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MAXIME CXLIII.
To take heed not to run into Paradoxes, by shunning to be vulgar.
Both extremes equally discredit. Eve∣ry project that thwarts gravity, is a kind of folly. A Paradox is a certain plausi∣ble Cheat, that at sirst surprizes by its novelty and its edge; but afterwards lo∣ses its vogue, when the falsity of it is once known in practice. It is a kind of quacking, which in matter of Politicks, is the ruine of States. They who can∣not attain to Heroism, or who have not the courage to advance towards it by the way of vertue, run into the Paradox; which makes them to be admired by fools, but serves to manifest the Prudence of others. The Paradox is a proof of an ill-tempered mind, and by consequent, most opposite to Prudence. And if some∣times it be not founded on what is false, it is founded at least on what is uncertain, to the great prejudice of affairs.