Читать книгу Essay on Love - Stendhal - Страница 14

Table of Contents

Man is not free to avoid doing that which gives him more pleasure to do than all other possible actions.[1]

Love is like the fever(5), it is born and spends itself without the slightest intervention of the will. That is one of the principal differences between gallant-love and passion-love. And you cannot give yourself credit for the fair qualities in what you really love, any more than for a happy chance.

Further, love is of all ages: observe the passion of Madame du Deffant for the graceless Horace Walpole. A more recent and more pleasing example is perhaps still remembered in Paris.

In proof of great passions I admit only those of their consequences, which are exposed to ridicule: timidity, for example, proves love. I am not speaking of the bashfulness of the enfranchised schoolboy.

[1] As regards crime, it belongs to good education to inspire remorse, which, foreseen, acts as a counterbalance.