men, even the most discreet. I know of no man, indeed, who is
wholly resistant to female beauty, and I know of no man, even
among those engaged professionally by aesthetic problems, who
habitually and automatically distinguishes the genuine, from the
imitation. He may doit now and then; he may even preen himself
upon is on unusual discrimination; but given the right woman and
the right stage setting, and he will be deceived almost as readily as a
yokel fresh from the cabbage-field.




10.

The Process of Delusion


Such poor fools, rolling their eyes in appraisement of such meagre
female beauty as is on display in Christendom, bring to their
judgments a capacity but slightly greater than that a cow would
bring to the estimation of epistemologies. They are so unfitted for
the business that they are even unable to agree upon its elements.
Let one such man succumb to the plaster charms of some. prancing
miss, and all his friends will wonder what is the matter with him.
No two are in accord as to which is the most beautiful woman in
their own town or street. Turn six of them loose in millinery shop
or the parlour of a bordello, and there will be no dispute
whatsoever; each will offer the crown of love and beauty to a
different girl.