ce
whilst we are so benumbed and extacied in delight.... But I
know that a man may triumph over the utmost effort of this
pleasure: I have experienced it in myself, and have not
found Venus so imperious a goddess as many--and some more
reformed than I--declare. I do not consider it as a miracle,
as the Queen of Navarre does in one of the Tales of her
_Heptameron_ (which is a marvellous pretty book of the
kind), nor for a thing of extreme difficulty to pass over
whole nights, where a man has all the convenience and
liberty he can desire, with a long-coveted mistress, and yet
be just to his faith first given to satisfy himself with
kisses and innocent embraces only, without pressing any
further."--Cotton's "Montaigne's Essays", London, 1743, vol
ii. pp. 109-10.

"I pray you, ladies, find me if you can a woman who has ever shown
herself as constant, patient and true as was this man. They who have
experienced the like temptations deem those in the pictures of Saint
Antony very small in comparison; for one who can remain chaste and
patient in spite of beauty, love, opportunity and leisure, will have
virtue enough to vanquish every devil."

"Tis a pity," said Oisille, "that he did not address his love to a woman
possessing as much virtue as he possessed himself. Their amour would
then have been the most perfect and honourable that was ever heard of."

"But prithee tell me," said Geburon, "which of the two trials do you
deem the harder?"

"I think the last," said Parlamente, "for resentment is the strongest of
all temptations."

Longarine said she thought that the first was the most arduous to
sustain, since to keep his promise it was needful he should subdue both
love and himself.

"It is all very well for you to talk," said Simontault, "it is for us
who know the truth of the matter to say what we think of it. For my own
part, I think he was stupid the first time and witless the second; for
I make no doubt that, while he was keeping his promise, to his mistress,
she was put to as much trouble as himself, if not more. She had him take
the oath only in order to make herself out a more virtuous woman than
she really was; she must have well known that strong love will not be
bound by commandment or oath, or aught else on earth, and she simply
sought to give a show of virtue to her vice, as though she could be won
only through heroic virtues. And the se