nced in the art of seduction
approaches women with audacity and _aplomb_, and usually imposes on
them considerably, whatever his ignorance of other things. He has
instinctively learnt one thing: viz., the weakness of woman in the
face of the male form, theatrical effect, uniforms, an audacious act,
a fierce mustache, etc. He has learnt that these fireworks hypnotize
her and silence her reason, and that she is then capable of enthusiasm
for the most doubtful cavalier and delivers herself to him bound hand
and foot, provided his self-assurance does not desert him.

I may say here that it is most often men of low intellect, weak in
judgment and principles, who think themselves most superior to the
feminine sex, and who behave as tyrants to their wives.

Sexual braggardism has, moreover, grave consequences for the man
himself, for it urges him to excesses which far exceed his appetites
and especially his natural wants. In spite of other advantages, he
wishes to shine by these excesses among his fellows and even among the
grisettes whose minds are full of sexual matters.

Male sexual braggardism contributes with sexual appetite to entice
reserved and high-minded young men toward prostitutes, against their
better instincts, their reason and their moral sense. Alcohol
especially facilitates the degeneration of sexual life.

=The Pornographic Spirit.=--The term _eroticism_ is given to the state
of excitation of the sexual appetite. When a person cultivates it
artificially and abandons himself to purely animal sensuality, without
combining it with higher intellectual or moral aspirations, there
develop in the mind irradiations which may be designated by the term
_pornographic spirit_. The entire circle of ideas of such individuals
is so impregnated with eroticism that all their thoughts and
sentiments are colored by it. They see everywhere, even in the most
innocent objects, the most lewd allusions. Woman is only regarded by
them as an object of sexual enjoyment, and her mind only appears to
such satyrs as an ignoble erotic caricature, which is disgusting to
every man capable of lofty sentiments.

Owing to its usually sensual and gross nature, male eroticism has
succeeded in modeling a whole class of women in whom ideal character
in their desires is wanting. Instead of recognizing his own work and
the vile image of his own person in these unnatural women, the
libertine, as we have already seen, imagines them as the normal t