e seraphs of Klopstock,
Terrible as the devils of Milton."
--DIDEROT.

MEDITATION XXIII. OF MANIFESTOES.

The Preliminary precepts, by which science has been enabled at this
point to put weapons into the hand of a husband, are few in number; it
is not of so much importance to know whether he will be vanquished, as
to examine whether he can offer any resistance in the conflict.

Meanwhile, we will set up here certain beacons to light up the arena
where a husband is soon to find himself, in alliance with religion and
law, engaged single-handed in a contest with his wife, who is supported
by her native craft and the whole usages of society as her allies.

LXXXII.
Anything may be expected and anything may be supposed of a woman who
is in love.

LXXXIII.
The actions of a woman who intends to deceive her husband are almost
always the result of study, but never dictated by reason.

LXXXIV.
The greater number of women advance like the fleas, by erratic leaps
and bounds, They owe their escape to the height or depth of their
first ideas, and any interruption of their plans rather favors their
execution. But they operate only within a narrow area which it is easy
for the husband to make still narrower; and if he keeps cool he will end
by extinguishing this piece of living saltpetre.

LXXXV.
A husband should never allow himself to address a single disparaging
remark to his wife, in presence of a third party.

LXXXVI.
The moment a wife decides to break her marriage vow she reckons her
husband as everything or nothing. All defensive operations must start
from this proposition.

LXXXVII.
The life of a woman is either of the head, of the heart, or of passion.
When a woman reaches the age to form an estimate of life, her husband
ought to find out whether the primary cause of her intended infidelity
proceeds from vanity, from sentiment or from temperament. Temperament
may be remedied like disease; sentiment is something in which the
husband may find great opportunities of success; but vanity is
incurable. A woman whose life is of the head may be a terrible scourge.
She combines the faults of a passionate woman with