ant
creatures adored by the Arabian prophet. Generous, devout, loving danger
and loving love, from which they demand much, and to which they grant
little; beyond every thing they prize renown and glory. All heroism
is dear to them. Perhaps there is no one among them who would think it
possible to pay too dearly for a brilliant action; and yet, let us say
it with reverence, many of them devote to obscurity their most holy
sacrifices, their most sublime virtues. But however exemplary these
quiet virtues of the home life may be, neither the miseries of private
life, nor the secret sorrows which must prey upon souls too ardent not
to be frequently wounded, can diminish the wonderful vivacity of
their emotions, which they know how to communicate with the infallible
rapidity and certainty of an electric spark. Discreet by nature and
position, they manage the great weapon of dissimulation with incredible
dexterity, skillfully reading the souls of others with out revealing the
secrets of their own. With that strange pride which disdains to exhibit
characteristic or individual qualities, it is frequently the most noble
virtues which are thus concealed. The internal contempt they feel for
those who cannot divine them, gives them that superiority which enables
them to reign so absolutely over those whom they have enthralled,
flattered, subjugated, charmed; until the moment arrives when--loving
with the whole force of their ardent souls, they are willing to brave
and share the most bitter suffering, prison, exile, even death itself,
with the object of their love! Ever faithful, ever consoling, ever
tender, ever unchangeable in the intensity of their generous devotion!
Irresistible beings, who in fascinating and charming, yet demand an
earnest and devout esteem! In that precious incense of praise burned by
M. de Balzac, "in honor of that daughter of a foreign soil," he has
thus sketched the Polish woman in hues composed entirely of antitheses:
"Angel through love, demon through fantasy; child through faith, sage
through experience; man through the brain, woman through the heart;
giant through hope, mother through sorrow; and poet through dreams."
[Footnote: Dedication of "Modeste Mignon".]

The homage inspired by the Polish women is always fervent. They all
possess the poetic conception of an ideal, which gleams through their
intercourse like an image constantly passing before a mirror, the
comprehension and seizure of which they im