Hints for Lovers | Page 4

mistress her faith in a man, the greater his
in himself. For
A woman's faith in a man works wonders.
* * *
A man to whom a woman cannot look up, she cannot love. Yet,
It is marvelous how a woman contrives to find something to look up to
in a man.

* * *
Many men forget the artistic tendency of the feminine temperament, a
tendency which shows itself in many ways--their love of pretty things,
of pretty ways, and of pretty words. From which three alone we may
deduce the rule that
When with the woman he admires and whose admiration he seeks, a
man cannot be too careful of his dress, his speech, and his manners.
* * *
A believer in Woman is a believer in Good. And vice versa, and
mutatis mutandis.
* * *
Man's standard of value of a woman is usually determined by the scale
of his own emotions. That is to say,
The pedestal upon which a man places a woman (a man always puts a
woman upon a pedestal) is a pedestal erected solely by the effect upon
himself of her charms.
* * *
A man may boast himself invincible by men; never by woman.
* * * The lady-killer is always an object of attraction to ladies, even to
those whom he makes no attempt to slay.
* * *
It may perhaps be a thing as unreasonable as certainly it is indisputable,
that however much wild oats a man may himself sow, he invariably
entertains a very peculiar objection to any woman near or dear to him
entering upon this particular branch of agriculture.
* * *

He is a fool who does not bear himself before his lady-love as a prince
among men.
* * *
Some men are so gallant that they will never be outdone by the woman
who encourages them. But it often leads to strange embarrassments and
entanglements.
* * *
Few things terrify a man more than the knowledge of a woman's ability
to make her emotions--when, if ever, he arrives at it.
* * *
That is a very silly man who thing she can play one woman off against
another. For
In matters of emotional finesse the masculine instance is nowhere: it is
blinded, befogged, befooled at every turn.
Heaven help the man who is dragged into a quarrel between two
wrathful ladies!
* * *
Three things there be--nay, four--which man can never be sure, how a
greatsoever his acumen, his astuteness, or his zeal: a woman; a race
horse; a patent; and the money-market. They defy both faith and fate;
they should be the recreations not the resources of life; and he is a fool
who stakes more than a portion of his substance on any one of them.
* * *
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