CHAPTER II

MORAL INFLUENCE

The good old times—Moral degeneration—Ambition, money—Evil, to be cured homœopathically as in Italy, or allopathically as in Germany?—Virtue, must it necessarily be tiresome?—Raphael’s embarrassment—The antiplatonists—Louise of Savoy, Rabelais—The work of amelioration by two methods. (i) _The softening of virtue_—Different systems in regard to marriage; free union; system of contract; the double marriage—Firenzuola—Marriages of affection—Secondary platonism, a compromise—Alms without significance, to lure the human animal—Sipping at love, by way of Italian dilettantism—The attack—Love a dream—Prayer. (ii) _The ennoblement of vice_—Attempt at purification of carnal love—The Italian courtesans, and their moral influence—Tullia d’Aragona—Imperia—Venice—Francis I.—French system of the double household—Diana of Poitiers—Bembo in tears—Infatuation—The feminising of men—The question of the beard. Pages 325-371