After the quantity of somewhat trashy stuff that has been poured out concerning Shelley, it is, indeed, a joy to come upon a book so keen and clear, and withal so well-based on the fundamental facts and principles of social life, as Mr. Salt’s Shelley as Poet and Pioneer (George Allen & Unwin).
[8] See also in this connexion the writings of the great Goethe—his Wilhelm Meister, his references to Griechische Liebe in his Diaries, etc.
[9] For these and many other similar references see Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk (George Allen & Unwin, 1919); also The Intermediate Sex, pp. 24, 25, 46, 47, 58, 59, etc.
[10] See Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk, p. 63.
[11] See Primitive Folk, by Elie Reclus (Contemporary Science Series), p. 72.
[12] See Intermediate Types, p. 24.
[13] See Life of Shelley, by Dowden, vol. i. p. 19.
[14] See The Witch of Atlas, stanza lxxvii.
[15] The Vaertings, in their book, The Dominant Sex, (George Allen & Unwin), question how far these and other secondary sexual characteristics are in reality fundamental to, and inherent in either sex. They suggest that in any society the dominant sex acquires certain traits, while the subordinate sex acquires others. But this view does not affect the present argument. Shelley lived in our modern male-dominant civilisation, and yet was born with, or else acquired, traits which, in that society, are characteristic of women, and not of men. He therefore approximated to the current feminine type.
[16] Sec Crichton Miller: New Psychology and the Teacher.