The Kama Sutra - Page 59/585

A man acting according to the inclinations of a girl should try and gain

her over so that she may love him and place her confidence in him. A

man does not succeed either by implicitly following the inclination of a

girl, or by wholly opposing her, and he should therefore adopt a middle

course. He who knows how to make himself beloved by women, as well as to

increase their honour and create confidence in them, this man becomes an

object of their love. But he, who neglects a girl thinking she is too

bashful, is despised by her as a beast ignorant of the working of the

female mind. Moreover, a girl forcibly enjoyed by one who does not

understand the hearts of girls becomes nervous, uneasy, and dejected,

and suddenly begins to hate the man who has taken advantage of her; and

then, when her love is not understood or returned, she sinks into

despondency, and becomes either a hater of mankind altogether, or,

hating her own man, she has recourse to other men.[48]

FOOTNOTE:

[Footnote 48: These last few lines have been exemplified in many ways in

many novels of this century.]