suspected echoed Silas’s permanent state of simmering resentment. Silas had lent him, under strict promise of secrecy, an unpublished essay entitled “Offences Against One’s Self.” It was copied in Silas’s rough, determined hand, but he had sworn the text was by Jeremy Bentham, the lawyer-philosopher. It was without doubt the product of a highly educated and formidably intelligent mind, and it demolished the justification for anti-sodomy laws with forensic skill. Among many other points, the author argued that it was a human failing to condemn other people for their different preferences. From
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