Homer, in the second book of the Iliad says with fine enthusiasm, Give me masturbation or give me death. Caesar, in his Commentaries, says, To the lonely it is company; to the forsaken it is a friend; to the aged and to the impotent it is a benefactor. They that are penniless are yet rich, in that they still have this majestic diversion. In another place this experienced observer has said, There are times when I prefer it to sodomy. Robinson Crusoe says, I cannot describe what I owe to this gentle art. Queen Elizabeth said, It is the bulwark of virginity. Cetewayo, the Zulu hero, remarked, A jerk in the hand is worth two in the bush. The immortal Franklin has said, Masturbation is the best policy. Michelangelo and all of the other old masters--old masters, I will remark, is an abbreviation, a contraction--have used similar language. Michelangelo said to Pope Julius II, Self-negation is noble, self-culture beneficent, self-possession is manly, but to the truly great and inspiring soul they are poor and tame compared with self-abuse. Mr. Brown, here, in one of his latest and most graceful poems, refers to it in an eloquent line which is destined to live to the end of time--None knows it but to love it; none name it but to praise.