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diff --git a/old/7roch10.txt b/old/7roch10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc6fc48 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7roch10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6012 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reflections; Or Sentences and Moral Maxims +by Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Reflections; Or Sentences and Moral Maxims + +Author: Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld + +Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9105] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORAL MAXIMS *** + + + +{Transcriber's notes: spelling variants are preserved (e.g. labour +instead of labor, criticise instead of criticize, etc.); words that +were italicized appear in all CAPITALS; the translators' comments are +in square brackets [...] as they are in the text; footnotes are indicated +by * and appear in angled brackets <...> immediately following the passage +containing the note (in the text they appear at the bottom of the page); +and, finally, I give corrections and addenda in curly brackets {...}.} + + + +Rochefoucauld + + +"As Rochefoucauld his maxims drew +From Nature--I believe them true. +They argue no corrupted mind +In him; the fault is in mankind."--Swift. + +"Les Maximes de la Rochefoucauld sont des proverbs des +gens d'esprit."--Montesquieu. + +"Maxims are the condensed good sense of nations."--Sir J. +Mackintosh. + +"Translators should not work alone; for good ET PROPRIA VERBA +do not always occur to one mind."--Luther's TABLE TALK, iii. + + + +Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims + +By + +Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld, +Prince de Marsillac. + +Translated from the Editions of 1678 and 1827 with introduction, +notes, and some account of the author and his times. + +By + +J. W. Willis Bund, M.A. LL.B +and +J. Hain Friswell + +Simpson Low, Son, and Marston, +188, Fleet Street. +1871. + + + +{Translators'} Preface. + + +Some apology must be made for an attempt +"to translate the untranslatable." Not- +withstanding there are no less than eight +English translations of La Rochefoucauld, hardly +any are readable, none are free from faults, and all +fail more or less to convey the author's meaning. +Though so often translated, there is not a complete +English edition of the Maxims and Reflections. All +the translations are confined exclusively to the +Maxims, none include the Reflections. This may be +accounted for, from the fact that most of the trans- +lations are taken from the old editions of the +Maxims, in which the Reflections do not appear. +Until M. Suard devoted his attention to the text +of Rochefoucauld, the various editions were but +reprints of the preceding ones, without any regard +to the alterations made by the author in the later +editions published during his life-time. So much +was this the case, that Maxims which had been +rejected by Rochefoucauld in his last edition, were +still retained in the body of the work. To give +but one example, the celebrated Maxim as to the +misfortunes of our friends, was omitted in the last +edition of the book, published in Rochefoucauld's +life-time, yet in every English edition this Maxim +appears in the body of the work. + +M. Aime Martin in 1827 published an edition +of the Maxims and Reflections which has ever since +been the standard text of Rochefoucauld in France. +The Maxims are printed from the edition of 1678, +the last published during the author's life, and the +last which received his corrections. To this edition +were added two Supplements; the first containing +the Maxims which had appeared in the editions of +1665, 1666, and 1675, and which were afterwards +omitted; the second, some additional Maxims +found among various of the author's manuscripts +in the Royal Library at Paris. And a Series of Re- +flections which had been previously published in a +work called "Receuil de pieces d'histoire et de litte- +rature." Paris, 1731. They were first published +with the Maxims in an edition by Gabriel Brotier. + +In an edition of Rochefoucauld entitled "Reflex- +ions, ou Sentences et Maximes Morales, augmentees +de plus deux cent nouvelles Maximes et Maximes +et Pensees diverses suivant les copies Imprimees a +Paris, chez Claude Barbin, et Matre Cramoisy +1692,"* some fifty Maxims were added, ascribed +by the editor to Rochefoucauld, and as his family +allowed them to be published under his name, it +seems probable they were genuine. These fifty +form the third supplement to this book. + +*<In all the French editions this book is spoken of as +published in 1693. The only copy I have seen is in the +Cambridge University Library, 47, 16, 81, and is called +"Reflexions Morales."> + +The apology for the present edition of Rochefou- +cauld must therefore be twofold: firstly, that it is +an attempt to give the public a complete English +edition of Rochefoucauld's works as a moralist. +The body of the work comprises the Maxims +as the author finally left them, the first supple- +ment, those published in former editions, and +rejected by the author in the later; the second, the +unpublished Maxims taken from the author's cor- +respondence and manuscripts, and the third, the +Maxims first published in 1692. While the Re- +flections, in which the thoughts in the Maxims are +extended and elaborated, now appear in English +for the first time. And secondly, that it is an +attempt (to quote the preface of the edition of +1749) "to do the Duc de la Rochefoucauld the +justice to make him speak English." + + + +{Translators'} Introduction + + +The description of the "ancien regime" in +France, "a despotism tempered by epigrams," +like most epigrammatic sentences, contains +some truth, with much fiction. The society of +the last half of the seventeenth, and the whole of the +eighteenth centuries, was doubtless greatly influenced +by the precise and terse mode in which the popular +writers of that date expressed their thoughts. To a +people naturally inclined to think that every possible +view, every conceivable argument, upon a question is +included in a short aphorism, a shrug, and the word +"voila," truths expressed in condensed sentences must +always have a peculiar charm. It is, perhaps, from this +love of epigram, that we find so many eminent +French writers of maxims. Pascal, De Retz, La +Rochefoucauld, La Bruyere, Montesquieu, and Vau- +venargues, each contributed to the rich stock of French +epigrams. No other country can show such a list +of brilliant writers--in England certainly we can- +not. Our most celebrated, Lord Bacon, has, by +his other works, so surpassed his maxims, that their +fame is, to a great measure, obscured. The only +Englishman who could have rivalled La Rochefou- +cauld or La Bruyere was the Earl of Chesterfield, and +he only could have done so from his very inti- +mate connexion with France; but unfortunately his +brilliant genius was spent in the impossible task of +trying to refine a boorish young Briton, in "cutting +blocks with a razor." + +Of all the French epigrammatic writers La Rochefou- +cauld is at once the most widely known, and the most +distinguished. Voltaire, whose opinion on the cen- +tury of Louis XIV. is entitled to the greatest weight, +says, "One of the works that most largely contributed +to form the taste of the nation, and to diffuse a spirit +of justice and precision, is the collection of maxims, +by Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld." + +This Francois, the second Duc de la Rochefoucauld, +Prince de Marsillac, the author of the maxims, was +one of the most illustrious members of the most illus- +trious families among the French noblesse. Descended +from the ancient Dukes of Guienne, the founder of +the Family Fulk or Foucauld, a younger branch of +the House of Lusignan, was at the commencement of +the eleventh century the Seigneur of a small town, +La Roche, in the Angounois. Our chief knowledge of +this feudal lord is drawn from the monkish chronicles. +As the benefactor of the various abbeys and monas- +teries in his province, he is naturally spoken of by +them in terms of eulogy, and in the charter of one of +the abbeys of Angouleme he is called, "vir nobilissimus +Fulcaldus." His territorial power enabled him to +adopt what was then, as is still in Scotland, a com- +mon custom, to prefix the name of his estate to his +surname, and thus to create and transmit to his +descendants the illustrious surname of La Rochefou- +cauld. + +From that time until that great crisis in the history +of the French aristocracy, the Revolution of 1789, the +family of La Rochefoucauld have been, "if not first, in +the very first line" of that most illustrious body. One +Seigneur served under Philip Augustus against Richard +Coeur de Lion, and was made prisoner at the battle +of Gisors. The eighth Seigneur Guy performed a great +tilt at Bordeaux, attended (according to Froissart) to +the Lists by some two hundred of his kindred and +relations. The sixteenth Seigneur Francais was cham- +berlain to Charles VIII. and Louis XII., and stood +at the font as sponsor, giving his name to that last +light of French chivalry, Francis I. In 1515 he was +created a baron, and was afterwards advanced to a +count, on account of his great service to Francis and +his predecessors. + +The second count pushed the family fortune still +further by obtaining a patent as the Prince de Mar- +sillac. His widow, Anne de Polignac, entertained +Charles V. at the family chateau at Verteuil, in so +princely a manner that on leaving Charles observed, +"He had never entered a house so redolent of high +virtue, uprightness, and lordliness as that mansion." + +The third count, after serving with distinction +under the Duke of Guise against the Spaniards, was +made prisoner at St. Quintin, and only regained his +liberty to fall a victim to the "bloody infamy" of St. +Bartholomew. His son, the fourth count, saved with +difficulty from that massacre, after serving with dis- +tinction in the religious wars, was taken prisoner +in a skirmish at St. Yriex la Perche, and murdered +by the Leaguers in cold blood. + +The fifth count, one of the ministers of Louis +XIII., after fighting against the English and Buck- +ingham at the Ile de Re, was created a duke. His +son Francis, the second duke, by his writings has +made the family name a household word. + +The third duke fought in many of the earlier cam- +paigns of Louis XIV. at Torcy, Lille, Cambray, and +was dangerously wounded at the passage of the Rhine. +From his bravery he rose to high favour at Court, and +was appointed Master of the Horse (Grand Veneur) +and Lord Chamberlain. His son, the fourth duke, +commanded the regiment of Navarre, and took part +in storming the village of Neerwinden on the day +when William III. was defeated at Landen. He was +afterwards created Duc de la Rochequyon and Marquis +de Liancourt. + +The fifth duke, banished from Court by Louis XV., +became the friend of the philosopher Voltaire. + +The sixth duke, the friend of Condorcet, was the +last of the long line of noble lords who bore that +distinguished name. In those terrible days of Sep- +tember, 1792, when the French people were proclaim- +ing universal humanity, the duke was seized as an +aristocrat by the mob at Gisors and put to death +behind his own carriage, in which sat his mother and +his wife, at the very place where, some six centuries +previously, his ancestor had been taken prisoner in +a fair fight. A modern writer has spoken of this +murder "as an admirable reprisal upon the grandson +for the writings and conduct of the grandfather." +But M. Sainte Beuve observes as to this, he can see +nothing admirable in the death of the duke, and if it +proves anything, it is only that the grandfather was +not so wrong in his judgment of men as is usually +supposed. + +Francis, the author, was born on the 15th December +1615. M. Sainte Beuve divides his life into four +periods, first, from his birth till he was thirty-five, when +he became mixed up in the war of the Fronde; the +second period, during the progress of that war; the +third, the twelve years that followed, while he re- +covered from his wounds, and wrote his maxims dur- +ing his retirement from society; and the last from +that time till his death. + +In the same way that Herodotus calls each book of +his history by the name of one of the muses, so each +of these four periods of La Rochefoucauld's life may +be associated with the name of a woman who was for +the time his ruling passion. These four ladies are the +Duchesse de Chevreuse, the Duchesse de Longueville, +Madame de Sable, and Madame de La Fayette. + +La Rochefoucauld's early education was neglected; +his father, occupied in the affairs of state, either had +not, or did not devote any time to his education. His +natural talents and his habits of observation soon, +however, supplied all deficiencies. By birth and sta- +tion placed in the best society of the French Court, +he soon became a most finished courtier. Knowing +how precarious Court favour then was, his father, +when young Rochefoucauld was only nine years old, +sent him into the army. He was subsequently at- +tached to the regiment of Auvergne. Though but +sixteen he was present, and took part in the mili- +tary operations at the siege of Cassel. The Court of +Louis XIII. was then ruled imperiously by Richelieu. +The Duke de la Rochefoucauld was strongly opposed +to the Cardinal's party. By joining in the plots of +Gaston of Orleans, he gave Richelieu an opportunity +of ridding Paris of his opposition. When those plots +were discovered, the Duke was sent into a sort of +banishment to Blois. His son, who was then at +Court with him, was, upon the pretext of a liaison +with Mdlle. d'Hautefort, one of the ladies in waiting +on the Queen (Anne of Austria), but in reality to pre- +vent the Duke learning what was passing at Paris, sent +with his father. The result of the exile was Roche- +foucauld's marriage. With the exception that his +wife's name was Mdlle. Vivonne, and that she was +the mother of five sons and three daughters, nothing +is known of her. While Rochefoucauld and his +father were at Blois, the Duchesse de Chevreuse, one +of the beauties of the Court, and the mistress of +Louis, was banished to Tours. She and Rochefou- +cauld met, and soon became intimate, and for a time +she was destined to be the one motive of his actions. +The Duchesse was engaged in a correspondence with +the Court of Spain and the Queen. Into this plot +Rochefoucauld threw himself with all his energy; his +connexion with the Queen brought him back to his +old love Mdlle. d'Hautefort, and led him to her +party, which he afterwards followed. The course he +took shut him off from all chance of Court favour. +The King regarded him with coldness, the Cardinal +with irritation. Although the Bastile and the scaffold, +the fate of Chalais and Montmorency, were before his +eyes, they failed to deter him from plotting. He was +about twenty-three; returning to Paris, he warmly +sided with the Queen. He says in his Memoirs +that the only persons she could then trust were him- +self and Mdlle. d'Hautefort, and it was proposed he +should take both of them from Paris to Brussels. Into +this plan he entered with all his youthful indiscretion, +it being for several reasons the very one he would wish +to adopt, as it would strengthen his influence with +Anne of Austria, place Richelieu and his master in an +uncomfortable position, and save Mdlle. d'Hautefort +from the attentions the King was showing her. + +But Richelieu of course discovered this plot, and +Rochefoucauld was, of course, sent to the Bastile. +He was liberated after a week's imprisonment, but +banished to his chateau at Verteuil. + +The reason for this clemency was that the Cardinal +desired to win Rochefoucauld from the Queen's party. +A command in the army was offered to him, but by +the Queen's orders refused. + +For some three years Rochefoucauld remained at +Verteuil, waiting the time for his reckoning with +Richelieu; speculating on the King's death, and the +favours he would then receive from the Queen. During +this period he was more or less engaged in plotting +against his enemy the Cardinal, and hatching treason +with Cinq Mars and De Thou. + +M. Sainte Beuve says, that unless we study this first +part of Rochefoucauld's life, we shall never under- +stand his maxims. The bitter disappointment of the +passionate love, the high hopes then formed, the deceit +and treachery then witnessed, furnished the real key to +their meaning. The cutting cynicism of the morality +was built on the ruins of that chivalrous ambition and +romantic affection. He saw his friend Cinq Mars +sent to the scaffold, himself betrayed by men whom +he had trusted, and the only reason he could assign +for these actions was intense selfishness. + +Meanwhile, Richelieu died. Rochefoucauld re- +turned to Court, and found Anne of Austria regent, +and Mazarin minister. The Queen's former friends +flocked there in numbers, expecting that now their +time of prosperity had come. They were bitterly dis- +appointed. Mazarin relied on hope instead of grati- +tude, to keep the Queen's adherents on his side. The +most that any received were promises that were never +performed. In after years, doubtless, Rochefoucauld's +recollection of his disappointment led him to write the +maxim: "We promise according to our hopes, we per- +form according to our fears." But he was not even to +receive promises; he asked for the Governorship of +Havre, which was then vacant. He was flatly refused. +Disappointment gave rise to anger, and uniting with +his old flame, the Duchesse de Chevreuse, who had +received the same treatment, and with the Duke of +Beaufort, they formed a conspiracy against the govern- +ment. The plot was, of course, discovered and crushed. +Beaufort was arrested, the Duchesse banished. Irri- +tated and disgusted, Rochefoucauld went with the +Duc d'Enghein, who was then joining the army, on a +campaign, and here he found the one love of his life, +the Duke's sister, Mdme. de Longueville. This lady, +young, beautiful, and accomplished, obtained a great +ascendancy over Rochefoucauld, and was the cause of +his taking the side of Conde in the subsequent civil +war. Rochefoucauld did not stay long with the army. +He was badly wounded at the siege of Mardik, and +returned from thence to Paris. On recovering from +his wounds, the war of the Fronde broke out. This +war is said to have been most ridiculous, as being +carried on without a definite object, a plan, or a +leader. But this description is hardly correct; it was +the struggle of the French nobility against the rule +of the Court; an attempt, the final attempt, to re- +cover their lost influence over the state, and to save +themselves from sinking under the rule of cardinals +and priests. + +With the general history of that war we have +nothing to do; it is far too complicated and too +confused to be stated here. The memoirs of Roche- +foucauld and De Retz will give the details to those +who desire to trace the contests of the factions--the +course of the intrigues. We may confine ourselves to +its progress so far as it relates to the Duc de la Roche- +foucauld. + +On the Cardinal causing the Princes de Conde +and Conti, and the Duc de Longueville, to be +arrested, Rochefoucauld and the Duchess fled into +Normandy. Leaving her at Dieppe, he went into +Poitou, of which province he had some years pre- +viously bought the post of governor. He was there +joined by the Duc de Bouillon, and he and the Duke +marched to, and occupied Bordeaux. Cardinal Ma- +zarin and Marechal de la Meilleraie advanced in force +on Bordeaux, and attacked the town. A bloody +battle followed. Rochefoucauld defended the town +with the greatest bravery, and repulsed the Cardinal. +Notwithstanding the repulse, the burghers of Bor- +deaux were anxious to make peace, and save the city +from destruction. The Parliament of Bordeaux com- +pelled Rochefoucauld to surrender. He did so, and +returned nominally to Poitou, but in reality in secret +to Paris. + +There he found the Queen engaged in trying to +maintain her position by playing off the rival parties +of the Prince Conde and the Cardinal De Retz against +each other. Rochefoucauld eagerly espoused his old +party--that of Conde. In August, 1651, the contend- +ing parties met in the Hall of the Parliament of Paris, +and it was with great difficulty they were prevented +from coming to blows even there. It is even said that +Rochefoucauld had ordered his followers to murder +De Retz. + +Rochefoucauld was soon to undergo a bitter disap- +pointment. While occupied with party strife and +faction in Paris, Madame de Chevreuse left him, +and formed an alliance with the Duc de Nemours. +Rochefoucauld still loved her. It was, probably, +thinking of this that he afterwards wrote, "Jealousy is +born with love, but does not die with it." He endea- +voured to get Madame de Chatillon, the old mistress +of the Duc de Nemours, reinstated in favour, but in +this he did not succeed. The Duc de Nemours was +soon after killed in a duel. The war went on, and +after several indecisive skirmishes, the decisive battle +was fought at Paris, in the Faubourg St. Antoine, +where the Parisians first learnt the use or the abuse +of their favourite defence, the barricade. In this +battle, Rochefoucauld behaved with great bravery. +He was wounded in the head, a wound which for a +time deprived him of his sight. Before he recovered, +the war was over, Louis XIV. had attained his ma- +jority, the gold of Mazarin, the arms of Turenne, had +been successful, the French nobility were vanquished, +the court supremacy established. + +This completed Rochefoucauld's active life. + +When he recovered his health, he devoted himself +to society. Madame de Sable assumed a hold over +him. He lived a quiet life, and occupied himself in +composing an account of his early life, called his +"Memoirs," and his immortal "Maxims." + +From the time he ceased to take part in public life, +Rochefoucauld's real glory began. Having acted the +various parts of soldier, politician, and lover with but +small success, he now commenced the part of moralist, +by which he is known to the world. + +Living in the most brilliant society that France +possessed, famous from his writings, distinguished +from the part he had taken in public affairs, he +formed the centre of one of those remarkable French +literary societies, a society which numbered among its +members La Fontaine, Racine, Boileau. Among his +most attached friends was Madame de La Fayette (the +authoress of the "Princess of Cleeves"), and this friend- +ship continued until his death. He was not, however, +destined to pass away in that gay society without +some troubles. At the passage of the Rhine in 1672 +two of his sons were engaged; the one was killed, +the other severely wounded. Rochefoucauld was +much affected by this, but perhaps still more by the +death of the young Duc de Longueville, who perished +on the same occasion. + +Sainte Beuve says that the cynical book and that +young life were the only fruits of the war of the +Fronde. Madame de Sevigne, who was with him +when he heard the news of the death of so much that +was dear to him, says, "I saw his heart laid bare on that +cruel occasion, and his courage, his merit, his tender- +ness, and good sense surpassed all I ever met with. I +hold his wit and accomplishments as nothing in com- +parison." The combined effect of his wounds and the +gout caused the last years of Rochefoucauld's life to +be spent in great pain. Madame de Sevigne, who +was {with} him continually during his last illness, speaks of +the fortitude with which he bore his sufferings as +something to be admired. Writing to her daughter, +she says, "Believe me, it is not for nothing he has +moralised all his life; he has thought so often on his +last moments that they are nothing new or unfamiliar +to him." + +In his last illness, the great moralist was attended +by the great divine, Bossuet. Whether that match- +less eloquence or his own philosophic calm had, +in spite of his writings, brought him into the state +Madame de Sevigne describes, we know not; but +one, or both, contributed to his passing away in a +manner that did not disgrace a French noble or a +French philosopher. On the 11th March, 1680, he +ended his stormy life in peace after so much strife, a +loyal subject after so much treason. + +One of his friends, Madame Deshoulieres, shortly +before he died sent him an ode on death, which +aptly describes his state-- + "Oui, soyez alors plus ferme, + Que ces vulgaires humains + Qui, pres de leur dernier terme, + De vaines terreurs sont pleins. + En sage que rien n'offense, + Livrez-vous sans resistance + A d'inevitables traits; + Et, d'une demarche egale, + Passez cette onde fatal + Qu'on ne repasse jamais." + +Rochefoucauld left behind him only two works, the +one, Memoirs of his own time, the other the Maxims. +The first described the scenes in which his youth had +been spent, and though written in a lively style, +and giving faithful pictures of the intrigues and the +scandals of the court during Louis XIV.'s minority, +yet, except to the historian, has ceased at the present +day to be of much interest. It forms, perhaps, the +true key to understand the special as opposed to +general application of the maxims. + +Notwithstanding the assertion of Bayle, that "there +are few people so bigoted to antiquity as not to prefer +the Memoirs of La Rochefoucauld to the Commen- +taries of Caesar," or the statement of Voltaire, "that +the Memoirs are universally read and the Maxims are +learnt by heart," few persons at the present day ever +heard of the Memoirs, and the knowledge of most as +to the Maxims is confined to that most celebrated of +all, though omitted from his last edition, "There +is something in the misfortunes of our best friends +which does not wholly displease us." Yet it is +difficult to assign a cause for this; no book is +perhaps oftener unwittingly quoted, none certainly +oftener unblushingly pillaged; upon none have so +many contradictory opinions been given. + +"Few books," says Mr. Hallam, "have been more +highly extolled, or more severely blamed, than the +maxims of the Duke of Rochefoucauld, and that not +only here, but also in France." Rousseau speaks of it +as, "a sad and melancholy book," though he goes on +to say "it is usually so in youth when we do not like +seeing man as he is." Voltaire says of it, in the words +above quoted, "One of the works which most contri- +buted to form the taste of the (French) nation, and +to give it a spirit of justness and precision, was the +collection of the maxims of Francois Duc de la Roche- +foucauld, though there is scarcely more than one +truth running through the book--that 'self-love is the +motive of everything'--yet this thought is presented +under so many varied aspects that it is nearly always +striking. It is not so much a book as it is materials +for ornamenting a book. This little collection was +read with avidity, it taught people to think, and to +comprise their thoughts in a lively, precise, and delicate +turn of expression. This was a merit which, before +him, no one in Europe had attained since the revival +of letters." + +Dr. Johnson speaks of it as "the only book written +by a man of fashion, of which professed authors need +be jealous." + +Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his son, says, +"Till you come to know mankind by your experience, +I know no thing nor no man that can in the mean- +time bring you so well acquainted with them as Le +Duc de la Rochefoucauld. His little book of maxims, +which I would advise you to look into for some +moments at least every day of your life, is, I fear, too +like and too exact a picture of human nature. I own +it seems to degrade it, but yet my experience does not +convince me that it degrades it unjustly." + +Bishop Butler, on the other hand, blames the book +in no measured terms. "There is a strange affecta- +tion," says the bishop, "in some people of explaining +away all particular affection, and representing the +whole life as nothing but one continued exercise +of self-love. Hence arise that surprising confusion +and perplexity in the Epicureans of old, Hobbes, the +author of 'Reflexions Morales,' and the whole set +of writers, of calling actions interested which are +done of the most manifest known interest, merely for +the gratification of a present passion." + +The judgment the reader will be most inclined to +adopt will perhaps be either that of Mr. Hallam, "Con- +cise and energetic in expression, reduced to those +short aphorisms which leave much to the reader's +acuteness and yet save his labour, not often obscure, +and never wearisome, an evident generalisation of +long experience, without pedantry, without method, +without deductive reasonings, yet wearing an appear- +ance at least of profundity; they delight the intelli- +gent though indolent man of the world, and must be +read with some admiration by the philosopher . . . . +yet they bear witness to the contracted observation +and the precipitate inferences which an intercourse +with a single class of society scarcely fails to generate." +Or that of Addison, who speaks of Rochefoucauld +"as the great philosopher for administering consola- +tion to the idle, the curious, and the worthless part of +mankind." + +We are fortunately in possession of materials such +as rarely exist to enable us to form a judgment of +Rochefoucauld's character. We have, with a vanity +that could only exist in a Frenchman, a description +or portrait of himself, of his own painting, and one of +those inimitable living sketches in which his great +enemy, Cardinal De Retz, makes all the chief actors in +the court of the regency of Anne of Austria pass +across the stage before us. + +We will first look on the portrait Rochefoucauld has +left us of himself: "I am," says he, "of a medium height, +active, and well-proportioned. My complexion dark, +but uniform, a high forehead; and of moderate height, +black eyes, small, deep set, eyebrows black and thick +but well placed. I am rather embarrassed in talking of +my nose, for it is neither flat nor aquiline, nor large; +nor pointed: but I believe, as far as I can say, it is too +large than too small, and comes down just a trifle too +low. I have a large mouth, lips generally red enough, +neither shaped well nor badly. I have white teeth, +and fairly even. I have been told I have a little too +much chin. I have just looked at myself in the +glass to ascertain the fact, and I do not know how to +decide. As to the shape of my face, it is either +square or oval, but which I should find it very diffi- +cult to say. I have black hair, which curls by nature, +and thick and long enough to entitle me to lay claim +to a fine head. I have in my countenance somewhat +of grief and pride, which gives many people an +idea I despise them, although I am not at all given to +do so. My gestures are very free, rather inclined to +be too much so, for in speaking they make me use too +much action. Such, candidly, I believe I am in out- +ward appearance, and I believe it will be found that +what I have said above of myself is not far from +the real case. I shall use the same truthfulness in +the remainder of my picture, for I have studied my- +self sufficiently to know myself well; and I will lack +neither boldness to speak as freely as I can of my +good qualities, nor sincerity to freely avow that I +have faults. + +"In the first place, to speak of my temper. I am +melancholy, and I have hardly been seen for the last +three or four years to laugh above three or four times. +It seems to me that my melancholy would be even +endurable and pleasant if I had none but what be- +longed to me constitutionally; but it arises from so +many other causes, fills my imagination in such a +way, and possesses my mind so strongly that for the +greater part of my time I remain without speaking a +word, or give no meaning to what I say. I am ex- +tremely reserved to those I do not know, and I am +not very open with the greater part of those I do. It +is a fault I know well, and I should neglect no means +to correct myself of it; but as a certain gloomy air +I have tends to make me seem more reserved than +I am in fact, and as it is not in our power to rid +ourselves of a bad expression that arises from a natu- +ral conformation of features, I think that even when +I have cured myself internally, externally some bad +expression will always remain. + +"I have ability. I have no hesitation in saying it, +as for what purpose should I pretend otherwise. So +great circumvention, and so great depreciation, in +speaking of the gifts one has, seems to me to hide a +little vanity under an apparent modesty, and craftily +to try to make others believe in greater virtues than +are imputed to us. On my part I am content not to +be considered better-looking than I am, nor of a bet- +ter temper than I describe, nor more witty and clever +than I am. Once more, I have ability, but a mind +spoilt by melancholy, for though I know my own +language tolerably well, and have a good memory, a +mode of thought not particularly confused, I yet have +so great a mixture of discontent that I often say what +I have to say very badly. + +"The conversation of gentlemen is one of the plea- +sures that most amuses me. I like it to be serious +and morality to form the substance of it. Yet I +also know how to enjoy it when trifling; and if I do +not make many witty speeches, it is not because I do +not appreciate the value of trifles well said, and that +I do not find great amusement in that manner of rail- +lery in which certain prompt and ready-witted per- +sons excel so well. I write well in prose; I do well +in verse; and if I was envious of the glory that +springs from that quarter, I think with a little labour +I could acquire some reputation. I like reading, in +general; but that in which one finds something to +polish the wit and strengthen the soul is what I like +best. But, above all, I have the greatest pleasure in +reading with an intelligent person, for then we reflect +constantly upon what we read, and the observations +we make form the most pleasant and useful form of +conversation there is. + +"I am a fair critic of the works in verse and prose +that are shown me; but perhaps I speak my opinion +with almost too great freedom. Another fault in +me is that I have sometimes a spirit of delicacy far +too scrupulous, and a spirit of criticism far too severe. +I do not dislike an argument, and I often of my own +free will engage in one; but I generally back my +opinion with too much warmth, and sometimes, when +the wrong side is advocated against me, from the +strength of my zeal for reason, I become a little un- +reasonable myself. + +"I have virtuous sentiments, good inclinations, and +so strong a desire to be a wholly good man that my +friend cannot afford me a greater pleasure than can- +didly to show me my faults. Those who know me +most intimately, and those who have the goodness +sometimes to give me the above advice, know that I +always receive it with all the joy that could be ex- +pected, and with all reverence of mind that could be +desired. + +"I have all the passions pretty mildly, and pretty +well under control. I am hardly ever seen in a rage, +and I never hated any one. I am not, however, in- +capable of avenging myself if I have been offended, +or if my honour demanded I should resent an insult +put upon me; on the contrary, I feel clear that duty +would so well discharge the office of hatred in me +that I should follow my revenge with even greater +keenness than other people. + +"Ambition does not weary me. I fear but few +things, and I do not fear death in the least. I am but +little given to pity, and I could wish I was not so at +all. Though there is nothing I would not do to com- +fort an afflicted person, and I really believe that one +should do all one can to show great sympathy to him +for his misfortune, for miserable people are so foolish +that this does them the greatest good in the world; +yet I also hold that we should be content with ex- +pressing sympathy, and carefully avoid having any. +It is a passion that is wholly worthless in a well-regu- +lated mind, which only serves to weaken the heart, +and which should be left to ordinary persons, who, as +they never do anything from reason, have need of +passions to stimulate their actions. + +"I love my friends; and I love them to such an +extent that I would not for a moment weigh my +interest against theirs. I condescend to them, I +patiently endure their bad temper. But, also, I do +not make much of their caresses, and I do not feel +great uneasiness in their absence. + +"Naturally, I have but little curiosity about the +majority of things that stir up curiosity in other men. +I am very secret, and I have less difficulty than most +men in holding my tongue as to what is told me in +confidence. I am most particular as to my word, and +I would never fail, whatever might be the conse- +quence, to do what I had promised; and I have made +this an inflexible law during the whole of my life. + +"I keep the most punctilious civility to women. I +do not believe I have ever said anything before them +which could cause them annoyance. When their +intellect is cultivated, I prefer their society to that of +men: one there finds a mildness one does not meet +with among ourselves, and it seems to me beyond this +that they express themselves with more neatness, and +give a more agreeable turn to the things they talk +about. As for flirtation, I formerly indulged in a little, +now I shall do so no more, though I am still young. +I have renounced all flirtation, and I am simply +astonished that there are still so many sensible people +who can occupy their time with it. + +"I wholly approve of real loves; they indicate great- +ness of soul, and although, in the uneasiness they give +rise to, there is a something contrary to strict wisdom, +they fit in so well with the most severe virtue, that I +believe they cannot be censured with justice. To me +who have known all that is fine and grand in the lofty +aspirations of love, if I ever fall in love, it will as- +suredly be in love of that nature. But in accordance +with the present turn of my mind, I do not believe +that the knowledge I have of it will ever change from +my mind to my heart." + +Such is his own description of himself. Let us +now turn to the other picture, delineated by the man +who was his bitterest enemy, and whom (we say it +with regret) Rochefoucauld tried to murder. + +Cardinal De Retz thus paints him:-- +"In M. de la Rochefoucauld there was ever an +indescribable something. From his infancy he always +wanted to be mixed up with plots, at a time when he +could not understand even the smallest interests (which +has indeed never been his weak point,) or comprehend +greater ones, which in another sense has never been +his strong point. He was never fitted for any matter, +and I really cannot tell the reason. His glance was +not sufficiently wide, and he could not take in at once +all that lay in his sight, but his good sense, perfect in +theories, combined with his gentleness, his winning +ways, his pleasing manners, which are perfect, should +more than compensate for his lack of penetration. +He always had a natural irresoluteness, but I cannot +say to what this irresolution is to be attributed. It +could not arise in him from the wealth of his imagina- +tion, for that was anything but lively. I cannot put +it down to the barrenness of his judgment, for, +although he was not prompt in action, he had a good +store of reason. We see the effects of this irresolution, +although we cannot assign a cause for it. He was +never a general, though a great soldier; never, na- +turally, a good courtier, although he had always a good +idea of being so. He was never a good partizan, +although all his life engaged in intrigues. That air +of pride and timidity which your see in his private +life, is turned in business into an apologetic manner. +He always believed he had need of it; and this, com- +bined with his 'Maxims,' which show little faith in +virtue, and his habitual custom, to give up matters +with the same haste he undertook them, leads +me to the conclusion that he would have done far +better to have known his own mind, and have passed +himself off, as he could have done, for the most +polished courtier, the most agreeable man in private +life that had appeared in his century." + +It is but justice to the Cardinal to say, that the +Duc is not painted in such dark colours as we should +have expected, judging from what we know of the +character of De Retz. With his marvellous power of +depicting character, a power unrivalled, except by St. +Simon and perhaps by Lord Clarendon, we should +have expected the malignity of the priest would have +stamped the features of his great enemy with the +impress of infamy, and not have simply made him +appear a courtier, weak, insincere, and nothing more. +Though rather beyond our subject, the character of +Cardinal de Retz, as delineated by Mdme. Sevigne, in +one of her letters, will help us to form a true conclu- +sion on the different characters of the Duc and the +Cardinal. She says:-- +"Paul de Gondi Cardinal de Retz possesses great +elevation of character, a certain extent of intellect, and +more of the ostentation than of the true greatness of +courage. He has an extraordinary memory, more +energy than polish in his words, an easy humour, +docility of character, and weakness in submitting to +the complaints and reproaches of his friends, a little +piety, some appearances of religion. He appears +ambitious without being really so. Vanity and those +who have guided him, have made him undertake great +things, almost all opposed to his profession. He ex- +cited the greatest troubles in the State without any +design of turning them to account, and far from +declaring himself the enemy of Cardinal Mazarin +with any view of occupying his place, he thought of +nothing but making himself an object of dread to +him, and flattering himself with the false vanity of +being his rival. He was clever enough, however, to +take advantage of the public calamities to get himself +made Cardinal. He endured his imprisonment with +firmness, and owed his liberty solely to his own +daring. In the obscurity of a life of wandering and +concealment, his indolence for many years supported +him with reputation. He preserved the Archbishopric +of Paris against the power of Cardinal Mazarin, but +after the death of that minister, he resigned it without +knowing what he was doing, and without making use +of the opportunity to promote the interests of him- +self and his friends. He has taken part in several +conclaves, and his conduct has always increased his +reputation. + +"His natural bent is to indolence, nevertheless he +labours with activity in pressing business, and reposes +with indifference when it is concluded. He has great +presence of mind, and knows so well how to turn it to +his own advantage on all occasions presented him by +fortune, that it would seem as if he had foreseen and +desired them. He loves to narrate, and seeks to +dazzle all his listeners indifferently by his extraor- +dinary adventures, and his imagination often supplies +him with more than his memory. The generality of +his qualities are false, and what has most contributed +to his reputation is his power of throwing a good light +on his faults. He is insensible alike to hatred and to +friendship, whatever pains he may be at to appear +taken up with the one or the other. He is incapable +of envy or avarice, whether from virtue or from care- +lessness. He has borrowed more from his friends +than a private person could ever hope to be able to +repay; he has felt the vanity of acquiring so much on +credit, and of undertaking to discharge it. He has +neither taste nor refinement; he is amused by every- +thing and pleased by nothing. He avoids difficult +matters with considerable address, not allowing people +to penetrate the slight acquaintance he has with every- +thing. The retreat he has just made from the world +is the most brilliant and the most unreal action of his +life; it is a sacrifice he has made to his pride under +the pretence of devotion; he quits the court to which +he cannot attach himself, and retires from a world +which is retiring from him." + +The Maxims were first published in 1665, with a +preface by Segrais. This preface was omitted in the +subsequent editions. The first edition contained +316 maxims, counting the last upon death, which +was not numbered. The second in 1666 contained +only 102; the third in 1671, and the fourth in +1675, 413. In this last edition we first meet with +the introductory maxim, "Our virtues are gene- +rally but disguised vices." The edition of 1678, +the fifth, increased the number to 504. This was +the last edition revised by the author, and pub- +lished in his lifetime. The text of that edition has +been used for the present translation. The next +edition, the sixth, was published in 1693, about +thirteen years after the author's death. This edition +included fifty new maxims, attributed by the editor +to Rochefoucauld. Most likely they were his writing, +as the fact was never denied by his family, through +whose permission they were published. They form +the third supplement to the translation. This sixth +edition was published by Claude Barbin, and the +French editions since that time have been too nu- +merous to be enumerated. The great popularity of +the Maxims is perhaps best shown from the numerous +translations that have been made of them. No less +than eight English translations, or so-called transla- +tions, have appeared; one American, a Swedish, and +a Spanish translation, an Italian imitation, with +parallel passages, and an English imitation by Hazlitt. +The titles of the English editions are as follows:-- +i. Seneca Unmasked. By Mrs. Aphara Behn. Lon- + don, 1689. She calls the author the Duke of + Rushfucave. +ii. Moral Maxims and Reflections, in four parts. By + the Duke de la Rochefoucauld. Now made + English. London, 1694. 12 mo. +iii. Moral Maxims and Reflections of the Duke de + la Rochefoucauld. Newly made English. Lon- + don, 1706. 12 mo. +iv. Moral Maxims of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld. + Translated from the French. With notes. Lon- + don, 1749. 12 mo. +v. Maxims and Moral Reflections of the Duke de la + Rochefoucauld. Revised and improved. London, + 1775. 8 vo. +vi. Maxims and Moral Reflections of the Duke de la + Rochefoucauld. A new edition, revised and im- + proved, by L. D. London, 1781. 8 vo. +vii. The Gentleman's Library. La Rochefoucauld's + Maxims and Moral Reflections. London, 1813. + 12 mo. +viii.Moral Reflections, Sentences, and Maxims of + the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, newly translated + from the French; with an introduction and notes. + London, 1850. 16 mo. +ix. Maxims and Moral Reflections of the Duke de la + Rochefoucauld: with a Memoir by the Chevalier + de Chatelain. London, 1868. 12 mo. + +The perusal of the Maxims will suggest to every +reader to a greater or less degree, in accordance with +the extent of his reading, parallel passages, and simi- +lar ideas. Of ancient writers Rochefoucauld most +strongly reminds us of Tacitus; of modern writers, Ju- +nius most strongly reminds us of Rochefoucauld. Some +examples from both are given in the notes to this trans- +lation. It is curious to see how the expressions of the +bitterest writer of English political satire to a great ex- +tent express the same ideas as the great French satirist +of private life. Had space permitted the parallel +could have been drawn very closely, and much of the +invective of Junius traced to its source in Rochefou- +cauld. + +One of the persons whom Rochefoucauld patronised +and protected, was the great French fabulist, La +Fontaine. This patronage was repaid by La Fontaine +giving, in one of his fables, "L'Homme et son Image," +an elaborate defence of his patron. After there depict- +ing a man who fancied himself one of the most lovely +in the world, and who complained he always found +all mirrors untrustworthy, at last discovered his real +image reflected in the water. He thus applies his +fable:-- +"Je parle a tous: et cette erreur extreme, +Est un mal que chacun se plait d'entretenir, +Notre ame, c'est cet homme amoureux de lui meme, +Tant de miroirs, ce sont les sottises d'autrui. +Miroirs, de nos defauts les peintres legitimes, +Et quant au canal, c'est celui +Qui chacun sait, le livre des MAXIMES." + +It is just this: the book is a mirror in which we +all see ourselves. This has made it so unpopular. It +is too true. We dislike to be told of our faults, +while we only like to be told of our neighbour's. +Notwithstanding Rousseau's assertion, it is young +men, who, before they know their own faults +and only know their neighbours', that read and tho- +roughly appreciate Rochefoucauld. + +After so many varied opinions he then pleases us more +and seems far truer than he is in reality, it is impossible +to give any general conclusion of such distinguished +writers on the subject. Each reader will form his own +opinion of the merits of the author and his book. To +some, both will seem deserving of the highest praise; to +others both will seem deserving of the highest censure. +The truest judgment as to the author will be found in +the remarks of a countryman of his own, as to the +book in the remarks of a countryman of ours. + +As to the author, M. Sainte Beuve says:--"C'etait un +misanthrope poli, insinuant, souriant, qui precedait +de bien peu et preparait avec charme l'autre MISAN- +THROPE." + +As to the book, Mr. Hallam says:--"Among the +books in ancient and modern times which record the +conclusions of observing men on the moral qualities +of their fellows, a high place should be reserved for +the Maxims of Rochefoucauld". + + + +REFLECTIONS; OR, SENTENCES AND MORAL MAXIMS + + +Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised. + +[This epigraph which is the key to the system +of La Rochefoucauld, is found in another form +as No. 179 of the maxims of the first edition, 1665, it is +omitted from the 2nd and 3rd, and reappears for the first +time in the 4th edition, in 1675, as at present, at the head +of the Reflections.--AIME MARTIN. Its best answer is ar- +rived at by reversing the predicate and the subject, and +you at once form a contradictory maxim equally true, our +vices are most frequently but virtues disguised.] + +1.--What we term virtue is often but a mass of +various actions and divers interests, which fortune, or +our own industry, manage to arrange; and it is not +always from valour or from chastity that men are +brave, and women chaste. + +"Who combats bravely is not therefore brave, +He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave; +Who reasons wisely is not therefore wise, +His pride in reasoning, not in acting, lies." + Pope, MORAL ESSAYS, Ep. i. line 115. + +2.--Self-love is the greatest of flatterers. + +3.--Whatever discoveries have been made in the +region of self-love, there remain many unexplored ter- +ritories there. + +[This is the first hint of the system the author tries to +develope. He wishes to find in vice a motive for all our +actions, but this does not suffice him; he is obliged to call +other passions to the help of his system and to confound +pride, vanity, interest and egotism with self love. This +confusion destroys the unity of his principle.--AIME +MARTIN.] + +4.--Self love is more cunning than the most cunning +man in the world. + +5.--The duration of our passions is no more de- +pendant upon us than the duration of our life. +[Then what becomes of free will?--AIME MARTIN] + +6.--Passion often renders the most clever man a +fool, and even sometimes renders the most foolish man +clever. + +7.--Great and striking actions which dazzle the +eyes are represented by politicians as the effect of +great designs, instead of which they are commonly +caused by the temper and the passions. Thus the war +between Augustus and Anthony, which is set down to +the ambition they entertained of making themselves +masters of the world, was probably but an effect of +jealousy. + +8.--The passions are the only advocates which +always persuade. They are a natural art, the rules +of which are infallible; and the simplest man with +passion will be more persuasive than the most eloquent +without. + +[See Maxim 249 which is an illustration of this.] + +9.--The passions possess a certain injustice and +self interest which makes it dangerous to follow them, +and in reality we should distrust them even when +they appear most trustworthy. + +10.--In the human heart there is a perpetual gene- +ration of passions; so that the ruin of one is almost +always the foundation of another. + +11.--Passions often produce their contraries: ava- +rice sometimes leads to prodigality, and prodigality to +avarice; we are often obstinate through weakness +and daring though timidity. + +12.--Whatever care we take to conceal our pas- +sions under the appearances of piety and honour, they +are always to be seen through these veils. + +[The 1st edition, 1665, preserves the image perhaps +better--"however we may conceal our passions under the +veil, etc., there is always some place where they peep out."] + +13.--Our self love endures more impatiently the +condemnation of our tastes than of our opinions. + +14.--Men are not only prone to forget benefits and +injuries; they even hate those who have obliged them, +and cease to hate those who have injured them. The +necessity of revenging an injury or of recompensing +a benefit seems a slavery to which they are unwilling +to submit. + +15.--The clemency of Princes is often but policy +to win the affections of the people. + +["So many are the advantages which monarchs gain by +clemency, so greatly does it raise their fame and endear +them to their subjects, that it is generally happy for them +to have an opportunity of displaying it."--Montesquieu, +ESPRIT DES LOIS, LIB. VI., C. 21.] + +16.--This clemency of which they make a merit, +arises oftentimes from vanity, sometimes from idle- +ness, oftentimes from fear, and almost always from all +three combined. + +[La Rochefoucauld is content to paint the age in which +he lived. Here the clemency spoken of is nothing more +than an expression of the policy of Anne of Austria. +Rochefoucauld had sacrificed all to her; even the favour +of Cardinal Richelieu, but when she became regent she be- +stowed her favours upon those she hated; her friends were +forgotten.--AIME MARTIN. The reader will hereby see +that the age in which the writer lived best interprets his +maxims.] + +17.--The moderation of those who are happy arises +from the calm which good fortune bestows upon their +temper. + +18.--Moderation is caused by the fear of exciting +the envy and contempt which those merit who are +intoxicated with their good fortune; it is a vain dis- +play of our strength of mind, and in short the mo- +deration of men at their greatest height is only a +desire to appear greater than their fortune. + +19.--We have all sufficient strength to support the +misfortunes of others. + +[The strongest example of this is the passage in Lucre- +tius, lib. ii., line I:-- + "Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis + E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem."] + +20.--The constancy of the wise is only the talent of +concealing the agitation of their hearts. + +[Thus wisdom is only hypocrisy, says a commentator. +This definition of constancy is a result of maxim 18.] + +21.--Those who are condemned to death affect some- +times a constancy and contempt for death which is +only the fear of facing it; so that one may say that +this constancy and contempt are to their mind what +the bandage is to their eyes. + +[See this thought elaborated in maxim 504.] + +22.--Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and +future evils; but present evils triumph over it. + +23.--Few people know death, we only endure it, +usually from determination, and even from stupidity +and custom; and most men only die because they +know not how to prevent dying. + +24.--When great men permit themselves to be cast +down by the continuance of misfortune, they show +us that they were only sustained by ambition, and not +by their mind; so that PLUS a great vanity, heroes +are made like other men. + +[Both these maxims have been rewritten and made +conciser by the author; the variations are not worth +quoting.] + +25.--We need greater virtues to sustain good than +evil fortune. + +["Prosperity do{th} best discover vice, but adversity do{th} +best discover virtue."--Lord Bacon, ESSAYS{, (1625), "Of +Adversity"}.] + +{The quotation wrongly had "does" for "doth".} + +26.--Neither the sun nor death can be looked at +without winking. + +27.--People are often vain of their passions, even +of the worst, but envy is a passion so timid and +shame-faced that no one ever dare avow her. + +28.--Jealousy is in a manner just and reasonable, +as it tends to preserve a good which belongs, or +which we believe belongs to us, on the other hand +envy is a fury which cannot endure the happiness of +others. + +29.--The evil that we do does not attract to us so +much persecution and hatred as our good qualities. + +30.--We have more strength than will; and it is +often merely for an excuse we say things are impos- +sible. + +31.--If we had no faults we should not take so much +pleasure in noting those of others. + +32.--Jealousy lives upon doubt; and comes to an +end or becomes a fury as soon as it passes from +doubt to certainty. + +33.--Pride indemnifies itself and loses nothing even +when it casts away vanity. + +[See maxim 450, where the author states, what we take +from our other faults we add to our pride.] + +34.--If we had no pride we should not complain of +that of others. + +["The proud are ever most provoked by pride."-Cow- +per, CONVERSATION 160.] + +35.--Pride is much the same in all men, the only +difference is the method and manner of showing it. + +["Pride bestowed on all a common friend."--Pope, +ESSAY ON MAN, Ep. ii., line 273.] + +36.--It would seem that nature, which has so wisely +ordered the organs of our body for our happiness, has +also given us pride to spare us the mortification of +knowing our imperfections. + +37.--Pride has a larger part than goodness in our +remonstrances with those who commit faults, and we +reprove them not so much to correct as to persuade +them that we ourselves are free from faults. + +38.--We promise according to our hopes; we per- +form according to our fears. + +["The reason why the Cardinal (Mazarin) deferred so long +to grant the favours he had promised, was because he was +persuaded that hope was much more capable of keeping +men to their duty than gratitude."--FRAGMENTS HISTORIQUES. +RACINE.] + +39.--Interest speaks all sorts of tongues and plays +all sorts of characters; even that of disinterestedness. + +40.--Interest blinds some and makes some see. + +41.--Those who apply themselves too closely to +little things often become incapable of great things. + +42.--We have not enough strength to follow all our +reason. + +43.--A man often believes himself leader when he +is led; as his mind endeavours to reach one goal, his +heart insensibly drags him towards another. + + +44.--Strength and weakness of mind are mis-named; +they are really only the good or happy arrangement of +our bodily organs. + +45.--The caprice of our temper is even more whim- +sical than that of Fortune. + +46.--The attachment or indifference which philoso- +phers have shown to life is only the style of their self +love, about which we can no more dispute than of that +of the palate or of the choice of colours. + +47.--Our temper sets a price upon every gift that +we receive from fortune. + +48.--Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things +themselves; we are happy from possessing what we +like, not from possessing what others like. + +49.--We are never so happy or so unhappy as we +suppose. + +50.--Those who think they have merit persuade +themselves that they are honoured by being unhappy, +in order to persuade others and themselves that they +are worthy to be the butt of fortune. + +["Ambition has been so strong as to make very miserable +men take comfort that they were supreme in misery; and +certain it is{, that where} we cannot distinguish ourselves by some- +thing excellent, we begin to take a complacency in some +singular infirmities, follies, or defects of one kind or other." +--Burke, {ON THE SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL, (1756), Part I, Sect. XVII}.] + +{The translators' incorrectly cite SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH +AMERICA. Also, Burke does not actually write "Ambition has been...", +he writes "It has been..." when speaking of ambition.} + +51.--Nothing should so much diminish the satisfac- +tion which we feel with ourselves as seeing that we +disapprove at one time of that which we approve of +at another. + +52.--Whatever difference there appears in our for- +tunes, there is nevertheless a certain compensation of +good and evil which renders them equal. + +53.--Whatever great advantages nature may give, +it is not she alone, but fortune also that makes the +hero. + +54.--The contempt of riches in philosophers was +only a hidden desire to avenge their merit upon the +injustice of fortune, by despising the very goods of +which fortune had deprived them; it was a secret to +guard themselves against the degradation of poverty, +it was a back way by which to arrive at that distinc- +tion which they could not gain by riches. + +["It is always easy as well as agreeable for the inferior +ranks of mankind to claim merit from the contempt of that +pomp and pleasure which fortune has placed beyond their +reach. The virtue of the primitive Christians, like that of +the first Romans, was very frequently guarded by poverty +and ignorance."--Gibbon, DECLINE AND FALL, CHAP. 15.] + +55.--The hate of favourites is only a love of favour. +The envy of NOT possessing it, consoles and softens its +regrets by the contempt it evinces for those who pos- +sess it, and we refuse them our homage, not being able +to detract from them what attracts that of the rest of +the world. + +56.--To establish ourselves in the world we do +everything to appear as if we were established. + +57.--Although men flatter themselves with their +great actions, they are not so often the result of a +great design as of chance. + +58.--It would seem that our actions have lucky or +unlucky stars to which they owe a great part of the +blame or praise which is given them. + +59.--There are no accidents so unfortunate from +which skilful men will not draw some advantage, nor +so fortunate that foolish men will not turn them to +their hurt. + +60.--Fortune turns all things to the advantage of +those on whom she smiles. + +61.--The happiness or unhappiness of men depends +no less upon their dispositions than their fortunes. + +["Still to ourselves in every place consigned + Our own felicity we make or find." + Goldsmith, TRAVELLER, 431.] + +62.--Sincerity is an openness of heart; we find it in +very few people; what we usually see is only an artful +dissimulation to win the confidence of others. + +63.--The aversion to lying is often a hidden ambi- +tion to render our words credible and weighty, and +to attach a religious aspect to our conversation. + +64.--Truth does not do as much good in the world, +as its counterfeits do evil. + +65.--There is no praise we have not lavished upon +Prudence; and yet she cannot assure to us the most +trifling event. + +[The author corrected this maxim several times, in 1665 +it is No. 75; 1666, No. 66; 1671-5, No. 65; in the last +edition it stands as at present. In the first he quotes +Juvenal, Sat. X., line 315. + " Nullum numen habes si sit Prudentia, nos te; + Nos facimus, Fortuna, deam, coeloque locamus." +Applying to Prudence what Juvenal does to Fortune, and +with much greater force.] + +66.--A clever man ought to so regulate his interests +that each will fall in due order. Our greediness so +often troubles us, making us run after so many things +at the same time, that while we too eagerly look after +the least we miss the greatest. + +67.--What grace is to the body good sense is to the +mind. + +68.--It is difficult to define love; all we can say is, +that in the soul it is a desire to rule, in the mind it is +a sympathy, and in the body it is a hidden and deli- +cate wish to possess what we love--PLUS many +mysteries. + +["Love is the love of one {singularly,} with desire to be +singularly beloved."--Hobbes{, LEVIATHAN, (1651), Part I, +Chapter VI}.] + +{Two notes about this quotation: (1) the translators' mistakenly +have "singularity" for the first "singularly" and (2) Hobbes does +not actually write "Love is the..."--he writes "Love of one..." +under the heading "The passion of Love."} + +69.--If there is a pure love, exempt from the mix- +ture of our other passions, it is that which is concealed +at the bottom of the heart and of which even our- +selves are ignorant. + +70.--There is no disguise which can long hide love +where it exists, nor feign it where it does not. + +71.--There are few people who would not be +ashamed of being beloved when they love no longer. + +72.--If we judge of love by the majority of its +results it rather resembles hatred than friendship. + +73.--We may find women who have never indulged +in an intrigue, but it is rare to find those who have +intrigued but once. + +["Yet there are some, they say, who have had {NONE}; +But those who have, ne'er end with only {ONE}." + {--Lord Byron, }DON JUAN, {Canto} iii., stanza 4.] + +74.--There is only one sort of love, but there are a +thousand different copies. + +75.--Neither love nor fire can subsist without per- +petual motion; both cease to live so soon as they cease +to hope, or to fear. + +[So Lord Byron{, STANZAS, (1819), stanza 3} says of Love-- + "Like chiefs of faction, + His life is action."] + +76.--There is real love just as there are real ghosts; +every person speaks of it, few persons have seen it. + +["Oh Love! no habitant of earth thou art-- + An unseen seraph, we believe in thee-- + A faith whose martyrs are the broken heart,-- + But never yet hath seen, nor e'er shall see + The naked eye, thy form as it should be." + {--Lord Byron, }CHILDE HAROLD, {Canto} iv., stanza 121.] + +77.--Love lends its name to an infinite number of +engagements (COMMERCES) which are attributed to it, +but with which it has no more concern than the Doge +has with all that is done in Venice. + +78.--The love of justice is simply in the majority of +men the fear of suffering injustice. + +79.--Silence is the best resolve for him who distrusts +himself. + +80.--What renders us so changeable in our friend- +ship is, that it is difficult to know the qualities of the +soul, but easy to know those of the mind. + +81.--We can love nothing but what agrees with us, +and we can only follow our taste or our pleasure when +we prefer our friends to ourselves; nevertheless it is +only by that preference that friendship can be true +and perfect. + +82.--Reconciliation with our enemies is but a desire +to better our condition, a weariness of war, the fear +of some unlucky accident. + +["Thus terminated that famous war of the Fronde. * * +The Duke de la Rochefoucauld desired peace because of +his dangerous wounds and ruined castles, which had made +him dread even worse events. On the other side the +Queen, who had shown herself so ungrateful to her too +ambitious friends, did not cease to feel the bitterness of +their resentment. 'I wish,' said she, 'it were always +night, because daylight shows me so many who have +betrayed me.'"--MEMOIRES DE MADAME DE MOTTEVILLE, TOM. +IV., p. 60. Another proof that although these maxims +are in some cases of universal application, they were based +entirely on the experience of the age in which the author +lived.] + +83.--What men term friendship is merely a partner- +ship with a collection of reciprocal interests, and an +exchange of favours--in fact it is but a trade in which +self love always expects to gain something. + +84.--It is more disgraceful to distrust than to be +deceived by our friends. + +85.--We often persuade ourselves to love people +who are more powerful than we are, yet interest alone +produces our friendship; we do not give our hearts +away for the good we wish to do, but for that we ex- +pect to receive. + +86.--Our distrust of another justifies his deceit. + +87.--Men would not live long in society were they +not the dupes of each other. + +[A maxim, adds Aime Martin, "Which may enter into +the code of a vulgar rogue, but one is astonished to find +it in a moral treatise." Yet we have scriptural authority +for it: "Deceiving and being deceived."--2 TIM. iii. 13.] + +88.--Self love increases or diminishes for us the +good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the +satisfaction we feel with them, and we judge of their +merit by the manner in which they act towards us. + +89.--Everyone blames his memory, no one blames +his judgment. + +90.--In the intercourse of life, we please more by +our faults than by our good qualities. + +91.--The largest ambition has the least appearance +of ambition when it meets with an absolute impossi- +bility in compassing its object. + +92.--To awaken a man who is deceived as to his +own merit is to do him as bad a turn as that done +to the Athenian madman who was happy in believing +that all the ships touching at the port belonged to him. + +[That is, they cured him. The madman was Thrasyllus, +son of Pythodorus. His brother Crito cured him, when +he infinitely regretted the time of his more pleasant mad- +ness.--See Aelian, VAR. HIST. iv. 25. So Horace-- + -------------"Pol, me occidistis, amici, + Non servastis," ait, "cui sic extorta voluptas + Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error." + HOR. EP. ii--2, 138, +of the madman who was cured of a pleasant lunacy.] + +93.--Old men delight in giving good advice as a +consolation for the fact that they can no longer set +bad examples. + +94.--Great names degrade instead of elevating those +who know not how to sustain them. + +95.--The test of extraordinary merit is to see those +who envy it the most yet obliged to praise it. + +96.--A man is perhaps ungrateful, but often less +chargeable with ingratitude than his benefactor is. + +97.--We are deceived if we think that mind and +judgment are two different matters: judgment is but +the extent of the light of the mind. This light pene- +trates to the bottom of matters; it remarks all that +can be remarked, and perceives what appears imper- +ceptible. Therefore we must agree that it is the ex- +tent of the light in the mind that produces all the +effects which we attribute to judgment. + +98.--Everyone praises his heart, none dare praise +their understanding. + +99.--Politeness of mind consists in thinking chaste +and refined thoughts. + +100.--Gallantry of mind is saying the most empty +things in an agreeable manner. + +101.--Ideas often flash across our minds more com- +plete than we could make them after much labour. + +102.--The head is ever the dupe of the heart. + +[A feeble imitation of that great thought "All folly +comes from the heart."--AIME MARTIN. But Bonhome, in his +L'ART DE PENSER, says "Plusieurs diraient en periode quarre +que quelques reflexions que fasse l'esprit et quelques resolu- +tions qu'il prenne pour corriger ses travers le premier sen- +timent du coeur renverse tous ses projets. Mais il n'appar- +tient qu'a M. de la Rochefoucauld de dire tout en un mot +que l'esprit est toujours la dupe du coeur."] + +103.--Those who know their minds do not neces- +sarily know their hearts. + +104.--Men and things have each their proper per- +spective; to judge rightly of some it is necessary to +see them near, of others we can never judge rightly +but at a distance. + +105.--A man for whom accident discovers sense, is +not a rational being. A man only is so who under- +stands, who distinguishes, who tests it. + +106.--To understand matters rightly we should +understand their details, and as that knowledge is +almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial +and imperfect. + +107.--One kind of flirtation is to boast we never +flirt. + +108.--The head cannot long play the part of the +heart. + +109.--Youth changes its tastes by the warmth of its +blood, age retains its tastes by habit. + +110.--Nothing is given so profusely as advice. + +111.--The more we love a woman the more prone +we are to hate her. + +112.--The blemishes of the mind, like those of the +face, increase by age. + +113.--There may be good but there are no pleasant +marriages. + +114.--We are inconsolable at being deceived by our +enemies and betrayed by our friends, yet still we are +often content to be thus served by ourselves. + +115.--It is as easy unwittingly to deceive oneself as +to deceive others. + +116.--Nothing is less sincere than the way of asking +and giving advice. The person asking seems to pay +deference to the opinion of his friend, while thinking +in reality of making his friend approve his opinion +and be responsible for his conduct. The person +giving the advice returns the confidence placed in him +by eager and disinterested zeal, in doing which he is +usually guided only by his own interest or reputation. + +["I have often thought how ill-natured a maxim it was +which on many occasions I have heard from people of +good understanding, 'That as to what related to private +conduct no one was ever the better for advice.' But upon +further examination I have resolved with myself that the +maxim might be admitted without any violent prejudice +to mankind. For in the manner advice was generally given +there was no reason I thought to wonder it should be so +ill received, something there was which strangely inverted +the case, and made the giver to be the only gainer. For +by what I could observe in many occurrences of our lives, +that which we called giving advice was properly taking an +occasion to show our own wisdom at another's expense. +On the other side to be instructed or to receive advice on +the terms usually prescribed to us was little better than +tamely to afford another the occasion of raising himself a +character from our defects."--Lord Shaftesbury, CHARAC- +TERISTICS, i., 153.] + +117.--The most subtle of our acts is to simulate +blindness for snares that we know are set for us. We +are never so easily deceived as when trying to deceive. + +118.--The intention of never deceiving often exposes +us to deception. + +119.--We become so accustomed to disguise ourselves +to others that at last we are disguised to ourselves. + +["Those who quit their proper character{,} to assume what +does not belong to them, are{,} for the greater part{,} ignorant +both of the character they leave{,} and of the character they +assume."--Burke, {REFLECTIONS ON THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE, (1790), +Paragraph 19}.] + +{The translators' incorrectly cite THOUGHTS ON THE CAUSE +OF THE PRESENT DISCONTENTS.} + +120.--We often act treacherously more from weak- +ness than from a fixed motive. + +121.--We frequently do good to enable us with +impunity to do evil. + +122.--If we conquer our passions it is more from +their weakness than from our strength. + +123.--If we never flattered ourselves we should have +but scant pleasure. + +124.--The most deceitful persons spend their lives +in blaming deceit, so as to use it on some great occa- +sion to promote some great interest. + +125.--The daily employment of cunning marks a +little mind, it generally happens that those who resort +to it in one respect to protect themselves lay them- +selves open to attack in another. + +["With that low cunning which in fools supplies, + And amply, too, the place of being wise." + Churchill, ROSCIAD, 117.] + +126.--Cunning and treachery are the offspring of +incapacity. + +127.--The true way to be deceived is to think one- +self more knowing than others. + +128.--Too great cleverness is but deceptive delicacy, +true delicacy is the most substantial cleverness. + +129.--It is sometimes necessary to play the fool to +avoid being deceived by cunning men. + +130.--Weakness is the only fault which cannot be +cured. + +131.--The smallest fault of women who give them- +selves up to love is to love. + [------"Faciunt graviora coactae + Imperio sexus minimumque libidine peccant." + Juvenal, SAT. vi., 134.] + +132.--It is far easier to be wise for others than to +be so for oneself. + +[Hence the proverb, "A man who is his own lawyer +has a fool for his client."] + +133.--The only good examples are those, that make +us see the absurdity of bad originals. + +134.--We are never so ridiculous from the habits we +have as from those that we affect to have. + +135.--We sometimes differ more widely from our- +selves than we do from others. + +136.--There are some who never would have loved +if they never had heard it spoken of. + +137.--When not prompted by vanity we say little. + +138.--A man would rather say evil of himself than +say nothing. + +["Montaigne's vanity led him to talk perpetually of +himself, and as often happens to vain men, he would rather +talk of his own failings than of any foreign subject."-- +Hallam, LITERATURE OF EUROPE.] + +139.--One of the reasons that we find so few +persons rational and agreeable in conversation is +there is hardly a person who does not think more of +what he wants to say than of his answer to what is +said. The most clever and polite are content with +only seeming attentive while we perceive in their +mind and eyes that at the very time they are wander- +ing from what is said and desire to return to what they +want to say. Instead of considering that the worst +way to persuade or please others is to try thus strongly +to please ourselves, and that to listen well and to +answer well are some of the greatest charms we can +have in conversation. + +["An absent man can make but few observations, he can +pursue nothing steadily because his absences make him +lose his way. They are very disagreeable and hardly to be +tolerated in old age, but in youth they cannot be forgiven." +--Lord Chesterfield, LETTER 195.] + +140.--If it was not for the company of fools, a witty +man would often be greatly at a loss. + +141.--We often boast that we are never bored, but +yet we are so conceited that we do not perceive how +often we bore others. + +142.--As it is the mark of great minds to say many +things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to +use many words to say nothing. + +["So much they talked, so very little said." + Churchill, ROSCIAD, 550. + +"Men who are unequal to the labour of discussing an ar- +gument or wish to avoid it, are willing enough to suppose +that much has been proved because much has been said."-- + Junius, JAN. 1769.] + +143.--It is oftener by the estimation of our own +feelings that we exaggerate the good qualities of others +than by their merit, and when we praise them we wish +to attract their praise. + +144.--We do not like to praise, and we never praise +without a motive. Praise is flattery, artful, hidden, +delicate, which gratifies differently him who praises +and him who is praised. The one takes it as the re- +ward of merit, the other bestows it to show his im- +partiality and knowledge. + +145.--We often select envenomed praise which, by +a reaction upon those we praise, shows faults we could +not have shown by other means. + +146.--Usually we only praise to be praised. + +147.--Few are sufficiently wise to prefer censure +which is useful to praise which is treacherous. + +148.--Some reproaches praise; some praises re- +proach. + +["Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, + And, without sneering, teach the rest to sneer." + Pope {ESSAY ON MAN, (1733), EPISTLE TO DR. ARBUTHNOT.}] + +149.--The refusal of praise is only the wish to be +praised twice. + +[The modesty which pretends to refuse praise is but in +truth a desire to be praised more highly. EDITION 1665.] + +150.--The desire which urges us to deserve praise +strengthens our good qualities, and praise given to +wit, valour, and beauty, tends to increase them. + +151.--It is easier to govern others than to prevent +being governed. + +152.--If we never flattered ourselves the flattery of +others would not hurt us. + +["Adulatione servilia fingebant securi de fragilitate cre- +dentis." Tacit. Ann. xvi.] + +153.--Nature makes merit but fortune sets it to +work. + +154.--Fortune cures us of many faults that reason +could not. + +155.--There are some persons who only disgust with +their abilities, there are persons who please even with +their faults. + +156.--There are persons whose only merit consists +in saying and doing stupid things at the right time, +and who ruin all if they change their manners. + +157.--The fame of great men ought always to be +estimated by the means used to acquire it. + +158.--Flattery is base coin to which only our vanity +gives currency. + +159.--It is not enough to have great qualities, we +should also have the management of them. + +160.--However brilliant an action it should not be +esteemed great unless the result of a great motive. + +161.--A certain harmony should be kept between +actions and ideas if we desire to estimate the effects +that they produce. + +162.--The art of using moderate abilities to advan- +tage wins praise, and often acquires more reputation +than real brilliancy. + +163.--Numberless arts appear foolish whose secre{t} +motives are most wise and weighty. + +164.--It is much easier to seem fitted for posts we +do not fill than for those we do. + +165.--Ability wins us the esteem of the true men, +luck that of the people. + +166.--The world oftener rewards the appearance of +merit than merit itself. + +167.--Avarice is more opposed to economy than to +liberality. + +168.--However deceitful hope may be, yet she +carries us on pleasantly to the end of life. + +["Hope travels through, nor quits us when we die." + Pope: ESSAY ON MAN, Ep. ii.] + +169.--Idleness and fear keeps us in the path of duty, +but our virtue often gets the praise. + +["Quod segnitia erat sapientia vocaretur." + Tacitus Hist. I.] + +170.--If one acts rightly and honestly, it is difficult +to decide whether it is the effect of integrity or skill. + +171.--As rivers are lost in the sea so are virtues in +self. + +172.--If we thoroughly consider the varied effects +of indifference we find we miscarry more in our duties +than in our interests. + +173.--There are different kinds of curiosity: one +springs from interest, which makes us desire to know +everything that may be profitable to us; another from +pride, which springs from a desire of knowing what +others are ignorant of. + +174.--It is far better to accustom our mind to bear +the ills we have than to speculate on those which may +befall us. + + ["Rather bear th{ose} ills we have + Than fly to others that we know not of." + {--Shakespeare, HAMLET, Act III, Scene I, Hamlet.}] + +175.--Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy +which causes our heart to attach itself to all the quali- +ties of the person we love in succession, sometimes +giving the preference to one, sometimes to another. +This constancy is merely inconstancy fixed, and limited +to the same person. + +176.--There are two kinds of constancy in love, one +arising from incessantly finding in the loved one fresh +objects to love, the other from regarding it as a point +of honour to be constant. + +177.--Perseverance is not deserving of blame or +praise, as it is merely the continuance of tastes and +feelings which we can neither create or destroy. + +178.--What makes us like new studies is not so +much the weariness we have of the old or the wish +for change as the desire to be admired by those who +know more than ourselves, and the hope of advantage +over those who know less. + +179.--We sometimes complain of the levity of our +friends to justify our own by anticipation. + +180.--Our repentance is not so much sorrow for the +ill we have done as fear of the ill that may happen to +us. + +181.--One sort of inconstancy springs from levity or +weakness of mind, and makes us accept everyone's +opinion, and another more excusable comes from a +surfeit of matter. + +182.--Vices enter into the composition of virtues as +poison into that of medicines. Prudence collects and +blends the two and renders them useful against the ills +of life. + +183.--For the credit of virtue we must admit that +the greatest misfortunes of men are those into which +they fall through their crimes. + +184.--We admit our faults to repair by our sincerity +the evil we have done in the opinion of others. + +[In the edition of 1665 this maxim stands as No. 200. +We never admit our faults except through vanity.] + +185.--There are both heroes of evil and heroes of +good. + +[Ut alios industria ita hunc ignavia protulerat ad famam, +habebaturque non ganeo et profligator sed erudito luxu. +--Tacit. Ann. xvi.] + +186.--We do not despise all who have vices, but we +do despise all who have not virtues. + +["If individuals have no virtues their vices may be of +use to us."--JUNIUS, 5th Oct. 1771.] + +187.--The name of virtue is as useful to our interest +as that of vice. + +188.--The health of the mind is not less uncertain +than that of the body, and when passions seem +furthest removed we are no less in danger of infec- +tion than of falling ill when we are well. + +189.--It seems that nature has at man's birth fixed +the bounds of his virtues and vices. + +190.--Great men should not have great faults. + +191.--We may say vices wait on us in the course of +our life as the landlords with whom we successively +lodge, and if we travelled the road twice over I +doubt if our experience would make us avoid them. + +192.--When our vices leave us we flatter ourselves +with the idea we have left them. + +193.--There are relapses in the diseases of the mind +as in those of the body; what we call a cure is often +no more than an intermission or change of disease. + +194.--The defects of the mind are like the wounds +of the body. Whatever care we take to heal them +the scars ever remain, and there is always danger of +their reopening. + +195.--The reason which often prevents us abandon- +ing a single vice is having so many. + +196.--We easily forget those faults which are known +only to ourselves. + +[Seneca says "Innocentem quisque se dicit respiciens +testem non conscientiam."] + +197.--There are men of whom we can never believe +evil without having seen it. Yet there are very few +in whom we should be surprised to see it. + +198.--We exaggerate the glory of some men to +detract from that of others, and we should praise +Prince Conde and Marshal Turenne much less if we +did not want to blame them both. + +[The allusion to Conde and Turenne gives the date at +which these maxims were published in 1665. Conde and +Turenne were after their campaign with the Imperialists +at the height of their fame. It proves the truth of the +remark of Tacitus, "Populus neminem sine aemulo sinit."-- +Tac. Ann. xiv.] + +199.--The desire to appear clever often prevents our +being so. + +200.--Virtue would not go far did not vanity +escort her. + +201.--He who thinks he has the power to content +the world greatly deceives himself, but he who thinks +that the world cannot be content with him deceives +himself yet more. + +202.--Falsely honest men are those who disguise +their faults both to themselves and others; truly honest +men are those who know them perfectly and confess +them. + +203.--He is really wise who is nettled at nothing. + +204.--The coldness of women is a balance and bur- +den they add to their beauty. + +205.--Virtue in woman is often the love of reputa- +tion and repose. + +206.--He is a truly good man who desires always to +bear the inspection of good men. + +207.--Folly follows us at all stages of life. If one +appears wise 'tis but because his folly is proportioned +to his age and fortune. + +208.--There are foolish people who know and who +skilfully use their folly. + +209.--Who lives without folly is not so wise as he +thinks. + +210.--In growing old we become more foolish--and +more wise. + +211.--There are people who are like farces, which +are praised but for a time (however foolish and dis- +tasteful they may be). + +[The last clause is added from Edition of 1665.] + +212.--Most people judge men only by success or by +fortune. + +213.--Love of glory, fear of shame, greed of fortune, +the desire to make life agreeable and comfortable, and +the wish to depreciate others are often causes of that +bravery so vaunted among men. + +[Junius said of the Marquis of Granby, "He was as +brave as a total absence of all feeling and reflection could +make him."--21st Jan. 1769.] + +214.--Valour in common soldiers is a perilous +method of earning their living. + +["Men venture necks to gain a fortune, + The soldier does it ev{'}ry day, + (Eight to the week) for sixpence pay." + {--Samuel Butler,} HUDIBRAS, Part II., canto i., line 512.] + +215.--Perfect bravery and sheer cowardice are two +extremes rarely found. The space between them is +vast, and embraces all other sorts of courage. The +difference between them is not less than between faces +and tempers. Men will freely expose themselves at +the beginning of an action, and relax and be easily +discouraged if it should last. Some are content to +satisfy worldly honour, and beyond that will do little +else. Some are not always equally masters of their +timidity. Others allow themselves to be overcome +by panic; others charge because they dare not remain +at their posts. Some may be found whose courage is +strengthened by small perils, which prepare them to +face greater dangers. Some will dare a sword cut and +flinch from a bullet; others dread bullets little and fear +to fight with swords. These varied kinds of courage +agree in this, that night, by increasing fear and conceal- +ing gallant or cowardly actions, allows men to spare +themselves. There is even a more general discretion +to be observed, for we meet with no man who does all +he would have done if he were assured of getting off +scot-free; so that it is certain that the fear of death +does somewhat subtract from valour. + +[See also "Table Talk of Napoleon," who agrees with +this, so far as to say that few, but himself, had a two +o'clock of the morning valour.] + +216.--Perfect valour is to do without witnesses what +one would do before all the world. + +["It is said of untrue valours that some men's valours are +in the eyes of them that look on."--Bacon, ADVANCEMENT +OF LEARNING{, (1605), Book I, Section II, paragraph 5}.] + +217.--Intrepidity is an extraordinary strength of +soul which raises it above the troubles, disorders, and +emotions which the sight of great perils can arouse in +it: by this strength heroes maintain a calm aspect and +preserve their reason and liberty in the most sur- +prising and terrible accidents. + +218.--Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. + +[So Massillon, in one of his sermons, "Vice pays homage +to virtue in doing honour to her appearance." + +So Junius, writing to the Duke of Grafton, says, "You +have done as much mischief to the community as Machia- +vel, if Machiavel had not known that an appearance of +morals and religion are useful in society."--28 Sept. 1771.] + +219.--Most men expose themselves in battle enough +to save their honor, few wish to do so more than +sufficiently, or than is necessary to make the design +for which they expose themselves succeed. + +220.--Vanity, shame, and above all disposition, often +make men brave and women chaste. + +["Vanity bids all her sons be brave and all her daughters +chaste and courteous. But why do we need her instruc- +tion?"--Sterne, SERMONS.] + +221.--We do not wish to lose life; we do wish to +gain glory, and this makes brave men show more tact +and address in avoiding death, than rogues show in +preserving their fortunes. + +222.--Few persons on the first approach of age do +not show wherein their body, or their mind, is begin- +ning to fail. + +223.--Gratitude is as the good faith of merchants: +it holds commerce together; and we do not pay be- +cause it is just to pay debts, but because we shall +thereby more easily find people who will lend. + +224.--All those who pay the debts of gratitude can- +not thereby flatter themselves that they are grateful. + +225.--What makes false reckoning, as regards gra- +titude, is that the pride of the giver and the receiver +cannot agree as to the value of the benefit. + +["The first foundation of friendship is not the power of +conferring benefits, but the equality with which they are +received, and may be returned."--Junius's LETTER TO THE +KING.] + +226.--Too great a hurry to discharge of an obliga- +tion is a kind of ingratitude. + +227.--Lucky people are bad hands at correcting +their faults; they always believe that they are right +when fortune backs up their vice or folly. + +["The power of fortune is confessed only by the misera- +ble, for the happy impute all their success to prudence and +merit."--Swift, THOUGHTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS] + +228.--Pride will not owe, self-love will not pay. + +229.--The good we have received from a man should +make us excuse the wrong he does us. + +230.--Nothing is so infectious as example, and we +never do great good or evil without producing the like. +We imitate good actions by emulation, and bad ones +by the evil of our nature, which shame imprisons +until example liberates. + +231.--It is great folly to wish only to be wise. + +232.--Whatever pretext we give to our afflictions it +is always interest or vanity that causes them. + +233.--In afflictions there are various kinds of hypo- +crisy. In one, under the pretext of weeping for one +dear to us we bemoan ourselves; we regret her good +opinion of us, we deplore the loss of our comfort, our +pleasure, our consideration. Thus the dead have the +credit of tears shed for the living. I affirm 'tis a kind +of hypocrisy which in these afflictions deceives itself. +There is another kind not so innocent because it im- +poses on all the world, that is the grief of those who +aspire to the glory of a noble and immortal sorrow. +After Time, which absorbs all, has obliterated what +sorrow they had, they still obstinately obtrude their +tears, their sighs their groans, they wear a solemn face, +and try to persuade others by all their acts, that their +grief will end only with their life. This sad and +distressing vanity is commonly found in ambitious +women. As their sex closes to them all paths to glory, +they strive to render themselves celebrated by show- +ing an inconsolable affliction. There is yet another +kind of tears arising from but small sources, which +flow easily and cease as easily. One weeps to achieve +a reputation for tenderness, weeps to be pitied, weeps +to be bewept, in fact one weeps to avoid the disgrace +of not weeping! + +["In grief the {PLEASURE} is still uppermost{;} and the afflic- +tion we suffer has no resemblance to absolute pain which +is always odious, and which we endeavour to shake off as +soon as possible."--Burke, SUBLIME AND BEAUTIFUL{, (1756), +Part I, Sect. V}.] + +234.--It is more often from pride than from igno- +rance that we are so obstinately opposed to current +opinions; we find the first places taken, and we do +not want to be the last. + +235.--We are easily consoled at the misfortunes of +our friends when they enable us to prove our tender- +ness for them. + +236.--It would seem that even self-love may be the +dupe of goodness and forget itself when we work for +others. And yet it is but taking the shortest way to +arrive at its aim, taking usury under the pretext of +giving, in fact winning everybody in a subtle and de- +licate manner. + +237.--No one should be praised for his goodness if +he has not strength enough to be wicked. All other +goodness is but too often an idleness or powerlessness +of will. + +238.--It is not so dangerous to do wrong to most +men, as to do them too much good. + +239.--Nothing flatters our pride so much as the +confidence of the great, because we regard it as the +result of our worth, without remembering that gene- +rally 'tis but vanity, or the inability to keep a secret. + +240.--We may say of conformity as distinguished +from beauty, that it is a symmetry which knows no +rules, and a secret harmony of features both one with +each other and with the colour and appearance of the +person. + +241.--Flirtation is at the bottom of woman's nature, +although all do not practise it, some being restrained +by fear, others by sense. + +["By nature woman is a flirt, but her flirting changes +both in the mode and object according to her opinions."-- +Rousseau, EMILE.] + +242.--We often bore others when we think we +cannot possibly bore them. + +243.--Few things are impossible in themselves; +application to make them succeed fails us more often +than the means. + +244.--Sovereign ability consists in knowing the +value of things. + +245.--There is great ability in knowing how to con- +ceal one's ability. + +["You have accomplished a great stroke in diplomacy +when you have made others think that you have only very +average abilities."--LA BRUYERE.] + +246.--What seems generosity is often disguised am- +bition, that despises small to run after greater inte- +rest. + +247.--The fidelity of most men is merely an inven- +tion of self-love to win confidence; a method to place +us above others and to render us depositaries of the +most important matters. + +248.--Magnanimity despises all, to win all. + +249.--There is no less eloquence in the voice, in the +eyes and in the air of a speaker than in his choice of +words. + +250.--True eloquence consists in saying all that +should be, not all that could be said. + +251.--There are people whose faults become them, +others whose very virtues disgrace them. + +["There are faults which do him honour, and virtues +that disgrace him."--Junius, LETTER OF 28TH MAY, 1770.] + +252.--It is as common to change one's tastes, as it +is uncommon to change one's inclinations. + +253.--Interest sets at work all sorts of virtues and +vices. + +254.--Humility is often a feigned submission which +we employ to supplant others. It is one of the de- +vices of Pride to lower us to raise us; and truly pride +transforms itself in a thousand ways, and is never so +well disguised and more able to deceive than when it +hides itself under the form of humility. + +["Grave and plausible enough to be thought fit for busi- +ness."--Junius, LETTER TO THE DUKE OF GRAFTON. + +"He saw a cottage with a double coach-house, + A cottage of gentility, + And the devil was pleased, for his darling sin + Is the pride that apes humility." + Southey, DEVIL'S WALK.] + +{There are numerous corrections necessary for this +quotation; I will keep the original above so you can +compare the correct passages: + +"He passed a cottage with a double coach-house, + A cottage of gentility, + And he owned with a grin, + That his favourite sin + Is pride that apes humility." + --Southey, DEVIL'S WALK, Stanza 8. + +"And the devil did grin, for his darling sin + Is pride that apes humility." + --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, THE DEVIL'S THOUGHTS} + +255.--All feelings have their peculiar tone of voice, +gestures and looks, and this harmony, as it is good +or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, makes people agreeable +or disagreeable. + +256.--In all professions we affect a part and an ap- +pearance to seem what we wish to be. Thus the world +is merely composed of actors. + +["All the world's a stage, and all the men and women +merely players."--Shakespeare, AS YOU LIKE IT{, Act II, +Scene VII, Jaques}. + +"Life is no more than a dramatic scene, in which the +hero should preserve his consistency to the last."--Junius.] + +257.--Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body +invented to conceal the want of mind. + +["Gravity is the very essence of imposture."--Shaftes- +bury, CHARACTERISTICS, p. 11, vol. I. "The very essence of +gravity is design, and consequently deceit; a taught trick +to gain credit with the world for more sense and know- +ledge than a man was worth, and that with all its preten- +sions it was no better, but often worse, than what a French +wit had long ago defined it--a mysterious carriage of the +body to cover the defects of the mind."--Sterne, TRISTRAM +SHANDY, vol. I., chap. ii.] + +258.--Good taste arises more from judgment than +wit. + +259.--The pleasure of love is in loving, we are hap- +pier in the passion we feel than in that we inspire. + +260.--Civility is but a desire to receive civility, and +to be esteemed polite. + +261.--The usual education of young people is to in- +spire them with a second self-love. + +262.--There is no passion wherein self-love reigns +so powerfully as in love, and one is always more ready +to sacrifice the peace of the loved one than his own. + +263.--What we call liberality is often but the vanity +of giving, which we like more than that we give away. + +264.--Pity is often a reflection of our own evils in +the ills of others. It is a delicate foresight of the +troubles into which we may fall. We help others +that on like occasions we may be helped ourselves, +and these services which we render, are in reality +benefits we confer on ourselves by anticipation. + +["GRIEF for the calamity of another is pity, and ariseth +from the imagination that a like calamity may befal him- +self{;} and therefore is called compassion."--HOBBES' LEVIA- +THAN{, (1651), Part I, Chapter VI}.] + +265.--A narrow mind begets obstinacy, and we do +not easily believe what we cannot see. + +["Stiff in opinion, always in the wrong." + Dryden, ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL{, line 547}.] + +266.--We deceive ourselves if we believe that there +are violent passions like ambition and love that can +triumph over others. Idleness, languishing as she is, +does not often fail in being mistress; she usurps +authority over all the plans and actions of life; im- +perceptibly consuming and destroying both passions +and virtues. + +267.--A quickness in believing evil without having +sufficiently examined it, is the effect of pride and +laziness. We wish to find the guilty, and we do not +wish to trouble ourselves in examining the crime. + +268.--We credit judges with the meanest motives, +and yet we desire our reputation and fame should +depend upon the judgment of men, who are all, either +from their jealousy or pre-occupation or want of in- +telligence, opposed to us--and yet 'tis only to make +these men decide in our favour that we peril in so +many ways both our peace and our life. + +269.--No man is clever enough to know all the evil +he does. + +270.--One honour won is a surety for more. + +271.--Youth is a continual intoxication; it is the +fever of reason. + +["The best of life is but intoxication."--{Lord Byron, } +Don Juan{, Canto II, stanza 179}. +In the 1st Edition, 1665, the maxim finishes with--"it is +the fever of health, the folly of reason."] + +272.--Nothing should so humiliate men who have +deserved great praise, as the care they have taken +to acquire it by the smallest means. + +273.--There are persons of whom the world approves +who have no merit beyond the vices they use in the +affairs of life. + +274.--The beauty of novelty is to love as the flower +to the fruit; it lends a lustre which is easily lost, +but which never returns. + +275.--Natural goodness, which boasts of being so +apparent, is often smothered by the least interest. + +276.--Absence extinguishes small passions and in- +creases great ones, as the wind will blow out a candle, +and blow in a fire. + +277.--Women often think they love when they do +not love. The business of a love affair, the emotion of +mind that sentiment induces, the natural bias towards +the pleasure of being loved, the difficulty of refusing, +persuades them that they have real passion when they +have but flirtation. + +["And if in fact she takes a {"}GRANDE PASSION{"}, + It is a very serious thing indeed: + Nine times in ten 'tis but caprice or fashion, + Coquetry, or a wish to take the lead, + The pride of a mere child with a new sash on. + Or wish to make a rival's bosom bleed: + But the {TENTH} instance will be a tornado, + For there's no saying what they will or may do." + {--Lord Byron, }DON JUAN, canto xii. stanza 77.] + +278.--What makes us so often discontented with +those who transact business for us is that they almost +always abandon the interest of their friends for the +interest of the business, because they wish to have +the honour of succeeding in that which they have +undertaken. + +279.--When we exaggerate the tenderness of our +friends towards us, it is often less from gratitude +than from a desire to exhibit our own merit. + +280.--The praise we give to new comers into the +world arises from the envy we bear to those who are +established. + +281.--Pride, which inspires, often serves to mode- +rate envy. + +282.--Some disguised lies so resemble truth, that +we should judge badly were we not deceived. + +283.--Sometimes there is not less ability in knowing +how to use than in giving good advice. + +284.--There are wicked people who would be much +less dangerous if they were wholly without goodness. + +285.--Magnanimity is sufficiently defined by its +name, nevertheless one can say it is the good sense +of pride, the most noble way of receiving praise. + +286.--It is impossible to love a second time those +whom we have really ceased to love. + +287.--Fertility of mind does not furnish us with so +many resources on the same matter, as the lack of +intelligence makes us hesitate at each thing our ima- +gination presents, and hinders us from at first discern- +ing which is the best. + +288.--There are matters and maladies which at +certain times remedies only serve to make worse; +true skill consists in knowing when it is dangerous to +use them. + +289.--Affected simplicity is refined imposture. + +[Domitianus simplicitatis ac modestiae imagine studium +litterarum et amorem carminum simulabat quo velaret +animum et fratris aemulationi subduceretur.--Tacitus, +ANN. iv.] + +290.--There are as many errors of temper as of +mind. + +291.--Man's merit, like the crops, has its season. + +292.--One may say of temper as of many buildings; +it has divers aspects, some agreeable, others dis- +agreeable. + +293.--Moderation cannot claim the merit of op- +posing and overcoming Ambition: they are never +found together. Moderation is the languor and sloth +of the soul, Ambition its activity and heat. + +294.--We always like those who admire us, we do +not always like those whom we admire. + +295.--It is well that we know not all our wishes. + +296.--It is difficult to love those we do not esteem, +but it is no less so to love those whom we esteem much +more than ourselves. + +297.--Bodily temperaments have a common course +and rule which imperceptibly affect our will. They +advance in combination, and successively exercise a +secret empire over us, so that, without our perceiving +it, they become a great part of all our actions. + +298.--The gratitude of most men is but a secret +desire of receiving greater benefits. + +[Hence the common proverb "Gratitude is merely a +lively sense of favors to come."] + +299.--Almost all the world takes pleasure in paying +small debts; many people show gratitude for trifling, +but there is hardly one who does not show ingrati- +tude for great favours. + +300.--There are follies as catching as infections. + +301.--Many people despise, but few know how to +bestow wealth. + +302.--Only in things of small value we usually are +bold enough not to trust to appearances. + +303.--Whatever good quality may be imputed to +us, we ourselves find nothing new in it. + +304.--We may forgive those who bore us, we cannot +forgive those whom we bore. + +305.--Interest which is accused of all our misdeeds +often should be praised for our good deeds. + +306.--We find very few ungrateful people when we +are able to confer favours. + +307.--It is as proper to be boastful alone as it is +ridiculous to be so in company. + +308.--Moderation is made a virtue to limit the am- +bition of the great; to console ordinary people for +their small fortune and equally small ability. + +309.--There are persons fated to be fools, who com- +mit follies not only by choice, but who are forced by +fortune to do so. + +310.--Sometimes there are accidents in our life the +skilful extrication from which demands a little folly. + +311.--If there be men whose folly has never ap- +peared, it is because it has never been closely looked +for. + +312.--Lovers are never tired of each other,--they +always speak of themselves. + +313.--How is it that our memory is good enough to +retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet +not good enough to recollect how often we have told +it to the same person? + +["Old men who yet retain the memory of things past, +and forget how often they have told them, are most tedious +companions."--Montaigne, {ESSAYS, Book I, Chapter IX}.] + +314.--The extreme delight we take in talking of +ourselves should warn us that it is not shared by those +who listen. + +315.--What commonly hinders us from showing the +recesses of our heart to our friends, is not the dis- +trust we have of them, but that we have of our- +selves. + +316.--Weak persons cannot be sincere. + +317.--'Tis a small misfortune to oblige an ungrate- +ful man; but it is unbearable to be obliged by a +scoundrel. + +318.--We may find means to cure a fool of his folly, +but there are none to set straight a cross-grained +spirit. + +319.--If we take the liberty to dwell on their faults +we cannot long preserve the feelings we should hold +towards our friends and benefactors. + +320.--To praise princes for virtues they do not pos- +sess is but to reproach them with impunity. + +["Praise undeserved is satire in disguise," quoted by +Pope from a poem which has not survived, "The Garland," +by Mr. Broadhurst. "In some cases exaggerated or +inappropriate praise becomes the most severe satire."-- +Scott, WOODSTOCK.] + +321.--We are nearer loving those who hate us, than +those who love us more than we desire. + +322.--Those only are despicable who fear to be +despised. + +323.--Our wisdom is no less at the mercy of Fortune +than our goods. + +324.--There is more self-love than love in jealousy. + +325.--We often comfort ourselves by the weakness +of evils, for which reason has not the strength to con- +sole us. + +326.--Ridicule dishonours more than dishonour +itself. + +["No," says a commentator, "Ridicule may do harm, +but it cannot dishonour; it is vice which confers dis- +honour."] + +327.--We own to small faults to persuade others +that we have not great ones. + +328.--Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred. + +329.--We believe, sometimes, that we hate flattery +--we only dislike the method. + +["{But} when I tell him he hates flatter{ers}, + He says he does, being then most flattered." + Shakespeare, JULIUS CAESAR{, Act II, Scene I, Decius}.] + +330.--We pardon in the degree that we love. + +331.--It is more difficult to be faithful to a mistress +when one is happy, than when we are ill-treated by +her. + +[Si qua volet regnare diu contemnat amantem.--Ovid, +AMORES, ii. 19.] + +332.--Women do not know all their powers of +flirtation. + +333.--Women cannot be completely severe unless +they hate. + +334.--Women can less easily resign flirtations than +love. + +335.--In love deceit almost always goes further +than mistrust. + +336.--There is a kind of love, the excess of which +forbids jealousy. + +337.--There are certain good qualities as there are +senses, and those who want them can neither per- +ceive nor understand them. + +338.--When our hatred is too bitter it places us +below those whom we hate. + +339.--We only appreciate our good or evil in pro- +portion to our self-love. + +340.--The wit of most women rather strengthens +their folly than their reason. + +["Women have an entertaining tattle, and sometimes wit, +but for solid reasoning and good sense I never knew one in +my life that had it, and who reasoned and acted conse- +quentially for four and twenty hours together."--Lord +Chesterfield, LETTER 129.] + +341.--The heat of youth is not more opposed to +safety than the coldness of age. + +342.--The accent of our native country dwells in +the heart and mind as well as on the tongue. + +343.--To be a great man one should know how to +profit by every phase of fortune. + +344.--Most men, like plants, possess hidden quali- +ties which chance discovers. + +345.--Opportunity makes us known to others, but +more to ourselves. + +346.--If a woman's temper is beyond control there +can be no control of the mind or heart. + +347.--We hardly find any persons of good sense, save +those who agree with us. + +["That was excellently observed, say I, when I read +an author when his opinion agrees with mine."--Swift, +THOUGHTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS.] + +348.--When one loves one doubts even what one +most believes. + +349.--The greatest miracle of love is to eradicate +flirtation. + +350.--Why we hate with so much bitterness those +who deceive us is because they think themselves more +clever than we are. + +["I could pardon all his (Louis XI.'s) deceit, but I can- +not forgive his supposing me capable of the gross folly +of being duped by his professions."--Sir Walter Scott, +QUENTIN DURWARD.] + +351.--We have much trouble to break with one, +when we no longer are in love. + +352.--We almost always are bored with persons with +whom we should not be bored. + +353.--A gentleman may love like a lunatic, but not +like a beast. + +354.--There are certain defects which well mounted +glitter like virtue itself. + +355.--Sometimes we lose friends for whose loss our +regret is greater than our grief, and others for whom +our grief is greater than our regret. + +356.--Usually we only praise heartily those who +admire us. + +357.--Little minds are too much wounded by little +things; great minds see all and are not even hurt. + +358.--Humility is the true proof of Christian +virtues; without it we retain all our faults, and they +are only covered by pride to hide them from others, +and often from ourselves. + +359.--Infidelities should extinguish love, and we +ought not to be jealous when we have cause to be so. +No persons escape causing jealousy who are worthy of +exciting it. + +360.--We are more humiliated by the least infidelity +towards us, than by our greatest towards others. + +361.--Jealousy is always born with love, but does +not always die with it. + +362.--Most women do not grieve so much for the +death of their lovers for love's-sake, as to show they +were worthy of being beloved. + +363.--The evils we do to others give us less pain +than those we do to ourselves. + +364.--We well know that it is bad taste to talk of +our wives; but we do not so well know that it is the +same to speak of ourselves. + +365.--There are virtues which degenerate into vices +when they arise from Nature, and others which when +acquired are never perfect. For example, reason +must teach us to manage our estate and our con- +fidence, while Nature should have given us goodness +and valour. + +366.--However we distrust the sincerity of those +whom we talk with, we always believe them more sin- +cere with us than with others. + +367.--There are few virtuous women who are not +tired of their part. + +["Every woman is at heart a rake."--Pope. MORAL +ESSAYS, ii.] + +368.--The greater number of good women are like +concealed treasures, safe as no one has searched for +them. + +369.--The violences we put upon ourselves to escape +love are often more cruel than the cruelty of those +we love. + +370.--There are not many cowards who know the +whole of their fear. + +371.--It is generally the fault of the loved one not +to perceive when love ceases. + +372.--Most young people think they are natural +when they are only boorish and rude. + +373.--Some tears after having deceived others de- +ceive ourselves. + +374.--If we think we love a woman for love of +herself we are greatly deceived. + +375.--Ordinary men commonly condemn what is +beyond them. + +376.--Envy is destroyed by true friendship, flirta- +tion by true love. + +377.--The greatest mistake of penetration is not to +have fallen short, but to have gone too far. + +378.--We may bestow advice, but we cannot inspire +the conduct. + +379.--As our merit declines so also does our taste. + +380.--Fortune makes visible our virtues or our +vices, as light does objects. + +381.--The struggle we undergo to remain faithful +to one we love is little better than infidelity. + +382.--Our actions are like the rhymed ends of +blank verses (BOUTS-RIMES) where to each one puts +what construction he pleases. + +[The BOUTS-RIMES was a literary game popular in the 17th +and 18th centuries--the rhymed words at the end of a line +being given for others to fill up. Thus Horace Walpole +being given, "brook, why, crook, I," returned the bur- +lesque verse-- + "I sits with my toes in a BROOK, + And if any one axes me WHY? + I gies 'em a rap with my CROOK, + 'Tis constancy makes me, ses I."] + +383.--The desire of talking about ourselves, and of +putting our faults in the light we wish them to be +seen, forms a great part of our sincerity. + +384.--We should only be astonished at still being +able to be astonished. + +385.--It is equally as difficult to be contented when +one has too much or too little love. + +386.--No people are more often wrong than those +who will not allow themselves to be wrong. + +387.--A fool has not stuff in him to be good. + +388.--If vanity does not overthrow all virtues, at +least she makes them totter. + +389.--What makes the vanity of others unsupport- +able is that it wounds our own. + +390.--We give up more easily our interest than our +taste. + +391.--Fortune appears so blind to none as to those +to whom she has done no good. + +392.--We should manage fortune like our health, +enjoy it when it is good, be patient when it is bad, +and never resort to strong remedies but in an extremity. + +393.--Awkwardness sometimes disappears in the +camp, never in the court. + +394.--A man is often more clever than one other, but +not than all others. + +["Singuli decipere ac decipi possunt, nemo omnes, +omnes neminem fefellerunt."--Pliny{ the Younger, +PANEGYRICUS, LXII}.] + +395.--We are often less unhappy at being deceived +by one we loved, than on being deceived. + +396.--We keep our first lover for a long time--if we +do not get a second. + +397.--We have not the courage to say generally +that we have no faults, and that our enemies have +no good qualities; but in fact we are not far from be- +lieving so. + +398.--Of all our faults that which we most readily +admit is idleness: we believe that it makes all virtues +ineffectual, and that without utterly destroying, it at +least suspends their operation. + +399.--There is a kind of greatness which does not +depend upon fortune: it is a certain manner what +distinguishes us, and which seems to destine us for +great things; it is the value we insensibly set upon +ourselves; it is by this quality that we gain the +deference of other men, and it is this which com- +monly raises us more above them, than birth, rank, +or even merit itself. + +400.--There may be talent without position, but +there is no position without some kind of talent. + +401.--Rank is to merit what dress is to a pretty +woman. + +402.--What we find the least of in flirtation is love. + +403.--Fortune sometimes uses our faults to exalt us, +and there are tiresome people whose deserts would be +ill rewarded if we did not desire to purchase their +absence. + +404.--It appears that nature has hid at the bottom +of our hearts talents and abilities unknown to us. It +is only the passions that have the power of bringing +them to light, and sometimes give us views more +true and more perfect than art could possibly do. + +405.--We reach quite inexperienced the different +stages of life, and often, in spite of the number of our +years, we lack experience. + +["To most men experience is like the stern lights of a +ship which illumine only the track it has passed."-- +Coleridge.] + +406.--Flirts make it a point of honour to be jealous +of their lovers, to conceal their envy of other women. + +407.--It may well be that those who have trapped +us by their tricks do not seem to us so foolish as we +seem to ourselves when trapped by the tricks of +others. + +408.--The most dangerous folly of old persons who +have been loveable is to forget that they are no +longer so. + +["Every woman who is not absolutely ugly thinks herself +handsome. The suspicion of age no woman, let her be +ever so old, forgives."--Lord Chesterfield, LETTER 129.] + +409.--We should often be ashamed of our very best +actions if the world only saw the motives which caused +them. + +410.--The greatest effort of friendship is not to show +our faults to a friend, but to show him his own. + +4ll.--We have few faults which are not far more +excusable than the means we adopt to hide them. + +412.--Whatever disgrace we may have deserved, it +is almost always in our power to re-establish our cha- +racter. + +["This is hardly a period at which the most irregular +character may not be redeemed. The mistakes of one sin +find a retreat in patriotism, those of the other in devotion." +-Junius, LETTER TO THE KING.] + +413.--A man cannot please long who has only one +kind of wit. + +[According to Segrais this maxim was a hit at Racine +and Boileau, who, despising ordinary conversation, talked +incessantly of literature; but there is some doubt as to +Segrais' statement.--Aime Martin.] + +414.--Idiots and lunatics see only their own wit. + +415.--Wit sometimes enables us to act rudely with +impunity. + +416.--The vivacity which increases in old age is not +far removed from folly. + +["How ill {white} hairs become {a} fool and jester."-- +Shakespeare{, King Henry IV, Part II, Act. V, Scene V, +King}. + +"Can age itself forget that you are now in the last act of +life? Can grey hairs make folly venerable, and is there +no period to be reserved for meditation or retirement."-- +Junius, TO THE DUKE OF BEDFORD, 19th Sept. 1769.] + +417.--In love the quickest is always the best cure. + +418.--Young women who do not want to appear +flirts, and old men who do not want to appear ridi- +culous, should not talk of love as a matter wherein +they can have any interest. + +419.--We may seem great in a post beneath our +capacity, but we oftener seem little in a post above it. + +420.--We often believe we have constancy in mis- +fortune when we have nothing but debasement, and +we suffer misfortunes without regarding them as +cowards who let themselves be killed from fear of +defending themselves. + +421.--Conceit causes more conversation than wit. + +422.--All passions make us commit some faults, +love alone makes us ridiculous. + +["In love we all are fools alike."--Gay{, THE +BEGGAR'S OPERA, (1728), Act III, Scene I, Lucy}.] + +423.--Few know how to be old. + +424.--We often credit ourselves with vices the +reverse of what we have, thus when weak we boast of +our obstinacy. + +425.--Penetration has a spice of divination in it +which tickles our vanity more than any other quality +of the mind. + +426.--The charm of novelty and old custom, how- +ever opposite to each other, equally blind us to the +faults of our friends. + +["Two things the most opposite blind us equally, custom +and novelty."-La Bruyere, DES JUDGEMENTS.] + +427.--Most friends sicken us of friendship, most +devotees of devotion. + +428.--We easily forgive in our friends those faults +we do not perceive. + +429.--Women who love, pardon more readily great +indiscretions than little infidelities. + +430.--In the old age of love as in life we still sur- +vive for the evils, though no longer for the pleasures. + +["The youth of friendship is better than its old age."-- +Hazlitt's CHARACTERISTICS, 229.] + +431.--Nothing prevents our being unaffected so +much as our desire to seem so. + +432.--To praise good actions heartily is in some +measure to take part in them. + +433.--The most certain sign of being born with +great qualities is to be born without envy. + +["Nemo alienae virtuti invidet qui satis confidet suae." +-Cicero IN MARC ANT.] + +434.--When our friends have deceived us we owe +them but indifference to the tokens of their friend- +ship, yet for their misfortunes we always owe them +pity. + +435.--Luck and temper rule the world. + +436.--It is far easier to know men than to know +man. + +437.--We should not judge of a man's merit by his +great abilities, but by the use he makes of them. + +438.--There is a certain lively gratitude which not +only releases us from benefits received, but which also, +by making a return to our friends as payment, renders +them indebted to us. + +["And understood not that a grateful mind, + By owing owes not, but is at once + Indebted and discharged." + Milton. PARADISE LOST.] + +439.--We should earnestly desire but few things if +we clearly knew what we desired. + +440.--The cause why the majority of women are so +little given to friendship is, that it is insipid after +having felt love. + +["Those who have experienced a great passion neglect +friendship, and those who have united themselves to friend- +ship have nought to do with love."--La Bruyere. DU COEUR.] + +441.--As in friendship so in love, we are often hap- +pier from ignorance than from knowledge. + +442.--We try to make a virtue of vices we are loth +to correct. + +443.--The most violent passions give some respite, +but vanity always disturbs us. + +444.--Old fools are more foolish than young fools. + +["MALVOLIO. Infirmity{,} that decays the wise{,} doth eve{r} +make the better fool. + CLOWN. God send you, sir, a speedy infirmity{,} for the +better increasing of your folly."--Shakespeare. TWELFTH +NIGHT{, Act I, Scene V}.] + +445.--Weakness is more hostile to virtue than vice. + +446.--What makes the grief of shame and jealousy +so acute is that vanity cannot aid us in enduring them. + +447.--Propriety is the least of all laws, but the most +obeyed. + +[Honour has its supreme laws, to which education is +bound to conform....Those things which honour +forbids are more rigorously forbidden when the laws do +not concur in the prohibition, and those it commands are +more strongly insisted upon when they happen not to be +commanded by law.--Montesquieu, {THE SPIRIT OF LAWS, }b. 4, +c. ii.] + +448.--A well-trained mind has less difficulty in sub- +mitting to than in guiding an ill-trained mind. + +449.--When fortune surprises us by giving us some +great office without having gradually led us to expect +it, or without having raised our hopes, it is well nigh +impossible to occupy it well, and to appear worthy +to fill it. + +450.--Our pride is often increased by what we +retrench from our other faults. + +["The loss of sensual pleasures was supplied and com- +pensated by spiritual pride."--Gibbon. DECLINE AND FALL, +chap. xv.] + +451.--No fools so wearisome as those who have some +wit. + +452.--No one believes that in every respect he is +behind the man he considers the ablest in the world. + +453.--In great matters we should not try so much +to create opportunities as to utilise those that offer +themselves. + +[Yet Lord Bacon says "A wise man will make more +opportunities than he finds."--Essays, {(1625), +"Of Ceremonies and Respects"}] + +454.--There are few occasions when we should make +a bad bargain by giving up the good on condition that +no ill was said of us. + +455.--However disposed the world may be to judge +wrongly, it far oftener favours false merit than does +justice to true. + +456.--Sometimes we meet a fool with wit, never one +with discretion. + +457.--We should gain more by letting the world see +what we are than by trying to seem what we are not. + +458.--Our enemies come nearer the truth in the +opinions they form of us than we do in our opinion of +ourselves. + +459.--There are many remedies to cure love, yet +none are infallible. + +460.--It would be well for us if we knew all our +passions make us do. + +461.--Age is a tyrant who forbids at the penalty of +life all the pleasures of youth. + +462.--The same pride which makes us blame faults +from which we believe ourselves free causes us to +despise the good qualities we have not. + +463.--There is often more pride than goodness in +our grief for our enemies' miseries; it is to show how +superior we are to them, that we bestow on them the +sign of our compassion. + +464.--There exists an excess of good and evil which +surpasses our comprehension. + +465.--Innocence is most fortunate if it finds the +same protection as crime. + +466.--Of all the violent passions the one that +becomes a woman best is love. + +467.--Vanity makes us sin more against our taste +than reason. + +468.--Some bad qualities form great talents. + +469.--We never desire earnestly what we desire in +reason. + +470.--All our qualities are uncertain and doubtful, +both the good as well as the bad, and nearly all are +creatures of opportunities. + +471.--In their first passion women love their lovers, +in all the others they love love. + +["In her first passion woman loves her lover, + In all her others what she loves is love." + {--Lord Byron, }Don Juan, Canto iii., stanza 3. +"We truly love once, the first time; the subsequent pas- +sions are more or less involuntary." La Bruyere: DU COEUR.] + +472.--Pride as the other passions has its follies. We +are ashamed to own we are jealous, and yet we plume +ourselves in having been and being able to be so. + +473.--However rare true love is, true friendship is +rarer. + +["It is more common to see perfect love than real friend- +ship."--La Bruyere. DU COEUR.] + +474.--There are few women whose charm survives +their beauty. + +475.--The desire to be pitied or to be admired often +forms the greater part of our confidence. + +476.--Our envy always lasts longer than the happi- +ness of those we envy. + +477.--The same firmness that enables us to resist +love enables us to make our resistance durable and +lasting. So weak persons who are always excited by +passions are seldom really possessed of any. + +478.--Fancy does not enable us to invent so many +different contradictions as there are by nature in every +heart. + +479.--It is only people who possess firmness who +can possess true gentleness. In those who appear +gentle it is generally only weakness, which is readily +converted into harshness. + +480.--Timidity is a fault which is dangerous to +blame in those we desire to cure of it. + +481.--Nothing is rarer than true good nature, those +who think they have it are generally only pliant or weak. + +482.--The mind attaches itself by idleness and habit +to whatever is easy or pleasant. This habit always places +bounds to our knowledge, and no one has ever yet +taken the pains to enlarge and expand his mind to +the full extent of its capacities. + +483.--Usually we are more satirical from vanity +than malice. + +484.--When the heart is still disturbed by the relics +of a passion it is proner to take up a new one than +when wholly cured. + +485.--Those who have had great passions often find +all their lives made miserable in being cured of them. + +486.--More persons exist without self-love than +without envy. + +["I do not believe that there is a human creature in his +senses arrived at maturity, that at some time or other has +not been carried away by this passion (envy) in good +earnest, and yet I never met with any who dared own he +was guilty of it, but in jest."--Mandeville: FABLE OF THE +BEES; Remark N.] + +487.--We have more idleness in the mind than in +the body. + +488.--The calm or disturbance of our mind does +not depend so much on what we regard as the more +important things of life, as in a judicious or injudicious +arrangement of the little things of daily occurrence. + +489.--However wicked men may be, they do not +dare openly to appear the enemies of virtue, and when +they desire to persecute her they either pretend to +believe her false or attribute crimes to her. + +490.--We often go from love to ambition, but we +never return from ambition to love. + +["Men commence by love, finish by ambition, and do +not find a quieter seat while they remain there."--La +Bruyere: DU COEUR.] + +491.--Extreme avarice is nearly always mistaken, +there is no passion which is oftener further away from +its mark, nor upon which the present has so much +power to the prejudice of the future. + +492.--Avarice often produces opposite results: there +are an infinite number of persons who sacrifice their +property to doubtful and distant expectations, others +mistake great future advantages for small present +interests. + +[AIME MARTIN says, "The author here confuses greedi- +ness, the desire and avarice--passions which probably have +a common origin, but produce different results. The +greedy man is nearly always desirous to possess, and often +foregoes great future advantages for small present interests. +The avaricious man, on the other hand, mistakes present +advantages for the great expectations of the future. Both +desire to possess and enjoy. But the miser possesses and +enjoys nothing but the pleasure of possessing; he risks +nothing, gives nothing, hopes nothing, his life is centred +in his strong box, beyond that he has no want."] + +493.--It appears that men do not find they have +enough faults, as they increase the number by certain +peculiar qualities that they affect to assume, and +which they cultivate with so great assiduity that at +length they become natural faults, which they can no +longer correct. + +494.--What makes us see that men know their +faults better than we imagine, is that they are never +wrong when they speak of their conduct; the same +self-love that usually blinds them enlightens them, +and gives them such true views as to make them +suppress or disguise the smallest thing that might be +censured. + +495.--Young men entering life should be either shy +or bold; a solemn and sedate manner usually de- +generates into impertinence. + +496.--Quarrels would not last long if the fault was +only on one side. + +497.--It is valueless to a woman to be young unless +pretty, or to be pretty unless young. + +498.--Some persons are so frivolous and fickle that +they are as far removed from real defects as from +substantial qualities. + +499.--We do not usually reckon a woman's first +flirtation until she has had a second. + +500.--Some people are so self-occupied that when +in love they find a mode by which to be engrossed +with the passion without being so with the person +they love. + +501.--Love, though so very agreeable, pleases more +by its ways than by itself. + +502.--A little wit with good sense bores less in the +long run than much wit with ill nature. + +503.--Jealousy is the worst of all evils, yet the one +that is least pitied by those who cause it. + +504.--Thus having treated of the hollowness of so +many apparent virtues, it is but just to say something +on the hollowness of the contempt for death. I allude +to that contempt of death which the heathen boasted +they derived from their unaided understanding, with- +out the hope of a future state. There is a difference +between meeting death with courage and despising it. +The first is common enough, the last I think always +feigned. Yet everything that could be has been +written to persuade us that death is no evil, and the +weakest of men, equally with the bravest, have given +many noble examples on which to found such an +opinion, still I do not think that any man of good sense +has ever yet believed in it. And the pains we take to +persuade others as well as ourselves amply show that +the task is far from easy. For many reasons we may +be disgusted with life, but for none may we despise it. +Not even those who commit suicide regard it as a +light matter, and are as much alarmed and startled +as the rest of the world if death meets them in a dif- +ferent way than the one they have selected. The differ- +ence we observe in the courage of so great a number of +brave men, is from meeting death in a way different +from what they imagined, when it shows itself nearer at +one time than at another. Thus it ultimately happens +that having despised death when they were ignorant +of it, they dread it when they become acquainted with +it. If we could avoid seeing it with all its surround- +ings, we might perhaps believe that it was not the +greatest of evils. The wisest and bravest are those +who take the best means to avoid reflecting on it, as +every man who sees it in its real light regards it as +dreadful. The necessity of dying created all the con- +stancy of philosophers. They thought it but right to +go with a good grace when they could not avoid going, +and being unable to prolong their lives indefinitely, +nothing remained but to build an immortal reputation, +and to save from the general wreck all that could be +saved. To put a good face upon it, let it suffice, not +to say all that we think to ourselves, but rely more +on our nature than on our fallible reason, which might +make us think we could approach death with indif- +ference. The glory of dying with courage, the hope +of being regretted, the desire to leave behind us a +good reputation, the assurance of being enfranchised +from the miseries of life and being no longer depend- +ent on the wiles of fortune, are resources which +should not be passed over. But we must not regard +them as infallible. They should affect us in the same +proportion as a single shelter affects those who in war +storm a fortress. At a distance they think it may +afford cover, but when near they find it only a feeble +protection. It is only deceiving ourselves to imagine +that death, when near, will seem the same as at +a distance, or that our feelings, which are merely +weaknesses, are naturally so strong that they will +not suffer in an attack of the rudest of trials. It +is equally as absurd to try the effect of self-esteem +and to think it will enable us to count as naught +what will of necessity destroy it. And the mind in +which we trust to find so many resources will be far +too weak in the struggle to persuade us in the way we +wish. For it is this which betrays us so frequently, +and which, instead of filling us with contempt of death, +serves but to show us all that is frightful and fearful. +The most it can do for us is to persuade us to avert +our gaze and fix it on other objects. Cato and Brutus +each selected noble ones. A lackey sometime ago +contented himself by dancing on the scaffold when +he was about to be broken on the wheel. So however +diverse the motives they but realize the same result. +For the rest it is a fact that whatever difference there +may be between the peer and the peasant, we have +constantly seen both the one and the other meet death +with the same composure. Still there is always this +difference, that the contempt the peer shows for death +is but the love of fame which hides death from his +sight; in the peasant it is but the result of his limited +vision that hides from him the extent of the evil, end +leaves him free to reflect on other things. + + + +THE FIRST SUPPLEMENT + +[The following reflections are extracted from the first two +editions of La Rochefoucauld, having been suppressed +by the author in succeeding issues.] + + +I.--Self-love is the love OF self, and of all things +FOR self. It makes men self-worshippers, and if for- +tune permits them, causes them to tyrannize over +others; it is never quiet when out of itself, and only +rests upon other subjects as a bee upon flowers, to +extract from them its proper food. Nothing is so +headstrong as its desires, nothing so well concealed as +its designs, nothing so skilful as its management; its +suppleness is beyond description; its changes surpass +those of the metamorphoses, its refinements those of +chemistry. We can neither plumb the depths nor +pierce the shades of its recesses. Therein it is hidden +from the most far-seeing eyes, therein it takes a thou- +sand imperceptible folds. There it is often to itself +invisible; it there conceives, there nourishes and rears, +without being aware of it, numberless loves and +hatreds, some so monstrous that when they are brought +to light it disowns them, and cannot resolve to avow +them. In the night which covers it are born the +ridiculous persuasions it has of itself, thence come its +errors, its ignorance, its silly mistakes; thence it is +led to believe that its passions which sleep are dead, +and to think that it has lost all appetite for that of +which it is sated. But this thick darkness which con- +ceals it from itself does not hinder it from seeing that +perfectly which is out of itself; and in this it re- +sembles our eyes which behold all, and yet cannot set +their own forms. In fact, in great concerns and im- +portant matters when the violence of its desires sum- +mons all its attention, it sees, feels, hears, imagines, +suspects, penetrates, divines all: so that we might +think that each of its passions had a magic power +proper to it. Nothing is so close and strong as its +attachments, which, in sight of the extreme misfor- +tunes which threaten it, it vainly attempts to break. +Yet sometimes it effects that without trouble and +quickly, which it failed to do with its whole power +and in the course of years, whence we may fairly con- +clude that it is by itself that its desires are inflamed, +rather than by the beauty and merit of its objects, +that its own taste embellishes and heightens them; +that it is itself the game it pursues, and that it follows +eagerly when it runs after that upon which itself is +eager. It is made up of contraries. It is imperious and +obedient, sincere and false, piteous and cruel, timid +and bold. It has different desires according to the +diversity of temperaments, which turn and fix it some- +times upon riches, sometimes on pleasures. It changes +according to our age, our fortunes, and our hopes; +it is quite indifferent whether it has many or one, +because it can split itself into many portions, and +unite in one as it pleases. It is inconstant, and besides +the changes which arise from strange causes it has +an infinity born of itself, and of its own substance. +It is inconstant through inconstancy, of lightness, +love, novelty, lassitude and distaste. It is capricious, +and one sees it sometimes work with intense eager- +ness and with incredible labour to obtain things of +little use to it which are even hurtful, but which it +pursues because it wishes for them. It is silly, and +often throws its whole application on the utmost +frivolities. It finds all its pleasure in the dullest +matters, and places its pride in the most contemptible. +It is seen in all states of life, and in all conditions; it +lives everywhere and upon everything; it subsists on +nothing; it accommodates itself either to things or to +the want of them; it goes over to those who are at war +with it, enters into their designs, and, this is wonderful, +it, with them, hates even itself; it conspires for its own +loss, it works towards its own ruin--in fact, caring only +to exist, and providing that it may BE, it will be its own +enemy! We must therefore not be surprised if it is +sometimes united to the rudest austerity, and if it +enters so boldly into partnership to destroy her, +because when it is rooted out in one place it re-esta- +blishes itself in another. When it fancies that it +abandons its pleasure it merely changes or suspends +its enjoyment. When even it is conquered in its full +flight, we find that it triumphs in its own defeat. +Here then is the picture of self-love whereof the whole +of our life is but one long agitation. The sea is its +living image; and in the flux and reflux of its con- +tinuous waves there is a faithful expression of the +stormy succession of its thoughts and of its eternal +motion. (Edition of 1665, No. 1.) + +II.--Passions are only the different degrees of the +heat or coldness of the blood. (1665, No. 13.) + +III.--Moderation in good fortune is but apprehen- +sion of the shame which follows upon haughtiness, or +a fear of losing what we have. (1665, No. 18.) + +IV.--Moderation is like temperance in eating; we +could eat more but we fear to make ourselves ill. +(1665, No. 21.) + +V.--Everybody finds that to abuse in another which +he finds worthy of abuse in himself. (1665, No. 33.) + +VI.--Pride, as if tired of its artifices and its different +metamorphoses, after having solely filled the divers +parts of the comedy of life, exhibits itself with +its natural face, and is discovered by haughtiness; so +much so that we may truly say that haughtiness is but +the flash and open declaration of pride. (1665, No. 37.) + +VII.--One kind of happiness is to know exactly at +what point to be miserable. (1665, No. 53.) + +VIII.--When we do not find peace of mind (REPOS) +in ourselves it is useless to seek it elsewhere. (1665, +No. 53.) + +IX.--One should be able to answer for one's fortune, +so as to be able to answer for what we shall do. (1665, +No. 70.) + +X.--Love is to the soul of him who loves, what the +soul is to the body which it animates. (1665, No. 77.) + +XI.--As one is never at liberty to love or to cease +from loving, the lover cannot with justice complain +of the inconstancy of his mistress, nor she of the +fickleness of her lover. (1665, No. 81.) + +XII.--Justice in those judges who are moderate +is but a love of their place. (1665, No. 89.) + +XIII.--When we are tired of loving we are quite +content if our mistress should become faithless, to loose +us from our fidelity. (1665, No. 85.) + +XIV.--The first impulse of joy which we feel at the +happiness of our friends arises neither from our +natural goodness nor from friendship; it is the result +of self-love, which flatters us with being lucky in +our own turn, or in reaping something from the good +fortune of our friends. (1665, No. 97.) + +XV.--In the adversity of our best friends we +always find something which is not wholly displeasing +to us. (1665, No. 99.) + +[This gave occasion to Swift's celebrated "Verses on his +own Death." The four first are quoted opposite the title, +then follow these lines:-- + "This maxim more than all the rest, + Is thought too base for human breast; + In all distresses of our friends, + We first consult our private ends; + While nature kindly bent to ease us, + Points out some circumstance to please us." + +See also Chesterfield's defence of this in his 129th letter; +"they who know the deception and wickedness of the +human heart will not be either romantic or blind enough to +deny what Rochefoucauld and Swift have affirmed as a +general truth."] + +XVI.--How shall we hope that another person will +keep our secret if we do not keep it ourselves. (1665, +No. 100.) + +XVII.--As if it was not sufficient that self-love +should have the power to change itself, it has added +that of changing other objects, and this it does in a +very astonishing manner; for not only does it so well +disguise them that it is itself deceived, but it even +changes the state and nature of things. Thus, when +a female is adverse to us, and she turns her hate +and persecution against us, self-love pronounces +on her actions with all the severity of justice; +it exaggerates the faults till they are enormous, +and looks at her good qualities in so disadvan- +tageous a light that they become more displeasing than +her faults. If however the same female becomes +favourable to us, or certain of our interests reconcile +her to us, our sole self interest gives her back the +lustre which our hatred deprived her of. The bad +qualities become effaced, the good ones appear with +a redoubled advantage; we even summon all our +indulgence to justify the war she has made upon us. +Now although all passions prove this truth, that of +love exhibits it most clearly; for we may see a +lover moved with rage by the neglect or the infidelity +of her whom he loves, and meditating the utmost +vengeance that his passion can inspire. Nevertheless +as soon as the sight of his beloved has calmed the +fury of his movements, his passion holds that beauty +innocent; he only accuses himself, he condemns his +condemnations, and by the miraculous power of self- +love, he whitens the blackest actions of his mistress, +and takes from her all crime to lay it on himself. + +{No date or number is given for this maxim} + +XVIII.--There are none who press so heavily on +others as the lazy ones, when they have satisfied their +idleness, and wish to appear industrious. (1666, +No. 91.) + +XIX.--The blindness of men is the most dangerous +effect of their pride; it seems to nourish and augment +it, it deprives us of knowledge of remedies which can +solace our miseries and can cure our faults. (1665, +No. 102.) + +XX.--One has never less reason than when one +despairs of finding it in others. (1665, No. 103.) + +XXI.--Philosophers, and Seneca above all, have not +diminished crimes by their precepts; they have only +used them in the building up of pride. (1665, No. 105.) + +XXII.--It is a proof of little friendship not to per- +ceive the growing coolness of that of our friends. +(1666, No. 97.) + +XXIII.--The most wise may be so in indifferent and +ordinary matters, but they are seldom so in their +most serious affairs. (1665, No. 132.) + +XXIV.--The most subtle folly grows out of the most +subtle wisdom. (1665, No. 134.) + +XXV.--Sobriety is the love of health, or an in- +capacity to eat much. (l665, No. 135.) + +XXVI.--We never forget things so well as when we +are tired of talking of them. (1665, No. 144.) + +XXVII.--The praise bestowed upon us is at least +useful in rooting us in the practice of virtue. (1665, +No. 155.) + +XXVIII.--Self-love takes care to prevent him whom +we flatter from being him who most flatters us. (1665, +No. 157.) + +XXIX.--Men only blame vice and praise virtue +from interest. (1665, No. 151.) + +XXX.--We make no difference in the kinds of anger, +although there is that which is light and almost inno- +cent, which arises from warmth of complexion, tem- +perament, and another very criminal, which is, to +speak properly, the fury of pride. (1665, No. 159.) + +XXXI.--Great souls are not those who have fewer +passions and more virtues than the common, but +those only who have greater designs. (1665, No. 161.) + +XXXII.--Kings do with men as with pieces of +money; they make them bear what value they will, +and one is forced to receive them according to their +currency value, and not at their true worth. (1665, +No. 165.) + +[See Burns{, FOR A' THAT AN A' THAT}-- + "The rank is but the guinea's stamp, + {The} man's {the gowd} for a' that." +Also Farquhar and other parallel passages pointed out in +FAMILIAR WORDS.] + +XXXIII.--Natural ferocity makes fewer people +cruel than self-love. (1665, No. 174.) + +XXXIV.--One may say of all our virtues as an +Italian poet says of the propriety of women, that it +is often merely the art of appearing chaste. (1665, +No. 176.) + +XXXV.--There are crimes which become innocent +and even glorious by their brilliancy,* their number, or +their excess; thus it happens that public robbery is +called financial skill, and the unjust capture of pro- +vinces is called a conquest. (1665, No. 192.) + +*<Some crimes may be excused by their brilliancy, such +as those of Jael, of Deborah, of Brutus, and of Charlotte +Corday--further than this the maxim is satire.> + +XXXVI.--One never finds in man good or evil in +excess. (1665, No. 201.) + +XXXVII.--Those who are incapable of committing +great crimes do not easily suspect others. (1665, +No. {2}08.) + +{The text incorrectly numbers this maxim as 508. It +is 208.} + +XXXVIII.--The pomp of funerals concerns rather +the vanity of the living, than the honour of the +dead. (1665, No. 213.) + +XXXIX.--Whatever variety and change appears in +the world, we may remark a secret chain, and a regu- +lated order of all time by Providence, which makes +everything follow in due rank and fall into its de- +stined course. (1665, No. 225.) + +XL.--Intrepidity should sustain the heart in con- +spiracies in place of valour which alone furnishes all +the firmness which is necessary for the perils of war. +(1665, No. 231.) + +XLI.--Those who wish to define victory by her birth +will be tempted to imitate the poets, and to call her +the Daughter of Heaven, since they cannot find her +origin on earth. Truly she is produced from an +infinity of actions, which instead of wishing to beget +her, only look to the particular interests of their +masters, since all those who compose an army, in +aiming at their own rise and glory, produce a good +so great and general. (1665, No. 232.) + +XLII.--That man who has never been in danger +cannot answer for his courage. (1665, No. 236.) + +XLIII.--We more often place bounds on our grati- +tude than on our desires and our hopes. (1665, No. +241.) + +XLIV.--Imitation is always unhappy, for all which +is counterfeit displeases by the very things which +charm us when they are original (NATURELLES). (1665, +No. 245.) + +XLV.--We do not regret the loss of our friends ac- +cording to THEIR merits, but according to OUR wants, +and the opinion with which we believed we had im- +pressed them of our worth. (1665, No. 248.) + +XLVI.--It is very hard to separate the general +goodness spread all over the world from great clever- +ness. (1665, No. 252.) + +XLVII.--For us to be always good, others should +believe that they cannot behave wickedly to us with +impunity. (1665, No. 254.) + +XLVIII.--A confidence in being able to please is +often an infallible means of being displeasing. (1665, +No. 256.) + +XLIX.--The confidence we have in ourselves arises +in a great measure from that that we have in others. +(1665, No. 258.) + +L.--There is a general revolution which changes +the tastes of the mind as well as the fortunes of the +world. (1665, No. 250.) + +LI.--Truth is foundation and the reason of the per- +fection of beauty, for of whatever stature a thing may +be, it cannot be beautiful and perfect unless it be +truly that she should be, and possess truly all that she +should have (1665, No. 260.) + +[Beauty is truth, truth beauty.{--John Keats, "Ode on a +a Grecian Urn," (1820), Stanza 5}] + +LII.--There are fine things which are more bril- +liant when unfinished than when finished too much. +(1665, No. 262.) + +LIII.--Magnanimity is a noble effort of pride which +makes a man master of himself, to make him master +of all things. (1665, No. 271.) + +LIV.--Luxury and too refined a policy in states are +a sure presage of their fall, because all parties looking +after their own interest turn away from the public +good. (1665, No. 282.) + +LV.--Of all passions that which is least known to +us is idleness; she is the most ardent and evil of all, +although her violence may be insensible, and the evils +she causes concealed; if we consider her power +attentively we shall find that in all encounters she +makes herself mistress of our sentiments, our in- +terests, and our pleasures; like the (fabled) Remora, +she can stop the greatest vessels, she is a hidden rock, +more dangerous in the most important matters than +sudden squalls and the most violent tempests. The +repose of idleness is a magic charm which suddenly +suspends the most ardent pursuits and the most +obstinate resolutions. In fact to give a true notion of +this passion we must add that idleness, like a beati- +tude of the soul, consoles us for all losses and fills the +vacancy of all our wants. (1665, No. 290.) + +LVI.--We are very fond of reading others' characters, +but we do not like to be read ourselves. (1665, No. 296.) + +LVII.--What a tiresome malady is that which forces +one to preserve your health by a severe regimen. +(IBID, No. 298.) + +LVIII.--It is much easier to take love when one is +free, than to get rid of it after having taken it. (1665, +No. 300.) + +LIX.--Women for the most part surrender them- +selves more from weakness than from passion. Whence +it is that bold and pushing men succeed better than +others, although they are not so loveable. (1665, No. +301.) + +LX.--Not to love is in love, an infallible means of +being beloved. (1665, No. 302.) + +LXI.--The sincerity which lovers and mistresses ask +that both should know when they cease to love each +other, arises much less from a wish to be warned of +the cessation of love, than from a desire to be assured +that they are beloved although no one denies it. +(1665, No. 303.) + +LXII.--The most just comparison of love is that of +a fever, and we have no power over either, as to its +violence or its duration. (1665, No. 305.) + +LXIII.--The greatest skill of the least skilful is to +know how to submit to the direction of another. +(1665, No. 309.) + +LXIV.--We always fear to see those whom we love +when we have been flirting with others. (16{74}, No. +372.) + +LXV.--We ought to console ourselves for our faults +when we have strength enough to own them. (16{74}, +No. 375.) + +{The date of the previous two maxims is incorrectly cited +as 1665 in the text. I found this date immediately suspect +because the translators' introduction states that the 1665 +edition only had 316 maxims. In fact, the two maxims only +appeared in the fourth of the first five editions (1674).} + + + +SECOND SUPPLEMENT. + +REFLECTIONS, +EXTRACTED FROM +MS. LETTERS IN THE ROYAL LIBRARY.* + +*<A LA BIBLIOTHEQUE DU ROI, it is difficult at present +(June 1871) to assign a name to the magnificent collection +of books in Paris, the property of the nation.> + + +LXVI.--Interest is the soul of self-love, in as much +as when the body deprived of its soul is without sight, +feeling or knowledge, without thought or movement, +so self-love, riven so to speak from its interest, neither +sees, nor hears, nor smells, nor moves; thus it is that +the same man who will run over land and sea for his +own interest becomes suddenly paralyzed when en- +gaged for that of others; from this arises that sudden +dulness and, as it were, death, with which we afflict +those to whom we speak of our own matters; from this +also their sudden resurrection when in our narrative +we relate something concerning them; from this we +find in our conversations and business that a man +becomes dull or bright just as his own interest is near +to him or distant from him. (LETTER TO MADAME DE +SABLE, MS., FOL. 211.) + +LXVII.--Why we cry out so much against maxims +which lay bare the heart of man, is because we fear +that our own heart shall be laid bare. (MAXIM 103, +MS., fol. 310.*) + +*<The reader will recognise in these extracts portions of the +Maxims previously given, sometimes the author has care- +fully polished them; at other times the words are identical. +Our numbers will indicate where they are to be found in +the foregoing collection.> + +LXVIII.--Hope and fear are inseparable. (TO +MADAME DE SABLE, MS., FOL. 222, MAX. 168.) + +LXIX.--It is a common thing to hazard life to escape +dishonour; but, when this is done, the actor takes +very little pain to make the enterprise succeed in +which he is engaged, and certain it is that they who +hazard their lives to take a city or to conquer a pro- +vince are better officers, have more merit, and wider +and more useful, views than they who merely expose +themselves to vindicate their honour; it is very com- +mon to find people of the latter class, very rare to +find those of the former. (LETTER TO M. ESPRIT, MS., +FOL. 173, MAX. 219.) + +LXX.--The taste changes, but the will remains the +same. (TO MADAME DE SABLE, FOL. 223, MAX. 252.) + +LXXI.--The power which women whom we love +have over us is greater than that which we have over +ourselves. (TO THE SAME, MS., FOL. 211, MAX. 259) + +LXXII.--That which makes us believe so easily that +others have defects is that we all so easily believe +what we wish. (TO THE SAME, MS., FOL. 223, MAX. 397.) + +LXXIII.--I am perfectly aware that good sense and +fine wit are tedious to every age, but tastes are not +always the same, and what is good at one time will +not seem so at another. This makes me think that +few persons know how to be old. (TO THE SAME, +FOL. 202, MAX. 423.) + +LXXIV.--God has permitted, to punish man for his +original sin, that he should be so fond of his self-love, +that he should be tormented by it in all the actions +of his life. (MS., FOL. 310, MAX. 494.) + +LXXV.--And so far it seems to me the philosophy +of a lacquey can go; I believe that all gaity in that state +of life is very doubtful indeed. (TO MADAME DE SABLE, +FOL. 161, MAX. 504.) + +[In the maxim cited the author relates how a footman +about to be broken on the wheel danced on the scaffold. +He seems to think that in his day the life of such servants +was so miserable that their merriment was very doubtful.] + + + +THIRD SUPPLEMENT + +[The fifty following Maxims are taken from the Sixth +Edition of the PENSEES DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, published +by Claude Barbin, in 1693, more than twelve years after +the death of the author (17th May, 1680). The reader +will find some repetitions, but also some very valuable +maxims.] + + +LXXVI.--Many persons wish to be devout; but +no one wishes to be humble. + +LXXVII.--The labour of the body frees us from +the pains of the mind, and thus makes the poor happy. + +LXXVIII.--True penitential sorrows (mortifica- +tions) are those which are not known, vanity renders +the others easy enough. + +LXXIX.--Humility is the altar upon which God +wishes that we should offer him his sacrifices. + +LXXX.--Few things are needed to make a wise man +happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why +most men are miserable. + +LXXXI.--We trouble ourselves less to become +happy, than to make others believe we are so. + +LXXXII.--It is more easy to extinguish the first +desire than to satisfy those which follow. + +LXXXIII.--Wisdom is to the soul what health is to +the body. + +LXXXIV.--The great ones of the earth can neither +command health of body nor repose of mind, and +they buy always at too dear a price the good they can +acquire. + +LXXXV.--Before strongly desiring anything we +should examine what happiness he has who possesses it. + +LXXXVI.--A true friend is the greatest of all +goods, and that of which we think least of acquiring. + +LXXXVII.--Lovers do not wish to see the faults of +their mistresses until their enchantment is at an end. + +LXXXVIII.--Prudence and love are not made for +each other; in the ratio that love increases, prudence +diminishes. + +LXXXIX.--It is sometimes pleasing to a husband +to have a jealous wife; he hears her always speaking +of the beloved object. + +XC.--How much is a woman to be pitied who is at +the same time possessed of virtue and love! + +XCI.--The wise man finds it better not to enter +the encounter than to conquer. + +[Somewhat similar to Goldsmith's sage-- + "Who quits {a} world where strong temptations try, + And since 'tis hard to co{mbat}, learns to fly."] + +XCII.--It is more necessary to study men than +books. + +["The proper study of mankind is man."--Pope +{ESSAY ON MAN, (1733), EPISTLE II, line 2}.] + +XCIII.--Good and evil ordinarily come to those who +have most of one or the other. + +XCIV.--The accent and character of one's native +country dwells in the mind and heart as on the tongue. +(REPITITION OF MAXIM 342.) + +XCV.--The greater part of men have qualities +which, like those of plants, are discovered by chance. +(REPITITION OF MAXIM 344.) + +XCVI.--A good woman is a hidden treasure; he +who discovers her will do well not to boast about it. +(SEE MAXIM 368.) + +XCVII.--Most women do not weep for the loss +of a lover to show that they have been loved so much +as to show that they are worth being loved. (SEE +MAXIM 362.) + +XCVIII.--There are many virtuous women who +are weary of the part they have played. (SEE MAXIM +367.) + +XCIX.--If we think we love for love's sake we +are much mistaken. (SEE MAXIM 374.) + +C.--The restraint we lay upon ourselves to be con- +stant, is not much better than an inconstancy. (SEE +MAXIMS 369, 381.) + +CI.--There are those who avoid our jealousy, of +whom we ought to be jealous. (SEE MAXIM 359.) + +CII.--Jealousy is always born with love, but does +not always die with it. (SEE MAXIM 361.) + +CIII.--When we love too much it is difficult to +discover when we have ceased to be beloved. + +CIV.--We know very well that we should not talk +about our wives, but we do not remember that it is +not so well to speak of ourselves. (SEE MAXIM 364.) + +CV.--Chance makes us known to others and to our- +selves. (SEE MAXIM 345.) + +CVI.--We find very few people of good sense, ex- +cept those who are of our own opinion. (SEE MAXIM +347.) + +CVII.--We commonly praise the good hearts of +those who admire us. (SEE MAXIM 356.) + +CVIII.--Man only blames himself in order that he +may be praised. + +CIX.--Little minds are wounded by the smallest +things. (SEE MAXIM 357.) + +CX.--There are certain faults which placed in a good +light please more than perfection itself. (SEE MAXIM +354.) + +CXI.--That which makes us so bitter against those +who do us a shrewd turn, is because they think them- +selves more clever than we are. (SEE MAXIM 350.) + +CXII.--We are always bored by those whom we +bore. (SEE MAXIM 352.) + +CXIII.--The harm that others do us is often less +than that we do ourselves. (SEE MAXIM 363.) + +CXIV.--It is never more difficult to speak well +than when we are ashamed of being silent. + +CXV.--Those faults are always pardonable that we +have the courage to avow. + +CXVI.--The greatest fault of penetration is not +that it goes to the bottom of a matter--but beyond it. +(SEE MAXIM 377.) + +CXVII.--We give advice, but we cannot give the +wisdom to profit by it. (SEE MAXIM 378.) + +CXVIII.--When our merit declines, our taste de- +clines also. (SEE MAXIM 379.) + +CXIX.--Fortune discovers our vices and our vir- +tues, as the light makes objects plain to the sight. +(SEE MAXIM 380.) + +CXX.--Our actions are like rhymed verse-ends +(BOUTS-RIMES) which everyone turns as he pleases. (SEE +MAXIM 382.) + +CXXI.--There is nothing more natural, nor more +deceptive, than to believe that we are beloved. + +CXXII.--We would rather see those to whom we +have done a benefit, than those who have done us one. + +CXXIII.--It is more difficult to hide the opinions +we have than to feign those which we have not. + +CXXIV.--Renewed friendships require more care +than those that have never been broken. + +CXXV.--A man to whom no one is pleasing is +much more unhappy than one who pleases nobody. + + + +REFLECTIONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, +BY THE +DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD + + +I. On Confidence. + + +Though sincerity and confidence have many +points of resemblance, they have yet many +points of difference. + +Sincerity is an openness of heart, which +shows us what we are, a love of truth, a dis- +like to deception, a wish to compensate our faults and +to lessen them by the merit of confessing them. + +Confidence leaves us less liberty, its rules are +stricter, it requires more prudence and reticence, and +we are not always free to give it. It relates not only +to ourselves, since our interests are often mixed up +with those of others; it requires great delicacy not to +expose our friends in exposing ourselves, not to draw +upon their goodness to enhance the value of what we +give. + +Confidence always pleases those who receive it. It +is a tribute we pay to their merit, a deposit we commit +to their trust, a pledge which gives them a claim upon +us, a kind of dependence to which we voluntarily +submit. I do not wish from what I have said to +depreciate confidence, so necessary to man. It is +in society the link between acquaintance and +friendship. I only wish to state its limits to make +it true and real. I would that it was always sincere, +always discreet, and that it had neither weakness nor +interest. I know it is hard to place proper limits on +being taken into all our friends' confidence, and taking +them into all ours. + +Most frequently we make confidants from vanity, a +love of talking, a wish to win the confidence of others, +and make an exchange of secrets. + +Some may have a motive for confiding in us, towards +whom we have no motive for confiding. With them we +discharge the obligation in keeping their secrets and +trusting them with small confidences. + +Others whose fidelity we know trust nothing to +us, but we confide in them by choice and inclina- +tion. + +We should hide from them nothing that concerns +us, we should always show them with equal truth, our +virtues and our vices, without exaggerating the one +or diminishing the other. We should make it a rule +never to have half confidences. They always embarrass +those who give them, and dissatisfy those who receive +them. They shed an uncertain light on what we want +hidden, increase curiosity, entitling the recipients to +know more, giving them leave to consider themselves +free to talk of what they have guessed. It is far +safer and more honest to tell nothing than to be +silent when we have begun to tell. There are other +rules to be observed in matters confided to us, all are +important, to all prudence and trust are essential. + +Everyone agrees that a secret should be kept intact, +but everyone does not agree as to the nature and +importance of secresy. Too often we consult our- +selves as to what we should say, what we should leave +unsaid. There are few permanent secrets, and the +scruple against revealing them will not last for ever. + +With those friends whose truth we know we have +the closest intimacy. They have always spoken unre- +servedly to us, we should always do the same to them. +They know our habits and connexions, and see too +clearly not to perceive the slightest change. They +may have elsewhere learnt what we have promised not +to tell. It is not in our power to tell them what has +been entrusted to us, though it might tend to their +interest to know it. We feel as confident of them +as of ourselves, and we are reduced to the hard fate of +losing their friendship, which is dear to us, or of being +faithless as regards a secret. This is doubtless the +hardest test of fidelity, but it should not move an +honest man; it is then that he can sacrifice himself +to others. His first duty is to rigidly keep his trust +in its entirety. He should not only control and +guard his and his voice, but even his lighter +talk, so that nothing be seen in his conversation or +manner that could direct the curiosity of others towards +that which he wishes to conceal. + +We have often need of strength and prudence +wherewith to oppose the exigencies of most of our +friends who make a claim on our confidence, and +seek to know all about us. We should never allow +them to acquire this unexceptionable right. There +are accidents and circumstances which do not fall in +their cognizance; if they complain, we should endure +their complaints and excuse ourselves with gentleness, +but if they are still unreasonable, we should sacrifice +their friendship to our duty, and choose between two +inevitable evils, the one reparable, the other irre- +parable. + + +II. On Difference of Character. + + +Although all the qualities of mind may be united in +a great genius, yet there are some which are special +and peculiar to him; his views are unlimited; he +always acts uniformly and with the same activity; +he sees distant objects as if present; he compre- +hends and grasps the greatest, sees and notices the +smallest matters; his thoughts are elevated, broad, +just and intelligible. Nothing escapes his observation, +and he often finds truth in spite of the obscurity that +hides her from others. + +A lofty mind always thinks nobly, it easily creates +vivid, agreeable, and natural fancies, places them in +their best light, clothes them with all appropriate +adornments, studies others' tastes, and clears away +from its own thoughts all that is useless and dis- +agreeable. + +A clever, pliant, winning mind knows how to avoid +and overcome difficulties. Bending easily to what it +wants, it understands the inclination and temper it is +dealing with, and by managing their interests it +advances and establishes its own. + +A well regulated mind sees all things as they should +be seen, appraises them at their proper value, turns +them to its own advantage, and adheres firmly to its +own opinions as it knows all their force and weight. + +A difference exists between a working mind and a +business-like mind. We can undertake business with- +out turning it to our own interest. Some are clever +only in what does not concern them, and the reverse +in all that does. There are others again whose +cleverness is limited to their own business, and who +know how to turn everything to their own advantage. + +It is possible to have a serious turn of mind, and +yet to talk pleasantly and cheerfully. This class of +mind is suited to all persons in all times of life. +Young persons have usually a cheerful and satirical +turn, untempered by seriousness, thus often making +themselves disagreeable. + +No part is easier to play than that of being always +pleasant; and the applause we sometimes receive in +censuring others is not worth being exposed to the +chance of offending them when they are out of +temper. + +Satire is at once the most agreeable and most dan- +gerous of mental qualities. It always pleases when it +is refined, but we always fear those who use it too +much, yet satire should be allowed when unmixed +with spite, and when the person satirised can join in +the satire. + +It is unfortunate to have a satirical turn without +affecting to be pleased or without loving to jest. It +requires much adroitness to continue satirical with- +out falling into one of these extremes. + +Raillery is a kind of mirth which takes possession +of the imagination, and shows every object in an +absurd light; wit combines more or less softness or +harshness. + +There is a kind of refined and flattering raillery that +only hits the faults that persons admit, which under- +stands how to hide the praise it gives under the ap- +pearance of blame, and shows the good while feigning +a wish to hide it. + +An acute mind and a cunning mind are very dis- +similar. The first always pleases; it is unfettered, it +perceives the most delicate and sees the most impercep- +tible matters. A cunning spirit never goes straight, it +endeavours to secure its object by byeways and short +cuts. This conduct is soon found out, it always gives +rise to distrust and never reaches greatness. + +There is a difference between an ardent and a +brilliant mind, a fiery spirit travels further and faster, +while a brilliant mind is sparkling, attractive, accu- +rate. + +Gentleness of mind is an easy and accommodating +manner which always pleases when not insipid. + +A mind full of details devotes itself to the manage- +ment and regulation of the smallest particulars it +meets with. This distinction is usually limited to +little matters, yet it is not absolutely incompatible +with greatness, and when these two qualities are +united in the same mind they raise it infinitely above +others. + +The expression "BEL ESPRIT" is much perverted, for +all that one can say of the different kinds of mind +meet together in the "BEL ESPRIT." Yet as the epithet +is bestowed on an infinite number of bad poets and +tedious authors, it is more often used to ridicule than +to praise. + +There are yet many other epithets for the mind +which mean the same thing, the difference lies in the +tone and manner of saying them, but as tones and +manner cannot appear in writing I shall not go into +distinctions I cannot explain. Custom explains this +in saying that a man has wit, has much wit, that he +is a great wit; there are tones and manners which +make all the difference between phrases which seem +all alike on paper, and yet express a different order of +mind. + +So we say that a man has only one kind of wit, that +he has several, that he has every variety of wit. + +One can be a fool with much wit, and one need not +be a fool even with very little wit. + +To have much mind is a doubtful expression. It +may mean every class of mind that can be mentioned, +it may mean none in particular. It may mean that +he talks sensibly while he acts foolishly. We may +have a mind, but a narrow one. A mind may be +fitted for some things, not for others. We may have +a large measure of mind fitted for nothing, and one is +often inconvenienced with much mind; still of this +kind of mind we may say that it is sometimes pleasing +in society. + +Though the gifts of the mind are infinite, they can, +it seems to me, be thus classified. + +There are some so beautiful that everyone can see +and feel their beauty. + +There are some lovely, it is true, but which are +wearisome. + +There are some which are lovely, which all the +world admire, but without knowing why. + +There are some so refined and delicate that few are +capable even of remarking all their beauties. + +There are others which, though imperfect, yet are +produced with such skill, and sustained and managed +with such sense and grace, that they even deserve to +be admired. + + +III. On Taste. + + +Some persons have more wit than taste, others have +more taste than wit. There is greater vanity and +caprice in taste than in wit. + +The word taste has different meanings, which it is +easy to mistake. There is a difference between the +taste which in certain objects has an attraction for +us, and the taste that makes us understand and +distinguish the qualities we judge by. + +We may like a comedy without having a sufficiently +fine and delicate taste to criticise it accurately. Some +tastes lead us imperceptibly to objects, from which +others carry us away by their force or intensity. + +Some persons have bad taste in everything, others +have bad taste only in some things, but a correct and +good taste in matters within their capacity. Some +have peculiar taste, which they know to be bad, but +which they still follow. Some have a doubtful taste, +and let chance decide, their indecision makes them +change, and they are affected with pleasure or weari- +ness on their friends' judgment. Others are always +prejudiced, they are the slaves of their tastes, which +they adhere to in everything. Some know what is +good, and are horrified at what is not; their opinions +are clear and true, and they find the reason for their +taste in their mind and understanding. + +Some have a species of instinct (the source of which +they are ignorant of), and decide all questions that +come before them by its aid, and always decide +rightly. + +These follow their taste more than their intelligence, +because they do not permit their temper and self-love +to prevail over their natural discernment. All they +do is in harmony, all is in the same spirit. This +harmony makes them decide correctly on matters, and +form a correct estimate of their value. But speaking +generally there are few who have a taste fixed and +independent of that of their friends, they follow +example and fashion which generally form the stand- +ard of taste. + +In all the diversities of taste that we discern, it is +very rare and almost impossible to meet with that sort +of good taste that knows how to set a price on the +particular, and yet understands the right value that +should be placed on all. Our knowledge is too limited, +and that correct discernment of good qualities which +goes to form a correct judgment is too seldom to be +met with except in regard to matters that do not +concern us. + +As regards ourselves our taste has not this all- +important discernment. Preoccupation, trouble, all +that concern us, present it to us in another aspect. +We do not see with the same eyes what does and +what does not relate to us. Our taste is guided by +the bent of our self-love and temper, which supplies +us with new views which we adapt to an infinite +number of changes and uncertainties. Our taste is +no longer our own, we cease to control it, without our +consent it changes, and the same objects appear to us +in such divers aspects that ultimately we fail to per- +ceive what we have seen and heard. + + +IV. On Society. + + +In speaking of society my plan is not to speak of +friendship, for, though they have some connection, +they are yet very different. The former has more +in it of greatness and humility, and the greatest +merit of the latter is to resemble the former. + +For the present I shall speak of that particular +kind of intercourse that gentlemen should have with +each other. It would be idle to show how far society +is essential to men: all seek for it, and all find it, but +few adopt the method of making it pleasant and +lasting. + +Everyone seeks to find his pleasure and his advan- +tage at the expense of others. We prefer ourselves +always to those with whom we intend to live, and +they almost always perceive the preference. It is +this which disturbs and destroys society. We should +discover a means to hide this love of selection since it +is too ingrained in us to be in our power to destroy. +We should make our pleasure that of other persons, to +humour, never to wound their self-love. + +The mind has a great part to do in so great a work, +but it is not merely sufficient for us to guide it in the +different courses it should hold. + +The agreement we meet between minds would not +keep society together for long if she was not governed +and sustained by good sense, temper, and by the con- +sideration which ought to exist between persons who +have to live together. + +It sometimes happens that persons opposite in tem- +per and mind become united. They doubtless hold +together for different reasons, which cannot last for +long. Society may subsist between those who are our +inferiors by birth or by personal qualities, but those +who have these advantages should not abuse them. +They should seldom let it be perceived that they +serve to instruct others. They should let their con- +duct show that they, too, have need to be guided and +led by reason, and accommodate themselves as far as +possible to the feeling and the interests of the others. + +To make society pleasant, it is essential that each +should retain his freedom of action. A man should +not see himself, or he should see himself without +dependence, and at the same time amuse himself. He +should have the power of separating himself without +that separation bringing any change on the society. +He should have the power to pass by one and the +other, if he does not wish to expose himself to occa- +sional embarrassments; and he should remember that +he is often bored when he believes he has not the +power even to bore. He should share in what he +believes to be the amusement of persons with whom +he wishes to live, but he should not always be liable +to the trouble of providing them. + +Complaisance is essential in society, but it should +have its limits, it becomes a slavery when it is extreme. +We should so render a free consent, that in following +the opinion of our friends they should believe that they +follow ours. + +We should readily excuse our friends when their +faults are born with them, and they are less than +their good qualities. We should often avoid to show +what they have said, and what they have left unsaid. +We should try to make them perceive their faults, so +as to give them the merit of correcting them. + +There is a kind of politeness which is necessary in +the intercourse among gentlemen, it makes them +comprehend badinage, and it keeps them from using +and employing certain figures of speech, too rude and +unrefined, which are often used thoughtlessly when +we hold to our opinion with too much warmth. + +The intercourse of gentlemen cannot subsist without +a certain kind of confidence; this should be equal on +both sides. Each should have an appearance of +sincerity and of discretion which never causes the +fear of anything imprudent being said. + +There should be some variety in wit. Those who +have only one kind of wit cannot please for long +unless they can take different roads, and not both use +the same talents, thus adding to the pleasure of +society, and keeping the same harmony that different +voices and different instruments should observe in +music; and as it is detrimental to the quiet of society, +that many persons should have the same interests, +it is yet as necessary for it that their interests should +not be different. + +We should anticipate what can please our friends, +find out how to be useful to them so as to exempt them +from annoyance, and when we cannot avert evils, +seem to participate in them, insensibly obliterate +without attempting to destroy them at a blow, and +place agreeable objects in their place, or at least such +as will interest them. We should talk of subjects +that concern them, but only so far as they like, and +we should take great care where we draw the line. +There is a species of politeness, and we may say a +similar species of humanity, which does not enter too +quickly into the recesses of the heart. It often takes +pains to allow us to see all that our friends know, +while they have still the advantage of not knowing +to the full when we have penetrated the depth of the +heart. + +Thus the intercourse between gentlemen at once +gives them familiarity and furnishes them with an +infinite number of subjects on which to talk freely. + +Few persons have sufficient tact and good sense +fairly to appreciate many matters that are essential +to maintain society. We desire to turn away at a +certain point, but we do not want to be mixed up +in everything, and we fear to know all kinds of +truth. + +As we should stand at a certain distance to view +objects, so we should also stand at a distance to observe +society; each has its proper point of view from which +it should be regarded. It is quite right that it +should not be looked at too closely, for there is hardly +a man who in all matters allows himself to be seen as +he really is. + + +V. On Conversation. + + +The reason why so few persons are agreeable in con- +versation is that each thinks more of what he desires +to say, than of what the others say, and that we +make bad listeners when we want to speak. + +Yet it is necessary to listen to those who talk, we +should give them the time they want, and let them say +even senseless things; never contradict or interrupt +them; on the contrary, we should enter into their mind +and taste, illustrate their meaning, praise anything +they say that deserves praise, and let them see we +praise more from our choice than from agreement +with them. + +To please others we should talk on subjects they +like and that interest them, avoid disputes upon in- +different matters, seldom ask questions, and never let +them see that we pretend to be better informed than +they are. + +We should talk in a more or less serious manner, +and upon more or less abstruse subjects, according to +the temper and understanding of the persons we talk +with, and readily give them the advantage of deciding +without obliging them to answer when they are not +anxious to talk. + +After having in this way fulfilled the duties of +politeness, we can speak our opinions to our listeners +when we find an opportunity without a sign of pre- +sumption or opinionatedness. Above all things we +should avoid often talking of ourselves and giving +ourselves as an example; nothing is more tiresome +than a man who quotes himself for everything. + +We cannot give too great study to find out the +manner and the capacity of those with whom we talk, +so as to join in the conversation of those who have +more than ourselves without hurting by this prefer- +ence the wishes or interests of others. + +Then we should modestly use all the modes above- +mentioned to show our thoughts to them, and make +them, if possible, believe that we take our ideas from +them. + +We should never say anything with an air of +authority, nor show any superiority of mind. We +should avoid far-fetched expressions, expressions hard +or forced, and never let the words be grander than +the matter. + +It is not wrong to retain our opinions if they are +reasonable, but we should yield to reason, wherever +she appears and from whatever side she comes, she +alone should govern our opinions, we should follow +her without opposing the opinions of others, and +without seeming to ignore what they say. + +It is dangerous to seek to be always the leader of the +conversation, and to push a good argument too hard, +when we have found one. Civility often hides half its +understanding, and when it meets with an opinionated +man who defends the bad side, spares him the disgrace +of giving way. + +We are sure to displease when we speak too long +and too often of one subject, and when we try to turn +the conversation upon subjects that we think more +instructive than others, we should enter indifferently +upon every subject that is agreeable to others, stop- +ping where they wish, and avoiding all they do not +agree with. + +Every kind of conversation, however witty it may +be, is not equally fitted for all clever persons; we +should select what is to their taste and suitable to +their condition, their sex, their talents, and also choose +the time to say it. + +We should observe the place, the occasion, the +temper in which we find the person who listens to us, +for if there is much art in speaking to the purpose, +there is no less in knowing when to be silent. There +is an eloquent silence which serves to approve or to +condemn, there is a silence of discretion and of respect. +In a word, there is a tone, an air, a manner, which +renders everything in conversation agreeable or dis- +agreeable, refined or vulgar. + +But it is given to few persons to keep this secret +well. Those who lay down rules too often break +them, and the safest we are able to give is to listen +much, to speak little, and to say nothing that will ever +give ground for regret. + + +VI. Falsehood. + + +We are false in different ways. There are some +men who are false from wishing always to appear what +they are not. There are some who have better faith, +who are born false, who deceive themselves, and who +never see themselves as they really are; to some is +given a true understanding and a false taste, others +have a false understanding and some correctness in +taste; there are some who have not any falsity +either in taste or mind. These last are very rare, for +to speak generally, there is no one who has not some +falseness in some corner of his mind or his taste. + +What makes this falseness so universal, is that as +our qualities are uncertain and confused, so too, are +our tastes; we do not see things exactly as they are, +we value them more or less than they are worth, and +do not bring them into unison with ourselves in a +manner which suits them or suits our condition or +qualities. + +This mistake gives rise to an infinite number of +falsities in the taste and in the mind. Our self-love +is flattered by all that presents itself to us under the +guise of good. + +But as there are many kinds of good which affect +our vanity and our temper, so they are often followed +from custom or advantage. We follow because the +others follow, without considering that the same feeling +ought not to be equally embarrassing to all kinds of +persons, and that it should attach itself more or less +firmly, according as persons agree more or less with +those who follow them. + +We dread still more to show falseness in taste than +in mind. Gentleness should approve without preju- +dice what deserves to be approved, follow what +deserves to be followed, and take offence at nothing. +But there should be great distinction and great +accuracy. We should distinguish between what is +good in the abstract and what is good for ourselves, +and always follow in reason the natural inclination +which carries us towards matters that please us. + +If men only wished to excel by the help of their +own talents, and in following their duty, there would +be nothing false in their taste or in their conduct. +They would show what they were, they would judge +matters by their lights, and they would attract by their +reason. There would be a discernment in their views, +in their sentiments, their taste would be true, it would +come to them direct, and not from others, they would +follow from choice and not from habit or chance. If +we are false in admiring what should not be admired, +it is oftener from envy that we affix a value to +qualities which are good in themselves, but which do +not become us. A magistrate is false when he flatters +himself he is brave, and that he will be able to be bold +in certain cases. He should be as firm and stedfast +in a plot which ought to be stifled without fear of +being false, as he would be false and absurd in fighting +a duel about it. + +A woman may like science, but all sciences are not +suitable for her, and the doctrines of certain sciences +never become her, and when applied by her are always +false. + +We should allow reason and good sense to fix the +value of things, they should determine our taste +and give things the merit they deserve, and the im- +portance it is fitting we should give them. But +nearly all men are deceived in the price and in the +value, and in these mistakes there is always a kind of +falseness. + + +VII. On Air and Manner. + + +There is an air which belongs to the figure and +talents of each individual; we always lose it when +we abandon it to assume another. + +We should try to find out what air is natural to us +and never abandon it, but make it as perfect as we can. +This is the reason that the majority of children please. +It is because they are wrapt up in the air and manner +nature has given them, and are ignorant of any other. +They are changed and corrupted when they quit +infancy, they think they should imitate what they +see, and they are not altogether able to imitate it. In +this imitation there is always something of falsity and +uncertainty. They have nothing settled in their man- +ner and opinions. Instead of being in reality what +they want to appear, they seek to appear what they +are not. + +All men want to be different, and to be greater than +they are; they seek for an air other than their own, +and a mind different from what they possess; they +take their style and manner at chance. They make +experiments upon themselves without considering +that what suits one person will not suit everyone, +that there is no universal rule for taste or manners, +and that there are no good copies. + +Few men, nevertheless, can have unison in many +matters without being a copy of each other, if each +follow his natural turn of mind. But in general a +person will not wholly follow it. He loves to imitate. +We often imitate the same person without perceiving +it, and we neglect our own good qualities for the good +qualities of others, which generally do not suit us. + +I do not pretend, from what I say, that each should +so wrap himself up in himself as not to be able +to follow example, or to add to his own, useful and +serviceable habits, which nature has not given him. +Arts and sciences may be proper for the greater part +of those who are capable for them. Good manners and +politeness are proper for all the world. But, yet +acquired qualities should always have a certain agree- +ment and a certain union with our own natural +qualities, which they imperceptibly extend and in- +crease. We are elevated to a rank and dignity above +ourselves. We are often engaged in a new profession +for which nature has not adapted us. All these con- +ditions have each an air which belong to them, but +which does not always agree with our natural manner. +This change of our fortune often changes our air and +our manners, and augments the air of dignity, which +is always false when it is too marked, and when it is +not united and amalgamated with that which nature +has given us. We should unite and blend them to- +gether, and thus render them such that they can +never be separated. + +We should not speak of all subjects in one +tone and in the same manner. We do not march +at the head of a regiment as we walk on a pro- +menade; and we should use the same style in which +we should naturally speak of different things in the +same way, with the same difference as we should walk, +but always naturally, and as is suitable, either at +the head of a regiment or on a promenade. There +are some who are not content to abandon the air and +manner natural to them to assume those of the rank +and dignities to which they have arrived. There are +some who assume prematurely the air of the dignities +and rank to which they aspire. How many lieutenant- +generals assume to be marshals of France, how many +barristers vainly repeat the style of the Chancellor +and how many female citizens give themselves the +airs of duchesses. + +But what we are most often vexed at is that no one +knows how to conform his air and manners with his +appearance, nor his style and words with his thoughts +and sentiments, that every one forgets himself and how +far he is insensibly removed from the truth. Nearly +every one falls into this fault in some way. No one +has an ear sufficiently fine to mark perfectly this kind +of cadence. + +Thousands of people with good qualities are dis- +pleasing; thousands pleasing with far less abilities, +and why? Because the first wish to appear to be what +they are not, the second are what they appear. + +Some of the advantages or disadvantages that we +have received from nature please in proportion as +we know the air, the style, the manner, the senti- +ments that coincide with our condition and our +appearance, and displease in the proportion they are +removed from that point. + + + +INDEX + +THE LETTER R PRECEDING A REFERENCE REFERS TO THE REFLECTIONS, +THE ROMAN NUMERALS REFER TO THE SUPPLEMENTS. + + +Ability, 162, 165, 199, 245, 283, 288. SEE Cleverness +-------, Sovereign, 244. +Absence, 276. +Accent, country, 342, XCIV. +Accidents, 59, 310. +Acquaintances, 426. SEE FRIENDS. +Acknowledgements, 225. +Actions, 1, 7, 57, 58, 160, 161, 382, 409, CXX. +Actors, 256. +Admiration, 178, 294, 474. +Adroitness of mind, R.2. +Adversity, 25. +--------- of Friends, XV. +Advice, 110, 116, 283, 378, CXVII. +Affairs, 453, R 2. +Affectation, 134, 493. +Affections, 232. +Afflictions, 233, 355, 362, 493, XCVII, XV. +Age, 222, 405, LXXIII. SEE Old Age. +Agreeableness, 255, R.5. +Agreement, 240. +Air, 399, 495, R.7. +--- Of a Citizen, 393. +Ambition, 24, 91, 246, 293, 490. +Anger, XXX. +Application, 41, 243. +Appearances, 64, 166, 199, 256, 302, 431, 457, R.7. +-----------, Conformity of Manners with, R.7. +Applause, 272. +Approbation, 51, 280. +Artifices, 117, 124, 125, 126, R.2. +Astonishment, 384. +Avarice, 167, 491, 492. + +Ballads, 211. +Beauty, 240, 474, 497, LI. +------ of the Mind, R.2. +Bel esprit defined, R.2. +Benefits, 14, 298, 299, 301, CXXII. +Benefactors, 96, 317, CXXII. +Blame, CVIII. +Blindness, XIX. +Boasting, 141, 307. +Boredom, 141, 304, 352. SEE Ennui. +Bouts rimes, 382, CXX. +Bravery, 1, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 219, 220, 221, 365, + 504. SEE Courage and Valour. +Brilliancy of Mind, R.2. +Brilliant things, LII. + +Capacity, 375. +Caprice, 45. +Chance, 57, 344, XCV. SEE Fortune. +Character, LVI, R.2. +Chastity, 1. SEE Virtue of Women. +Cheating, 114, 127. +Circumstances, 59, 470. +Civility, 260. +Clemency, 15, 16. +Cleverness, 162, 269, 245, 399. +Coarseness, 372. +Comedy, 211, R.3. +Compassion, 463. SEE Pity. +Complaisance, 481, R.4. +Conduct, 163, 227, 378, CXVII. +Confidants, whom we make, R.1. +Confidence, 239, 365, 475, XLIX, R.1, R.4. +Confidence, difference from Sincerity +----------, defined, R.1. +Consolation, 325. +Constancy, 19, 20, 21, 175, 176, 420. +Contempt, 322. +-------- of Death, 504. +Contentment, LXXX. +Contradictions, 478. +Conversation, 139, 140, 142, 312, 313, 314, 364, 391, + 421, CIV, R.5. +Copies, 133. +Coquetry, 241. SEE Flirtation. +Country Manner, 393. +------- Accent, 342. +Courage, 1, 214, 215, 216, 219, 221, XLII. SEE Bravery. +Covetousness, opposed to Reason, 469 +Cowardice, 215, 480. +Cowards, 370. +Crimes, 183, 465, XXXV, XXXVII. +Cunning, 126, 129, 394, 407. +Curiosity, 173. + +Danger, XLII. +Death, 21, 23, 26. +-----, Contempt of, 504. +Deceit, 86, 117, 118, 124, 127, 129, 395, 434. SEE ALSO + Self-Deceit. +Deception, CXXI. +Decency, 447. +Defects, 31, 90, 493, LXXII. SEE Faults. +Delicacy, 128, R.2. +Dependency, result of Confidence, R.1. +Designs, 160, 161. +Desires, 439, 469, LXXXII, LXXXV. +Despicable Persons, 322. +Detail, Mind given to, R.2. +Details, 41, 106. +Devotion, 427. +Devotees, 427. +Devout, LXXVI. +Differences, 135. +Dignities, R.7. +Discretion, R.5. +Disguise, 119, 246, 282. +Disgrace, 235, 412. +Dishonour, 326, LXIX. +Distrust, 84, 86, 335. +Divination, 425. +Doubt, 348. +Docility, R.4. +Dupes, 87, 102. + +Education, 261. +Elevation, 399, 400, 403. +Eloquence, 8, 249, 250. +Employments, 164, 419, 449. +Enemies, 114, 397, 458, 463. +Ennui, 122, 141, 304, 312, 352, CXII, R.2. +Envy, 27, 28, 280, 281, 328, 376, 433, 476, 486. +Epithets assigned to the Mind, R.2. +Esteem, 296. +Establish, 56, 280. +Evils, 121, 197, 269, 454, 464, XCIII. +Example, 230. +Exchange of secrets, R.1. +Experience, 405. +Expedients, 287. +Expression, refined, R.5. + +Faculties of the Mind, 174. +Failings, 397, 403. +Falseness, R.6. +---------, disguised, 282. +---------, kinds of, R.6. +Familiarity, R,4. +Fame, 157. +Farces, men compared to, 211. +Faults, 37, 112, 155, 184, 190, 194, 196, 251, 354, 365, + 372, 397, 403, 411, 428, 493, 494, V, LXV, CX, + CXV. +Favourites, 55. +Fear, 370, LXVIII. +Feeling, 255. +Ferocity, XXXIII. +Fickleness, 179, 181, 498. +Fidelity, 247. +--------, hardest test of, R.1. +-------- in love, 331, 381, C. +Figure and air, R.7. +Firmness, 19, 479. +Flattery, 123, 144, 152, 198, 320, 329. +Flirts, 406, 418. +Flirtation, 107, 241, 277, 332, 334, 349, 376, LXIV. +Follies, 156, 300, 408, 416. +Folly, 207, 208, 209, 210, 231, 300, 310, 311, 318, + XXIV. +Fools, 140, 210, 309, 318, 357, 414, 451, 456, +-----, old, 444. +-----, witty, 451, 456. +Force of Mind, 30, 42, +, 237. +Forgetfulness, XXVI. +Forgiveness, 330. +Fortitude, 19. SEE Bravery. +Fortune, 1, 17, 45, 52, 53, 58, 60, 61, 154, 212, 227, 323, + 343, 380, 391, 392, 399, 403, 435, 449, IX., CXIX. +Friends, 84, 114, 179, 235, 279, 315, 319, 428. +-------, adversity of, XV. +-------, disgrace of, 235. +-------, faults of, 428. +-------, true ones, LXXXVI. +Friendship, 80, 81, 83, 376, 410, 427, 440, 441, 473, + XXII, CXXIV. +----------, defined, 83. +----------, women do not care for, 440. +----------, rarer than love, 473. +Funerals, XXXVIII. + +Gallantry, 100. SEE Flirtation. +--------- of mind, 100. +Generosity, 246. +Genius, R.2. +Gentleness, R.6. +Ghosts, 76. +Gifts of the mind, R.2. +Glory, 157, 198, 221, 268. +Good, 121, 185, 229, 238, 303, XCIII. +----, how to be, XLVII. +Goodness, 237, 275, 284, XLVI. +Good grace, 67, R.7. +Good man, who is a, 206. +God nature, 481. +Good qualities, 29, 90, 337, 365, 397, 462. +Good sense, 67, 347, CVI. +Good taste, 258. +----------, rarity of, R.3. +----, women, 368, XCVI. +Government of others, 151. +Grace, 67. +Gracefulness, 240. +Gratitude, 223, 224, 225, 279, 298, 438, XLIII. +Gravity, 257. +Great men, what they cannot acquire, LXXXIV. +Great minds, 142. +Great names, 94. +Greediness, 66. + +Habit, 426. +Happy, who are, 49. +Happiness, 48, 61, VII, LXXX, LXXXI. +hatred, 338. +Head, 102, 108. +Health, 188, LVII. +Heart, 98, 102, 103, 108, 478, 484. +Heroes, 24, 53, 185. +Honesty, 202, 206. +Honour, 270. +Hope, 168, LXVIII. +Humility, 254, 358, LXXVI, LXXIX +Humiliation, 272. +Humour, 47. SEE Temper. +Hypocrisy, 218. +--------- of afflictions, 233. + +Idleness, 169, 266, 267, 398, 482, 487, XVIII., LV. +Ills, 174. SEE Evils. +Illusions, 123. +Imagination, 478. +Imitation, 230, XLIV, R.5. +Impertinence, 502. +Impossibilities, 30. +Incapacity, 126. +Inclination, 253, 390. +Inconsistency, 135. +Inconstancy, 181. +Inconvenience, 242. +Indifference, 172, XXIII. +Indiscretion, 429. +Indolence. SEE Idleness, and Laziness. +Infidelity, 359, 360, 381, 429. +Ingratitude, 96, 226, 306, 317. +Injuries, 14. +Injustice, 78. +Innocence, 465. +Instinct, 123. +Integrity, 170. +Interest, 39, 40, 66, 85, 172, 187, 232, 253, 305, 390. +Interests, 66. +Intrepidity, 217, XL. +Intrigue, 73. +Invention, 287. + +Jealousy, 28, 32, 324, 336, 359, 361, 446, 503, CII. +Joy, XIV. +Judges, 268. +Judgment, 89, 97, 248. +-------- of the World, 212, 455. +Justice, 78, 458, XII. + +Kindness, 14, 85. +Knowledge, 106. + +Labour of Body, effect of, LXXVII. +Laments, 355. +Laziness, 367. SEE Idleness. +Leader, 43. +Levity, 179, 181. +Liberality, 167, 263. +Liberty in Society, R.4. +Limits to Confidence, R.1. +Little Minds, 142. +Love, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 136, 259, 262, + 274, 286, 296, 321, 335, 336, 348, 349, 351, 353, + 361, 371, 374, 385, 395, 396, 402, 417, 418, 422, + 430, 440, 441, 459, 466, 471, 473, 499, 500, 501, + x, XI, XIII, LVIII, LX, LXII, LXXXVIII, + XCIX, CIII, CXXI. +---- defined, 68. +----, Coldness in, LX. +----, Effect of absence on, 276. +---- akin to Hate, 111. +---- of Women, 466, 471, 499. +----, Novelty in, 274. +----, Infidelity in, LXIV. +----, Old age of, 430. +----, Cure for, 417, 459. +Loss of Friends, XLV. +Lovers, 312, 362, LXXXVII, XCVII. +Lunatic, 353. +Luxury, LIV. +Lying, 63. + +Madmen, 353, 414. +Malady, LVII. +Magistrates, R.6. +Magnanimity, 248, LIII. +----------- defined, 285. +Malice, 483. +Manners, R.7. +Mankind, 436, XXXVI. +Marriages, 113. +Maxims, LXVII. +Mediocrity, 375. +Memory, 89, 313. +Men easier to know than Man, 436. +Merit, 50, 92, 95, 153, 156, 165, 166, 273, 291, 379, + 401, 437, 455, CXVIII. +Mind, 101, 103, 265, 357, 448, 482, CIX. +Mind, Capacities of, R.2. +Miserable, 49. +Misfortunes, 19, 24, 174, 325. +----------- of Friends. XV. +----------- of Enemies, 463. +Mistaken people, 386. +Mistrust, 86. +Mockery, R.2. +Moderation, 17, 18, 293, 308, III, IV. +Money, Man compared to, XXXII. +Motives, 409. + +Names, Great, 94. +Natural goodness, 275. +Natural, to be, 431. +-------, always pleasing, R.7. +Nature, 53, 153, 189, 365, 404. +Negotiations, 278. +Novelty in study, 178. +------- in love, 274. +------- in friendship, 426. + +Obligations, 299, 317, 438. SEE Benefits and Gratitude. +Obstinacy, 234, 424. +--------- its cause, 265. +Occasions. SEE Opportunities. +Old Age, 109, 210, 418, 423, 430, 461. +Old Men, 93. +Openness of heart, R.1. +Opinions, 13, 234, CXXIII, R.5. +Opinionatedness, R.5. +Opportunities, 345, 453, CV. + +Passions, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 122, 188, 266, 276, 404, + 422, 443, 460, 471, 477, 484, 485, 486, 500, II. +Peace of Mind, VIII. +Penetration, 377, 425, CXVI. +Perfection, R.2. +Perseverance, 177. +Perspective, 104. +Persuasion, 8. +Philosophers, 46, 54, 504, XXI. +Philosophy, 22. +---------- of a Footman, 504, LXXV. +Pity, 264. +Pleasing, 413, CXXV. +--------, Mode of, XLVIII, R.5. +--------, Mind a, R.2. +Point of view, R.4. +Politeness, 372, R.5. +Politeness of Mind, 99. +Praise, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 272, 356, + 432, XXVII, CVII. +Preoccupation, 92, R.3. +Pride, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 228, 234, 239, 254, 267, 281, + 450, 462, 463, 472, VI, XIX. +Princes, 15, 320. +Proceedings, 170. +Productions of the Mind, R.2. +Professions, 256. +Promises, 38. +Proportion, R.6. +Propriety, 447. +--------- in Women, XXXIV. +Prosperity, 25. +Providence, XXXIX. +Prudence, 65, LXXXVIII, R.1. + +Qualities, 29, 162, 397, 470, 498, R.6, R.7. +---------, Bad, 468. +---------, Good, 88, 337, 462. +---------, Great, 159, 433. +---------, of Mind, classified, R.20. +Quarrels, 496, +Quoting oneself, R.5. + +Raillery, R.2, R.4. +Rank, 401. +Reason, 42, 105, 325, 365, 467, 469, XX, R.6. +Recollection in Memory{, 313}. +Reconciliation, 82. +Refinement, R.2. +Regret, 355. +Relapses, 193. +Remedies, 288. +-------- for love 459. +Remonstrances, 37. +Repentance, 180. +Repose, 268. +Reproaches, 148. +Reputation, 268, 412. +Resolution, L. +Revenge, 14. +Riches, 54. +Ridicule, 133, 134, 326, 418, 422. +Rules for Conversation, R.5. +Rusticity, 393. + +Satire, 483, R.2, R.4. +Sciences, R.6. +Secrets, XVI, R.1. +-------, How they should be kept, R.1. +Self-deceit, 115, 452. +Self-love, 2, 3, 4, 228, 236, 247, 261, 262, 339, 494, 500, + I, XVII, XXVIII, XXXIII, LXVI, LXXIV. +--------- in love, 262. +Self-satisfaction, 51. +Sensibility, 275. +Sensible People, 347, CVI. +Sentiment, 255, R.6. +Severity of Women, 204, 333. +Shame, 213, 220. +Silence, 79, 137, 138, CXIV. +Silliness. SEE Folly. +Simplicity, 289. +Sincerity, 62, 316, 366, 383, 457. +---------, Difference between it and Confidence, R.1. +---------, defined, R.1. +--------- of Lovers, LXI. +Skill, LXIV. +Sobriety, XXV. +Society, 87, 201, R.4. +-------, Distinction between it and Friendship, R.IV. +Soul, 80, 188, 194. +Souls, Great, XXXI. +Sorrows, LXXVIII. +Stages of Life, 405. +Strength of mind, 19, 20, 21, 504. +Studies, why new ones are pleasing, 178. +-------, what to study, XCII. +Subtilty, 128. +Sun, 26. + +Talents, 468. +-------, latent, 344, XCV. +Talkativeness, 314. +Taste, 13, 109, 252, 390, 467, CXX, R.3, R.6. +-----, good, 258, R.3. +-----, cause of diversities in, R.3. +-----, false, R.3. +Tears, 233, 373. +Temper, 47, 290, 292. +Temperament, 220, 222, 297, 346. +Times for speaking, R.5. +Timidity, 169, 480. +Titles, XXXII. +Tranquillity, 488. +Treachery, 120, 126. +Treason, 120. +Trickery, 86, 350, XCI. SEE Deceit. +Trifles, 41. +Truth, 64, LI. +Tyranny, R.1. + +Understanding, 89. +Untruth, 63. SEE Lying. +Unhappy, CXXV. + +Valour, 1, 213, 214, 215, 216. SEE Bravery and Courage. +Vanity, 137, 158, 200, 232, 388, 389, 443, 467, 483. +Variety of mind, R.4. +Vice, 182, 186, 187, 189, 191, 192, 195, 218, 253, 273, + 380, 442, 445, XXIX. +Violence, 363, 369, 466, CXIII. +Victory, XII. +Virtue, 1, 25, 169, 171, 182, 186, 187, 189, 200, 218, + 253, 380, 388, 442, 445, 489, XXIX. +Virtue of Women, 1, 220, 367, XCVIII. +Vivacity, 416. + +Weakness, 130, 445. +Wealth, Contempt of, 301. +Weariness. SEE Ennui. +Wicked people, 284. +Wife jealous sometimes desirable, LXXXIX. +Will, 30. +Wisdom, 132, 210, 231, 323, {4}44, LXXXIII. +Wise Man, who is a, 203, XCI. +Wishes, 295. +Wit, 199, 340, 413, 415, 421, 502. +Wives, 364, CIV. +Woman, 131, 204, 205, 220, 241, 277, 332, 333, 334, + 340, 346, 362, 367, 368, 418, 429, 440, 466, 471, + 474, LXX, XC. +Women, Severity of, 333. +-----, Virtue of, 205, 220, XC. +-----, Power of, LXXI. +Wonder, 384. +World, 201. +-----, Judgment of, 268. +-----, Approbation of, 201. +-----, Establishment in, 56. +-----, Praise and censure of, 454. + +Young men, 378, 495. +Youth, 271, 341. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Reflections; Or Sentences +and Moral Maxims, by Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORAL MAXIMS *** + +This file should be named 7roch10.txt or 7roch10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7roch11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7roch10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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