Explore "A Night Journey Round my Room" by Xavier De Maistre on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In the course of my life I have observed that when I was in love in the usual way, my feelings never came up to my expectations, and that my imagination was always disappointed.
On considering this matter carefully, I came to the conclusion that, if I could only manage to extend my devotion from the individual, to the whole sex in general, I should thereby obtain fresh pleasure without in any way compromising myself. Who could reproach a man because his heart was large enough to embrace all the loveable women in the world? Yes, Madame, I love them all, and not only those I hope to meet personally, but all on the face of the earth. More than that I love all the women who have ever lived, as well as those yet unborn, without counting the far greater number that my imagination creates out of nothing: in fact every possible woman is included in the vast circle of my affections.