(An illicit love beautifies and consecrates nothing:
A Maud leaves the daisies rosy; not so Faustine.)
Many a woman has given her heart to one lover and herself to another.
The first is always won; the second is sometimes extorted. Yet,
It is wonderful how a woman will contrive to make all her lovers believe they are winners.
It often gives a lady a pleasure to give her lover a pang.
Not many but have tasted the bitterness of the conflict between the desire of the flesh and the resentment of the spirit. Explain these terms who may.
To attempt by erring to cure an erring lover, is to administer, not an antidote, but an adjuvant. It works poison in the blood.
When (and if) in a tortuous love, a man arrives at a "Don"t give a d.a.m.n"
stage, he is not to be cla.s.sed with the animals known as docile. And as to a woman... ... . but polite language has its limits.
Many a man has be exasperated, not only by the audacity of his rival, but by the equanimity with which his lady-love views that audacity. He forgets that, as a rule,
Feminine complaisance varies directly as masculine audacity. And yet, often enough, as a simple matter of fact, 118 Masculine diffidence is vastly more potent than masculine audacity. And further,
Rarely need the complaisance that audacity evokes perturb the diffident man; since
Rarely need the complaisance that audacity evokes perturb the diffident man; since
The true woman may give her fingertips to the gallant; she gives herself to the worshiper. The pity o" it is that
The worshiper cannot away with the complaisance that permits a woman to give even her finger-tips to the gallant. And
Few are the women who have plumbed the silent and sensitive depths of the diffidence of her devotee. The worst of it is,
The devotee essays two things: he would apotheosize the object of his adoration and place her as a constellation among the stars; yet he would have her at the same time terrestrial and tangible. When the woman shows herself terrestrial and tangible to others than he, the faith of the devotee is shaken. In fine,
Every lover attempts that impossible task: the realization of the heavenly ideal. Perhaps
It is in aphelion that the corona appears most splendid;
Were perihelion to result is coalescence, perhaps the photosphere would be proved composed of terrestrial vapors. And if it did (as no doubt it would), would it be at all bedimmed? For, to the devout astrologer
Nothing, nothing will ever destroy beauty--and therefore wonder. So,
Bodily beauty, where Love is priestess, is a daedal spur to the loftiest worship.
The lover is ever worshipful. And
Where is worship, nothing can be profane. So
In love there is nor taint nor stain. Therefore,
Make, O youthful lover, the best and most of youth and love: never will either recur.
VI. On Making Love
"Mille modi Veneris"
--Ovid
There are as many ways of making love as there are of making soup. And probably
There are as many kinds of love as there are of flavors. And
Palates--both sentimental and physical--evidently differ widely. And yet,
If you would know the secret of success with women, it is said in a word: Ardor. And
Would ye, O women, know in a word the secret of success with men? It lies in: Responsiveness.
In matters amatory--or rather pre-amatory--feminine tactics are infallible and consummate:
Let no man think to cope with feminine strategy.
A rake has more chance than a ninny.--Which doubtless has been said before.
In love, as in all things, indecision spells ruination. For
There is a curious antagonism between the s.e.xes. They are in a manner foes, not friends. The successful wooer is the captor, the raptor; the bride is the capture, the rapture. (1) And
Even she who is minded to be caught will not spare her huntsman the ardor of the chase, and lightly esteems him who imagines she is to be lightly won.
In the chess-like game of love-making, no woman plays for check-mate: the game interests her too much to bring it to a finish. What pleases her most is stale-mate, where, though the King cannot be captured, the captress can maneuver without end.