Note 3 — Chapter XLI · OF NATIONS WITH REGARD TO LOVE. FRANCE

At Paris, to get on, you must pay attention to a million little details. None the less there is this very powerful objection. Statistics show many more women who commit suicide from love at Paris than in all the towns of Italy together. This fact gives me great difficulty; I do not know what to say to it for the moment, but it doesn't change my opinion. It may be that our ultra-civilised life is so wearisome, that death seems a small matter to the Frenchman of to-day—or more likely, overwhelmed by the wreck of his vanity, he blows out his brains.