[5] I always come back from Miss Cornel's full of admiration and profound views on the passions laid bare. Her very imperious way of giving orders to her servants has nothing of despotism in it: she merely sees with precision and rapidity what has to be done. Incensed against me at the beginning of the visit, she thinks no more about it at the end. She tells me in detail of the economy of her passion for Mortimer. "I prefer seeing him in company than alone with me." A woman of the greatest genius could do no better, for she has the courage to be perfectly natural and is unhampered by any theory. "I'm happier an actress than the wife of a peer."--A great soul whose friendship I must keep for my enlightenment. [6] Loftiness and courage in small matters, but a passionate care for these small matters.--The vehemence of the choleric temperament.--His behaviour towards Madame de Monaco (Saint-Simon, V. 383) and adventure under the bed of Madame de Montespan while the king was there.--Without the care for small matters, this character would remain invisible to the eye of women. [7] When Minna Troil heard a tale of woe or of romance, it was then her blood rushed to her cheeks and showed plainly how warm it beat, notwithstanding the generally serious, composed and retiring disposition which her countenance and demeanour seemed to exhibit. (_The Pirate_, Chap. III.) Souls like Minna Troil, in whose judgment ordinary circumstances are not worth emotion, by ordinary people are thought cold. [Pg 98] CHAPTER XXIX OF WOMEN'S COURAGE I tell thee, proud Templar, that not in thy fiercest battles hast thou displayed more of thy vaunted courage than has been shewn by women, when called upon to suffer by affection or duty. (_Ivanhoe_.) I remember meeting the following phrase in a book of history: "All the men lost their head: that is the moment when women display an incontestable superiority." Their courage has a reserve which that of their lover wants; he acts as a spur to their sense of worth. They find so much pleasure in being able, in the fire of danger, to dispute the first place for firmness with the man, who often wounds them by the proudness of his protection and his strength, that the vehemence of that enjoyment raises them above any kind of fear, which at the moment is the man's weak point. A man, too, if the same help were given him at the same moment, would show himself superior to everything; for fear never resides in the danger, but in ourselves. Not that I mean to depreciate women's courage--I have seen them, on occasions, superior to the bravest men. Only they must have a man to love. Then they no longer feel except through him; and so the most obvious and personal danger becomes, as it were, a rose to gather in his presence.[1] I have found also in women, who did not love, intrepidity, [Pg 99] the coldest, the most surprising and the most exempt from nerves.