The uneasiness which you experience is caused only by the void in your heart.  Your heart is without love, and it is trying to make you comprehend its wants.  You have really what one calls the “need of loving.”  Yes, Marquis, nature, in forming us, gave us an allowance of sentiments which must expend themselves upon some object.  Your age is the proper period for the agitations of love; as long as this sentiment does not fill your heart, something will always be wanting; the restlessness of which you complain will never cease.  In a word, love is the nourishment of the heart as food is of the body; to love is to fulfill the desire of nature, to satisfy a need.  But if possible, manage it so that it will not become a passion.  To protect you from this misfortune, I could almost be tempted to disprove the counsel given you, to prefer, to the company of women capable of inspiring esteem rather than love, the intercourse of those who pride themselves on being amusing rather than sedate and prim.  At your age, being unable to think of entering into a serious engagement, it is not necessary to find a friend in a woman; one should seek to find only an amiable mistress.

The intercourse with women of lofty principles, or those whom the ravages of time force into putting themselves forward only by virtue of great qualities, is excellent for a man who, like themselves, is on life’s decline.  For you, these women would be too good company, if I dare so express myself.  Riches are necessary to us only in proportion to our wants; and what you would better do, I think, is to frequent the society of those who combine, with agreeable figure, gentleness in conversation, cheerfulness in disposition, a taste for the pleasures of society, and strong enough not to be frightened by one affair of the heart.

In the eyes of a man of reason they appear too frivolous, you will say:  but do you think they should be judged with so much severity?  Be persuaded, Marquis, that if, unfortunately, they should acquire more firmness of character, they and you would lose much by it.  You require in women stability of character!  Well, do you not find it in a friend?—­Shall I tell you what is in my mind?  It is not our virtues you need; but our playfulness and our weakness.  The love which you could feel for a woman who would be estimable in every respect, would become too dangerous for you.  Until you can contemplate a contract of marriage, you should seek only to amuse yourself with those who are beautiful; a passing taste alone should attach you to one of them:  be careful not to plunge in too deep with her; there can nothing result but a bad ending.  If you did not reflect more profoundly than the greater part of young people, I should talk to you in an entirely different tone; but I perceive that you are ready to give to excess, a contrary meaning to their ridiculous frivolity.  It is only necessary, then, to attach yourself to a woman who, like an agreeable child, might amuse you with pleasant follies, light caprices, and all those pretty faults which make the charm of a gallant intercourse.