'_I'd no sooner_,' says one of Congreve's characters, '_play with a man that slighted his ill-fortune, than I'd make love to a woman who undervalued the loss of her reputation_.' In this one sentence is contained the whole secret of profligacy; and profligacy is the same as cynicism, only it is cynicism sensualized.

Now we have in the above sentence the exact counterpart to the words of Antigone that I have already quoted.

For just as her life lay in conformity to '_The unwritten, and the enduring laws of God_,' so does the life of the profligate lie in the violation of them.

To each the existence of laws is equally essential.

For profligacy is not merely the gratification of the appetites, but the gratification of them at the expense of something else.