ogue was
prodigious. Whatever it omitted Mlle. de Scudery's _Clelie_, another
novel, equally interminable, equally famous, equally forgotten, supplied.

The latter story which was translated into all polite tongues, Arabic
included, taught love as love had never been taught before. It taught it
as geography is taught to-day, providing for the purpose a Carte du
Tendre, the map of a country in which everything, even to I hate you, was
tenderly said.

A character described it.

The first city at the lower end of the map is New Friendship. Now,
inasmuch as love may be due to esteem, to gratitude, or to
inclination, there are three cities called Tenderness, each situated
on one of three different rivers that are approached by three
distinct routes. In the same manner, therefore, that we speak of
Cumes on the Ionian Sea and Cumes on the Sea of Tyrrhinth, so is
there Tenderness-on-Inclination, Tenderness-on-Esteem, and
Tenderness-on-Gratitude. Yet, as the affection which is due to
inclination needs nothing to complete it, there is no stopping place
on the way from New Friendship there. But to go from New Friendship
to Tenderness-on-Esteem is very different. Along the banks are as
many villages as there are things little and big which create that
esteem of which affection is the flower. From New Friendship the
river flows to a place called Great Wit, because it is there that
esteem generally begins. Beyond are the agreeable hamlets of Pretty
Verses and Billets Doux, after which come the larger towns of
Sincerity, Big Heart, Honesty, Generosity, Respect, Punctuality, and
Kindness. On the other hand, to go from New Friendship to
Tenderness-on-Gratitude, the first place reached is Complaisance,
then come the borough of Submission, and, next, Delicate-Attentions.
From the latter Assiduousness is reached and, finally, Great
Services. This place, probably because there are so few that get
there is the smallest of all. But adjoining it is Obedience and
contiguous is Constancy. That is the most direct route to
Tenderness-on-Gratitude. Yet, as there are no routes in which one may
not lose one's way, so, if, after leaving New Friendship, you went a
little to the right or a little to the left, you would get lost also.
For if, in going from Great Wit, you took to the right, you would
reach Neg