in the dictum by saying, `Every woman is (or likes) at heart a
rake.' Both these opinions may be set down as mere
claptrap, witty, but vile.

But a truce to such insults against those who beautify the earth;
_THEIR_ vices cannot excuse ours. It is we who have depraved
them by associating them with excesses which are repugnant to
their delicacy. The contagion, however, has not affected all of
them. Among our `plebeians,' and even among nobility, many women
remind us of the modesty and courage of those ancient republican
matrons, who, so to speak, founded, the manners and morals of
their country; and among all classes of the community there are
thousands who inspire their husbands with generous impulses in
the battle of life, either by cheering words of comfort, or by
that mute eloquence of duties well fulfilled, which nothing can
resist if we are worthy of the name of men. How many a gambler
has been reformed by the tender appeals of a good and devoted
wife. `Venerable women!' one of them exclaims, `in whatever rank
Heaven has placed you, receive my homage.' The gentleness of
your souls smooths down the roughness of ours and checks its
violence. Without your virtues what would we be? Without
YOU, my dear wife, what would have become of me? You
beheld the beginning and the end of the gaming fury in me, which
I now detest; and it is not to me, but to you alone, that the
victory must be ascribed.'[95]


[95] Dusaulx, _De la Passion du Jeu_.