poetic canons prepared for
poems already published. In these days we are become very much more
energetic, we invent rules to suit works and works to suit rules. But
of what use were ancient principles of military art in presence of the
impetuous genius of Napoleon? If, to-day, however, we reduce to a
system the lessons taught by this great captain whose new tactics have
destroyed the ancient ones, what future guarantee do we possess that
another Napoleon will not yet be born? Books on military art meet, with
few exceptions, the fate of ancient works on Chemistry and Physics.
Everything is subject to change, either constant or periodic.

This, in a few words, is the history of our work.

So long as we have been dealing with a woman who is inert or lapped in
slumber, nothing has been easier than to weave the meshes with which we
have bound her; but the moment she wakes up and begins to struggle,
all is confusion and complication. If a husband would make an effort
to recall the principles of the system which we have just described in
order to involve his wife in the nets which our second part has set for
her, he would resemble Wurmser, Mack and Beaulieu arranging their halts
and their marches while Napoleon nimbly turns their flank, and makes use
of their own tactics to destroy them.

This is just what your wife will do.

How is it possible to get at the truth when each of you conceals it
under the same lie, each setting the same trap for the other? And whose
will be the victory when each of you is caught in a similar snare?

"My dear, I have to go out; I have to pay a visit to Madame So and So.
I have ordered the carriage. Would you like to come with me? Come, be
good, and go with your wife."

You say to yourself:

"She would be nicely caught if I consented! She asks me only to be
refused."

Then you reply to her:

"Just at the moment I have some business with Monsieur Blank, for he has
to give a report in a business matter which deeply concerns us both, and
I must absolutely see him. Then I must go to the Minister of Finance. So
your arrangement will suit us both."

"Very well, dearest, go and dress yourself, while Celine finishes
dressing me; but don't keep me waiting."

"I am ready now, love," you cry out, at the end of ten minutes, as you
stand shaved and dressed.

But all is changed. A letter has arrived; madame is not well; her dress
fits badly; the dressmaker has come; if it is not the dressmaker it