his right based on logic, but which is in reality only a tissue
of ridiculous contradictions, the automatic and inept product of his
emotional state. Such contrasts are so frequent that we can easily
recognize the expression of a psychological law, due to the mirages of
the amorous passions on the one hand and the inverse reaction on the
other.

Nevertheless hypocrisy has its good side. It has been said not without
reason that "hypocrisy is a concession which vice makes to virtue." In
their nakedness human thoughts are often so sadly vulgar and so
offensive that a little varnish improves them. In this sense, and when
it comes from a feeling of shame or good-will, hypocrisy deserves a
good deal of the eulogy which Mark Twain has heaped on it in his
charming satire, "The Decadence of the Art of Lying."

In the sexual question hypocrisy is directly provoked by the tyranny
and barbarism of what are called good manners, often even by the law.
In this sense it constitutes a response of human nature to the forms
and customs derived from the right of the stronger or from religious
superstitions, as well as from the dogmas resulting from them.

By the term _sexual hypocrisy_ I do not mean the repugnant forms of
hypocrisy pure and simple, in which man only exploits love indirectly
for an interested end, for instance when he simulates love to obtain a
rich wife. I only speak of the forms of hypocrisy which are directly
evolved from the sexual appetite or from love.

It is from this point of view that we must judge sexual hypocrisy, and
if I have laid special stress on its good points, it is in view of
marriage, where it assists the education of noble and elevated
sentiments even in the hypocrite. By praising the virtues of his
helpmate with a little exaggeration, these are made to appear more
noble. If the time is spent in saying disagreeable truths, love is
soon stifled and killed. On the contrary, if each conjoint attributes
to the other as fine qualities as possible, each is finally persuaded
that the other really possesses them, and then realizes them himself,
at any rate in part.

The worst of hypocrisies is that which is the product of base
pecuniary interests, or of a gross sexual appetite without love, or
lastly by the pressure of conventional or religious customs. Good
hypocrisy consists in the repression of all that is base in the
sentiments, inclinations and passions; in the fact that one strives to
hide it from o