THE INTRODUCTION
To see the subtlety and sureness of judgment with which women grasp
certain details, I am lost in admiration: but a moment later, I see
them praise a blockhead to the skies, let themselves be moved to tears
by a piece of insipidity, or weigh gravely a fatuous affectation, as if
it were a telling characteristic. I cannot conceive such simplicity.
There must be some general law in all this, unknown to me.
Attentive to one merit in a man and absorbed by one detail, women feel
it deeply and have no eyes for the rest. All the nervous fluid is used
up in the enjoyment of this quality: there is none left to see the
others.
I have seen the most remarkable men introduced to very clever women;
it was always a particle of bias which decided the effect of the first
inspection.
If I may be allowed a familiar detail, I shall tell the story how
charming Colonel L. B---- was to be introduced to Madame de Struve of
Koenigsberg--she a most distinguished woman. "_Farà colpo?_"[1]--we
asked each other; and a wager was made as a result. I go up to
Madame de Struve, and tell her the Colonel wears his ties two days
running--the second he turns them--she could notice on his tie the
creases downwards. Nothing more palpably untrue!
As I finish, the dear fellow is announced. The silliest little Parisian
would have made more effect. Observe that Madame de Struve was one who
could love. She is
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also a respectable woman and there could have been no question of
gallantry between them.
Never were two characters more made for each other. People blamed
Madame de Struve for being romantic, and there was nothing could touch
L. B. but virtue carried to the point of the romantic. Thanks to her,
he had a bullet put through him quite young.
It has been given to women admirably to feel the fine shades of
affection, the most imperceptible variations of the human heart, the
lightest movements of susceptibility.
In this regard they have an organ which in us is missing: watch them
nurse the wounded.
But, perhaps, they are equally unable to see what mind consists in--as
a moral composition. I have seen the most distinguished women charmed
with a clever man, who was not myself, and, at the same time and almost
with the same word, admire the biggest fools. I felt caught like a
connoisseur, who sees the loveliest diamonds taken for paste, and paste
preferred for being more massive.
And so I concluded that with women you have to risk everything. Where
General Lassale came to grief, a captain with moustaches and heavy
oaths succeeded.[2] There is surely a whole side in men's merit which
escapes them. For myself, I always come back to physical laws. The
nervous fluid spends itself in men through the brain and in women
through the heart: that is why they are more sensitive. Some great and
obligatory work, within the profession we have followed all our life,
is our consolation, but for them nothing can console but distraction.
Appiani, who only believes in virtue as a last resort, and with whom
this evening I went routing out ideas (exposing meanwhile those of this
chapter) answered:--
"The force of soul, which Eponina used with heroic
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devotion, to keep alive her husband in a cavern underground and to keep
him from sinking into despair, would have helped her to hide from him a
lover, if they had lived at Rome in peace. Strong souls must have their
nourishment."
[1] [Will he impress her?--Tr.]
[2] Posen, 1807.
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