* * *

What a paltry thing, after all, is man, man uncomplemented by woman!  Left to himself, he stagnates; linked with a woman, he rises—–­or sinks.  A gentle touch stimulates him, a confiding heart makes of him a new creature.  Under the rays of feminine sympathy, he expands who else would remain inert.  Fame may allure him, friends encourage him, fortune cause him a momentary smile, but only woman makes him; and fame, friends, fortune, all are naught if there be not at his side a sharer of his weal.  A man will strive for fortune, strip himself for friends, scour the earth for fame; but were there no woman in the world to be won, not one of these things would he do.

* * *

III.  On Women

“Ehret die Fanen!” -Schiller

From woman, who e’re she be, there seems to emanate a potency ineffable to man,—­impalpable, invisible, divine.  It lies not in beauty or grace, not even in manner or mein; and it requires neither wiles nor artifice.  It is not the growth of long and intimate acquaintance, for often it acts spontaneously and at once; and neither the woman who possesses it nor the man who succumbs to it can give it a name.  For to say that it consists in the effluence or influence of personality or temperament, of affinity or passion, of sympathy or charm, is to say nothing save that we know not what it is.  All unknown to herself, it wraps its owner round with airs the which to breathe uplifts the spirit, and yet, may be, perturbs the heart, of man.  Even its effects are recondite and obscure.  It allures; but how it allures now man shall tell.  It impels; but to what, does not appear.  It rouses all manner of hopes, stirs sleeping ambition, and desires and aspirations unappeasable; but for what purport or to what end, none stays to inquire .  It incites; sometimes it enthralls.  It innervates; it exhaults.  Under its spell, reason is flung to the winds, and matters of great mundane moment are trivial and of no account:  for it bewilders the wit and snatches the judgment of sane and rational men.  It is most powerful in youth; it is most powerful upon youth; yet some retain it till far on in years, and no age but feels its sway:—­a veiled and mysterious force; sometimes daemonical, often divine:  at once the delight and the despair of man.  After all,

The man who declares he understands women, declares his folly.  For,

If woman were not such a mystery, she would not be such an attraction.  For again,

What is known is ignored. (But woman need have no cause for apprehension.) Besides,

Men may be classified; women never.  This is why

Generalizing in the case of women is useless; since

Woman is a species of which every woman is a variety.  And every man must make up his mind to this, that

Every woman is a study in herself.  However,

If women were comprehensible to men, men and women would be friends, not lovers (But the race is safe).  The simple fact is that