“Compassionate in temper and liberal by inclination, Zélide is patient only on principle; when she is indulgent and easy, be grateful to her, for it costs her an effort. When she prolongs her civility with people she holds in small esteem, redouble your admiration: she is in torture. Vain at first by nature, her vanity has become boundless; knowledge and scorn of mankind soon perfected that quality. Yet, this vanity is excessive even to her own taste. She already thinks that fame is worth nothing at the cost of happiness, and yet she would make many an effort for fame. “Would you like to know if Zélide is beautiful, or pretty, or merely passable? I can not tell; it all depends on whether one loves her, or on whether she wishes to make herself be loved. She has a beautiful neck, and displays it at some sacrifice to modesty. “Excessively emotional, and not less fastidious, she can not be happy either with or without love. Perceiving herself too sensitive to be happy, she has almost ceased to aspire to happiness and has devoted herself to goodness. She thus escapes repentance and seeks only for diversion. “Can you not guess her secret? Zélide is somewhat sensuous. Emotions too vivid and too intense for her organism, and exaggerated activity without any satisfying object, these are the sources of all her misfortunes. With less sensibility, Zélide would have had the mind of a great man; with less intelligence, she would have been only a weak woman.”