_Maintenon_--That circumstance alone is sufficient to show that he did
not love you with any delicacy. He took you as a possession that was
restored to him, as a booty that he had recovered; and he had not
sentiment enough to care whether he had your heart or not. The heroes of
your age were capable of admiring beauty, and often fought for the
possession of it; but they had not refinement enough to be capable of
any pure, sentimental attachment or delicate passion. Was that period
the triumph of love and gallantry, when a fine woman and a tripod were
placed together for prizes at a wrestling-bout, and the tripod esteemed
the most valuable reward of the two? No; it is our Clélia, our Cassandra
and Princess of Cleves, that have polished mankind and taught them
how to love.

_Helen_--Rather say you have lost sight of nature and passion, between
bombast on one hand and conceit on the other. Shall one of the cold
temperament of France teach a Grecian how to love? Greece, the parent of
fair forms and soft desires, the nurse of poetry, whose soft climate and
tempered skies disposed to every gentler feeling, and tuned the heart to
harmony and love!--was Greece a land of barbarians? But recollect, if
you can, an incident which showed the power of beauty in stronger
colors--that when the grave old counselors of Priam on my appearance
were struck with fond admiration, and could not bring themselves to
blame the cause of a war that had almost ruined their country;--you see
I charmed the old as well as seduced the young.

_Maintenon_--But I, after I was grown old, charmed the young; I was
idolized in a capital where taste, luxury, and magnificence were at the
height; I was celebrated by the greatest wits of my time, and my letters
have been carefully handed down to posterity.