Libertinism. This is the habit of giving in to instinct, which leads us to the pleasures of the senses; it neither respects nor defies customs, it is without delicacy, and is justified in its choices only by its inconstancy; it is the midpoint between exquisite pleasure and debauchery; when it is the result of age or temperament, it excludes neither talent nor good character; Julius Caesar and the Maréchal de Saxe, [1] were libertines. When libertinism takes hold of the mind, when it seeks needs more than pleasure, the soul inevitably has no taste for the beautiful, the great, and the upstanding. The table, like love, has its libertinism ; Horace, Chaulieu, [2] Anacreon were libertines in every way they could be; but they put so much philosophy, good taste, and wit into their libertinism , that they could only be pardoned; they even had imitators whom nature destined to be wise men.

1. Maurice, Count of Saxony (1696-1750) had a notable military career in service to several princes, including Louis XV, who named him a Marshall of France in 1743 for his valor in the War of the Austrian succession, and in 1745 bestowed on him the magnificent Chateau de Chambord in the Loire Valley.

2. The reference seems to be to Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu (1639-1720), known for his poetry and his wit at Louis XIV’s court at Versailles, and as a great libertine. See Poésies de Chaulieu, précédées d’une notice biographique et littéraire par M. Lémontey (Paris, 1825).