n they should
be taught to fear, but themselves? What could a lover do, if the woman
he attacks were not seduced by her own desires?

So, Marquis, when I say to women that the principal cause of their
weaknesses is physical, I am far from advising them to follow their
inclinations; on the contrary, it is for the purpose of putting them
on their guard in that respect. It is saying to the Governor of the
citadel, that he will not be attacked at the spot which up to then has
been the best fortified; that the most redoubtable assault will not be
made by the besiegers, but that he will be betrayed by his own.

In a word, in reducing to their just value, the sentiments to which
women attach such high and noble ideas; in enlightening them upon the
real object of a lover who pretends to great delicacy and refinement,
do you not see that I am interesting their vanity to draw less glory
out of the fact of being loved, and their hearts to take less pleasure
in loving? Depend upon it, that if it were possible to enlist their
vanity in opposition to their inclination to gallantry, their virtue
would most assuredly suffer very little.

I have had lovers, but none of them deceived me by any illusions. I
could penetrate their motives astonishingly well. I was always
persuaded that if whatever was of value from the standpoint of
intellect and character, was considered as anything among the reasons
that led them to love me, it was only because those qualities
stimulated their vanity. They were amorous of me, because I had a
beautiful figure, and they possessed the desire. So it came about that
they never obtained more than the second place in my heart. I have
always conserved for friendship the deference, the constancy, and the
respect even, which a sentiment so noble, so worthy deserves in an
elevated soul. It has never been possible for me to overcome my
distrust for hearts in which love was the principal actor. This
weakness degraded them in my eyes; I considered them incompetent to
raise their mind up to sentiments of true esteem for a woman for whom
they have felt a desire.

You see, therefore, Marquis, that the precedent I draw from my
principles is far from being dangerous. All that enlightened minds can
find with which to reproach me, will be, perhaps, because I have
taken the trouble to demonstrate a truth which they do not consider
problematic. But does not your inexperience and your curiosity justify
whatever I have writt