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It was obvious that the decadence of this family had followed an unvarying course. The effemination of the males had continued with quickened tempo. As if to conclude the work of long years, the Des Esseintes had intermarried for two centuries, using up, in such consanguineous unions, such strength as remained.
The same feminisation of males that could be noted in the 19th century still applies today. Decadence remains a feminising force.
At the same time, he noticed that the free thinkers, the doctrinaires of the bourgeoisie, people who claimed every liberty that they might stifle the opinions of others, were greedy and shameless puritans whom, in education, he esteemed inferior to the corner shoemaker.
The "decadents" were generally men of means but to a man despised the middle classes. The bourgeoise are always among their targets for scorn.
His contempt for humanity deepened. He reached the conclusion that the world, for the most part, was composed of scoundrels and imbeciles.
I have been in this state of mind when I was in my late 30's. Totally contemptuous of humanity after witnessing so much of the world.
