eel the necessity of
separating.

To sum up: There is more intelligence required to love than is
generally supposed, and to be happy in loving. Up to the moment of the
fatal "yes" or if you prefer, up to the time of her defeat, a woman
does not need artifice to hold her lover. Curiosity excites him,
desire sustains him, hope encourages him. But once he reaches the
summit of his desires, it is for the woman to take as much care to
retain him, as he exhibited to overcome her; the desire to keep him
should render her fertile in expedients; the heart is similar to a
high position, easier to obtain than to keep. Charms are sufficient
to make a man amorous; to render him constant, something more is
necessary; skill is required, a little management, a great deal of
intelligence, and even a touch of ill humor and inequality.
Unfortunately, however, as soon as women have yielded they become too
tender, too complaisant. It would be better for the common good if
they were to resist less in the beginning and more afterward. I
maintain that they never can forestall loathing without leaving the
heart something to wish for, and the time to consider.

I hear them continually complaining that our indifference is always
the fruit of their complaisance for us. They are ever recalling the
time when, goaded by love and sentiment, we spent whole days by their
side. How blind they are! They do not perceive that it is still in
their power to bring us back to an allegiance, the memory of which is
so dear. If they forget what they have already done for us, they will
not be tempted to do more; but if they make us forget, then we shall
become more exacting. Let them awaken our hearts by opposing new
difficulties, arouse our anxieties, in fine, force us to desire new
proofs of an inclination, the certainty of which diminishes the value
in our estimation. They will then find less cause of complaint in us,
and will be better satisfied with themselves.

Shall I frankly avow it? Things would indeed change if women would
remember at the right time, that their role is always that of the
party to be entreated, ours that of him who begs for new favors;
that, created to grant, they should never offer. Reserved, even in an
excess of passion, they should guard against surrendering at
discretion; the lover should always have something to ask, and
consequently, he would be always submissive so as to obtain it. Favors
without limit degrade the most seductive