d to marry a blind man? Maybe her love would not
triumph over the difficulty.'

I may tell you that I knew a loving married couple who ceased to love
each other, he because her hair turned white, and she because his
turned outwards.

This is a psychological subject that may well puzzle the best
sociologist.

I have not tried to answer the question, but merely intended to offer
it for discussion.

However, this I will say to my fellow-men: 'I know how truly and deeply
you love your wives and sweethearts, but let me advise you: Don't try
the experiment; don't put your love to so severe a test. Take the
greatest care of the said wives and sweethearts, and see that no
accident happens to them, that no disease disfigures them or
permanently injures their health. This is wisdom.'

CHAPTER XI

MAN VERSUS WOMAN IN LOVE

How many times can a man and a woman love?--They love differently--
A delicate question--'Lucky dog!'--The inexorability of the
virtuous woman.

Man is capable of love as earnestly as woman is; but love is not the
whole business of his life, whereas it is a woman's. When a child, she
loves her doll; when a girl, her mother; when a woman, a man. She can
feed on love and die of it. When a mother, she loves her children; when
she dies, surrounded by beloved grandchildren, she may say that her
life has been well filled.

I believe that a woman can love more than once. I have known widows
remarry, and love their second husbands with the same devotion as their
first.

A man really loves once only. I knew a man under fifty who was married
three times. He was a good and devoted husband to his three wives, but
he never really loved but the second. If he dies suddenly without
having time to take all his precautions, the portrait of his second
wife will be found on his heart.

The reason of this is that men and women love in different ways. A man
loves because his whole being--heart, soul, and body--craves for a
woman. A woman often gives herself to a man because it pleases her to
be loved by him. For a man, love is the pleasure he feels in the
company of a woman; for a woman, it is the enjoyment of the pleasure
she gives to a man. A woman is proud to call herself a reward, and that
is why all heroes appeal to her so much. Mirabeau was the plainest of
men, with his face covered with smallpox marks, yet no man ever made so
many conquests among women. Successful generals, explorers, great