A virtuous woman has a fibre more or a fibre less than other women. She is stupid or sublime. Language in the magnificence of its phases has nothing as varied and as eloquent as the correspondence of the eyes and the harmony of smiles. The slave has his vanities; he would prefer to obey only the greatest of despots. Customs are the hypocrisies of nations. It is not enough for a man to be honest; he must appear so. If a man is superstitious he is never thoroughly miserable. A superstition is a hope. Expressionless beauty is an imposture. A lack of taste in dress is a defect inseparable from a false conception of religion. It is more difficult to explain the difference which exists between those who are swell and those who are not than it is for those who are not to efface the difference. If a man is clever he will appear at once to yield to a woman’s whim, and then, while suggesting a reason or two for its non-execution, he will leave to her the right of changing her mind as often as she chooses. A woman who is happy does not go into society. Love is not simply a sentiment; it is an art. Doubt has two faces, of which one turns to the light, and the other to darkness. A husband should never fall asleep first nor wake up last. That expression of peace and serenity, which sculptors give to the faces which are intended to represent Justice and Innocence is a young girl’s greatest charm; if it is assumed, girlhood is dead within her. In the lower classes women are not only superior to men, but, as a rule, govern them completely. To forestall the desires of a lover is a fault in women which few men forgive. The majority of them see but degradation in this celestial flattery. When a love-letter is so well written that it would afford pleasure to any third person who might read it, it emanates most assuredly from the brain, and not from the heart. It takes an old woman to read an old woman’s face. It is easier to be a lover than a husband, for the same reason that it is more difficult to be witty every day than now and then. The woman who has laughed at her husband can love him no longer. A man should be to the woman who loves him a being full of force and greatness, and continually imposing. Households cannot last without despotism. Nations, reflect upon it! A man seldom passes without remorse from the position of confidant to that of rival. When two women could kill each other, and each sees a poisoned dagger in the other’s hand, they present a picture of harmony which is touching and untroubled until one of them accidentally drops her weapon. Study is so motherly and good that it is almost a sin to ask of it other rewards than the pure and sweet delights with which it nourishes its children. We must handle many lamps of Aladdin before we find that the real one is chance, or labor, or genius.