me an honest answer; when you enter a woman’s room what makes you think more highly of her, what makes you address her with more respect—­to see her busy with feminine occupations, with her household duties, with her children’s clothes about her, or to find her writing verses at her toilet table surrounded with pamphlets of every kind and with notes on tinted paper?  If there were none but wise men upon earth such a woman would die an old maid.

     “Quaeris cur nolim te ducere, galla? diserta es.” 
          Martial xi. 20.

Looks must next be considered; they are the first thing that strikes us and they ought to be the last, still they should not count for nothing.  I think that great beauty is rather to be shunned than sought after in marriage.  Possession soon exhausts our appreciation of beauty; in six weeks’ time we think no more about it, but its dangers endure as long as life itself.  Unless a beautiful woman is an angel, her husband is the most miserable of men; and even if she were an angel he would still be the centre of a hostile crowd and she could not prevent it.  If extreme ugliness were not repulsive I should prefer it to extreme beauty; for before very long the husband would cease to notice either, but beauty would still have its disadvantages and ugliness its advantages.  But ugliness which is actually repulsive is the worst misfortune; repulsion increases rather than diminishes, and it turns to hatred.  Such a union is a hell upon earth; better death than such a marriage.

Desire mediocrity in all things, even in beauty.  A pleasant attractive countenance, which inspires kindly feelings rather than love, is what we should prefer; the husband runs no risk, and the advantages are common to husband and wife; charm is less perishable than beauty; it is a living thing, which constantly renews itself, and after thirty years of married life, the charms of a good woman delight her husband even as they did on the wedding-day.

Such are the considerations which decided my choice of Sophy.  Brought up, like Emile, by Nature, she is better suited to him than any other; she will be his true mate.  She is his equal in birth and character, his inferior in fortune.  She makes no great impression at first sight, but day by day reveals fresh charms.  Her chief influence only takes effect gradually, it is only discovered in friendly intercourse; and her husband will feel it more than any one.  Her education is neither showy nor neglected; she has taste without deep study, talent without art, judgment without learning.  Her mind knows little, but it is trained to learn; it is well-tilled soil ready for the sower.  She has read no book but Bareme and Telemachus which happened to fall into her hands; but no girl who can feel so passionately towards Telemachus can have a heart without feeling or a mind without discernment.  What charming ignorance!  Happy is he who is destined to be her tutor.  She will not be her husband’s teacher but his scholar; far from seeking to control his tastes, she will share them.  She will suit him far better than a blue-stocking and he will have the pleasure of teaching her everything.  It is time they made acquaintance; let us try to plan a meeting.