woman, who has dearly paid for it since, was the cause of the
Franco-German war. On the other hand, France was saved in the fifteenth
century by a sweet peasant girl at a time when King and people had
given up all hope of ever again seeing France a free and independent
nation--but that was a long time ago.

There is no country where the influence of women over men is so great
as France, and the famous phrase 'Cherchez la femme'--'Seek the
woman'--emanated from the lips of the greatest jurisconsult France ever
produced, President Dupin, in the reign of King Louis Philippe. And it
is a fact that among French prisoners who belong to the better classes,
there are ninety-nine out of every hundred who have committed murder,
forgery, embezzlement, theft, for the sake of a woman. The English
people (and the Americans, too, I believe) say that drunkenness is
responsible for the great majority of crimes committed in Great Britain
and America. The expensive ways of French women are responsible for the
majority of crimes and offences committed by men in modern France, as
these expensive ways of women are responsible for their own downfall
nine times out of ten.

On the other hand, a man owes all his best qualities to the influence
of the first woman he has known, his mother. A man will be what his
mother has made him. A man does not learn how to be a gentleman at
school, at college, or at the university. There he may improve his
manner, but his mind is formed at home much earlier than that.

It is woman, and woman alone, that makes society polite. Men together
can talk or chat, but it is only when women join them that they can
_causer_, an equivalent for which the English language does not
possess. And why? Simply because Englishmen do not as a rule care for
the restraint that results from the presence of women.

Thanks to the tact, the brilliancy, and the high intellectual
attainments of American women, one can _causer_ in America, and the
vocabulary of the language used in the United States ought to be richer
by one word, a good equivalent for this French verb which both 'to
talk' and 'to chat' most imperfectly translate; for _causer_ means 'to
chat with wit, humour, brilliancy, and great refinement.'

Chapter III

MAXIMS FOR THE MAN IN LOVE

How to deal with your girl--Avoid catching colds in your head--How
women with humour can be saved.

Never go down on your knees to declare your love; you will spoil