in
exciting tears, in dishonoring and in killing women by slow torture. At
last, as vanity is a bottomless pit, there is no species of blackness
of which these polished executioners are not capable; the personages of
Laclos are derived from these originals.[2306]--Monsters of this kind
are, undoubtedly, rare; but there is no need of reverting to them to
ascertain how much egotism is harbored in the gallantry of society. The
women who erected it into an obligation are the first to realize its
deceptiveness, and, amidst so much homage without heat, to pine for
the communicative warmth of a powerful sentiment.--The character of
the century obtains its last trait and "the man of feeling comes on the
stage.

II. Return To Nature And Sentiment.

Final trait of the century, an increased sensitivity in the
best circles.--Date of its advent.--Its symptoms in art and
in literature.--Its dominion in private.--Its affectations.--
Its sincerity.--Its delicacy.

It is not that the groundwork of habits becomes different, for
these remain equally worldly and dissipated up the last. But fashion
authorizes a new affectation, consisting of effusions, reveries, and
sensibilities as yet unknown. The point is to return to nature, to
admire the country, to delight in the simplicity of rustic manners, to
be interested in village people, to be human, to have a heart, to find
pleasure in the sweetness and tenderness of natural affections, to be
a husband and a father, and still more, to possess a soul, virtues,
and religious emotions, to believe in Providence and immortality, to
be capable of enthusiasm. One wants to be all this, or at least show an
inclination that way. In any event, if the desire does exist it is one
the implied condition, that one shall not be too much disturbed in his
ordinary pursuits, and that the sensations belonging to the new order of
life shall in no respect interfere with the enjoyments of the old one.
Accordingly the exaltation which arises is little more than cerebral
fermentation, and the idyll is to be almost entirely performed in the
drawing-rooms. Behold, then, literature, the drama, painting and all the
arts pursuing the same sentimental road to supply heated imaginations
with factitious nourishment.[2307] Rousseau, in labored periods,
preaches the charms of an uncivilized existence, while other masters,
between two madrigals, fancy the delight of sleeping naked in the
primeval for