When you wish to begin housekeeping, look for a reliable woman, full of virtue and lofty principles.  All this is becoming to the dignity of the marriage tie; I intended to say, to its gravity.  But at present, as you require nothing but a love affair, beware of being serious, and believe what I tell you; I know your wants better than you yourself know them.  Men usually say that they seek essential qualities in those they love.  Blind fools that they are!  How they would complain could they find them!  What would they gain by being deified?  They need only amusement.  A mistress as reasonable as you require would be a wife for whom you would have an infinite respect, I admit, but not a particle of ardor.  A woman estimable in all respects is too subduing, humiliates you too much, for you to love her long.  Forced to esteem her, and even sometimes to admire her, you can not excuse yourself for ceasing to love her.  So many virtues are a reproach too discreet, too tiresome a critic of our eccentricities, not to arouse your pride at last, and when that is humbled, farewell to love.  Make a thorough analysis of your sentiments, examine well your conscience, and you will see that I speak the truth.  I have but a moment left to say adieu.

IV

The Spice of Love

Do you know, Marquis, that you will end by putting me in a temper?  Heavens, how very stupid you are sometimes!  I see it in your letter; you have not understood me at all.  Take heed; I did not say that you should take for a mistress a despicable object.  That is not at all my idea.  But I said that in reality you needed only a love affair, and that, to make it pleasant, you should not attach yourself exclusively to substantial qualities.  I repeat it; when in love, men need only to be amused; and I believe on this subject I am an authority.  Traces of temper and caprice, a senseless quarrel, all this has more effect upon women, and retains their affection more than all the reason imaginable, more than steadiness of character.

Someone whom you esteem for the justice and strength of his ideas, said one day at my house, that caprice in women was too closely allied to beauty to be an antidote.  I opposed this opinion with so much animation, that it could readily be seen that the contrary maxim was my sentiment, and I am, in truth, well persuaded that caprice is not close to beauty, except to animate its charms in order to make them more attractive, to serve as a goad, and to flavor them.  There is no colder sentiment, and none which endures less than admiration.  One easily becomes accustomed to see the same features, however regular they may be, and when a little malignity does not give them life or action, their very regularity soon destroys the sentiment they excite.  A cloud of temper, even, can give to a beautiful countenance the necessary variety, to prevent the weariness of seeing it always in the same state.  In a word, woe to the woman