er who suggests, while the seduced plays the part of the
hypnotized, unless the seduction is due to fear, weakness of mind or
good nature. The seducer is no doubt more or less under erotic
influence, but never completely. The seduced, on the contrary, falls
completely under the power of the seducer. The thoughts, sentiments
and will are all directed by the impulses of the seducer. The latter
acquires his ascendancy by means of a kind of suggestive power, often
assisted by the sexual appetite.

In many cases the seduced gives way by pure suggestion of love without
sexual desire. These are precisely the cases that the law does not
foresee, and jurists cannot usually understand. In ordinary life, the
man most often plays the part of seducer or hypnotizer; but this is
not always the case. Antony, who threw himself at the feet of
Cleopatra and obeyed her least gesture, was evidently hypnotized.
Antonys are not rare even at the present day; but they do not
constitute the rule, nor the normal state.

As we have just described it, suggestion plays a great role in love,
and explains to a great extent the phenomena of illusion produced by
amorous intoxication. In spite of the act which deifies it and the
ecstatic happiness that accompanies it, we must admit that amorous
intoxication, with its illusory suggestions uncontrolled by reason,
brings more poison than true happiness into human life. I will attempt
to explain the matter more clearly. When two human beings with loyal
instincts have learned to know each other sufficiently, honestly
avowing their reciprocal feelings and their past life, at the same
time subduing their sensual appetites and judging the latter with
calmness, so as to be convinced that they may reasonably hope to form
a durable and happy union, then only may they abandon themselves to
amorous intoxication, but not before. The fact that the latter makes
each lover appear to the other in the most ideal light only serves to
strengthen the feelings of sympathy and make them last for life.

On the other hand, two egoists calculating coldly, even if they have
strong sexual appetites and trouble themselves very little with
reflections on their intellect, may contract a comparatively happy
marriage, based simply on reciprocal convenience and interest; a
marriage in which amorous intoxication only plays a very small part,
or none at all.

The latter case is of great frequency. The novel which delights in the
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