[Pg xv] We have only to make a few additions to Lisio Visconti's list of books already mentioned, in order to have a pretty fair account of the main sources of reference and suggestion, to which Stendhal turned in writing his _De l'Amour_.[13] There are Rousseau's _Nouvelle Héloïse_ and _Émile_. Stendhal holds that, except for very green youth, the _Nouvelle Héloïse_ is unreadable. Yet in spite of its affectation, it remained for him one of the most important works for the study of genuine passion. Then we must add the _Liaisons Dangereuses_--a work which bears certain resemblances to Stendhal's _De l'Amour_. Both are the work of a soldier and both have a soldierly directness; for perfect balance and strength of construction few books have come near the _Liaisons Dangereuses_--none have ever surpassed it. There is the _Princesse de Clèves_ of Madame de Lafayette and _Corinne_ by Madame de Staël, whose typically German and extravagant admiration for Italy touched a weak spot in Stendhal. After Chateaubriand's _Génie du Christianisme_, which Stendhal also refers to more than once, the works of Madame de Staël were, perhaps, the greatest working influence in the rise of Romanticism. What wonder, then, that Stendhal was interested? To the letters of Mlle. de Lespinasse and of the Portuguese Nun we must add the letters of Mirabeau, written during his imprisonment at Vincennes, to Sophie de Monnier. Further, we must add the writings of certain moral teachers whose names occur frequently in the following pages: Helvétius, whom Clarétie[14] amusingly calls the _enfant terrible_ of the philosophers; de Tracy[15]; Volney, author of the once celebrated _Ruines_, traveller and philosopher. These names are only the most important. Stendhal's reading was [Pg xvi] extensive, and we might swell the list with the names of Montesquieu, Condillac, Condorcet, Chamfort, Diderot--to name only the moralists.