DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0288
And lower egypt. 259
telligent in the art of amusing, and not of extin-
guishing the ardour which consumes them, the
same disorder pursues them still into solitude;
sad resources, miserable indemnifications of a pri-
vation, which, under a temperature equally warm
and dry, and to souls all on fire, appears no easy
matter to support.
The men are well aware of these dispositions,
and their jealousy is offended at it. Not only do
they bar all access to the apartments of the women
to every other man ; for that name is not to be
given to the mutilated beings, who have the figure
only ; but they do not permit the introduction of
even inanimate objects which might favour illu-
sion. They know not what it is to repose confi-
dence in the discretion of a wife; they are not
afraid to make sure that those who, under their
roof, pass for the most reserved, may not let slip
opportunities of becoming unfaithful, nor find the
means of satisfying their temperament. The mon-
sters ! They have the presumption to talk of fide-
lity ; their mouth dares to pollute, by pronouncing
it, the name of honour ! Unfaithful to Nature,
whom they serve only by outraging her, they
carry their impudence so far as to pretend to the
most desirable favours of her fairest workman-
ship ! They perceive not, wretches as they are,
that the infidelities of which they complain, are
s z the
telligent in the art of amusing, and not of extin-
guishing the ardour which consumes them, the
same disorder pursues them still into solitude;
sad resources, miserable indemnifications of a pri-
vation, which, under a temperature equally warm
and dry, and to souls all on fire, appears no easy
matter to support.
The men are well aware of these dispositions,
and their jealousy is offended at it. Not only do
they bar all access to the apartments of the women
to every other man ; for that name is not to be
given to the mutilated beings, who have the figure
only ; but they do not permit the introduction of
even inanimate objects which might favour illu-
sion. They know not what it is to repose confi-
dence in the discretion of a wife; they are not
afraid to make sure that those who, under their
roof, pass for the most reserved, may not let slip
opportunities of becoming unfaithful, nor find the
means of satisfying their temperament. The mon-
sters ! They have the presumption to talk of fide-
lity ; their mouth dares to pollute, by pronouncing
it, the name of honour ! Unfaithful to Nature,
whom they serve only by outraging her, they
carry their impudence so far as to pretend to the
most desirable favours of her fairest workman-
ship ! They perceive not, wretches as they are,
that the infidelities of which they complain, are
s z the