How to Steer a Man as You Please?

Madam,

1 — Begin with a deep study of the faults a man sees in your sex, and then pretend to do what pleases him.

2 — Physical allure is more capable of attracting men than any other allure, so always be elegant.

3 — Do not talk too much; rather, listen to a man's conversation with a smile of agreement with what he says.

4 — A man accepts advice, but he hates to admit his mistakes... he is by nature vain, and delights to hear expressions of admiration...

5 — A man wants a woman who is beautiful, faithful, modest, and above all attractive...

History abounds with the likes of those men who never for a day suspected the power that weak women held over them, and who placed in them their blind trust. Here is Samson, who discovered too late that his strength had turned to nothing before the cunning and wiles of Delilah. And Helen of Troy — was she not the cause of kindling the fierce war between the Greeks and the Trojans? And Lady Macbeth — was she not the cause of her husband's ruin?

At the end of the eighteenth century, the men of England found no alternative to a law that would protect them from the evil of women, providing that: "Any woman, whatever her age, occupation, or rank, whether single or married, shall from the moment of the issuance of this proclamation be liable to the severest penalties if she seduces one of the men of the royal court and compels him to marry her by means of powders and perfumed scents, or by artificial teeth, medical corsets, and whatever other methods of seduction there may be; and any marriage of this kind shall be dissolved and consequently annulled." Were this law applied in our own day, all marriages would be annulled, and all the beauty houses would go bankrupt!

The great danger comes when a woman acts rashly and sets about reforming her husband and shaping him to her fancy, instead of accepting him with his faults and profiting from his good points. Most women lose the battle when they display their dominance. It is a mistake to let a man believe for a single moment that his wife steers him as she wishes. When a man shows his admiration for a woman's intelligence, does he mean by it that she is a great writer, or a tactful mistress of the house, or a fount of wisdom? On the contrary — he is acknowledging that she knows how to praise him and to make him say "yes" with a smile when he wants to say "no." This is the only merit a free man admires among the merits she may possess in society or at work. So, Madam, if you wish to steer a man, begin with a deep study of the faults a man sees in the other sex — the weaker sex — and then pretend to do what pleases him!

Aristotle says: a man does not fall in love with a woman without being allured by her beauty and her elegance. It is certain that physical allure is more capable of attracting men than any other allure; therefore every woman strives to display the charms nature has bestowed upon her. Men like to go out in the company of elegant women — that gratifies their pride. But this does not mean that a man favors exaggeration in following the fashion. There is nothing that limits men's desire for women