se than the
contrary? I told you some time ago, that women themselves, when they
are acting in good faith, go farther than men in making love consist
in an effervescence of the blood. Study a lover at the commencement of
her passion: with her, then, love is purely a metaphysical sentiment,
with which the senses have not the least relation. Similar to those
philosophers who, in the midst of grievous torments would not confess
that they were suffering pain, she is a martyr to her own system; but,
at last, while combatting this chimera, the poor thing becomes
affected by a change; her lover vainly repeats that love is a divine,
metaphysical sentiment, that it lives on fine phrases, on spiritual
discourses, that it would be degrading to mingle with it anything
material and human; he vainly, boasts of his respect and refinement. I
tell you, Marquis, on the part of all women, that such an orator will
never make his fortune. His respect will be taken as an insult, his
refinement for derision, and his fine discourses for ridiculous
pretexts. All the grace that will be accorded him, is that she will
find a pretext to quarrel with him because he has been less refined
with some other woman, and that he will be put to the sorrowful
necessity of displaying his high flown sentiments to his titular
mistress, and what is admirable about this is, that the excuse for it
arises out of the same principle.

P.S.--You have so much deference for my demands! You not only show my
letters to M. de la Rochefoucauld, but you read them before the whole
assembly of my friends. It is true that the indulgence with which my
friends judge them, consoles me somewhat for your indiscretion, and I
see very well that the best thing for me to do is to continue on in my
own way as I have in the past. But, at least, be discreet when I
mention matters relating to the glory of the Countess; otherwise, no
letters.

XLI

Discretion Is Sometimes the Better Part of Valor

No, Marquis, I can not pardon in you the species of fury with which
you desire what you are pleased to call the "supreme happiness." How
blind you are, not to know that when you are sure of a woman's heart,
it is in your interests to enjoy her defeat a long time before it
becomes entire. Will you never understand, that of all there is good
on earth, it is the sweetness of love that must be used with the
greatest economy?

If I were a man and were so fortunate as to have captured the h