Loving as he did, in this way, the work of the deliberative will (we have recorded two only of the situations in his tragedies, and we could cite hundreds), Corneille did not love love, a thing that withdraws itself from deliberation, a severe illness, which man discovers in his body, like fire in his house, without having willed it and without knowing how it got there. Sometimes the deliberative will is affected by it and for the moment at least upset, and then we hear the cry of Attila: "_Quel nouveau coup de foudre! O raison confondue, orgueil presque étouffé..._." as he struggles against its enchantments: _"cruel poison de l'âme et doux charme des yeux."_ But as a general rule, he promptly drives it away from him, coldly and scornfully; or he subdues it and employs it as a means and an assistance in far graver matters, such as ambition, politics, the State; or he accepts it for what it contains of useful and worthy, which as such is the object and the fruit of deliberation. "_Ce ne sont pas les sens que mon amour consulte: Il hait des passions l'impétueux tumulte.._.." Certainly, this attitude is intransigent, ascetic and severe: but what of it? "_Un peu de dureté sied bien aux grandes âmes._" Certainly love comes out of it diminished and humiliated: "_D'Amour n'est pas le maître alors qu'on délibère_;" love deserves its fate and almost deserves the gibe: "_La seule politique est ce qui nous émeut; On la suit et l'amour s'y mêle comme il peut: S'il vient on l'applaudit; s'il manque on s'en console..._." It manages as best it can and becomes less powerful and wonderfully ductile beneath this pressure, ready to bend in whatever direction it is commanded to bend by the reason. Sometimes it remains suspended between two persons, like a balance, which awaits the addition of a weight in order to lean over: "..._Ce cœur des deux parts engagé, Se donnant à vous deux ne s'est point partagé, Toujours prêt d'embrasser son service et le vôtre, Toujours prêt à mourir et pour l'un et pour l'autre. Pour n'en adorer qu'une, il eût fallu choisir; Et ce choix eût été au moins quelque désir, Quelque espoir outrageux d'être mieux reçu d'elle ..._." On another occasion, although there might be some inclination or desire, rather toward the one than the other side, it is yet kept secret, beneath the resolve to suffocate it altogether, should reason ordain that love must flow into a contrary channel. Not only are Corneille's personages told to their face: _"Il ne faut plus aimer,"_ an act of renunciation to be asked of a saint, but they are also bidden thus: "_Il faut aimer ailleurs,_" an act worthy of a martyr.