)rma al r LIBRARY ITY OF SAN 01 EGO A THOUSAND FLASHES OF FRENCH WIT. AJ4D COLLECTED AND TRANSLA TED BY ]. DE FINOD NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 72 FIFTH AVENUE I9O2 COPYRIGHT BY D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 1880. PREFATORY. READER : As an amateur botanist, I have pen- etrated some avenues of the vast garden of lit- erature, and I have gathered flowers of different species to compose a bouquet which I offer to you. Occasionally, I have allowed myself to insert some of my own thoughts among those of the great thinkers here represented, as one shelters timid violets by planting them at the foot of majestic oaks. In compiling this book, I have carefully ex- cluded everything that would seem objectionable to you, my liberal but virtuous reader, the Eng- lish language being more austere than the French in its expressions ; but, after having paid a legiti- mate tribute to your just susceptibilities, I have, without timorous scruples, preserved such piquant gems as could be enjoyed without endangering your morals. In an orderly spirit, for which posterity, if not the present generation, will give me thanks, 1 have mixed the serious with the jocular ; for I feared that, if I placed the wisdom at the beginning and the wickedness at the end of the book, you would begin your reading retrogressively, which is con- trary to established principles. At the worst, this subterfuge is not more criminal than that of the physician who coats his bitter pills with sugar. rThe thinker, the skeptic, the misanthrope, the sentimentalist, the melancholic, and the mirthful will find in these pages ample food for their differ- ent appetites. Democritus elbows Heraclitus all the way long; and I have no doubt that, after having perused meditatively these deep or fanci- ful lucubrations of eminent authors, you will have greatly improved your natural_disposition. \ A final word to the lady reader : You will see, fair reader, that much good has been said of you, and, alas! much bad also; this is because no subject more worthy of attention has ever haunted the minds of all the great philosophers of the world. But listen to this well-meant injunction : believe unhesitatingly all that is said in your favor, and deny energetically, as I myself do, all that is said to your prejudice. Do not criminate an innocent compiler, who would not exchange one of your smiles for all the wisdom of Solomon, and who has inserted in his book the malicious remarks of cer- tain ill-natured philosophers, only to show how far man's ingratitude can go. DE FINOD. INTKODUCTOKY. To select well among old things is almost equal to inventing new ones. Trublet. The flavor of detached thoughts depends upon the conciseness of their expression : for thoughts are grains of sugar, or of salt, that must be melted in a drop of water. J. Petit-Senn. When we say there is nothing new under the sun, we do not count forgotten things. E. Thierry. A burlesque word is often a mighty sermon. Boileau. He who hears but one bell, hears but one sound. Proverb. 8 What seems only ludicrous is sometimes very serious. Rabelais. Better a man with paradoxes than a man with prejudices. y. y. Rousseau. We must laugh before we are happy, lest we should die without having laughed. La Eruyere. The history of love would be the history of humanity: it would be a beautiful book to write. Ch. Nodier. Strong thoughts are iron nails driven in the mind, that nothing can draw out. Diderot. In this world, one must put cloaks on all truths, even the nicest. Balzac. Fear of hypocrites and fools is the great plague of thinking and writing. y. yanin. Women prefer us to say a little evil of them, rather than say nothing of them at all. A. Ricard. All truths are not to be uttered ; still it is always good to hear them. Mme. du Deffand, Wisdom is to the soul what health is to the body. De Saint-Rtal. Thought is the first faculty of man : to express it is one of his first desires; to spread it, his dearest privilege. Raynal. One of the principal occupations of men is to divine women. Lacretelle. Love is composed of so many sensations, that something new of it can always be said. Saint-Prosper. A truth that one does not understand becomes an error. Desbarolles. Can one better expiate his sins than by enlist- ing his experience in the service of morals. De Bernard. A delicate thought is a flower of the mind. Rollin. 10 Men may say of marriage and women what they please : they will renounce neither the one nor the other. The history of the thoughts of men, curious on account of their infinite variety, is also sometimes instructive. Fontenelle. Men say of women what pleases them ; women do with men what pleases them. De Stgur. Verity is nudity. A. de Musset. A jest that makes a virtuous woman only smile, often frightens away a prude ; but, when real dan- ger forces the former to flee, the latter does not hesitate to advance. Latina. To laugh is the characteristic of man. Rabelais. Although it is dangerous to have too much knowledge of certain subjects, it is still more dan- gerous to be totally ignorant of them. Colombat. II There will always remain something to be said of woman, as long as there is one on the earth. Bcufflers. When one writes of woman, he must reserve the right to laugh at his ideas of the day before. A. Ricard. O Truth ! pure and sacred virgin, when wilt thou be worthily revered ? O Goddess who in- structs us, why didst thou put thy palace in a well ? When will our learned writers, alike free from bitterness and from flattery, faithfully teach us life? Voltaire. Should we condemn ourselves to ignorance to preserve hope ? E. Souvestre. Ignorance is the mother of all evils. Montaigne. All my misfortunes come of having thought too well of my fellows. f. J. Rousseau. We laugh but little in our days, but are we less frivolous ? Biranger. 12 Common sense is not a common thing. Valatncourt, Our century is a brutal thinker. Biranger. The most completely lost of all days is the one on which we have not laughed. Chamfort. The most completely lost of all days is the one on which we have not thought. De Fined. Melancholy is the convalescence of sorrow. Mme. Dufresnoy. Of all heavy bodies, the heaviest is the woman we have ceased to love. Lemontey. Pleasures are like liqueurs : they must be drunk but in small glasses. Romainville. Of what is man certain? What lasts? What passes? What is chimerical ? What is real?. . . Every body drags its shadow, and every mind its doubt. Victor Hugo. Discretion is more necessary to women than eloquence, because they have less trouble to speak well than to speak little. Father Du Base. '4 Twenty years in the life of a man is sometimes a severe lesson. Mme. de Stall. Envy lurks at the bottom of the human heart like a viper in its hole. Balzac. Marriage is a lottery in which men stake their liberty, and women their happiness. Mme. de Rieux. Young saint, old devil ; young devil, old saint. Proverb. The heart has no wrinkles. Mme. de Sevigne". Experience is the name men give to their fol- lies, or their sorrows. A. de Musset. Women are constantly the dupes, or the vic- tims, of their extreme sensitiveness. Balzac. Oblivion is the flower that grows best on graves. George Sand. In life, as in a promenade, woman must lean on a man above her. A. Karr. For one Orpheus who went to Hell to 'seek his wife, how many widowers who would not even go to Paradise to find theirs ! J. Petit-Senn. When a lover gives, he demands and much moie than he has given. Parny. In most men there is a dead poet whom the man survives. Sainte-Beuve. Woman is a perfected devil. Victor Hugo. How many people would be mute if they were forbidden to speak well of themselves, and evil of others ! Mme. de Fontaines. Coquettes are the quacks of love. La Rochefoucauld. To remain virtuous, a man has only to combat his own desires : a woman must resist her own in- clinations, and the continual attack of man. Latena. We condemn vice and extol virtue only through interest. La Rochefoucauld. i6 The less one sees and knows men, the higher one esteems them ; for experience teaches their real value. Marguerite de Valois. Beauty without grace is a hook without a bait. Ninon de Lenclos. The destiny of nations depends upon the man- ner in which they feed themselves. Brillat-Savarin. Experience is a keen knife that hurts, while it extracts the cataract that blinds. De Finod. He who is never guilty of follies is not so wise as he imagines. La Rochefoucauld. Contempt is like the hot iron that brands crim- inals : its imprint is almost always indelible. Altbert. Antiquity is the aristocracy of History. A. Dumas pere. A hydra advances which will soon devour all the men of sentiment : this hydra is the cipher. O. Firmez, 17 Folly was condemned to serve as a guide to Love whom she had blinded. La Fontaine, The future of society is in the hands of the mothers. If the world was lost through woman, she alone can save it. De Beaufort. What we gain by experience is not worth what we lose in illusion. Petit-Senn. The breaking of a heart leaves no traces. George Sand. Rejected lovers need never despair! There are four and twenty hours in a day, and not a mo- ment in the twenty-four in which a woman may not change her mind. De Finod. There are few husbands whom the wife can not win in the long run by patience and love, un- less they are harder than the rocks which the soft water penetrates in time. Marguerite de Valois. From the moment it is touched, the heart can not dry up. Bourdaloue. i8 Prejudice is the reason of fools. Voltaire. The best government is not that which ren- ders men the happiest, but that which renders the greatest number happy. Ch. P. Duclos. Hypocrisy of manners, a vice peculiar to mod- ern nations, has contributed more than one thinks to destroy that energy of character which distin- guished the nations of antiquity. Condorcet. Celebrity sells dearly what we think she gives, E. Souvestre. The world either breaks or hardens the heart. Chamfort. Old age is the night of life, as night is the old age of the day. Still, night is full of magnifi- cence ; and, for many, it is more brilliant than the day. Mme. Swetchine. A mother's tenderness and caresses are the milk of the heart. Mil'', de Gufrin. '9 Many have lived on a pedestal, who will never have a statue when dead. Bfranger. In eternal cares we spend our years, ever agi- tated by new desires : we look forward to living, and yet never live. Fontenelle. Frequently the curses of men bring the bless- ings of Heaven. Lamennais. There are some moral conditions in which Death smiles upon us, as smiles a silent and peace- ful night upon the exhausted laborer. Alfred Merrier. At the age when the faculties droop, when stern experience has destroyed all sweet illusions, man may seek solitude ; but, at twenty, the affections which he is compelled to repress are a tomb in which he buries himself alive. E. de Girardin. Doubt follows white- winged Hope with a limp- ing gait. Balzac. Progress is lame. Sainte-Beuvf. 2O Great vices, and great virtues, are exceptions in mankind. Napoleon I. It is easier to take care of a peck of fleas than of one woman. Proverb. Hope is the gardener of the heart. De Finod. Many men kill themselves for love, but many more women die of it. Lemontey. No one knows himself until he has suffered. A. de Musset. Who would venture upon the journey of life, if compelled to begin it at the end? Mme. de Maintenon. All those observers who have spent their lives in the study of the human heart, know less about the signs of love than the most brainless, yet sensi- tive woman. . . Rousseau. There are no oaths that make so many perju- rers as the vows of love. Rochebrune. 21 One can impose silence on sentiment, but one can not give it limits. Mme. Necker. Women deceived by men want to marry them : it is a kind of revenge as good as any other. Beaumanoir. Recollection is the only paradise out of which we can not be driven. One must tell women only what one wants to be known. Caron. One blushes oftener from the wounds of self- love than from modesty. Mme, Guibert. Between the mouth and the kiss, there is al- ways time for repentance. A. Ricard. Prosperity makes few friends. Vauvenargues. The thought of eternity consoles us for the shortness of life. Malesherbes, 22 He is the happiest who renders the greatest number happy. Desmahis. Flow, wine ! smile, woman ! and the universe is consoled ! Blranger. We should not pass from the earth without leaving traces to carry our memory to posterity. Napoleon I, The moral amelioration of man constitutes the chief mission of woman. A. Comte. Everywhere the strong have made the laws and oppressed the weak ; and, if they have sometimes consulted the interests of society, they have always forgotten those of humanity. Turgot. We rarely confess that we deserve what we suffer. Quesnel, Under the freest constitution ignorant people are still slaves. Condorcet. Love decreases when it ceases to increase. Chateaubriand. 23 Imagination has more charm in writing than in speaking : great wings must fold before enter- ing a salon. Prince de Ligne. In separations, the one who departs is the soon- est consoled. Mme. de Montolieu. Partake of love as a temperate man partakes of wine : do not become intoxicated. A. de Musset. The last census of France embraced nearly twenty millions of women. Happy rascal ! In love affairs, from innocence to the fault, there is but a kiss. A. Second. Fortune does not change men : it unmasks them. Mme. Necker. Virtue and Love are two ogres : one must eat the other. D'Houdetot. The table is the only place where we do not get weary during the first hour. Brillat -Savarin. 24 Love never dies of starvation, but often of in- digestion. Ninon de Lendos. Man corrupts all that he touches. Montaigne. Shun idleness : it is the rust that attaches it- self to the most brilliant metals. Voltaire. He who is devoted to everybody is devoted to nobody. . C. Delavigne. Of all serious things, marriage is the most ludi- crous. Beaumarchais. The waves of life toss our destinies like sea- weeds detached from the rock. Houses are ships which receive but passengers. Souvestre. The man who enters his wife's dressing-room is either a philosopher, or a fool. Balzac. The sowing of wild oats is necessary in the life of a man. Libertinism is a leaven that fer- ments sooner or later. y. J. Rousseau. 2 5 The Devil and Love are but one. Voltaire. Hope is a lure. There is no hand that can retain a wave or a shadow. Victor Hugo. Inopportune consolations increase a deep sor- row. y. y. Rousseau. We instinctively abhor calumny as we do a snake, for fear of its venom ; but, is our aversion to it so great when it attacks others ? De Finod. Let youth dance : tempests of the heart arise after the repose of the limbs. Lemontey. How many languish in obscurity, who would become great if emulation and encouragement in- cited them to exertion ! Ftnelon. Woman is an idol that man worships, until he throws it down. Many benefit by the caresses they have not in- spired ; many a vulgar reality serves as a pedestal to an ideal idol. T. Gautier. 26 Necessity is a severe schoolmistress. Montaigne. If all hearts were frank, just, and honest, the major part of the virtues would be useless to us. Moliere. O woman ! it is thou that causest the tempests that agitate mankind. J. y. Rousseau. War is not as onerous as servitude. Vauvenargues. Glory, ambition, armies, fleets, thrones, crowns: playthings of grown children. Victor Hugo. Great men are like meteors : they glitter and are consumed to enlighten the world. Napoleon I. Oh, poor hearts of poets, eager for the infinite in love, will you never be understood ? Mme. Louise Colet. Irony is the purulence of our moral wounds. De Finod. 27 WRITTEN ON A SKULL : Lamp, what hast thou done with the flame? Skeleton, what hast thou done with the soul? Deserted cage, what hast thou done with the bird? Volcano, what hast thou done with the lava ? Slave, what hast thou done with thy master ? Mme. A. Segalas. We salute more willingly an acquaintance in a carriage than a friend on foot. J. Petit-Senn. The virtuous woman who falls in love is much to be pitied. La Rochefoucauld, To despise money is to dethrone a king. Chamfort. Instruction is to the proletary what liberty is to the slave : the latter emancipates the body, the former emancipates the intelligence. E. de Girardin. All thinkers have about the same principles, and form but one republic. Voltaire. A poet is a world inclosed in a man. Victor Hugo. 28 The devil must be very powerful, since the sacrifice of a god for men has not rendered them any better. Piron. O world ! how many hopes thou dost engulf! A. de Musset, Women swallow at one mouthful the lie that flatters, and drink drop by drop a truth that is bitter. Diderot. It is not easy to be a widow : one must reas- sume all the modesty of girlhood, without being allowed to even feign its ignorance. Mme. de Girardin. A handsome face is a mute recommendation. Virginity is poetry : it does not exist for fools. Limayrac. What woman desires is written in heaven. La Chaussee. Life often seems but a long shipwreck, of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love : the shores of our existence are strewn with them. Mine, de Stdel. 29 Alas! how can we always resist? The devil tempts us, and the flesh is weak. Voltaire. Barbarism recommences by the excess of civ- ilization. Lamartine. There are three things that I have always loved and have never understood : Painting, Music, and Woman. Fontenelle. A philosopher is a fool who torments himself during life, to be spoken of when dead. D 'Alembert. How many women would laugh at the funerals of their husbands, if it were not the custom to weep ! Beware of him who meets you with a friendly mien, and, in the midst of a cordial salutation, seeks to avoid your glance. Lavater. There is no torture that a woman would not suffer to enhance her beauty. Montaigne. Alas! what does man here below? A little noise in much shadow. Victor Hugo. Modesty in woman is a virtue most deserving, since we do all we can to cure her of it. Lingrfe. The more hidden the venom, the more danger- ous it is. Marguerite de Valois. It was Love who invented music. Virey. Happiness is a bird that we pursue our life long, without catching it. An idle man is like stagnant water: he corrupts himself. Latlna. Love makes mutes of those who habitually speak most fluently. Mile, de ScudM. He who tries to prove too much, proves nothing. Proverb. A woman with whom one discusses love is al- ways in expectation of something Poincelot. God ! thy pity must have been profound when this miserable world emerged from chaos ! A. de Musset. 1 have seen more than one woman drown her honor in the clear water of diamonds. D 'Houdetot. Love is the sin of all men. Du Base. One knows the value of pleasure only after he has suffered pain. Fontenelle. Attention is a tacit and continual compliment. Mme. Swetchine. The power of words is immense. A well-chosen word has often sufficed to stop a flying army, to change defeat into victory, and to save an empire. E. de Girardin. One of the sweetest pleasures of a woman is to cause regret. Gavarni. Solitude causes us to write because it causes us to think Mile, de Gutrin. 32 Love is a bird that sings in the heart of woman. A. Karr. Death is the only trustworthy friend of the mis- erable. To hate is a torment. Slgur. The desire to please is born in woman before the desire to love. Ninon de Lenclos. Constancy is the chimera of love. Vauvenargues. Polygamy ought to be obligatory on physicians. It would be only just to compel those who de- populate the world to repopulate it a little. The pretension of youth always gives to a wo- man a few more years than she really has. Jouy. Hope says to us at every moment : Go on ! go on ! and leads us thus to the grave. Mme. de Maintenon. Cleanliness is the toilet of old age. Mme. Necker. 33 The prejudices of men emanate from the mind, and maybe overcome; the prejudices of women emanate from the heart, and are impregnable. D 'Argens. A prude ought to be condemned to meet only indiscreet lovers. Raisson. Friendship is a shield that blunts the darts of adversity. Mme, de Saint-Surin. Whoever has loved knows all that life contains of sorrow and of joy. George Sand. Modesty secretly awakes desire : it is the most chaste, the most delicate, and the most attractive of all provocations. Poincelot. The only true and firm friendship is that be- tween man and woman, because it is the only af- fection exempt from actual or possible rivalry. A. Comte. Grief counts the seconds: happiness forgets the hours. De Finod. 3 34 The yoke of love is sometimes heavier than that of all the virtues. Montaigne. Paradise, as described by the theologians, seems to me too musical : I confess that I should be in- capable of listening to a cantata that would last ten thousand years. T. Gautier. We are always more disposed to laugh at non- sense than at genuine wit; because the nonsense is more agreeable to us, being more comformable to our own natures : fools love folly, and wise men wisdom. Marguerite de Valois. Use, do not abuse : neither abstinence nor ex- cess ever renders man happy. Voltaire. Those who seek happiness in ostentation and dissipation, are like those who prefer the light of a candle to the splendor of the sun. Napoleon I. The virtue of women is often the love of repu- tation and quiet. La Rochefoucauld. The prayers of a lover are more imperious than the menaces of the whole world. George Sand, 35 There are those who have nothing chaste but their ears, and nothing virtuous but their tongues. De Finod, <^\ The moment past is no longer : the future may f never be : the present is all of which man is the <" master. y. J. Rousseau. God speaks to our hearts through the voice of remorse. De Bernis. A revolution is the lava of a civilization. Victor Hugo. To love is to admire with the heart ; to admire is to love with the mind. T. Gautier. Practice is to theory what the feet are to the head. E. de Girardiit. We like to give in the sunlight, and to receive in the dark. y. Petit-Senn. Glances are the first billets-doux of love. Ninon de Lenclos. 36 Fools never understand people of wit. Vauvenargues. The world is a masked ball. Miry. We attract hearts by the qualities we display ; we retain them by the qualities we possess. Suard. Gratitude is a cross-road that leads quickly to love. T. Gautier. Beauty and ugliness disappear equally under the wrinkles of age : one is lost in them, the other hidden. y. Petit-Senn. There are some who are born with a sorrow in the heart. Lamennais. The ruses of women multiply with their years. Proverb. The world boasts that it can render men happy ! Massillon. 37 The reading of romances will always be the favorite amusement of women : old, they peruse them to recall what they have experienced ; young to anticipate what they wish to experience. A. Ricard. When we combat that which we love, soonef or later we succumb. Marivaux. Science seldom renders men amiable ; women, never. BeaucMne. Let us make no vows, but let us act as if we had. Rochepldrt. Whoever is suspicious incites treason. Voltaire. Presumption is the daughter of ignorance. Rivarol. That a country may be truly free, the people should be all philosophers, and the rulers all gods. Napoleon /. Chance is a nickname for Providence. CAam/ort. 38 It is not the weathercock that changes : it is the wind. C. Desmoulins. Women are in the moral world what flowers are in the physical. S. Marlcfial. Fanaticism is to religion what hypocrisy is to virtue. Palissot. Our happiness is but an unhappiness more or less consoled. Ducts. Women should be careful of their conduct, for appearances sometimes injure them as much as faults. AbbS Girard. The fool maintains an error with the assurance of a man who can never be mistaken : the sensible man defends a truth with the circumspection of a man who may be mistaken. De Bruix. Tears are the strength of women. Saint-Evremond. Where pride begins, love ends. Lavater. 39 Greece, so much praised for her wisdom, never produced but seven wise men : judge of the num- ber of fools ! Grlcourt. A man must be a fool, who does not succeed in making a woman believe that which flatters her. Balzac. Vanity is the quicksand of reason. George Sand. Philosophy triumphs easily over evils past and evils to come ; but, present evils triumph over philosophy. La Rochefoucauld. Better to know the darker sides of life, than to slumber in dangerous illusions. De Finod. To be happy is not to enjoy : it is not to suffer. Raspail. Better to have never loved, than to have loved unhappily, or to have half loved. Mme. Louise Colet. Love makes time pass, and time makes love pass. Proverb. 40 What a chimera is man ! What a confused chaos! What a subject of contradictions! A professed judge of all things, and yet a feeble worm of the earth ! the great depositary and guardian of truth, and yet a mere bundle of un- certainties ! the glory and the shame of the uni- verse ! Pascal. - Vanity, shame, and, above all, temperament, often make the valor of men, and the virtue of women. La Rochefoucauld. One always wishes to be happy before becom- ing wise. Mme. Necker. Tenderness is increased by pity. Mme. Dufresnoy. Love is the passion of great souls : it makes them merit glory, when it does not turn their heads, Mme. de Pompadour. There is no bitterer grief than a happy remem- brance in a day of sorrow. A. de Mussel. In love affairs, a young shepherdess is a better partner than an old queen. De Fined. 41 Nothing is so embarrassing as the first / the heart, and the senses. Voltaire. 93 Woman is made of tongue, as fox of tail. Proverb. Prudery is the hypocrisy of modesty. Massias. The error of certain women is to imagine that to acquire distinction, they must imitate the man- ners of men. J. de Maistre. Time is the sovereign physician of all passions. Montaigne. What a cruel jest it would be to condemn those who continually boast of their virtues, to the strict practice of what they profess ! De Finod. Superstition excites storms; philosophy ap- peases them. Voltaire. Wounds given to honor never heal. Corneille. Obstacles usually stimulate passion, but some- times they kill it. George Sand. 94 Man is an eternal mystery, even to himself. His own person is a house which he never enters, and of which he studies but the outside. E. Souvestre, We are by no means aware how much we are influenced by our passions. La Rochefoucauld. \ To envy anybody is to confess ourselves his inferior. Mile, de Lespinasse. Do good to-day, since thou still livest. Villefrf. No one is happy unless he respects himself. y. y. Rousseau, There is in things a resistance superior to ideas, but for which the world would not exist six months. Lamennais. Glory is a shroud that posterity often tears from the shoulders of those who wore it, when living. Stranger. The most dangerous flattery is the inferiority of those who surround us. Mme. Swctchine. 95 It does not take twenty years for men to change their opinions of things which had seemed to them the truest, and most certain. La Bruylre. Philosophy writes treatises on old age and friendship ; Nature makes those on youth and love. D'Alembert. O nude truth ! O true truth .' how difficult thou art to find, and how difficult to utter ! Sainte-Beuve. Mankind is born a fool, and is led by knaves. Benjamin Constant. Lover, daughter, sister, wife, mother, grand- mother : in those six words lies what the human heart contains of the sweetest, the most ecstatic, the most sacred, the purest, and the most ineffable. The head is always the dupe of the heart. La Rochefoucauld. O women ! you are very extraordinary children ! Diderot. 96 There are different kinds of love, but they have all the same aim : possession. N. Roqueplan. When all that is fond in our nature is most thoroughly awakened, when we feel most deeply and tenderly even then, love is so conscious of its instability that we are irresistibly prompted to ask : Do you love me ? Will you love me always ? Balzac. Women distrust men too much in general, and not enough in particular. Commerson. If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent one. Voltaire. To protect one's self against the storms of pas- sion, marriage with a good woman is a harbor in the tempest ; but with a bad woman, it \ roves a tempest in the harbor. J. Petit-Senn. We should all be perfect if we were neither men nor women. Society would be a charming thing if we were only interested in one another. Chamfort. 97 We confess small faults in order to insinuate that we have no great ones. La Rochefoucauld. A great name without merit is like an epitaph on a coffin. Mme. de Puisieux. We wish others to possess, or to acquire, all the qualities and virtues that can serve our plea- sures or interests. De Finod. One can journey with delight in the ideal, but one reposes well only in the reality. Vieillard There is pleasure in meeting the eyes of those to whom we have done good. La Bruyere. To speak, but say nothing, is for three people out of four to express all they think. O. Commettant. One is rich when one is sure of the morrow. Chevalier. It is more difficult to dissimulate the senti- ments we have, than to simulate those we have not. De Saint-Rial. 9 8 Without the ideal, this inexhaustible source of all progress, what would man be ? and what would society be ? E. de Girardin. Every man has three characters : that which he exhibits, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has. A. Karr. Who takes an eel by the tail, or a woman at her word, soon finds he holds nothing. Proverb. High positions are like the summit of high, steep rocks : eagles and reptiles alone can reach them. Mme. Necker, Women are right to crave beauty at any price, since beauty is the only merit that men do not contest with them. A. Dupuy. The soul, ray of Heaven, invisible prisoner, suffers in its dungeon cruel sorrows. A. de Musset. The profession of woman is very hard. Mme. f Epinay. 99 Happy love counts lost moments. Diderot, To see each other, to profess to love each other, to prove it, to quarrel, to hate, then to sep- arate, that one may seek a new love : this is the history of a moment, and of every day in the com- edy of the world. De Varennes. Men do nothing excellent but by imitation of nature. y. y. Rousseau. Love is like medical science, the art of assist- ing nature. Dr. Lallemand. The man who has taken one wife deserves a crown of patience ; the man who has taken two deserves two crowns of folly. Proverb. The cleverest of all devils is opportunity. Vidand. When a woman pronounces the name of a man but twice a day, there may be some doubt as to the nature of her sentiments ; but three times ! . . . Balzac. IOO Love is a canvas furnished by Nature, and em- broidered by imagination. Voltaire. We live only on debris; instead of despair, we have indifference ; love itself is treated as an an- cient illusion. Where has the soul of the world taken refuge ? Mme. Louise Colet. Marriage is the true road to Paradise. De la Ferriere. Few are they who have been spared by cal- umny. George Sand. A great name is like an eternal epitaph en- graved by the admiration of men on the road of time. E. Souvestre. To philosophize is to doubt. Montaigne. Love sweet misery ! A. de Musset. The scandal of the world is what makes the offense : it is not sinful to sin in silence. Moliere ( ' ' Tartufe "). 101 With women, the desire to bedeck themselves is always the desire to please. Marmontel. True modesty protects a woman better than her garments. Conscience is the most enlightened of all philosophers. J. J. Rousseau. Respect your wife. Heap earth around that flower, but never drop any in the chalice. A. de Mussel. To continue love in marriage is a science. It requires so little to kill those sweet emotions, those precious illusions, which form the charm of life ; and it is so difficult to maintain a man at the height on which an exalted passion has placed him, especially when that man is one's husband ! Mine. Reybaud. What is a philosopher? One who opposes nature to law, reason to usage, conscience to opin- ion, and his judgment to error. Cluimfort. IO2 We shall all be perfectly virtuous when there is no longer any flesh on our bones. Marguerite de Valois. It is as absurd to pretend that one can not love the same woman always, as to pretend that a good artist needs several violins to execute a piece of music. Balzac. To give you nothing and to make you expect everything, to dawdle on the threshold of love, while the doors are closed : this is all the science of a coquette. De Bernard. Who has daughters is always a shepherd. Proverb. Life is the preface to the book of eternity. Loiseleur. Enjoy what you have; hope for what you lack. Levis. Fortune is a divinity in whom there are no dis- believers. Snac de Meilhan. 103 If we had no defects, we should not take so much pleasure in discovering those of others. La Rochefoucauld. The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish defy it, the wise judge it, the skillful direct it. Afme. Roland. Superstitions, errors, and prejudices are cob- webs continually woven in shallow brains. De Finod. Good sense is the master of human life. Bossuet. There are some places that we admire ; others that attract us, and where we would like to dwell. La Bruylre. Hope ! hope, you miserable ! There is no in- finite mourning, no incurable evils, no eternal hell! Victor Hugo. Women dress less to be clothed than to be adorned. When alone before their mirrors, they think more of men than of themselves. Rochebrune. 104 Modesty in women has great advantages : it enhances beauty, and serves as a veil to uncomeli- ness. Fontenelle. The more mysterious love is, the more strength it has ; the more it is secret, the more it increases ; the more hidden, the plainer shown. Mme. de Sartory. Love is a religion of which the great pontiff is Nature. Three letters ! but one syllable ! Still less, a single motion of the head, and all is done ! one is married for ever ! I do not know any breakneck comparable to it. A. Ricard. To give happiness is to deserve happiness. jf. y. Rousseau, The ear is the road to the heart; and the heart is the road to the rest. Some women need much adorning, as some meat needs much seasoning to incite appetite. Rochebrune. Catastrophes dispose all strong and intelligent men to philosophize. Balzac. Thinkers are as scarce as gold ; but he whose thought embraces all his subject, who pursues it uninterruptedly and fearless of consequences, is a diamond of enormous size. Lavater. Society is divided into two classes : the fleecers and the fleeced. Talleyrand. To love is to make a compact with sorrow. Mile, de Lespinasse. She is the most virtuous woman whom Nature has made the most voluptuous, and reason the coldest. La Beaumelle. Satire lies about men of letters during their life, and eulogy after their death. Voltaire. Gravity is a stratagem invented to conceal the poverty of the mind. La Rochefoucauld. To weep is not always to suffer. Afme. de Genlis. The only true language of love is a kiss. A. de Musstt. Many are esteemed, only because they are not known. Patience is the art of hoping. Vauvenargues. How many who, after having achieved fame and fortune, recall with regret the time when as- cending the hills of life in the sun of their twen- tieth year they had nothing but courage, which is the virtue of the young, and hope, which is the treasure of the poor ! H. Murger. A secret passion defends the heart of a woman better than her moral sense. Rttif de la Bretonne. If men knew all that women think, they would be twenty times more audacious. If women knew what men thinly they would be twenty times more coquettish. A. Karr. We have three kinds of friends : those who love us, those who are indifferent to us, and those who hate us. Chamfort, There is for adversity but one refuge the tomb. De Stgoyer. Sensitive people wish to be loved ; vain people wish only to be preferred. Livis. I like the laughter that opens the lips and the heart, that shows at the same time pearls and the soul. Victor Hugo. Love, of all tutors, is the one that most ad- vances his pupils. Florian. The life of great geniuses is nothing but a sub- lime storm. George Sand. None laugh better, and oftener, than women with fine teeth. Were we perfectly acquainted with our idol, we should never passionately desire it. La Rochefoucauld. A father is a banker given by nature. io8 Our soil is formed only of human dust. G. LegouvS. Marriage is often the denouement of comedies and novels; tragedy is often the denouement of marriage. De Finod. Fate gives us parents ; choice gives us friends. Delille, Our vices are like our nails : even as we cut them, they grow again. T. Bernard. It is with the mind that we amuse ourselves, but with the heart we never weary. A. Dumas plre. Great men undertake great things because they are great, and fools because they think them easy. Vauvenargues. The great aureole encircles only the brow of the dead. Chasles. Memory is the granary of the mind, and of ex- perience. O. Commettant. 109 When flattery is unsuccessful, it is but the fault of the flatterer. Uvis. Poetry is the sister of Sorrow. Every man that suffers and weeps is a poet ; every tear is a verse, and every heart a poem. Marc Andri. Prudery is the caricature of modesty. Lingrte. Reason is the last resort of love. Helvttius. Surely man is a being wonderfully vain, changs- able, and vacillating. Montaigne. Resignation a virgin with golden tears. Ch. Monselet. A woman who pretends to laugh at love is like the child who sings at night when he is afraid. y. y. Rousseau. Of all men, Adam was the happiest he had no mother-in-law. P. Par/ait. ITO We often weep before we have had time to smile. Victor Hugo. The first sigh of love is the last of wisdom. There are some sorrows of which we should never be consoled. Mme. de Sevignl, It is the violence of their ideas and the blind haste of their passion that make men awkward when with women. A man who has blunted a little his sensations, at first studies to please rather than to be loved. George Sand. To be happy, there are certain sides of our nature that must be entirely stultified. Chamfort. Moderation is the pleasure of the wise. Voltaire. Little girls are won with dolls big ones with oaths. A. Ricard. Do not take women from the bedside of those who suffer : it is their post of honor. Mme. CMle Fie. Ill One must have a heart to know how to love; senses do not suffice. Temperament led by the mind leads to voluptuousness, but never to love. De Bernis. Reason developed and cultivated will always be the most powerful curb to the passions : this is the compass of all mankind. y. y. Rousseau. Women, cats, and birds are the creatures that waste the most time on their toilets. Ch. Kodier. In love, which is the best rewarded : respect, or certain offenses ? A. de M us set. Superstition is to religion what astrology is to astronomy : a very stupid daughter of a very wise mother. Voltaire. Ridicule dishonors more than dishonor. La Rochefoucauld. Qualities of a too superior order render a man less adapted to society. One does not go to mar- ket with big lumps of gold ; one goes with silver or small change. 112 Earthly paradise : the parents young, the chil- dren small. Victor Hugo. He who thinks he can do without the world deceives himself; but he who thinks that the world can not do without him is still more in error. La Rochefoucauld. Kindness is the only charm permitted to the aged : it is the coquetry of white hair. O. Feuillet. Who is he who dares say all he thinks ? De Finod. We must consider humanity as a man who con- tinually grows old, and always learns. L. Figuier. The worst of enemies are flatterers, and the worst of flatterers are pleasures. Bossuet. The selfish, loving only themselves, are loved by no one : so, selfishness is moral suicide. De Gaston. The cause of our grandeur may become that of our ruin. Arnault. "3 We like morality when \ve are old, because we make of it a merit for the numerous privations which have become for us a necessity. Mme. de Saint. Mortals, what errors are yours ! You have but an instant to live, and that instant is a burden. Man implores Death and digs his grave. A. L. Thomas. What has been sown in the mind of the youth blooms and fructifies in the sun of riper years. Alfred Mercier. There is no better excess in the world than the excess of gratitude. La JBruyere. Youth is a continual intoxication, the fever of reason. La Rochefoucauld. One dies twice : to cease to live is nothing, but to cease to love and to be loved is an insupport- able death. Voltaire. One is very near being ungrateful when one weighs a service. Mme. de Flahaut. 8 H4 Friend, beware of fair maidens ! When their tenderness begins, our servitude is near. Victor Hugo. Reason bears disgrace, courage combats it, patience surmounts it. Mme. de Slvignt. Of yore, they languished, they burned, they died for love ; to-day, they chat about it, they make it, and, more often, they buy it. Jouy. There are no fine prisons, nor ugly loves. Proverb. There are principles excellent for certain firm and energetic characters, which would be worth nothing for those of an inferior order. Chamfort. One should believe in marriage as in the im- mortality of the soul. Balzac. Instinct has a lucidness that surpasses reason. The first rule for speaking well is to think well. Mme. de Lambert. "5 In order to do great things, we should live as though we were never to die. Vauvenargues. It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere. Voltaire. Woman has a smile for every joy, and a tear for every sorrow. Sainte-Foix. A fool may have his coat embroidered, but it will always be a fool's coat. Rivarol. Bravery escapes more dangers than cowardice. Sfgur. Follies committed by sensible people, extrava- gances said by clever people, crimes committed by honest people : this is the history of revolutions. De Donald. Some oblige as others insult. One is tempted to ask reparation of them for their services. Napoleon I. Misery is everywhere, and so is happiness. Boufflers. n6 We all have in our hearts a secret place where we keep, free from the contact of the world, our sweetest remembrances. De Fined. Speech has been given to man to disguise his thoughts. Talleyrand. It is not enough to forgive : one must forget. Mme. de Stael. Love is the sweetest and best of moralists. In experiencing the ills of nature, one despises death ; in learning the evils of society, one de- spises life. Chamfort. It is the enjoying, and not merely the possess- ing, that makes us happy. Montaigne. Friendship that begins between a man and a woman will soon change its name. Sleep, next to death, is the best thing in life. T. Gautier. "7 Many a man who has never been able to man age his own fortune, nor his wife, nor his children, has the stupidity to imagine himself capable of managing the affairs of a nation. The pleasures of thought are remedies for the wounds of the heart. Mme. de Stael. Beauty without modesty is like a flower broken from its stem. A beautiful woman with the qualities of a no- ble man is the most perfect thing in nature : we find in her all the merits of both sexes. La Bruyire. Time sooner or later vanquishes love ; friend- ship alone subdues time. Mme. d ' At conville. Poverty destroys pride. It is difficult for an empty bag to stand upright. A. Dumas fils. To know how to be silent is more difficult, and more profitable, than to know how to speak. &. n8 Women make us lose paradise, but how fre- quently we find it again in their arms ! De Finod. Little minds are vexed with trifles. La Rochefoucauld. From a confidence to an indiscretion, there is only the distance between the ear and the tongue. Pichot. Excess and violence are the greatest outrages against liberty. Villemain. To drink without thirst, to make love without cessation : this is what distinguishes us from the lower animals. Beaumarchais (" Mariage de Figaro "). The absurd man is the man who never changes. Belmontet. Honor immortalizes more than glory. Lesguillon. In love, one is cured of one illusion by an- other. The soul of the poet is the mirror of the world. IIQ The heart that had never loved was the first atheist. L. S. Merrier. We have not always sufficient strength to em- ploy all our reason. Mme. de Grignan, We have not always enough reason to employ all our strength. La Rochefoucauld. The love of woman is a precious treasure. Tenderness has no deeper source than the heart of woman ; devotion no purer shrine ; sacrifice no more saint-like abnegation. Sainte-Foix. Woman is the organ of the devil. St. Bernard. Creation lives, grows, and multiplies : man is but a witness. Victor Hugo. He who allows his happiness to depend too much on reason, who submits his pleasures to ex- amination, and desires enjoyments only of the most refined nature, too often ends by not having any at all. Chamfort. 120 The man who can govern a woman can govern a nation. Balzac, A homely man of merit is never repulsive : as soon as he is named, his physique is forgotten; the mind passes through it to see the soul. Romainville. The best victory is to vanquish one's heart. Mme. de Saint-Surin. Good actions are the invisible hinges of the doors of heaven. Victor Hugo. A man without patience is a lamp without oil. A. de Musset. I confess I should be glad if my pleasures were as pleasing to God as they are to me : in that case, I should often find matter for rejoicing. Marguerite de Valois. Coquetry is a continual lie, which renders a woman more contemptible and more dangerous than a courtesan who never lies. De Varennes. Nature needs little ; opinion exacts much. 121 A woman should never accept a lover without the consent of her heart, nor a husband without the consent of her judgment. Ninon de Lenclos. At twenty, every one is republican. Lamartine, Marriage is often but ennui for two. Commerson. Love without esteem can not reach far, nor rise very high : it is an angel with but one wing. A. Dumas fils. The mistakes of woman result almost always from her faith in the good, and her confidence in the truth. Balzac. One does not reason with his heart : one either breaks it, or yields to it. Rochepedre. It is only the coward who reproaches as a dis- honor the love a woman has cherished for him, since she can not retaliate by making a dishonor of his love for her. Mme. de Lambert. 122 Woman has a smile for every joy, a tear for every sorrow, a consolation for every grief, an ex- cuse for every fault, a prayer for every misfortune, and encouragement for every hope. Sainte-Foix. Often the world discovers a man's moral worth only when its injustice has nearly destroyed him. De Finod. True love is rare ; true friendship, still rarer. La Fontaine. Illusion is the first of all pleasures. Voltaire. Love is superior to genius. A. de Musset. A weapon is anything that can serve to wound ; and sentiments are perhaps the most cruel weapons man can employ to wound his fellow man. Balzac. To correct the faults of man, we address the head ; to correct those of woman, we address the heart. Beauchene. All our days travel toward death: the last one reaches it. Montaigne. I2 3 As soon as we have learned how to live, we must die. Alfred Bougeart. Animals feed, men eat ; but only men of intel- ligence know how to eat. Brillat-Saoarin. The science of Nature initiates the human mind into the secret thoughts of Divinity. Mme. d 'Agoult. It is difficult to repent of what gives us pleasure. Marguerite de Valois. Life is a narrow road full of encumbrances. Soulary. To know how to wait is the great secret of success. De Maistre. A woman who plays with the love of a loyal man is a curse ; she may close his heart for ever against all confidence in her sex. Men are still children at sixty. Audert- 124 Everything that totters does not fall. Montesquieu. A woman is more influenced by what she di- vines'than by what she is told. Ninon de Lenclos, Society is but the contest of a thousand little opposite interests an eternal contest between all the vanities that clash with each other, wounded, humiliated the one by the other, and which expi- ate to-morrow in the disgust of a defeat the tri- umph of to-day. To live in solitude, to avoid being crushed in the surging throng, is what the world calls being a nonentity to have no exis- tence. Poor, miserable humanity ! Chamfort. Love, that seldom gives us happiness, at least makes us dream of it. Senancourt. To hope is to enjoy. Saint-Lambert. Weak souls are capable of only weak senti- ments ; strong souls of powerful sentiments. Balzac. 125 A coquette is more occupied with the homage we refuse her, than with that we bestow upon her. A. Dupuy. Woman is the most precious jewel taken from Nature's casket, for the ornamentation and happi- ness of man. Guyard. No one perfectly loves God who does not per- fectly love some of his creatures. Marguerite de Valois. We seldom confide a secret : it escapes us. Alfred Bougeart, We should be above jealousy when there is real cause for it. La Rochefoucauld, Men are the cause of women's dislike for each other. La Bruyere. There are strange coincidences in life : they occur so h propos that the strongest minds are im- pressed, and ask if that mysterious and inexorable fatality in which the ancients balieved, is not really the law that governs the world. Alfred Mercier, 126 To educate a man is to form an individual v/ho leaves nothing behind him ; to educate a woman is to form future generations. E. Laboulaye. A husband is always a sensible man : he never thinks of marrying. A, Dumas plre. One expresses well only the love he does not feel. A. Karr, Women are women but to become mothers: they go to duty through pleasure. jfoubert. To render a marriage happy, the husband should be deaf and the woman blind. Proverb. In observing the world's movements, the most melancholy man would become merry, and Herac- litus would die of laughter. Chamfort. Self-love was born before love. None are -less eager to learn than they who know nothing. Suard. 127 In courting women, many dry wood for a fire that will not burn for them. Balzac. Hypocrisy becomes a necessity for those who live scandalously. De Finod. There is a power a hundred times more power- ful than that of bayonets : it is the power of ideas. Chevalier. Those who feign love succeed better than those who truly love. Everybody gives advice : some listen to it ; none apply it. Alfred Bougeart. Nothing has ever remained of any revolution, but what was ripe in the conscience of the masses. Ledru-Rollin. It is the opinion of men that makes the repu- tation of women. Ninon de Lenclos. All the countries of our globe have been dis- covered, all the seas have been furrowed : nothing remains to traverse but the heavens. Baron Taylor We often console ourselves for being unhappy by a certain pleasure that we find in appearing so. De BartlMcmy. He who has no character is not a man : he is a thing. Chamfort. Circumstances that render us frail, only show how frail we are. Mme. de Choiseul. The life of poets love and tears. Mme. Desbordes- Valmore. Trust your dog to the end ; a woman till the first opportunity. Proverb. All that is enviable is not bought : love, genius, beauty, are divine gifts that the richest can not acquire. Mme. Louise Colet. To love is a rare happiness ; if it were common, it would be better to be a man than a god. Mme. du Chdtelet. A girl of sixteen accepts love; a woman of thirty incites it. A. Ricard. I2Q Too much effort to increase our happiness transforms it into misery. jf. J. Rousseau. It is useless to have youth without beauty, or beauty without youth. La Rochefoucauld. Nature makes fools ; women make coxcombs. In jealousy there is usually more self-love than love. La Rochefoucauld. A fan is indispensable to a woman who can no longer blush. There is a woman at the bottom of all great things. Lamartine. If love gives wit to fools, it undoubtedly takes it from wits. A. Karr. To give birth to a desire, to nourish it, to de- velop it, to increase it, to irritate it, to satisfy it : this is a whole poem. Balzac. 130 Society is composed of two great classes : those who have more dinners than appetite, and those who have more appetite than dinners. Chamfort. An old coquette has all the defects of a young one, and none of her charms. A. Dupuy. In love, as in everything else, experience is a physician who never comes until after the disorder is cured. Mme. de la Tour. The mistake of many women is to return senti- ment for gallantry. Jouy. Though vices repel, they do not always sepa- rate us from those we love. Mme. de Rieux. Sorrow is a torch that lights life. It is not love that ruins us ; it is the way we make it. Bussy-Rabutin , Sentiment is never lascivious. Mirabeau. O youth ! ephemeral song, eternal canticle ! The world may end, the heavens fall, yet loving voices would still find an echo in the ruins of the universe ! yules Janin. If as much care were taken to perpetuate a race of fine men as is done to prevent the mixture of ignoble blood in horses and dogs, the genealogy of every one would be written on his face and dis- played in his manners. Voltaire. Pleasure is the reward of moderation. We finish by excusing our faults, but we always blush at our blunders. Politeness is the curb that holds our worser selves in check. Mme. de Bassanville. What man seeks in love is woman ; what woman seeks in man is love. A. Houssaye. Intellectual progress, separated from moral progress, gives a fearful result : a being possessing nothing but brains. A. de Gasparin. 132 We often hear bursts of laughter that sound like sobs. De Finod. The present is withered by our wishes for the future; we ask for more air, more light, more space, more fields, a larger home. Ah ! does one need so much room to love a day, and then to die ? E. Souvestre. Success resembles a generous wine which be- gins by exciting the intellectual faculties, and ends by plunging us into a stupid intoxication. Alfred Bougeart. One is alone in a crowd when one suffers, or when one loves. Rochepldre. The world is satisfied with words : few care to dive beneath the surface. Pascal. All the passions die with the years ; self-love alone never dies. Voltaire. Experience the shroud of illusions. De Finod. 133 Before wondering at the degradation of a soul, one should know what blows it has received, and what it has suffered from its own grandeur. Mme. Louise Colet. In love, as in war, a fortress that parleys is half taken. Marguerite de Valois, The life of a woman can be divided into three epochs : in the first she dreams of love, in the sec- ond she experiences it, in the third she regrets it. Saint-Prosper. Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society. Montaigne. Poetry is the music of the soul. Voltaire. The public ! the public ! How many fools does it take to make up a public ? Chamfort. To know man, borrow the ear of the blind and the eye of the deaf. Lavater. Marriage in our days? I would almost say that it is a rape by contract, Michelet 134 A woman's friendship is, as a rule, the legacy of love or the alms of indifference. To be virtuous, it does not suffice to will it. La Beaumelle. Discouragement is of all ages : in youth it is a presentiment, in old age a remembrance. Balzac. It is strange that all great men should have some little grain of madness mingled with what- ever genius they possess. * Moliere. Society is the book of women. J. y. Rousseau. One of the greatest of human sufferings is to ask of one's self: Does God exist? Erckman n- Chatrian. In a free country there is much clamor with little suffering ; in a despotic state there is little complaint, but much grievance. Carnot. There are some people whose morals are only in the piece : they never make a coat. jfoubert. 135 Prospective happiness ! it is perhaps the only real happiness in the world. A. de Musset. Woman is the nervous part of humanity; man, the muscular. A woman whose great beauty eclipses all oth- ers is seen with as many different eyes as there are people who look at her. Pretty women gaze with envy, homely women with spite, old men with regret, young men with transport. D ' Argens. The heart has reasons that reason does not understand. Bossuet. Our illusions fall one after the other like the parings of fruit : the fruit is experience ; its savor may be bitter, still it contains something that strengthens. G. de NervaL Discouragement is a passion, the most danger- ous of all : it takes from us all our arms, all our forces, and abandons us without pity to the snares of voluptuousness. Alfred Afercier. 136 Hope and fear are inseparable. La Rochefoucauld. O love ! only a few rays of thy sacred fire radi- ate in this exhausted world ! Voltaire, We are for the most part but the contempora- ries of happiness. It is spoken of about us, but we die without having known it. O. Firmez, How much one must have suffered to be weary even of hope ! Pauline. The realities of life are so repellent that few dare to look them in the face, and still fewer dare to speak of them. De Finod, Taste is the tact of the mind. Boufflers. We easily hate those whom we have given cause to hate us. Mme. de Lussan. Dishonesty is the root of discussion. Roqueplan. 137 By work of the mind one secures the repose of the heart. Jaucourt. Silence is the wit of fools, and one of the vir- tues of the wise. Bonnard. Philosophy, well understood, is an excellent road to heaven. Chattel. If you would make a pair of good shoes, take for the sole the tongue of a woman : it never wears out. Alsatian Provtrb. Friendship is impossible between men of high social standing and men in the lower walks of life; very difficult between a young man and a young woman ; between two beautiful women, it is but a poetic fiction. Our happiness in this world depends chiefly on the affections we are able to inspire. Mme. de Pros/fit. Hypocrisy is permanent treason. 138 When women have passed thirty, the first thing they forget is their age ; when they have attained forty, they have entirely lost the remembrance of it. Ninon de Lenclos, To love, or not to love, is not left to our will. Corneille. Sow good services ; sweet remembrances will grow from them. A/me, de Stael. A lover is a man who endeavors to be more amiable than it is possible for him to be : this is the reason why almost all lovers are ridiculous. Chamfort, Some women have in the course of their lives a double engagement to sustain, equally difficult to break or to dissimulate : in one case the con- tract is wanting, in the other the heart. La Bruylre. A marriageable girl is a kind of merchandise that can be negotiated at wholesale, only on con- dition that no one takes a part at retail. A, Karr. '39 Libertines are hideous spiders, that often catch pretty butterflies. Diderot. There may be as much courage displayed in enduring with resignation the sufferings of the soul, as in remaining firm under the showers of shot from a battery. Napoleon I. There are persons who do not know how to waste their time alone, and hence become the scourge of busy people. De Bohald. Man spends his life in reasoning on the past, in complaining of the present, and in trembling for the future. Rivarol. There is no sweeter repose than that which is bought with labor. Chamfort. All religions are more or less mixed with su- perstitions. Man is not reasonable enough to con- tent himself with a pure and sensible religion, worthy of the Deity. Voltaire. If we think, we must act. Desmahis. 140 Servitude debases man to a degree that leads him to love it. Vauvenargues. When one runs after wit, he is sure to catch nonsense. Montesquieu, Politeness costs little and yields much. Mme. de LamOert. Whoever flatters betrays. Massillon. Compliment is the high-road to the heart of woman. Champcenest, Love is a disorder that has three stages : de- sire, possession, satiety. Slnac de Meilhan, Some never think of what they say; others never say what they think. De Fined. Life is a dream ; death, an awakening. La Beaumelle, To marry is solemnly to submit one's liberty to law, and one's welfare to caprice. 141 What is it that renders friendship between women so lukewarm and of so short duration ? It is the interests of love and the jealousy of conquest. J. y. Rousseau. Love is like the moon : when it does not in- crease, it decreases. When we think of the tenderness, of the solici- tude, of the protection, of the grace, of the charm, of the happiness, or at least of the consolation that woman brings to the life of man, one is tempted to speak to her only with uncovered head, and bowed knee. L. Desnoyers. There is in all of us an obstacle to perfect hap- piness, which is weariness of the things we possess, and the desire for the things we have not. Mme. de Rieux. There is nothing in love but what we imagine. Sainte-Beuve. Marriage is a romance until the book is open. True, the preface is sometimes amusing, but it never lasts long, and it is always deceptive. Poincelot, 142 There are no unions that have not their dark days ; but, when we have loved each other, we re- member it always, and those sweet remembrances, that the heart accumulates, survive love like twi- light. The discovery of truth by slow, progressive meditation is talent. Intuition of the truth, not preceded by perceptible meditation, is genius. Lavater. In love, a woman is like a lyre that surrenders its secrets only to the hand that knows how to touch its strings. Balzac* There are in the world circumstances which give us for masters men of whom we would not make our valets. Mme. Roland. The loves of some people are but the result ot good suppers. Chamfort. Happiness may have but one night, as glory but one day. A. de Musset. Every woman carries in the depths of her soul a mysterious weapon, instinct that virgin instinct, incorruptible, which requires her neither to learn, to reason, nor to know, which binds the strong will of man, dominates his sovereign reason, and pales our little scientific tapers. To speak of love is to make love. Balzac. Women are rakes by nature and prudes from necessity. La Rochefoucauld. Love is the most terrible, and also the most generous, of the passions : it is the only one that includes in its dreams the happiness of some one else. A. Karr. To judge of the real importance of an individ- ual, one should think of the effect his death would produce. Uvis. Those who always speak well of women do not know them enough ; those who always speak ill of them do not know them at all. Pigault-Lebrun. 144 I admire her who resists ; I pity her who sue* cumbs ; I hate her who condemns. Alfred Bougeart. Woman is an overgrown child that one amuses with toys, intoxicates with flattery, and seduces with promises. Mme. Sophie Arnould. Pride is the consciousness of what one is, with- out contempt for others. Stnac de Meilhan. It is not so much for love of the world that we seek it, as to escape our own companionship. Mediocre people fear exaltation for the harm that may result from it ; though it is something that can not be communicated to them. Mme. de Krudener. Distrust him who talks much of his honesty. Dussaulx. It is rare that, after having given the key of her heart, a woman does not change the lock the day after. Sainte-Beuve. 145 Conscience is a sacred sanctuary, where God alone has the right to enter as judge. Lamennais. The heart of youth is reached through the senses; the senses of age are reached through the heart. Rttifde la Bretonne. Women go further in love than most men, but men go further in friendship than women. La Bruylre. Indolence is the sleep of the mind. Vauvenargues. There are only two beautiful things in the world women and roses ; and only two sweet things women and melons. Malhcrbe. Coquetry is a net laid by the vanity of woman to ensnare that of man. Bruis. In love, one who ceases to be rich begins to be poor. C/iamfort. Society depends upon women. The nations who confine them are unsociable. Voltaire. 10 146 The human soul needs to be mated to develop all its value. y. y. Rousseau. Man can not live exclusively by intelligence and self-love. Alfred Merrier. To remember to forget : alas ! this is what makes us young or old. A. de Musset. One loves wholly but once the first time : loves that follow are less involuntary. La Bruytre. What the devil can not, women do. Proverb. Don Quixote is, after all, the defender of the oppressed, the champion of lost causes, and the man of noble aberrations. Woe to the centuries without Don Quixotes ! Nothing remains to them but Sancho Panzas. A. de Caspar in. It is never the opinions of others that displease us, but the pertinacity they display in obtruding them upon us. Joubert. 147 Taste is the microscope of the judgment. y. y. Rousseau. Without woman the two extremities of life would be without succor, and the middle without pleasure. " I am young ; I have passed but the half of the road of life, and, already weary, I turn and look back ! " A. de Musset. It is chance that makes brothers, but hearts that make friends. Women are extremists : they are either better or worse than men. La Bruytre. There are more fools than sages ; and among the sages, there is more folly than wisdom. Chamfort. There are no pleasures where women are not ; and with the French, champagne itself has no flavor, unless served by the hand of beauty. Romieu. 148 Possession is the touchstone of love : true love finds new ardor, frivolous love extinguishes itself in it. Panage. Thought is the slave of the heart. De Finod. A woman is never displeased if we please sev- eral other women, provided she is preferred : it is so many more triumphs for her. Ninon de Lenclos. However powerful one may be, whether one laughs or weeps, none can make thee speak, none can open thy hand before the time, O mute phan- tom, our shadow ! specter always masked, ever at our side, called To-morrow ! Victor Hugo. Why should we complain, since we are so little moved by the complaints of others ? Alfred Bougeart. I esteem the world as much as I can, and still I esteem it but little. Chamfort, Temperance is the love of health or the ina- bility to eat or drink much. La Rochefoucauld. 149 Vanity is the only intellectual enjoyment of many people. Beauty is the first gift Nature gives to woman, and the first she takes from her. Meri. Since Cupid is represented with a torch in his hand, why did they place virtue on a barrel of gunpowder? Livis. A woman at middle age retains nothing of the pettiness of youth ; she is a friend who gives you all the feminine delicacies, who displays all the graces, all the prepossessions which Nature has given to woman to please man, but who no longer sells these qualities. She is hateful or lovable, according to her pretensions to youth, whether they exist under the epidermis or whether they are dead. Balzac. The only way to please God is to follow tha good inclinations of our nature. Alfred Merrier. One of the most effectual ways of pleasing and of making one's self loved is to be cheerful : joy softens more hearts than tears. Mme. de Sartory. All the evil that women have done to us comes from us, and all the good they have done to us comes from them. Martin. We always find what we do not seek. Proverb. Love is a fever, of which the delirium is to believe itself eternal. Mme. Cottin. . It is a common vanity of the aged to believe that they have always been more exemplary than those who have come after them. A. de Musset. The friendship of a man is often a support ; that of a woman is always a consolation. Rochepldre. There are more people who wish to be loved than there are who are willing to love. Chamfort. Of all ruins, the ruin of man is the saddest to contemplate. T. Gautier. A woman can be held by no stronger tie than the knowledge that she is loved. Mme. de Motteville. One should choose for a wife only such a wo- man as he would choose for a friend, were she a man. Joubert. It is a terrible thing to be obliged to love by contract. Bussy-Rabutin . The feeble howl with the wolves, bray with the asses, and bleat with the sheep. Mme. Roland. To a woman of delicate feeling, the most per- suasive declaration of love is the embarrassment of an intellectual man. Latino. To abstain from pleasure for a time, in order the better to enjoy in the future, is the philosophy of the sage ; it is the epicureanism of reason. y. J. Rousseau. To judge a country one does not know the language of, is like judging a book from the bind- ing- Man may go from aversion to love ; but, when he has begun by loving, and has reached aversion, he never returns to love. Balzac. The soul and the body are enemies. A. de Musset. God took his softest clay and his purest colors, and made a fragile jewel, mysterious and caress- ing the finger of woman ; then he fell asleep. The devil awoke, and at the end of that rosy fin- ger put a nail. Victor Hurt. Marriage has its unknown great men, as war has its Napoleons, poetry its Cheniers, and phi- losophy its Descartes. Balzac. The art of praising caused the art of pleasing. Voltaire. Death is a passage : the more rapidly it is crossed, the better. Love dies of satiety, and is buried in oblivion. La Bruylre, A prison is never narrow when the imagination can range in it at will. The greatest art of an able man is to know how to conceal his ability. La Rochefoucauld. 153 Philosophers and men of letters have done more for mankind than Orpheus, Hercules, or The- seus; for it is more meritorious and more difficult to wean men from their prejudices than to civilize the barbarian : It is harder to correct than to in- struct. Voltaire. As long as the heart preserves desire, the mind preserves illusion. Chateaubriand. To be loved is to receive the greatest of all compliments. Mme. Necker- The physical plagues and the calamities of human nature have rendered society necessary. Society has added to the evils of nature ; the im- perfections of society have created the necessity for government, and government adds still further to the woes of society : this is the whole history of humanity. Chamfort. The unknown ! it is the field in which are sown our dreams, where we see them germinate, grow, and bloom. Who would live without the benefit of the incertitude granted to our miseries ! E. Souvestre. 154 The woman we love most is often the one to whom we express it the least. Beauchene. In ill-matched marriages, the fault is less the woman's than the man's, as the choice depended on her the least. Mme. de Jfteux. Every vice has a cloak, and creeps in under the name of virtue. Possession makes tyrants of some men whom desire made slaves. Brignicourt. A woman often thinks she regrets the lover, when she only regrets the love. La Rochefoucauld. Bachelors are providential beings : God cre- ated them for the consolation of widows and the hope of maids. De Finod. Let us love! let us enjoy the fugitive hour! Man has no harbor, time has no shores : it runs, and we pass ! Lamartme. When one seeks the cause of the successes of great generals, one is astonished to find that they did everything necessary to insure them. Napoleon I. War is the tribunal of nations : victories and defeats are its decrees. Rivarol, Would you know the qualities a man lacks, examine those of which he boasts. Sigur. There is more poverty in the human heart than misery in life. E. de Girardin. Laws should never be in contradiction to usages ; for, if the usages are good, the laws are valueless. Voltaire. Reading is useless to some people : ideas pass through their heads without remaining. C. Jordan. Repentance is a second innocence. De Bonald, Glory can be for a woman but the brilliant mourning of happiness. Jfme. de Stael. Marriage is a tie that hope embellishes, that happiness preserves, and that adversity fortifies. Alibert. In the beginning, passions obey ; later, they command. Mme. de Lambert, A prude exhibits her virtue in word and man- ner; a virtuous woman shows hers in her con- duct. La Bruyere. Our century leans neither toward evil nor to- ward good : it goes toward mediocrity. A. de Gasparin. Politeness has left our manners, to take refuge in our clothes. Mme. de Bassanville. It is because honesty will soon be scarce that we must use it to deceive the deceivers. Pleasures are sins : we regret to offend God ; but, then, pleasures please us. Marguerite de Valois. Infidelities rupture love; little faults wear it out. Bussy-Rabutin. The offender never pardons. Proverb. I have remarked that those who love women most, and are most tender in their intercourse with them, are most inclined to speak ill of them, as if they could not forgive them for not being as irreproachable as they wish them to be T. Gautier. To enjoy is not to corrupt. Mirabeau, It is in the eyes that the language of love is written. Mme. Cottin. Reason ! I have lost it ; and, were it to be re- turned to me, I would fly from it ! A. de Mussst. Politeness is a wreath of flowers that adorns the world. Mine, de Bassanville. A brute always imposes silence on the delicate. A. de Gasparin. There are glances that have more wit than the most subtile speech. 158 Women are the happiest beings of the creation ! in compensation for our services they reward us with a happiness of which they retain more than half. De Varennes, Repentance is not so much remorse for what we have done, as the fear of consequences. La Rochefoucauld. One sneers at curls when one has no more hair ; one slanders apples when one has no more teeth. A. Karr. A man explodes with indignation when a wo- man ceases to love him, yet he scon finds consola- tion ; a woman is less demonstrative when deserted, and remains longer inconsolable. Wounds of the heart ! your traces are bitter, slow to heal, and always ready to reopen. A. de Musset. When one has been tormented and fatigued by his sensitiveness, he learns that he must live from day to day, forget all that is possible, and efface his life from memory as it passes, C/iam/ort. Love is a duel with pins. How few friendships would be lasting if we knew what our best friends say of us in our ab- sence. Pascal. Voltaire inscribed on a statue of Love : " Who- ever thou art, behold thy master ! He rules thee, or has ruled thee, or will rule thee ! " A woman forgives the audacity which her beauty has prompted us to be guilty of. Lesage. All men are fools : to escape seeing one, one would be compelled to shut himself in his room, and break his mirror. De Sade. A coquette is a woman who places her honor in a lottery : ninety-nine chances to one that she will lose it. The virtue of widows is a laborious virtue : they have to combat constantly with the remem- brance of past bliss. St. Jerome. i6o Women like audacity : when one astounds them he interests them ; and when one interests them, he is very sure to please them. This century boasts of progress ! Have they invented a new mortal sin ? Unfortunately there are but seven, as" before the number of the daily falls of a saint, which is very little. T. Gautier. The society of women endangers men's morals and refines their manners. Montesquieu. A bachelor seeks a wife to avoid solitude ; a married man seeks society to avoid the tcte-ii-tete. De Varennes. Wrinkles are the grave of love. Sarrasin. We may wager that any idea of the public, or any general opinion, is a folly, since it has received the approbation of a majority of the people. Chamfort, The reason why so few women are touched by friendship is, that they find it dull when they have experienced love. La Rochefoucauld. Women sometimes deceive the lover never the friend. L. S. Mercier. He who first invented raiment, perhaps invent- ed love. Sigur. It is often shorter and better to yield to others than to endeavor to compel others to adjust them- selves to us. La Bruylre. Whoever blushes is already guilty : true inno- cence is ashamed of nothing. y. J, Rousseau. A woman laughs when she can, and weeps when she will. Proverb. Conjugal Love should never put on or take off his bandage but at an opportune time. Balsac. Love is like the rose : so sweet, that one always tries to gather it in spite of the thorns. Which is the best religion ? The most tolerant. E. de Girardin. II 162 One can stop when he ascends, but not when he descends. Napoleon I. He who thinks himself good for everything is often good for nothing. Picard. Idleness is the door to all vices. Malebranche. Why do we dream in our sleep if we have no soul ? and, if we have one, how is it that dreams are so incoherent and extravagant ? Voltaire. Generosity is but the pity of noble souls. Chamfort. Inclination and interest determine the will. Talleyrand. Extremes in everything is a characteristic of woman. De Goncourt. I have tormented the present with the preoc- cupations of the future ; I have put my judgment in the place of Providence, and the happy child has been transformed into a care-worn man ! E. Souvestre. 163 The greatest satisfaction a woman can feel is to know that a man whom many other women love loves her alone. To speak of love begets love. Pascal. True philosophy raises us above grandeur, but nothing can raise us above the ennui which it causes. Mme. de Maintenon. Love pleases more than marriage, for the rea- son that romance is more interesting than h'~,tory. Chamfort. A coquette is to a man what a toy is to a child : as long as it pleases him, he keeps it ; when it ceases to please him, he discards it. One must be a woman to know how to revenge Mme. de Rieux. Many wish to be pious, but none to be hum- ble. La Rochefoucauld. Books follow manners ; manners do not follow books. T. Gautier. As soon as women are ours, we are no longer theirs. Montaigne. Convictions that remain silent are neither sin- cere nor profound. A woman who is guided by the head, and not by the heart, is a social pestilence : she has all the defects of the passionate and affectionate woman, with none of her compensations ; she is without pity, without love, without virtue, without sex. Balzac. The true and the false speak the same lan- guage. Marguerite de Valois. Thought is the lightning of the soul. Mme. de Bassanville. Old men are always jealous : they are like the greedy child who wants the cake it can not eat. A. Ricard. Who of us has not regretted that age when laughter was ever on the lips ! J. y. Rousseau. '65 In life, woman must wait until she is asked to love ; as in a salon she waits for an invitation to dance. A. Karr. In the elevated order of ideas, the life of man is glory ; the life of woman is love. Balzac. Suitors of a wealthy girl seldom seek for proof of her past virtue. However virtuous a woman may be, a compli- ment on her virtue is what gives her the least pleasure. Prince de Ligne. Love, pleasure, and inconstancy are but the consequences of a desire to know the truth. Duclos. Life is a combat, of which the palm is in heaven. Delavigne. Vanity ruins more women than love. Mme. du Demand. O oblivion ! oblivion ! what a pillow for the exhausted traveler ! Ducts. 166 If a fox is cunning, a woman in love is a thou- sand times more so. Proverb. Time is a great physician : he brings us death. We are finite beings : there can be no infinite happiness for us. The soul that dreams it and pursues it will embrace but a shadow. Balzac. When women can not be revenged, they do as children do : they cry. Cardan. In condemning the vanity of women, men com- plain of the fire they themselves have kindled. Lingrde. It is with happiness as with watches : the less complicated, the less easily deranged. Chamfort. There are several ways to speak : to speak well, to speak easily, to speak justly, and to speak at the right moment. La Bruylre. We please oftener by our defects than by our virtues. La Rochefoucauld. I6 7 Life has surprises at every age. Alj'red Afercier. Young, one is rich in all the future that he dreams ; old, one is poor in all the past he regrets. Rochepldre. Women like balls and assemblies, as a hunter likes a place where game abounds. Lattna. Life would be easy enough if we were not con- tinually exerting ourselves to forge new chains, and invent absurd formalities which make it a burden. A woman, when she has passed forty, becomes an illegible scrawl ; only an old woman is capable of divining old women. Balzac. Men would not live long in society if they were not the dupes of each other. La Bruytre. He who loves little dares little. Proverb. To place wit above sense, is to place superflu- ity above utility. A/me, de Maintenon. i68 Women speak easily of platonic love; but, while they appear to esteem it highly, there is not a single ribbon of their toilette that does not drive platonism from our hearts. A. Ricard. There is a greater distance between love and indifference than between hatred and love. Bussy-Rabutin. Civilization has its cup of bitterness. F. de Conches, The more women have risked, the more they are ready to sacrifice. Duc/os. To make love only when signing the marriage certificate, is to take romance by the tail. Moltire. Nature has given to women fortitude enough to resist a certain time, but not enough to resist completely the inclination which they cherish. Dor at. When love increases, prudence decreases. La Rochefoucauld, 169 An honorable name or a good reputation is an excellent protection against wrong-doing : we fear to compromise it more through vanity than virtue. The difference between love and possession is, that one is an infinite desire, the other a satisfied desire. Saint-Prosper. All passions are good when one masters them ; all are bad when one is a slave to them. y. y. Rousseau. The destiny of women is to please, to be ami- able, and to be loved. Those who do not love them are still more in the wrong than those who love them too much. Rochebrune. In love, what we take has greater price than what is given. y. Petit-Serin, One looks at a lover ; one does not examine him. y. y. Rousseau. Travel improves superior wine and spoils the poor : it is the same with the brain. Glow-worms are the image of women : when they are in the dark, one is struck with their bril- liancy ; as soon as they appear in the broad light of the world, one sees them in their true colors, with all their defects. Mme. Necker. A woman of honor should never suspect an- other of things she would not do herself. Marguerite de Valois. History is only a record of crimes and mis- fortunes. Voltaire. At a ball, men are the timid sex, and also the feebler sex ; for they are always the first to be fatigued. A. Karr. False modesty is the most reputable of all im- postures. Chamfort. Among all animals, from man to the dog, the heart of a mother is always a sublime thing. A. Dumas per*. We never forget what we learn with pleasure. Alfred Mercier. Simple nature, however defective, is better than the least objectionable affectation ; and, defects for defects, those which are natural are more bearable than affected virtues. Saint-Evremond. How many things have we esteemed that we despise, and how many joys have resulted in afflic- tions ! Man should place himself above prejudices, and woman should submit to them. Mme. Necker. Better is an error that makes us happy than a truth that plunges us into despair. Women never weep more bitterly than when they weep with spite. A. Ricard. Love in marriage would be the realization of a beautiful dream, if marriage were not too often the end of it. A. Karr. Women have the same desires as men, but do not have the same right to express them. y. J. Rousseau. 172 As yet, no navigator has traced lines of latitude and longitude on the conjugal sea. Balzac, Contempt should be the best concealed of our sentiments. Coquettes are like hunters who are fond of hunting, but do not eat the game. Woman is more constant in hatred than in love. In love, it is only the commencement that charms. I am not surprised that one finds plea- sure in frequently recommencing. Prince de Ligne. To woman, mildness is the best means to be right. Afme. de Fontaines. The reason why lovers never weary of each other's company is because they speak always of themselves. La Rochefoucauld. All the reasoning of man is not worth one sen- timent of woman. Voltaire. 173 The hand never tires of writing when the heart dictates. De Finod. The resistance of a woman is not always a proof of her virtue, but more frequently of her ex- perience. Ninon de Lenclos. One can not imagine how much cleverness is necessary not to be ridiculous. Chamfort. Oblivion : a remedy for human mise A de Musset Flowers that come from a loved hand are more prized than diamonds. Calumny is moral assassination. The pains that excite the least pity in women are those that we suffer for them. Cliabanon. Time, which enfeebles criminal desires, leads us back to legitimate affection. Mme. de Stael. 174 Absence diminishes weak passions and aug- ments great ones; as the wind extinguishes tapers, but increases a conflagration. La- RocJtefoucauld. The heart that sighs has not what it desires. Proverb. Consideration for woman is the measure of a nation's progress in. social life. Gregoire, He who reckons ten friends has not one. Malesherbes. The heart of a loving woman is a golden sanc- tuary, where often there reigns an idol of clay. Limayrac. No one is satisfied with his fortune, nor dis- satisfied with his own wit. Mme. Deshouhires. Flattery is like false money : it impoverishes those who receive it. Mme. Voillez. Heaven has refused genius to woman, in order to concentrate all the fire in her heart. Rivarol. 175 When the heart is full, the lips are silent. An honest woman is the one we fear to com- promise. Balzac. Sorrow teaches virtue. A. de Musset. To blame a young man for being in love is like chiding one for being ill. Duclos. Enjoy and give enjoyment, without injury to thyself or to others : this is true morality. Chamfort. It is a great obstacle to happiness to expect too much. Fontenelle. Modesty is the conscience of the body. Balzac. Woman divine that they are loved long before it is told them. Marivanx. A coquette has no heart, she has only vanity: it is adorers she seeks, not love. Poincelot. i 7 6 The most lucrative commerce has ever been that of hope, pleasure, and happiness : it is the commerce of authors, women, priests, and kings. Mine. Roland. Love, unrest, and sorrow always journey to- gether. Proverb. When death consents to let us live a long time, it takes successively as hostages all those we have loved. Mme. Necker. With a pretty face and the freshness of twenty, a woman, however shallow she may be, makes many conquests, but does not retain them : with cleverness, thirty years, and a little beauty, a wo- man makes fewer conquests but more durable ones. A. Dupuy. i There is nothing more tiresome than the con- versation of a lover who has nothing to desire, and nothing to fear. Mme. de Sartory. . Manners are the hypocrisies of nations : the hypocrisies are more or less perfected. Balzac. 177 Love, like axioms, can not be demonstrated. Women are never stronger than when they arm themselves with their weakness. Mme. du Deff'and. Let us laugh ! Our fathers laughed at their miseries, let us laugh at ours too ! Why ! Lisette is not cruel, nor is my flagon broken ! Beranger. God, who repented of having created man, never repented of having created woman. Malherbe. Cupid is a traitor who scratches, even when one only plays with him. Ninon de Lenclos. There are men who pride themselves on their insensibility to love : it is like boasting cf having been always stupid. S. de Castres. I hate hypocrites, insolent comedians, who put on their virtues with their white gloves. A. de Mussel. We love handsome women from inclination, homely women from interest, and virtuous women from reason. Amelot. T* I 7 8 One may forgive infidelity, but one does not forget it. Mile, de Lafayette. To please, one must make up his mind to be taught many things which he already knows, by people who do not know them. Chamfort. As there is no love without desire, so there is none without hope. The matrimonial knot is sometimes tied so tightly that it wounds those whom it unites. De Varennes. Libertinage is on the frontier of liberty. The greatest merit of some men is their wife. Poincelot. Men acquire acuteness ; women are born with it All men are not men. Proverb. 179 Women call repentance the sweet remembrance of their faults, and the bitter regret of their ina- bility to recommence them. Beaumanoir. Since love teaches how to trick the tricksters, how much reason have we to fear it we who are poor simple creatures ! Marguerite de Valois. Old acquaintances are better than new friends. Mme. du Deffand. In love, the only way to resist temptation is to sometimes succumb to it. Mme. de ChoiseuL I have seen young ladies of twenty-five affect- ing a childish ingenuousness which has made me doubt their virtue. What a woman wills, God wills. Proverb, When women love us, they forgive us every- thing, even our crimes ; when they do not love us, they give us credit for nothing, not even for our virtues. Balzac. i8o That a liaison between a man and a woman may be truly interesting, there must be between them enjoyment, remembrance, or desire. Chamfort. Love has no age : it is always in birth. Pascal. With the world, do not resort to injuries, but only to irony and gayety : injury revolts, while irony makes one reflect, and gayety disarms. Voltaire. All women are equal in love. Divorce is necessary in advanced civilizations. Montesquieu. The most effective coquetry is innocence. Lantartine. Woman, naturally enthusiastic of the good and the beautiful, sanctifies all that she surrounds with her affection. Alfred Mercier. That immense majority, the fools, who made the laws that regulate the manners of the world, very naturally made them for their own benefit. Friendship between two women is always a plot against another one. A. Karr. The prayer of Lahire : " God ! do unto La- hire what thou wouldst Lahire should do unto Thee, if Thou wert Lahire, and if Lahire were Thee ! " To fall in love is not difficult : the difficulty lies in telling it. A. de Musset. Those who appear cold, but are only timid, as soon as they dare to love, adore. Mme. Swetchine. It is beauty that begins to please, and tender- ness that completes the charm. Fontenelle. Society, when it is not frantic, is idiotic. Lamennais. In those countries where the morals are the most dissolute, the language is the most severe ; as if they would replace on the lips what has desert- ed the heart. Voltaire. 182 Liberty is a progressive conquest. Guiroutt. We have been thrust into the world we know not why ; and we must die to become we know not what. Mme. d' 1 Albany. The woman who loves us is only a woman, but the woman we love is a celestial being whose de- fects disappear under the prism through which we see her. . de Girardin. Man is Creation's master-piece. But who says so ? Man ! Gavarni. The conversation of women in society resem- bles the straw used in packing china : it is nothing, yet, without it, everything would be broken. Mme. de Salm. A little love rapidly develops the sensibilities and intelligence of women : it is through the heart that they ripen or mold. Lattna. The nervous fluid in man is consumed by the brain ; in woman, by the heart : it is there that they are the most sensitive. Stendhal. 1*3 In love, great pleasures come very near great sorrows. Mile, de Lespinasse. " O merciful Heaven ! may my last season be still a spring ! " Beranger. It is modesty that places in the feeble hand of beauty the sceptre that commands power. Helvltius. All or nothing is the motto of Love. All and nothing is the motto of Hymen. Montlasier. Finesse has been given to woman to compen- sate the force of man. Laclos. Would you know how to give ? Put yourself in the place of him who receives. Mme. de Puisieux. The science of women, as that of men, must be limited according to their powers : the differ- ence of their characters ought to limit that of their studies. FtneloH. 1 84 All great designs are formed in solitude ; in the world, no object is pursued long enough to produce an impression. y. y. Rousseau. Virtue, with some women, is but the precaution of locking doors. Lemontey. The reasonable worship of a just God who punishes and rewards, would undoubtedly contrib- ute to the happiness of men ; but when that salu- tary knowledge of a just God is disfigured by ab- surd lies and dangerous superstitions, then the remedy turns to poison. Voltaire. Man, like everything else that lives, changes with the air that sustains him. Taine. A woman by whom we are loved is a vanity ; a woman whom we love is a religion. E. de Girardin. All our opinions, sentiments, principles, preju- dices, religious beliefs, are really but the result of birthplace : how different would they be, had we been born and reared at the antipodes of our re- spective lands. De Finod. Men have made of Fortune an all-powerful goddess, in order to be made responsible for all their blunders. Mme. de Stael. One is no more the master of his impressions than of his coughing or sneezing. Mme du Deffand. Women are often ruined by their sensitiveness, and saved by their coquetry. Mile. Azais. If you would succeed in the world, it is ne- cessary that, when entering a salon, your vanity should bow to that of others. Mme. de Genlis. The head, however strong it may be, can ac- complish nothing against .the heart. Mile, de Scuderi. Rivals who blow out each other's brains for the eyes of a coquette, prove that they have no brains. A. Ricard. A languid heart is tender ; sadness makes love ferment. J. J. Rousseau. 1 86 Our virtues are often but vices in disguise. La Rochefoucauld. In a tete-a-tete, a woman speaks in a loud tone to the man she is indifferent to, in a low tone to the one she begins to love, and keeps silent with the one she loves. Rochebrune. Women who have not fine teeth laugh only with their eyes. Mme, de Jfieux, Dignities change men's morals. Venus always saves the lover whom she leads. Delatouche, Mothers are the only goddesses in whom the whole world believes. Celebrity is the chastisement of merit, and the punishment of talent. Chamfort. Women often deceive to conceal what they feel ; men to simulate what they do not feel love. E. Legouvi. i8 7 Many weep for the sin, while they laugh over the pleasure. Marguerite de Valois There is nothing directly moral in our nature but love. A. Comte. Many have sought roses and found thorns. The tears of a young widow lose their bitter- ness when wiped by the hands of love. Benevolence rejuvenates the heart, exercise, the memory, and remembrance, life. Afme. de Lespinasse. How many could be made happy with the hap- piness lost in this world. Levts. A man's passions, tastes, and opinions are dis- covered by his admirations. C. Nodier. Cold natures have only recollections ; tender natures have remembrances. Afme. de Kntdencr* Social usages : a respect sincere or feigned for absurd forms. i88 Languages begin by being a music, and end by being an algebra. Amplre. The waltz is the charging step of love. H. Murger. To be happy is not to possess much, but to hope and to love much. Lawennais. The world is a book, the language of which is unintelligible to many people. Miry. Masked balls are a merciful institution for ugly women. Man is not depraved by true pleasures, but by false ones. De Lacretelle. Love for old men is sun on the snow : it daz- zles more than it warms them. J. Petit-Senn. Sometimes we must have love, either as a de- sirable good or an inevitable evil. Bussy-Rabutin. 189 A woman's life can be divided thus : the age when she dances but does not dare to waltz it is the spring; the age when she dances and dares to waltz it is summer ; the age when she dances but prefers to waltz it is autumn ; finally, when she dances no longer it is winter, that rigorous winter of life. Mme. de Girardin. Some old men like to give good precepts to console themselves for their inability no longer to give bad examples. A. Dupuy. What the hand can not reach is but a dream. Soulary. Civility is a desire to receive civility, and to be accounted well bred. La Rochefoucauld. In love, it is as it was with the thieves of Spar- ta : only the awkward are punished. Absolutism is tolerant, only because it knows itself mighty. A. de Gasparin. Calumny spreads like an oil-spot : we endeavor to cleanse it, but the mark remains. Mile, de Lesptnasse. 190 In love, one must not attack a place unless one storms it. Marriage is a science. Balzac. We scoff at women who take us seriously, and we take tragically to those who scoff at us. Women have no worse enemies than women. Duclos. Hymen comes after love, as smoke after flame. Chamfort. If you wish a coquette to regard you, cease to regard her. It is easier to make all Europe agree than two women. Louis XIV. We live with our defects as with the odors we carry about us : we do not perceive them, but they incommode those who approach us. Mme. de Lambert. Agreeable advice is rarely useful advice. Massillon. At eighteen, one adores at once ; at twenty, one loves ; at thirty, one desires ; at forty, one reflects. P. de Kock. A woman who has surrendered her lips has surrendered everything. Viard. This world is but a lottery of goods, of ranks, of dignities, of rights. Voltaire. A beautiful woman is the paradise of the eyes, the hell of the soul, and the purgatory of the purse. The past gives us regret, the present sorrow, and the future fear. Mme. de Lambert. In love, the confidant of a woman's sorrow of- ten becomes the consoler of it. Our years, our debts, and our enemies are always more numerous than we imagine. C. Nodier. 192 If eminent men whose history has been written could return to life, how they would laugh at what has been said of them. De Finod. He who pretends to know everything proves that he knows nothing. Le Bailly. The attainment of our greatest desires is often the source of our greatest sorrows. Marriage communicates to women the vices of men, but never their virtues. Fourier. The remembrance of the good done those we have loved, is the only consolation left us when we have lost them. Demoustier. Pleasure and pain, the good, and the bad, are so intermixed that we can not shun the one with- out depriving ourselves of the other. Mme. de Maintenon. It is not always for virtue's sake that women are virtuous. La Rochefoucauld. 193 We find nothing good in life but what makes us forget it. Mme. de Stael. Coquetry is the desire to please, without the want of love. Rochepedre. At fifteen, to dance is a pleasure ; at twenty- five, a pretext ; at forty, a fatigue. A. Ricard. The weaknesses of women have been given them by nature to exercise the virtues of men. Mme. Necker. Love without desire is a delusion : it does not exist in nature. Ninon de Lenclos. Hell is paved with women's tongues. Abbf Guyon. Woman is the heart of man. Leroux. If the young knew if the old could ! Proverb The only secret a woman guards inviolably is that of her age. 194 The morals of the world are only casuistry. The worst of all misalliances is that of the heart. Chamfort. Homeliness is the best guardian of a young girl's virtue. Mme. de Genlis. The world ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a speculation. Love is the poetry of the senses. Balzac. One wearies delightfully with women. Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of everything. Lacordaire. Philosophy teaches us to bear with calmness the misfortunes of our friends. Nothing is more difficult than to choose a good husband unless it be to choose a good wife. y. y. Rousseau. '95 Love begins too well to end well. Daumas. What a husband forbids, a wife desires. Proverb, The rudest man, inspired by passion, is more persuasive than the most eloquent man, if unin- spired. La Rochefoucauld. There is no game of chance more hazardous than marriage. J. David. Whoever has learned to love, has learned to be silent. Mme. de Sartory. All bow to virtue and then walk away. De Finod. Women are happier in the love they inspire than in that which they feel : men are just the contrary. Beauchtne. Love is a torrent that one checks by digging a bed for it. Commerson. 196 A woman is a well-served table, that one sees with different eyes before and after the meal. It is necessary to be almost a genius to make a good husband. Balzac. We accuse women of insincerity without per- ceiving that they are more sincere with us than with themselves. Pleasure may come of illusion, but happiness can only come of reality. Chamfort. The duration of passion is no more in our power than the duration of life. La Rochefoucauld. To swear to love always is to affirm that two beings essentially changeable will never change. The prodigality of women has reached such proportions that one must be wealthy to have one for himself: we have no other resource than to love the wives of others. A. Karr. The world forgives with difficulty the fact that one can be happy without it. i 9 7 We quarrel with unfortunates to be exempted from pitying them. Vauvenargues. Poverty of the soul is worse than that of for- tune. Mme. de Lambert. To enjoy reading is to transform wearisome hours into delightful ones. Montesquieu, " Well ! sage Evhemere, what have you seen in all your travels ? " " Follies ! " Voltaire. Who elevates himself isolates himself. Rivorol. A beautiful woman pleases the eye, a good woman pleases the heart : one is a jewel, the other a treasure. Napolenn I. Memory records services with a pencil, injuries with a graver. De Stgur. Reason is the torch of friendship, judgment its guide, tenderness its aliment. De Bonald. 198 There is in hypocrisy as much folly as vice : it is as easy to be honest as to appear so. Mme. de Stall. Wit is a zero added to our moral qualities ; but which, standing alone, represents nothing. C. Jordan. Some women boast of having never accorded anything; perhaps it is because they have never been asked anything. The anticipation of pleasure often equals the pleasure itself. Fabre d 'Eglantine. The greatest miracle of love is that it cures coquetry. La Rochefoucauld. Hope is a sarcasm. Alfred Merrier (" La fille du pretre "). The misfortune of those who have loved is that they can find nothing to replace love. Duclos. Men make laws ; women make manners. De Slgur. 199 Do you wish a portrait that is not flattered ? Ask, a woman to make one of her rival. De Propriac. Vows of love prove its inconstancy. Marmontel. Who has not what he loves, must love what he has. Bussy-Rabutin. A husband is a plaster that cures all the ills of girlhood. Molilre. The beginning and the decline of love mani- fest themselves in the embarrassment that one feels in the tete-h-tete. La Bruylre. The wealthiest man is he who is most eco- nomical ; the poorest is he who is most miserly. Chamfort. O kiss! mysterious beverage that the lips of lovers pour into each other, as into thirsty cups! A, de Afusset. Love should dare everything when it has everything to fear. SaurtH. 2OO Hearts agree ; minds dispute. Preault. Vows are the false money that pays for the sac- rifices of love. Ninon de Lenclos. Woman is a creature between man and the angels. Balzac. Everything comes and goes. To-day in joy, to-morrow in sorrow. We advance, we retreat, we struggle ; then, the eternal and profound silence of death ! Victor Hugo. One loves more the first time, better the second. Rochepldre. Beggars are the vermin that attach themselves to the rich. There never has been a nation that has not looked upon woman as the companion or the con- solation of man, or as the sacred instrument of his life, and that has not honored her in those char- acters. A. de M us set. 2OI Men are like money : we must take them for their value, whatever may be the effigy. Mme. Necker, Words really flattering are not those which we prepare, but those which escape us unthinkingly. Ninon de Lenclos, Woman lives by sentiment, man by action. Balzac. There is no endurable slavery but that of the heart. Great minds comprehend more in a word, a look, a pressure of the hand, than ordinary men in long conversations, or the most elaborate corre- spondence. Lavater. Woman is the altar of love. The laws of love unite man and woman so strongly that no human laws can separate them. Bateac. Who of us has not shed tears over the tomb of a loved one ! Cliateaubriand. What is the world, or its opinion, to him who has studied in the lives of men the mysteries of their egotism and perfidy ! He knows that the best and most generous hearts are often forced to tread the thorny paths, where insults and outrages are heaped upon them ! George Sand, Success is a fruit slow to ripen. He who never leaves his country is full of pre- judices. Thinkers who trace systems of philosophy are merely impelled by an innate instinct ; they know that their precepts, however excellent, are not suitable to the majority : the wisdom may be ad- mired by many, but few will follow the principles. De Fined. There is something of woman in everything that pleases. Dupaty, The best philosophy to employ toward the world is to alloy the sarcasm of gayety with the in- dulgence of contempt. Chamfort. 203 The friends of our friends are our friends. Proverb. Men do not always love those they esteem ; women, on the contrary, esteem only those they love. S. Dubay. When I cast my bread to the birds on the shores, the waves seemed to say : Hope ! for, when thou comest to want, God will return thy bread ! God still owes it to me. Higtsippe Moreau. It is a misfortune for a woman never to be loved, but it is a humiliation to be loved no more. Montesquieu. Fortune and caprice govern the world. La Rochefoucauld. The same conditions should be made in mar- riage that are made in the case of houses that one rents for a term of three, six, or nine years, with the privilege of becoming the purchaser if the house suits. Prince de Ligne. The way to make friendships that will last long is to be long in making them. 204 Circumstances do not make men : they discover them. Lantennais. One should choose a wife with the ears, rather than with the eyes. Proverb. The less clothing Love wears, the warmer he is. Shallow men speak of the past, wise men of the present, and fools of the future. Mme. du Deffand. Love seldom dies a sudden death Saurin. Venus was the daughter of the waves. She gave birth to Love : we can expect nothing but tempest from a daughter of the sea. Marriage was instituted as a penance for the sins of celibacy. For a woman to be at once a coquette and a bigot is more than the meekest of husbands can bear: women should mercifully choose between the two. LM Bruytre. 2O 5 Remembrance of the dead soon fades. Alas! in their tombs, they decay more slowly than in our hearts. Victor Hugo. When we read that the lost sheep is preferred to the rest of the flock, we are tempted to think that penitence is preferable to innocence. There are hypocrites of vices as well as of vir- tues. Ductos. Take the first advice of a woman, not the sec- ond. Proverb. Marriage is a treaty in which the conditions should be mutual. Balzac. Love is the sweetest of errors an error of the heart, of which it is cruel to be disabused. Many consent to be virtuous, only on condi- tion that everybody will give them credit for it. De Finod. 2O6 A misanthrope was told of a young friend of his : " Your friend has no experience of the world ; he knows nothing about it." "True; but he is already as sad as if he knew all about it." Paradise is open to all kind hearts. God wel- comes whoever has dried tears, either under the crown of the martyrs, or under wreaths of flowers. Blranger. Men say more evil of women than they think : it is the contrary with women toward men. S. Dubay. When we imagine that we love, it is the pres- ence of the loved one that deceives us : when we truly love, it is absence that proves it. Lingrie. The presence of a young girl is like the pres- ence of a flower : the one gives its perfume to all that approach it, the other her grace to all who surround her. L. Desnoyers. Love, that is but an episode in the life of man, is the entire story of the life of woman. Mme. de Stael, 207 Love is the sovereign of youth and the tyrant of age. Virginity of the heart, alas ! so soon ravished ! sweet dreams! expectations of happiness and of love ! fresh illusions of the morning of life ! why do you not last till the end of the day ! Gavarni. Romances are not in books, they are in life. Youth is like those verdant forests tormented by winds : it agitates on every side the abundant gifts of nature, and some profound murmur always reigns in its foliage. Af. de Guerin. When two beings are united by love, all social conventionalities are suspended. Balzac. Truth is the skeleton of appearances. A. de Musset. None have lived without shedding tears. Voltaire. People who love each other most before mar- riage, are sometimes those who love each other least after it. A. Dupuy. Oh ! why is daily bread indispensable to the poet and to the artist ! This inexorable necessity darkens for them the joys of nature and the radi- ations of the beautiful. Mme. Louise Colet. "Women never lie more astutely than when they tell the truth to those who do not believe them. Comedies acted on life's stage, behind the scenes, are much more spirited than those acted in sight of the audience. De Finod. The eye is the messenger of the heart. Quarrels of lovers renewals of love. Proverb. Limited in his nature, infinite in his desires, man is a fallen god who remembers heaven. Lamartine. 209 A woman who has not seen her lover for the whole day considers that day lost for her : the ten- derest of men considers it only lost for love. Mme, de Saint. \ Man thinks, and, at once, becomes the master of the beings that do not think. Buffon. We have sometimes loved so much that there is nothing left in our hearts that enables us to love again. Rocliebrune. It is always imprudent to marry a woman for love in whose bosom you inspire none. Mme. cfArconville. Life is a desert waste : to beguile the ennui of the journey across it, heaven gave us the kiss. S. Marichal. Women ask if a man is discreet, as men ask if a woman is pretty. Friendship makes more happy marriages than love does. 14 210 What old men can do always falls short of what they desire. A. Ricard. In love, old wood burns better than green. The art of conversation consists less in show- ing one's own wit than in giving opportunity for the display of the wit of others. La Bruyere. We take less pains to be happy than to appear so. La Rochefoucauld. The art of putting the right men in the right places is first in the science of government ; but, that of finding places for the discontented is the most difficult. Talleyrand. One writes well only of what he has seen or suffered. De Goncourt. Old men who preserve the desires of youth lose in consideration what they gain in ridicule. Napoleon I. 211 Only the victims of love know how to soften its pains. Mme. de Graffigny. It takes twenty years to bring man from the state of embryo, and from that of a mere animal, as he is in his first infancy, to the point when his reason begins to dawn. It has taken thirty cen- turies to know his structure; it would take eter- nity to know something of his soul : it takes but an instant to kill him. Voltaire. Esteem is the strongest of all sympathies. E. de Girardin. One could make a great book of what has not been said. Rivarol. Equality is not a law of nature. Nature has made no two things equal : its sovereign law is subordination and dependence. Vauvenargues. To be happy, one must ask neither the how nor the why of life. With time and patience, the mulberry-leaf be- comes satin. Proverb. 212 Virtue has many preachers, but few martyrs. Helvitius. To make love when one is young and fair is a venial sin : it is a mortal sin when one is old and ugly. De Bernts. The hell for women who are only handsome is old age. Saint-Evremond. A woman would be in despair if nature had formed her as fashion makes her appear. Mile, de Lespinasse. Most women caress sin before embracing pen- itence. Fontenelle. Solitude is the consolation of hearts betrayed. In love, she who gives her portrait promises the original. A. Dufuy. All our dignity lies in our thoughts. Pascal. 213 With women, friendship ends when rivalry be- gins. " Respect my independence ! Lisette alone has the right to smile when I say : I am indepen- dent ! " Blranger. It costs more to satisfy a vice than to feed a family. Balzac. Prudery is often the mantle chosen to conceal triumphant vice. There are but three classes of men : the retro- grade, the stationary, the progressive. Lavater. Republics come to an end by luxurious habits ; monarchies by poverty. Montesquieu. Solitude is the religion of the soul. A. Dumas pere. Often a man is irregular in his conduct solely because his position does not allow him the mo- notonous pleasures of marriage. La BeaumelU. 214 Friendship between women is only a suspen- sion of hostilities. We ought to die when we are no longer loved, Mme. Sophie Gray. It is the path of the passions that has conduct- ed me to philosophy. y. y. Rousseau. A great fondness for animals often results from a knowledge of men. Love is rather the god of sensation than of sensibility. Ninon de Lenclos. In a tfte-A-t#& t we are never more interrupted than when we say nothing. Mile, de Lespinasse. The woman who throws herself at a man's head will soon find her place at his feet. L. Desnoyers. Prayer is the dew of the soul ravaged by ad- versity, and oftentimes the only bread of the poor. A. Poincelot. 215 We dream such beautiful dreams, that we often lose all our happiness when we perceive that they are only dreams. Joy is the ray of sunshine that brightens and opens those two beautiful flowers, Confidence and Hope. E. Souvestre. There is but one kind of love, but there are a thousand different copies of it. La Rochefoucauld. To invite a guest is to take the responsibility of his happiness during his stay under our roof. Brillat-Savarin. He who can not govern his passions should kill them, as we kill a horse when we can not mas- ter it. Cham/crt. To talk in a ttte-b-tete of the mysteries of love, is to play with fire on a barrel of gunpowder. Levis. A woman can not guarantee her heart, even though- ber husband be the greatest and most per- fect of men. George Sand. 210 Folly always deserves its misfortunes. A. Prtault. Woman seldom hesitates to sacrifice the hon- est man who loves her, without pleasing her, to the libertine who pleases her, without loving her. A. Ricard. Spring is the painter of the earth. Alcuin, What saves the virtue of many a woman is that protecting god, the impossible. Balzac, We always find wit and merit in those who look at us with admiration. O Love ! when thou findest thy true apostles on earth united in kisses, thou commandest their eyelids to close like veils, that they may not see their happiness ! A. de Musset. Let us believe what we can, and hope for the rest. De Finod. A woman and her servant, acting in accord, would outwit a dozen devils. Proverb. 217 Nature tempts us continually, but we are not responsible for the sin, unless our reasoning gives its consent. Pascal. If women are naturally more superstitious than men, it is because they are more sensitive and less enlightened. BeaucMne. There are none who are truly virtuous, but those who have combated. " The difference between you and me," said a philosopher, " is that you say to masked hypo- crites, ' I know you,' while I leave them with the idea that they have deceived me." Chamfort. Some women are so just and discerning that they never see an opportunity to be generous. As we grow old, we grow more foolish and more wise. La Rochefoucauld. A royal court without women is like a year without spring, a spring without flowers. Francis I. of France. 2l8 Very few people know what love is, and very few of those that do, tell of it. Mme. Guizot. The miser is poor to the extent of all that he has not yet acquired. Suspense, of all the torments, is the most diffi- cult to endure. A. de Musset. A woman full of faith in the one she loves is but a novelist's fancy. Balzac. Grief has two forms of expression, laughter and tears; and tears are not the saddest. L. Blanc. There are some illusions that are like the light of the day : when lost, everything disappears with them. Mme. Dufresnoy. " He swore to me an eternal love. Eternity has lasted but one morning ! " Millevoye. Ignorance is less distant from truth than preju- dice. Diderot. 219 To a woman, the romances she makes are more amusing than those she reads. T. Gautier. Life is long enough for him who knows how to use it. Worki.i^ and thinking extend its limits. Voltaire. The best woman in the world is the one we love. Provocation is a play of coquetry of which vir- tue often pays the penalty. Lingrie. Frankness consists in always telling the truth, but not always all the truth. Pretty women are like sovereigns : one flatters them only through interest. However old a conjugal union, it still garners SOT12 sweetness. Winter has some cloudless days, and under the snow a few flowers still bloom. Mme. de Stael. There are no women to whom virtue comes easier than those who possess no attractions. A lover who is no longer loved is still good for something : he serves to hide the one who has re- placed him. Life is a mournful silence in which the heart ever calls. Lamartine. Woman conceals only what she does not know. Proverb. Sin is not so sinful as hypocrisy. Mme. de Maintenon. Nowadays, those who love nature are accused of being romantic. Chatnfort. Stupid stoics! you want to change man, and you destroy him ! Voltaire. A lover is a herald who proclaims the merit, the wit, or the beauty of a woman : what does a husband proclaim? Balzac. When we do good to our fellow sufferers, we invest in a savings-bank from which the heart re- ceives the interest. E. Souvestre. 221 Love is I know not what; which comes I know not whence; which is formed I know not how ; which enchants I know not by what ; and which ends I know not when or why. Mile, de Scudtri. A lover is loved most, a wife best, a mother always. Do not crust a woman, even when dead. Proverb. To-day, we are all adrift, having nothing more either to venerate or to believe. Mine. Louise Colet. Women are demons that make us enter hell through the door of paradise. Bachelors are the freebooters of marriage. Balzac. Hope is a loan made to happiness. We all drink at the spring of happiness in a fractured vase : when it reaches our lips, there is almost nothing left in it. Mme. du Demand. 222 When a woman is no longer attractive she ceases to be inconstant. All men have desires, but all men have not love. Every mortal is relieved by speaking of his misfortunes. A, 'Ihenier. Love extinguished can be rekindled : love worn out never. From the day one can not conceril a defect, one exaggerates it. Alfred Bougeart. A brother is a friend given by nature. G. Legouvl. The love of the past is ofcen but the hatred of the present. God created in our misery the kisses of chil- dren for the tears of mothers. E. Legouvt. One may ruin himself by frankness, but one surely dishonors himself by duplicity. Vieillard. 223 The greatest of all sins is the sin of love : it is so great that it takes two persons to commit it. Cardinal Le Camus. What renders the vanity of others unbearable to us is the wound it inflicts on ours. La Rocfiefoucauld. Idleness is not a vice : it is a rust that destroys all virtues. Due de Nemours. If a woman says to you, " I will never see you again ! " hope ; but, if she says, " Notwithstanding, I shall always see you with pleasure " travel. There are some passions so sweet that they ex- cuse all the follies they provoke. Rochebrune. The husband who is not loved will pay for At dearly, some day. Proverb Hope, deceitful as it is, carries us agreeably through life. La Rochefoucauld. The remembrance of the tears I have shed is the only good left me in the world. A. de Musset. 224 The greatest misfortune one can wish his ene- my is that he may love without being loved in return. Labouisse. Love may be found in the heart of an ancho- rite : never in the heart of a libertine. E. Legouvt, How many have died without having given even one kiss to their chimera ! T. Gautier. It is dangerous to discover the faults or weak- nesses of certain persons : they never forgive us the knowledge of these secret ulcers. De Finod, Woman is a charming creature who changes her heart as easily as her gloves. Balzac. Hypocrisy has become a fashionable vice, and every fashionable vice passes for a virtue. Molilre. The loss of illusions is the death of the soul. Chamfort. Sensitive beings are not sensible beings. Balzac. Women are coquettes by profession. y. J. Rousseau. The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of man than the discovery of a star. Brillat-Savarin. Can we not seek the author of life but in the obscure labyrinth of theology ? Voltaire. Heaven protect me from my friends; I will protect myself against my enemies. Proverb. Love is the harvest of beauty. Pleasure is the flower that passes; remem- brance, the lasting perfume. Boufflers. Marriage is sometimes only a long quarrel. Any confidence is dangerous that is not com- plete. I^a Bruyere. There are no marriages in paradise thank Heaven ! 226 Nothing makes old people who have been at- tractive more ridiculous than to forget that they are so no longer. La Rochefoucauld. To live with our enemies as if they may some time become our friends, and to live with our friends as if they may some time become our ene- mies, is not a moral but a political maxim. Hope is so sweet with its golden wings, that, at his last sigh, man still implores it. De la Pena. Lovers who dispute adore. Proverb. The Creator, in obliging man to eat, invites him by appetite, and rewards him with pleasure. Brillat-Savarin . Love is a malicious blind boy, who seeks to blind the eyes of his guide, that both may go astray together. Celebrity : the advantage of being known to those who do not know us. Cha mfort. 227 A woman whose ruling passion is not vanity is superior to any man of equal capacity. Lavater. One is never criminal in obeying the voice of Nature. Balzac. There are more men who have missed oppor- tunities than there are who have lacked opportuni- ties. La Beaumelle. Mediocre minds usually condemn what is be- yond the reach of their understanding. La Rochefoucauld. Love is the dawn of marriage, and marriage is the sunset of love. If there were a people of gods, they would govern themselves democratically : so perfect a government is not suitable to men. J. y. Rousseau, Women are priestesses of the unknown. If I held all truths in my hand, I would be- ware of opening it to men. Fontenelle. 228 Radicalism is but the desperation of logic. Lamartine. The worst of all countries is the one in which we have no friends. The most chaste woman may be the most vo- luptuous, if she loves. Mirabeau. Love, which is such a little thing, is still the most serious thing in life. Lemontey. There are few souls \vho are so vigorously or- ganized as to be able to maintain themselves in the calm of a strong resolve : all honest consciences are capable of the generosity of a day, but almost all succumb the next morning under the effort of the sacrifcce. George Sand. There are women so hard to please that it seems as if nothing less than an angel will suit them : hence it comes that they often meet with devils. Marguerite de Valots. It is sweet to die young ! It is sweet to render to God a life still full of illusions ! A. Center 229 Self-love is a balloon -filled with wind, from which tempests emerge when pricked. Voltaire. To amuse the public : what a sad vocation for a man who thinks ! The astronomer thinks of the stars, the natu ralist of nature, the philosopher of himself. Fontenelle. To love is to ask of another the happiness that is lacking in ourselves. Rochepldre. If man knew well what life is, he would not give it so inconsiderately. Afme. Roland. The things of the earth are not worth our at- tachment to them. Nicole. Woman is a delightful musical instrument, of which love is the bow, and man the artist. Stendhal. Conscience is the voice of the soul ; passion, the voice of the body. y. J. Rousseau. 230 One triumphs over calumny only by disdain- ing it. Mme. de Maintenon. In this advanced century, a girl of sixteen knows as much as her mother, and enjoys her knowledge much more. Virtue is the politeness of the soul. Balzac, Self-love is always the mainspring, more or less concealed, of our actions; it is the wind which swells the sails, without which the ship could not go- Mme. du Chdtelet, The greatest evidence of demoralization is the respect paid to wealth. There is among men such intense affectation that they often boast of defects which they have not, more willingly than of qualities which they have. George Sand. The best lesson is that of example. La Harpe. 231 " The French Guard dies, but does not surren- der ! " (General Cambronne, at Waterloo.) Women surrender, and do not die. Ch. de Bernard. There is more merit in subduing a passion than in avenging an injury. Mascaron. It is a great misfortune not to have enough wit to speak well, or not enough judgment to keep silent. La Bruylre. Love is blind : that is why he always proceeds by the sense of touch. The temperament of artists is such that they should be judged differently from the vulgar. De Finod. What has become of those personages who made so much noise in the world? Time has made one step, and the face of the earth is re- newed. Chateaubriand. A gilded bit does not make the horse better. Proverb. 232 A man who is pleased with no one is more un- happy than he who pleases no one. De Saint-Rial. In love, the husband sees but the statue : the soul is shown only to the lover. Crebillon. Evil is so common in the world that it is easy to believe it natural to man. F. Soulif. Every man holds in his hand a stone to throw at us in adversity. Mme. Bachi. Heroes are men who set out to be demi-gods in their own eyes, and who end by being so at certain moments by dint of despising and combat- ing all humanity. George Sand. How many coward passions hide themselves under the mask of puritanism ! Mate, Lovist f^olet. Politeness is the expression or imitation of so- cial virtues. Duclos. 233 Woman : man's first domicile. Diderot. " I will love you always ! " This is the eternal lie that lovers tell with the greatest sincerity. Sympathy is a relationship of the heart and mind : between two persons of different sex the senses enter the relationship. A. Dupuy. Very few people know how to enjoy life. Some say to themselves : " I do this or that, therefore I am amused : I have paid so many pieces of gold, hence I feel so much pleasure " ; and they wear away their lives on that grindstone. A. de Mussel . Love renders chaste the most voluptuous plea- sures. Virey. At every stage of life he reaches, man finds himself but a novice. . Chamfort. It is strange that thought should depend upon the stomach, and still that men with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers. Voltaire. 234 The ambitious do not belong to themselves : they are the slaves of the world. The passions are the celestial fire that vivifies the moral world. It is to them that the arts and sciences owe their discoveries, and man the eleva- tion of his position. Helvttius. Glances in a young woman are charming in- terpreters, which express what the lips would not dare to speak. Men marry to make an end ; women, to make a beginning. A. Dupuy. Their avenging God ! rancorous torturer who burns his creatures in slow fire ! When they tell me that God made himself a man, I prefer to recognize a man who made himself a god. A. de Musset. In love, if inconstancy gives some pleasure, constancy alone gives happiness. Trublet. Most women proceed like the flea, by leaps and jumps. Balzac. 2 35 The first tear of love that one causes to be shed is a diamond, the second a pearl, the third a tear. A. Poincelot. Life is arid and terrible ; repose is a chimera ; prudence useless; reason itself serves only to dry up the heart. There is but one virtue the eter- nal sacrifice of self. George Sand. Is it not the realization of his enforced suffer- ings in this world that gives man the hope of a better life after death, as a just compensation for the miseries in this ? De Finod. Was man made to disdain the gifts of nature ? Was he placed on earth but to gather bitter fruits ? For whom are the flowers the gods cause to bloom at the feet of mortals ? It pleases Provi- dence when we abandon ourselves to the different inclinations that He has given us : our duties come from His laws, and our desires from His in- spirations. Prejudice, vanity, calculation : these are what govern the world. Chamfort. What prevents us from being natural is the de- sire to appear so. La Rochefoucauld. Life is a disease of which sleep relieves us; it is but a palliative : death is the remedy. Chamfort. People call eloquence the facility that some have in speaking alone and for a great length of time. Pascal. Women are like melons : it is only after having tasted them that we know whether they are good or not. F. Soulil. t The morals of to-day are made up of appear- ances. Mme. Louise Colet. The coquette compromises her reputation, and sometimes saves her virtue : the prude, on the con- trary, often sacrifices her honor in secret, and pre- serves it in public opinion. Mme. du Bocage. We should often be ashamed of our best actions if the world saw the motives which inspire us. La Rochefoucauld. 237 God has put into the heart of man love and the tsoldness to sue, and into the heart of woman fear and the courage to refuse. Marguerite de Valois. It is dangerous to say to the people that their laws are unjust, for they obey them only because they believe them just. Pascal. When a woman invokes her reason, it is a sure sign that she will listen to her heart. Nowadays enthusiasm is accounted folly; truth, cynicism ; dissimulation, self-control ; stiffness of manners, dignity; deception, cleverness; hypoc- risy, decency; selfishness, economy; freedom of thought, effrontery ; and superstition, the prop of human morals. What progress in language ! There are no more thorough prudes than those women who have some little secret to hide. George Sand. Physical beauty in man has become as rare as his moral beauty has always been. Mme. Louise Colet. 2 3 8 We should love our friends as true amateurs love pictures : they keep their eyes perpetually fixed on the fine points, and do not see the defects. Mme. Du/resnoy. All women are fond of minds that inhabit fine bodies, and of souls that have fine eyes. y. Joubert. Love is a disease that kills nobody, but one whose time has come. Marguerite de Valois. Of all the gifts that Nature can give us, the faculty of remaining silent, or of answering at. pro- pos, is perhaps the most useful. Mme. Campan. Life is as a slate where all our sins are written : from time to time we rub the sponge of repentance over it, in order to begin to sin anew. Strength with men is insensibility, greatness is pride, and calmness is indifference. George Sand. Women complain of the lack of virtue in men, ana do not esteem those who are too strictly vir- tuous. Blondel. 2 39 Thou makest the man, O Sorrow ! Yes, the whole man, as the crucible gold ! Lamartine. Love is the union of a want and a sentiment. Balzac. Manners, morals, customs change : the passions are always the same. Mme. de Wahaut. Jest with life : for that only is it good. Voltaire. CONCLUSIVELY. ONE loves because he loves : this explanation is, as yet, the most serious and the most decisive that has been found for the solution of this prob- lem. True, the poisonous breath of the world de- stroys our illusions, but they resuscitate at once when a ray of love falls upon our benumbed hearts, as the warmth of the sun revives the poor flowers withered by the ices of winter. De Fined, Society, that distills so many poisons, resembles that serpent of India whose abode is the leaf of the plant that cures its bite : society usually offers a remedy for the sufferings it causes. A. de Musset. 241 After having said, read, and written what we have of women, what is the fact ? In good faith, it is this : they are handsomer, more amiable, more essential, more worthy, and have more sensibility than we. All the faults that we reproach in them do not cause as much evil as one of ours. And, then, are their faults not due to our des- potism, injustice, and self-love? Prince de Ligne. " O God, whom the world misjudges, and whom everything declares ! listen to the last words that my lips pronounce ! If I have wandered, it was in seeking Thy law. My heart may go astray, but it is full of Thee! I see, without alarm, eternity appear ; and I can not think that a God who has given me life, that a God who has poured so many blessings on my days, will, now that my days are done, torment me for ever ! " The last prayer of Voltaire. Everything is for the best, in this best of pos- sible worlds. Proverb. INDEX OF AUTHORS. A. Agoult, Mme. d', 123. Albany, Mme. d', 182. Alcuin, 216. Alibert, 16, 156. Amelot, 177. Ampere, 188. Andr^, Marc, 109. Arconville, Mme. d', 117, 209. Argens, D', 33, 90, 135. Arnault, 112. Arnoult, Mme. Sophie, 84, 144. Aubert, 123. Azais, Mile., 185. B. Bachi, Mme., 58, 78, 232. Balzac, H. de, 8, 14, 19, 24, 39, 41, 47, 50, 54, 56, 60, 63, 67, 71, 74, 79, 84, 85, 89, 96, 99, 102, 105, 114, I2O, 121, 122, 124, 127, 129, 134, 142, 143, 149, 151, 152, 161, 164, 165, 166, 167, 172, 175, 176, 179, 190, 194, 196, 200, 201, 205, 206, 213, 216, 2l8, 22O, 221, 224, 227, 230, 234, 239- Barjaud, 88. Barthe, 83. Barthelemy, Da, 128. Bassanville, Mme. de, 131, 156, 157, 164. Beauchene, 37, 122, 154, 195, 217. Beaufort, De, 17. Beaumanoir, 21, 179. Beaumarchais, 24, 83, 89, 118. Belmontet, 118. Be"ranger, n, 12, 19, 22, 94, !?? '83, 206, 213. Bernard, De, 9, 102, 231. 244 Bernard, Saint, ng. Bernard, Th., icS. Bernardin de St. Pierre, 49, 56, 70. Bernis, De, 35, 68, in, 212. Blanc, L., 218. Blondel, 238. Bocage, Mme. du, 236. Boetie, De la, 52. Boileau, 7, 50, 52. Bonald, De, 115, 139, 155, 197. Bonnard, 137. Bosc, Du, 13, 31, 87. Bossuet, gr, 103, 112, 135. Boufflers, II, 41, 53, 115, 136, 225. Bougeart, Alfred, 42, 45, 52, 66, 91, 123, 125, 127, 132, 144, 148, 222. Bourdaloue, 17. Brignicourt, 154. Brillat - Savarin, 16, 23, 43, 123, 215, 225, 226. Bruis, 145. Bruix, De, 38. Buffon, 209. Bussy-Rabutin, 130, 151, 156, 168, 188, 199. C. Campan, Mme., 238. Cardan, 46, 166. Carnot, 134. Caron, 21. Castres, De, 177. Chabanon, 173. Chamfort, 12, 18, 27, 37, 44, 49. 55, 57, 59, 63, 66, 85, 89, 96, 101, 106, no, in, 114, 116, 119, 124, 126, 128, 130, 133, 138, 139- J 4 2 > 145, 147, 148, 150, 153, 158, 160, 162, 163, 166. 170, 173, 175, 178, 180, 186, 190, 194, 196, 199, 202, 205, 217, 220, 224, 226, 233, 235, 236. Champcenest, 140. Chasles, 108. Chateaubriand, 22, 53, 60, 70, 74, 75, 87, 153, 201, 231. Chatelet, Mme. du, 76, 128, 230. Chenedolle, 70. Chenier, A., 68, 222, 228. Chevalier, 97, 127. Chillon, 64. Choiseul, Mme. de, 128, 179- Colet, Mme. Louise, 26, 39, 42, 57, 90, loo, 128, 133, 208, 221, 232, 236, 237. Colombat, 10. Comettant, O., 97, 108. Commerson, P., 96, 121, 195, Comte, A., 22, 33, 187. Conches, De, 168. Condorcet, 18, 22. Constant, Benjamin, 95. Corneilb, 86, 93, 138. Cotgrave, 41. Cottin, Mme., 150, 157. Cre'billon, 232. D. D'Alembert, 29, 95. Dautnas, 195. David, J., 195. Deffand, Mme. du, 9, 67, 165, !77> 179, !85, 204, 221. Delatouche, 186. Delavigne, Casimir, 24, 165. Delille, 75, 108. Demoustier, 67, 192. Dasbarolles, 9. Desbordes - Valmore, Mme., 128. Deshoulieres, Mme., 174. Desmahis, 22, 139. Desmoulins, C., 38. Desnoyers, L., Go, 76, 141, 206, 214. Diderot, 8, 28, 55, 69, 73, 95, 99, 139, 218, 223. Dorat, i63. Dubay, S., 92, 203, 206. Duels 38, 165. Duclos, Ch. P., 1 8, 69, 165, 168, 175, 190, 198, 205, 232. Dufresnoy, Mme., 13, 40, 6l, 218, 238. Dumas, A. pire, 16, 108, 126, 170, 213. Dumas A. Jils, 86, 117, 121. Dupaty, 202. Dupuy, A., 64 73, 82, 98 125, 130, 176, 189, 208, 212, 233, 234- Dussaulx, 144. E. Epinay, Mme. d', 98. Erckmann-Chatrian, 134. F. Fabre d'Eg'antine 198. Fee, Mme. C6cile, no, 117. Fe"nelon, 25, 183. Ferriere, De la, loo. Feucheres, 90. Feuillet, Octave, 90, 112. Figuier, L., 1 1 2. Finod, De, 12, 16, 17, 20, 25, 26, 33, 35, 39. 40, 45, 49. 52, 56, 61, 65, 72, 78, 80, 91, 93, 97, 103, 108, 112, 116, 118, 122, 127, 132, 136, 140, 148, 154, 173, 184, 192, 195, 202, 205, 208, 216, 224, 231, 235, 240. Firmez, O., 16, 44, 136. Flahaut, Mme. de, 113, 239. Fl^chier, 91. Fleury, 88. Florian, 70, 107. Fontaines, .Mme. de, 15, 70 172. Fontanes, De, 55. Fontenelle, 10, 19, 29, 31, 56, 246 89, 104, 175, 181, 212, 227, 229. Fourier, 192. Francis I. of France, 217. G. Gasparin, A. de, 131, 146, 155, 157, 189. Gaston, De, 58, 112. Gautier, The'ophile, 25, 34, 3E, 36, 42, 50, 58, 64, 65, 72, 84, 116, 150, 157, 160, 163, 219, 224. Gavarni, 31, 182, 207. Genlis, Mme. de, 74, 105, 185, 194. Geoffrin, Mme., 80. Gilbert, 48. Girard, Abbe\ 38. Girardin, Emile de, 19, 27, 31, 35, 43, 46, 58, 65, 73, 77, 83, 98, 155, 161, 182, 184, 211. Girardin, Mme. de, 28, 189. Goncourt, De, 162, 210. Graffigny, Mme. de, 87, 21 1. Gray, Mme. Sophie, 214. Grecourt, 39. Gre"goirc, H., 174. Gresset, 71. Grignan, Mme. de, 119. Guerin, Mile. Euge'nie de, iS, 31. Gue>in, Maurice de, 207. Guroult, 182. Guibert, Mme., 21. Guizot, 46. Guizot, Mme., 62, 218, Guyard, 59, 125. Guyon, Abbe", 193. H. Halle-, 135. Harleville, Colin d', 86. Helvetius, 109, 183, 212, 234 Houdetot, D', 23, 31. Houelle, 67. Houssaye, Arsene, 57, 131. Hugo, Victor, 13, 15, 25, 26, 27, 30, 35, 44, 53, 54, 59, 68, 72, 80, 91, 103, 107, no, 112, 114, Ilg, 120, 148, 152, 20O, 2O5. J. Janin, Jules, 8, 131. Jaucourt, 137. Jerome, Saint, 159. Jordan, Camille, 70, 155, 198. Joubert, 126, 134, 146, 151, 238. Jouy, 32, 114, "30. Juillerat, P., '/4. K. Karr, Alphonse, 14, 32, 43, 3, 85, 87, 98, 106, 126, 129, 138, 143, 158, 165, 170, 171 1 8 1, 196. Kock, Paul de, 191. 247 Krudener, Mme. de, 66, 78, 144, 187. Labe", Mme. Louise, 58. La Beaumclle, 62, 105, 134, 140, 213, 227. Laboaisse, 224. Laboulaye, E., 126. La Bruyere, 8, 49, 57, 67, 76, 80, 88,95, 97, 103,113, 117, 125, 138, 145, 146, 147, 152, 156, 161, 166, 167, 199, 204, 210, 225, 231. La Chaussee, 28. Laclos, 44, 183. Lacordaire, 194. Lacretelle, 9, 188. Lafayette, Mile, de, 178. La Fontaine, 17, Si, 122. La Harpe, 230. Lallemand, Dr., 99. Lamartine, 29, 44, 53, 73, 121, 129, 154, 180, 208, 220, 228, 239- Lambert, Mme. de, 56, 89, 114, 121, 140, 156, 190, 191, 197. Lamcnnais, 19, 36, 44, 54, 94, 145, 181, 1 88, 204. Lamotte, 89. La Rochefoucauld, 15, 16,27, 34, 39. 40, 43. 48, 51. 57. 61, 62, 65, 72, 77, 83, 86, 94, 95. 97, 103, 105, 107, HI, 112, 113, IlS, Ilg, 125, 129, 136, 143, 148, 152, 154, 158, 160, 163, 166, 168, 172, 174, 186, 189, 192, 195, 196, 198,203, 210, 215, 217,223, 226, 227, 236. Latena, 10, 15, 30, 48, 51, 64, 89, 151, 167, 182. Lavater, 29, 38, 47, 57, 60, 62, 75, 82, 105, 133, 142, 201, 213, 227. Le Bai.ly, 192. Le Camus, Cardinal, 223. Ledru-Rolli.i, 127. Legouve, E., 81, 186, 224. Legouv, G., 108, 222. Lemesles, 59, 60. Lemontey, 13, 20, 25, 59, 184, 228. Leroux, 193. Lesage, 159. Lesguillon, 118. Lespinasse, Mile, de, 82, 94, 105, 183, 187, 189, 212, 214. Le>is, 60, 78, 102, 107, 109, 143, 149, 187, 215. Ligne, Prince de, 23, 165, 172, 203, 241. Limayrac, 28, 174. Lingr^e, 30, 109, 166, 206. 219. Loiseleur, 102. Louis XIV., 190. Lussan, Mme. de, 136. 248 M. Maintenon, Mme de, 20, 32, 44, 91, 163, 167, 192, 220, 230. Maistres, J de, 93, 123. Malebranche, 162. Malesherbes, 21, 174. Malherbe, 41, 145, 177. Marechal, S., 38, 79, 209. Marguerite de Valois, 16, 17, 30, 34, 42, 45, 53, 61, 66, 76, 79. 85, 90, 102, 120, 123, 125, 133, 156, 164, 170, 179, 187, 228, 237, 238. Marivaux, 37, 175. Marmontel, 101, 199. Martin, 150. Mascaron, 231. Massias, 93, 95. Massieu, 63. Massillon, 36, 88, 140, 191. Mercicr, Alfred, 19, 113, 125, 135, 146, 149, 167, 170, iSo, 198. Mere, 149. Mery, 36, iSS. Mezeray, 51. Michelet, 47, 62, 133. Millevoye, 66, 218. Mirabeau, 77, 130, 157, 228. Molierc, 26, 47, 75, 100, 134, 168, 199, 224. Moncrif, 54. Monselet, Ch., 109. Montaigne, n, 24, 26, 29, 34, 41, 45, 49. 50, 52, 62, 63, 75, 81, 85, 93, ico, 109. 116, 122, 133, 164. Montaran, Mme. de, 56. Montesquieu, 41, 69, 124, 140, 160, 180, 197, 203, 213. Montlasicr, 183. Montolieu, Mme. de, 23. Moreau, Hegsippe, 203. Motteville, Mme. de, 150. Murger, Henri, 106, 188. Musset, Alfred de, 10, 14, 20, 23, 28, 31, 40, 51, 54, 63, 67, 70, 71, 76, 79, 82, 91, 98, loo, 101, 106, in, 120, 122, 135, 142, 146, 147, 150, 152, 157, 158, 173, 175,1/7, iSi, 199, 200, 207, 216, 218, 223, 233, 234, 240. N. Napoleon I., 20, 22, 26, 34, 37, 54,69,88,115, 139,155, 162, 197, 2 IO. Necker, Mine., 21, 23, 32, 40, 79, 98, 153, 170, 171, 176, 193, 201. Nemours, Due de, 223. Nerval, Gerard de, 135. Nicole, 229. Ninon de Lenclos, 16, 24, 32, 35, 58, 121, 124, 127, 138, 148, 173, 177, 193, 200, 201, 214. 249 Nodier, Charles, 8, in, 187, Racine, 42. 191. Raison, 82. Raissoh, 33. Palissot, 38. Raspail, 39. Panage, 148. Raynal, 9. P-irfait, Paul, 109. Re"gnier, 74. Parny, 15. Rtif de la Bretonne, 48, 74 Pa;cal, 40, 56, 63, 66, 71, 132, 92, 106, 145. 159, 163, 180, 212, 217, 236, Reybaud, Mme., 101. 237. Ricard, A., 8, II, 21, 37, 60, Pauline, 136. 64, 77, 92, 104, no, 128, Pena, De la, 226. 164, 168, 171, 185, 193, 210, Potit-Senn, J., 7, 15, 17, 27, 216. 35. 36, 43, 58, 65, 72, 78, Rieux, Mme. de, 14, 130, 141, 96, 169, 188. 154, 163, 186. Picard, 162. Rivarol, 37, 54, 69, 88, 115, Pichot, A., 43, 78, 118. 139, 155, 174, 197, 211. Pigault-Lebrun, 143. Rochebrune, 20, 71, 72, 103, Piron, 28. 104, 169, 186, 209, 223. Poincelot, 30, 33, 90, 141, 175, Rochepedre, 37, 51, 73, 79, 178, 214, 235. 81, 86, 121, 132, 150, 167, Pompadour, Mine, de, 40. 193, 200, 229. Praslin, Mme. de, 137. Roland, Mme., 46, 55, 103, Preault, A., 83, 200, 216. 142, 151, 176, 229. Propriac, De, 199. Rollin, 9. Prud'homme, 41. Romainville, 13, 84, 120. Puisieux, Mme. de, 65, 72, Romieu, 147. 77. 83, 97, 183. Roqueplan, Nestor, 41, 96., Pyat, Felix, 48. 136. Rotrou, 91. Rousseau, J. J , 8, n, 20, 24, Quesnel, 22. 25, 26, 35, 44, 46, 47, 49, 52, 55, 59. 65, 68, 75, 80, 83, 85, 87, 92, 94, 99, 101, 104, Rabelais, 8, 10, 47. 109, in, 129, 134, 141, 146, 250 147, IS 1 . I 6l, 164, 169, 171, Senancourt, 49, 124. 184, 185, 194, 214, 225, 227, SeVigne, Mme. de, 14, 67, no, 229. 114. Soulary, 123, 189. S Soulie", Frederic, 232, 236. Sade, De, 159. Souvestre, E., n, 18, 24, Sainte-Beuve, 15, 19, 47, 95, 42, 45, 50, 61, 68, 85, 86, 141, 144- 94, loo, 132, 153, 162, 215, Sainte-Foix, 115, 119, 122. 220. Saint-Evremond, 38, 63, 171, Stael, Mme. de, 14, 28, 71, 212. 116,117,138,155,173,185, Saint-Lambert, 124. 193, 198, 206, 219. Saint-Prosper, 9, 133, 169. Stendhal, 182, 229. Saint-Real, 9, 72, 78, 97, 232. Suard, 36, 126. Saint-Surin, Mme. de, 33, 120. Swetchine, Mme., 18,31,46, Salm, Mme. de, 51, in, 113, 94, 181. 182; 209. Sand, George, 14, 17, 33, 34, 39, 45, 47, 54, 62, 80, 82, Taine, 184. 86, 92, 93, 100, 107, no, Talleyrand, 105, 116, 162, 210. 202, 215, 228, 230,232,235, Taylor, Baron, 127. 237, 238. Thierry, E., 7. Sarrasin, 160. Thomas, A. L., 67, 113. Sartory, Mme. de, 77, 104, Thomas, Saint, 56. 149, 176, 195. Tour, Mme. de la, 130. Saurin, 77, 199, 204. Trublet, 7, 234. Scuderi, Mile, de, 30, 54, 74, Turgot, 22. 185, 221. Second, Alberic, 23. " Segalas, Mme. Anais, 27. Vair, G. du, 71. Segoyer, De, 107. Valaincourt, 12. Segur, 10, 32, 55, 115, 141, Varennes, De, 99, 120, 158, 155, 161, 197, 198. 160, 178. Snac de Meilhan, 53, IO2, Vauvenargues, 21, 26, 32, 36, 140, 144- 42, 55, 5. 69, 77, 83, 8?, 251 IO6, 108, 115, 140, 145, 197, Voltaire, II, 18, 24, 25, 27, 211. . 29, 34, 37, 41, 42, 43, 45, Viard, 191. 46, 50, 52, 55, 57, 6l, 64, Vieillard, 97, 222. 68, 69, 75, 81, 84, 88, 90, Vieland, 99. 92, 93, 96, 100, 105, no, Vigny, Alfred de, 47. in, 113, 115, 122, 131, 132, Villefr6, 94. 133, 136, 139, 145, 152, 153, Villemain, 118. 155, 162, 170, 172, 180, iSl, Virey, 30, 233. 184, 191, 197, 207, 211, 219, Voillez, Mme., 174. 220, 225, 229, 233, 239, 241. (1) THE END. BOOKS BY ALFRED AYRES. Some III used Words. A Manual for the Use of those who Desire to Write and Speak correctly. iSmo. Cloth, fci.oo. The book is leveled specially at some half dozen errors that are made by well-nigh every one who uses the Knglish language. The Orthoepist. 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