The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 08: Convent Affairs

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Giacomo Casanova. The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Volume 08: Convent Affairs

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

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There is nothing, there can be nothing, dearer to a thinking being than life; yet the voluptuous men, those who try to enjoy it in the best manner, are the men who practise with the greatest perfection the difficult art of shortening life, of driving it fast. They do not mean to make it shorter, for they would like to perpetuate it in the midst of pleasure, but they wish enjoyment to render its course insensible; and they are right, provided they do not fail in fulfilling their duties. Man must not, however, imagine that he has no other duties but those which gratify his senses; he would be greatly mistaken, and he might fall the victim of his own error. I think that my friend Horace made a mistake when he said to Florus:

'Nec metuam quid de me judicet heres, Quod non plura datis inveniet.'

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"My lover himself answers for the fidelity of the gondoliers."

"What a man that lover is! I fancy he must be an old man."

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