et les Crimes Sadiques_, 1899;
Paul Ginisty, _La Marquise de Sade_, 1901.]

The attempt to define sadism strictly and penetrate to its roots in De
Sade's personal temperament reveals a certain weakness in the current
conception of this sexual perversion. It is not, as we might infer, both
from the definition usually given and from its probable biological
heredity from primitive times, a perversion due to excessive masculinity.
The strong man is more apt to be tender than cruel, or at all events knows
how to restrain within bounds any impulse to cruelty; the most extreme and
elaborate forms of sadism (putting aside such as are associated with a
considerable degree of imbecility) are more apt to be allied with a
somewhat feminine organization. Montaigne, indeed, observed long ago that
cruelty is usually accompanied by feminine softness.

In the same way it is a mistake to suppose that the very feminine
woman is not capable of sadistic tendencies. Even if we take into
account the primitive animal conditions of combat, the male must
suffer as well as inflict pain, and the female must not only
experience subjection to the male, but also share in the emotions
of her partner's victory over his rivals. As bearing on these
points, I may quote the following remarks written by a lady: "It
is said that, the weaker and more feminine a woman is, the
greater the subjection she likes. I don't think it has anything
at all to do with the general character, but depends entirely on
whether the feeling of constraint and helplessness affects her
sexually. In men I have several times noticed that those who were
most desirous of subjection to the women they loved had, in
ordinary life, very strong and determined characters. I know of
others, too, who with very weak characters are very imperious
toward the women they care for. Among women I have often been
surprised to see how a strong, determined woman will give way to
a man she loves, and how tenacious of her own will may be some
fragile, clinging creature who in daily life seems quite unable
to act on her own responsibility. A certain amount of passivity,
a desire to have their emotions worked on, seems to me, so far as
my small experience goes, very common among ordinary, presumably
normal men. A good deal of stress is laid on femininity as an
attraction in a woman, and this may be so to ver