We shall not go so far as to say that platonism exercised undivided sway over the bathers;[225] but to have a place at all was something gained. There is no indication that a much purer virtue reigned north of the Alps among the virtuous races. The goings-on at Baden in Aargau scandalised even Brantôme. A Florentine,[226] who thought life at Florence pleasant enough, has related his impressions at Baden with a naïve stupefaction; he was dumbfounded the very moment he arrived. The beautiful platonism of his own province, flanked always by jealous husbands and _impedimenta_ of all sorts, appeared to him mere food for babes, a phantom, a faded flower, an unsubstantial pageant, beside those Piccadilly manners. But they did not offend him: “Bravo!” he cries, “who wouldn’t be platonic, since Plato preaches the community of women? Here the husbands take everything, absolutely everything, in good part! How wonderfully sensible of them! These Germans don’t rack themselves for suspicions, they enjoy the present.” And then, Florentine as he is, he goes on to describe the charms of Baden with genuine enthusiasm: the handsome streets in which never a sign of infirmity is to be seen (Baden was recommended to childless women); exquisite fine ladies; men in cloth of gold and silver; somewhat exotic beauties sprung from God knows where, attended by a lackey and one or two waiting-maids; here and there a few noble abbesses of reasonable piety.... What a whirl! It is one mad race for pleasure! Serious people who take care of themselves and desire a cure, have two or three baths a day, living like so many ducks. For ordinary folk there are common swimming-baths of wonderful picturesqueness, but every respectable hostel possesses one bath for men, and another for women, with a gallery to which men are admitted in their dressing-gowns. To describe the gaiety that reigns there is impossible. There is chatting and laughter, eating and drinking, dancing in a ring; the gentlemen fling down coins which the fair bathers catch with the tips of their fingers or in their linen chemisettes, with much contortioning and struggling. Sometimes, when the company are on intimate terms, they end by fraternising in a single tank, which is much more amusing, and pleases the physicians, because nothing ensures more conscientious bathing. _Honi soit qui mal y pense!_ In the evening a broad meadow serves as a casino; there is more dancing and singing: and these amusements are mingled with various pastimes such as the game of _balle à grelots_,[227] which leads to all sorts of horse-play. That is Baden. One singular fact is brought out. Platonism was regarded as nothing if not complex and elaborate, and indeed it believed itself to be such; antiplatonism, on the contrary, affected airs of the most complete simplicity: yet whenever the two are confronted, it is platonism that proves the more ingenuous. CHAPTER V INTELLECTUAL RESOURCES