not the prime ingredient.

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Right is not right just because some authority declares it to be. The law of love is not the indispensible moral law for humankind even because Jesus told us so. Jesus was giving verbal form to a spiritual necessity. Love is difficult, but in the last analysis it is the only basis, or motivation, for harmonious and creative human intercourse. Paradoxical as it may seem, although reason alone is not a sufficient moral guide, if we carry reason to its farthest outpost it leads us to recognize the necessity for the law of love. It is at the moment when reason recognizes and accepts a law stronger and more vital than itself, that love opens its arms to reason and accepts it in partnership.

Now, clearly one must live with others, unless he is willing and able to retreat to some swamp or desert and become a hermit. Nevertheless, a man spends all his time with himself and only part of his time with others. It is essential that a man be on good terms with himself. No matter how completely he lives up to the demands of his community, conforming to its traditions and customs, if he violates the moral law he cannot be on good terms with himself. On the other hand, if his morality is sound and strong, his personality can survive much of the hostility which he may arouse by failing to conform to the mores. It is for this reason that I say that if the homosexual genuinely loves his God and his neighbor, if he sincerely strives to live his love, it is possible for him to posses integrity and self-respect even though his own way of life may violate the mores where his sexuality is concerned.

mattachine REVIEW

Somewhere in the Gospels a follower called Christ "good". Jesus quickly denied that He was good, saying, in effect, "No man is good. Only God is good" I am not going to tell homosexuals that they are good men and women. They are not good because they are men and women. As hard as they try they will still be only men and women, not angels, much less gods and goddesses. The moral life for humanity

consists of continual trying. In a way, morality is like playing the pin-ball machines: you know very well you cannot run up the perfect score, you know you can never make all the lights go on,, all the bells ring, but you keep playing all the same. The difference is that the trying man is one who plays to make a light go on in some unhappy face, who plays to make a bell ring in some heavy heart.

BOOKS

15 Topics on a Theme

HOMOSEXUALITY. A Cross Cultural Approach by Donald Webster Cory. The Julian Press, New York, 1956. $3.00. Cory has once again placed the homosexual world in his debt and deserves high praise for i.. says Reviewer Wes Knight.

Donald Webster Cory's aim in this work has been to utilize a cross cultural approach in a treatment of homosexuality. That is to say, he has at.e..pted to show the different attitudes and opinions of different cultures toward it by giving extracts from different writers who effectively sum up the views of their various cultures. He has also tried to make available to the general reader many items unavaliable even to speciclists.

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The extracts are many and various. John Addinton Symonds' now generally completely inaccessible A PROBLEM IN MODERN ETHICS contains much valuable material on the history of the subject, as well as summarizing scientific opinions of the 1890's. It is interesting to note that according to him the first him

serious enforcement of the edicts against homoero.ic ac.s was commenced by the Emperor Justinian because he believed that because of them "famines and earthquakes take place, and also pestilences." It seems a little odd that the charge has not since been revived.

Also of interest is his description of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, who was perhaps the first person in modern times to deal with the subject sympathetically and thoroughly in a series of pamphlets in Germany between 1864 and 1870. Equally interesting is Symonds' statement, made in 1896, that:

The severity of the English Statutes render them almost incapable of being put in force. In consequence of this, the law is not unfrequently evaded, and crimes are winked at ... At the same time our laws encourage blackmailing upon false accusa. tion; and ... places from time to time a vile weapon in the hands of unscrupulous politicians," to attack the Government

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