the virgin for love; but with
the first child her bosom loses form, her beauty its freshness. Woman
is made for motherhood. Man would perhaps abandon her, disgusted by
the loss of beauty; but his child clings to him and weeps. Behold
the family, the human law; everything that departs from this law is
monstrous.

"Civilization thwarts the ends of nature. In our cities, according to
our customs, the virgin destined by nature for the open air, made to
run in the sunlight; to admire the nude wrestlers, as in Lacedemonia,
to choose and to love, is shut up in close confinement and bolted in.
Meanwhile she hides romance under her cross; pale and idle, she
fades away and loses, in the silence of the nights, that beauty which
oppresses her and needs the open air. Then she is suddenly snatched from
this solitude, knowing nothing, loving nothing, desiring everything; an
old woman instructs her, a mysterious word is whispered in her ear, and
she is thrown into the arms of a stranger. There you have marriage, that
is to say, the civilized family.

"A child is born. This poor creature has lost her beauty and she has
never loved. The child is brought to her with the words: 'You are a
mother.' She replies: 'I am not a mother; take that child to some woman
who can nurse it. I can not.' Her husband tells her that she is right,
that her child would be disgusted with her. She receives careful
attention and is soon cured of the disease of maternity. A month later
she may be seen at the Tuileries, at the ball, at the opera; her child
is at Chaillot, at Auxerre; her husband with another woman. Then young
men speak to her of love, of devotion, of sympathy, of all that is in
the heart. She takes one, draws him to her bosom; he dishonors her and
returns to the Bourse. She cries all night, but discovers that tears
make her eyes red. She takes a consoler, for the loss of whom another
consoles her; thus up to the age of thirty or more. Then, blase and
corrupted, with no human sentiment, not even disgust, she meets a fine
youth with raven locks, ardent eye and hopeful heart; she recalls her
own youth, she remembers what she has suffered, and telling him the
story of her life, she teaches him to eschew love.

"That is woman as we have made her; such are your mistresses. But you
say they are women and that there is something good in them!

"But if your character is formed, if you are truly a man, sure of
yourself and confident of your strength, y