ing the criticism upon the Cid. Could one think this possible, if one did not know it to be true? [Same date.]
Women, Vanity, and Love.—Women are much
more like each other than men; they have, in truth,
but two passions, vanity and love: these are their
universal characteristics. An Agrippina may sacrifice
them to ambition, or a Messalina to lust; but
such instances are rare; and, in general, all they say,
and all they do, tends to the gratification of their
vanity, or their love. He who flatters them most
pleases them best; and they are most in love with
him who they think is the most in love with them.
No adulation is too strong for them; no assiduity
too great; no simulation of passion too gross; as,
on the other hand, the least word or action, that can
possibly be construed into a slight or contempt, is
unpardonable, and never forgotten. Men are, in
this respect, tender, too, and will sooner forgive
an injury than an insult. Some men are more captious
than others; some are always wrongheaded;
but every man living has such a share of vanity, as
to be hurt by marks of slight and contempt. Every
man does not pretend to be a poet, a mathematician,
or a statesman, and considered as such; but every
man pretends to common-sense, and to fill his place
