"There are few women abandoned enough to go this length; they all bear in their hearts a certain impression of virtue, naturally engraved on them, which though their education may weaken, it cannot destroy."

— Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (1689-1755)


Date
1721, 1722
Metaphor
"There are few women abandoned enough to go this length; they all bear in their hearts a certain impression of virtue, naturally engraved on them, which though their education may weaken, it cannot destroy."
Metaphor in Context
It is not, Roxana, that I suspect they carry their incroachments upon virtue to such a length as their conduct might lead one to believe; or that they carry their defection to such a horrid excess, that makes one tremble, as really to violate the conjugal vow. There are few women abandoned enough to go this length; they all bear in their hearts a certain impression of virtue, naturally engraved on them, which though their education may weaken, it cannot destroy. Though they may decline the external duties which modesty exacts; yet when about to take the last step, nature returns to their help. Thus when we shut you up closely, when we make you be guarded by so many slaves, when we so strongly restrain your desires when they would range too far; it is not that we fear the least infidelity; but because we know that purity cannot be too great, and that by the least stain it may be polluted.

[Ce n'est pas, Roxane, que je pense qu'elles poussent l'attentat aussi loin qu'une pareille conduite devroit le faire croire, et qu'elles portent la débauche à cet excès horrible, qui fait frémir, de violer absolument la foi conjugale. Il y a bien peu de femmes assez abandonnées pour porter le crime si loin: elles portent toutes dans leur cœur un certain caractère de vertu qui y est gravé, que la naissance donne et que l'éducation affoiblit, mais ne détruit pas. Elles peuvent bien se relâcher des devoirs extérieurs que la pudeur exige; mais, quand il s'agit de faire les derniers pas, la nature se révolte. Aussi, quand nous vous enfermons si étroitement, que nous vous faisons garder par tant d'esclaves, que nous gênons si fort vos désirs lorsqu'ils volent trop loin, ce n'est pas que nous craignions la dernière infidélité, mais c'est que nous savons que la pureté ne sauroit être trop grande, et que la moindre tache peut la corrompre.]
(Letter XXVI, Usbek to Roxana, At the Seraglio At Ispahan.)
Provenance
Searching at OLL
Citation
12 entries in the ESTC for this title (1722, 1730, 1731, 1736, 1751, 1759, 1760, 1762, 1767, 1773, 1775).

The earliest English-language issue is Persian Letters, trans. John Ozell, 2 vols. (London: Printed for J. Tonson, 1722). <Link to ECCO>

Searching The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu, 4 vols. (London: T. Evans, 1777) at Online Library of Liberty <Link to OLL>. French text from Project Gutenberg.
Date of Entry
08/09/2013

The Mind is a Metaphor is authored by Brad Pasanek, Assistant Professor of English, University of Virginia.