and regard will be all the more sought after; you have inspired the tacit respect which raises a man among his peers.  I behold you now armed with a youth that pleases, grace which attracts, and wisdom with which to preserve your conquests.  All that I have now told you can be summed up in two words, two old-fashioned words, “Noblesse oblige.”

Now apply these precepts to the management of life.  You will hear many persons say that strategy is the chief element of success; that the best way to press through the crowd is to set some men against other men and so take their places.  That was a good system for the Middle Ages, when princes had to destroy their rivals by pitting one against the other; but in these days, all things being done in open day, I am afraid it would do you ill-service.  No, you must meet your competitors face to face, be they loyal and true men, or traitorous enemies whose weapons are calumny, evil-speaking, and fraud.  But remember this, you have no more powerful auxiliaries than these men themselves; they are their own enemies; fight them with honest weapons, and sooner or later they are condemned.  As to the first of them, loyal men and true, your straightforwardness will obtain their respect, and the differences between you once settled (for all things can be settled), these men will serve you.  Do not be afraid of making enemies; woe to him who has none in the world you are about to enter; but try to give no handle for ridicule or disparagement.  I say try, for in Paris a man cannot always belong solely to himself; he is sometimes at the mercy of circumstances; you will not always be able to avoid the mud in the gutter nor the tile that falls from the roof.  The moral world has gutters where persons of no reputation endeavor to splash the mud in which they live upon men of honor.  But you can always compel respect by showing that you are, under all circumstances, immovable in your principles.  In the conflict of opinions, in the midst of quarrels and cross-purposes, go straight to the point, keep resolutely to the question; never fight except for the essential thing, and put your whole strength into that.  You know how Monsieur de Mortsauf hates Napoleon, how he curses him and pursues him as justice does a criminal; demanding punishment day and night for the death of the Duc d’Enghien, the only death, the only misfortune, that ever brought the tears to his eyes; well, he nevertheless admired him as the greatest of captains, and has often explained to me his strategy.  May not the same tactics be applied to the war of human interests; they would economize time as heretofore they economized men and space.  Think this over, for as a woman I am liable to be mistaken on such points which my sex judges only by instinct and sentiment.  One point, however, I may insist on; all trickery, all deception, is certain to be discovered and to result in doing harm; whereas every situation presents less danger if a man plants himself firmly on his