The Gentleman's pocket library. Containing, 1. The principles of politeness. 2. The economy of human life. 3. Rochefoucauld's Moral reflections. 4. Lavater's Aphorisms on man. 5. The polite philosopher. 6. The way to wealth, by Dr. Franklin. 7. Select sentences. 8. Detached sentences. 9. Old Italian, Spanish and English proverbs. 10. A tablet of memory.

MORAL REFLECTIONS.

BY THE DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD.

Our Virtues, most commonly, are but Vices disguised.

1. WHAT we take for virtues, is commonly nothing else but the concurrence of several actions and several interests, which either fortune or our own industry contrive to dispose to ad|vantage; and it is not always from a principle of valour, that men are valiant, or from a principle of chastity, that women are enaste.

2. Self-love is of all flatterers the greatest.

3. For all the discoveries that have been made into the land of self-love, there still remains a large Terr•• Incognita.

4. Self-love is more subtle than the most subtle man in the world.

5. The duration of our passions no more depends on us, than the duration of our lives.

6. Passion often makes a man of sense mad; and often makes a fool sensible.

7. Those great and shining actions, whose lustre even dazzles us, we represented by the politicians as the effects of great designs: whereas, for the most part, they are indeed the effects of humour and passion: thus the war between Augustus and Antony, which is attributed to the ambition each had of making himself master of the world, was perhaps nothing but the effect of jealousy.

8. The passions are the only orators that are always sure to per|suade: they are, as it were, nature's art of eloquence, the rules of which are infallible: and the plainest man with passion, persuades more than the most eloquent without it.

9. There is such an inherent injustice and self-interest in the pas|sions, that it is dangerous to follow them, and they are most to be distrusted, even when they appear to be most reasonable.

10. There is in the heart of man a perpetual succession of pas|sions, insomuch, that the ruin of one is almost always the rise of another.

11. The passions often beget other passions of a quite contrary nature; avarice sometimes produces prodigality, and prodigality avarice: weakness often makes a man resolute, and fear, bold.

12. For all the care we ake to conceal our passions under the veil of religion and honour, they always appear through the disguise.

13. Our self-love bears more impatiently the condemnation of our inclinations than of our opinions

14. Men are not only apt to forget kindnesses and injuries, but even to hate those who have obliged them, and to cease to hate those who have used them ill. The trouble of returning favours and re|venging wrongs, seems a slavery to them, which they do not easily submit to.

15. The clemency of princes is often nothing but a piece of policy to gain the affections of their subjects.

16. That clemency which is cried up as a virtue, is practised sometimes out of vanity, sometimes out of laziness, often out of fear, and almost always out of a mixture of all three together.

17. The moderation of persons in prosperity proceeds from the calm that good fortune gives to their humour and temper.

18. Moderation is a fear of falling into that envy and contempt, which those deserve that are intoxicated with their good fortune: it is a vain ostentation of the force of our mind: and, in short, the moderation of men, in their most exalted condition, is a desire of appearing greater than their fortune.

19. We have all of us strength enough to bear the misfortunes of other people.

20. The constancy of the wise is no more than the art of con|fining their troubles to their own breasts.

21. Criminals, when led to execution, affect sometimes a con|stancy and a contempt of death, which, in truth, is nothing but a fear to look it in the face: so that this constancy and this contempt may be said to be to their mind, what the handkerchief is to their eyes.

22. Philosophy makes nothing to triumph over past and future evils, but the present triumph over that.

23. Few people are acquainted with death: they generally submit to it, not out of resolution, but insensibility and custom; and the greatest part of men die, only because they cannot avoid dying.

24. When great men are dejected with the length of their mis|fortunes, they discover that it was the force of their ambition, and not of their soul, that sustaineth them: and that, bating a great va|nity, heroes are made just like other men.

25 Greater virtues are required to bear a good fortune than an ill one.

26. The sun and death are two things that cannot steadily be look|ed on.

27. Men are often vain even of the most criminal passions; but, envy is a cowardly and shameful passion, which nobody ever dares to own.

28. Jealousy is in some sort just and reasonable, since it only tends to preserve a good which belongs to us, or which we believe does belong to us: whereas envy is a madness that cannot bear the good of others.

29. The ill we do, exposes us, not so much to persecution and hatred, as our good qualities.

30. We have more power than will; and it is often to excuse

ourselves to ourselves, that we fancy things impossible to be ef|fected.

31. If we had no defects of our own, we should not take so much pleasure as we do, to remark defects in others.

32. Jealousy is fed by doubts, and either becomes madness, or ceases, as soon as doubt is turned into certainty.

33. Pride always indemnifies itself one way or other, and loses nothing, even when it renounces vanity.

34. If we were not proud ourselves, we should not complain of the pride of others.

35. Pride is equal in all men, and the difference is only in the means and the manner of showing it.

36. Nature, who so wisely has fitted the organs of our body to make us happy, seems likewise to have bestowed pride on us, on purpose, as it were, to save us the pain of knowing our imperfec|tions.

37. Pride has a greater share than good nature, in our reprehend|ing people for their faults; and we reprove them not so much to amend them, as to make them believe we are free from those faults ourselves.

38. We make promises according to our hopes, and keep them according to our fears.

39. Interest speaks all sorts of languages, and acts all sorts of parts, even that of the disinterested person.

40. Interest, which blinds some people, enlightens others.

41. The men that apply themselves too much to little things, commonly become incapable of great.

42. We have not strength enough to follow all the dictates of our reason.

43. Man often fancies he governs himself when he is governed: and while he, with his understanding, aims at one mark, his affecti|ons insensibly carry him off to another.

44. Strength and weakness of mind are improper terms; they are, in reality, nothing but the good or ill disposition of the organs of our body.

45. The caprice of our humour is more fantastical even than that of fortune.

46. The fondness or indifference which the philosophers had for life, was nothing but a relish of self-love, which ought no more to be disputed, than the relish of the palate, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the choice of colour.

47. 'Tis our humour which sets the price on all the things which we receive from fortune.

48. Happiness is in the taste, and not in the things; and it is a man's having that which he loves that makes him happy, and not what others think lovely.

49. We are never so happy, or unhappy, as we imagine.

50. Those who are conceited of their merit, take a pride in be|ing unhappy, that they make others and themselves believe, they are worthy to be the mark of fortune.

51. Nothing ought so much to lessen the satisfaction we take in ourselves, as to see that we disapprove at one time, what we ap|proved at another.

52. Whatever difference there may appear to be in men's fortunes,

there is still a certain compensation of good and ill in all, that makes them equal.

53. Let nature give never so may advantages, 'tis not she alone, but fortune in conjunction with her, that makes a hero.

54. The contempt of riches was, in the philosophers, a secret de|sire to revenge on fortune the injustice she had done to their merit, by despising those goods which she had denied them: 'twas an art to secure themselves from the disgrace of poverty; 'twas a by-way to arrive at esteem, which they could not come at by the ordinary one of riches.

55. Our hatred of favourites, is nothing but our love of favour: the indignation we conceive at our not possessing it ourselves, is soothed and softened by the contempt we express for those who do possess it; and we refuse them our respect, not being able to deprive them of that which procures them the respect of all the world.

56. To make a fortune in the world, men use all the means possi|ble to appear to have made it already.

57. Tho' men value themselves on their great actions, they are not often the effects of a great design, but the effects of chance.

58. Our actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky stars, to which is owing a great part of the praise or dispraise which is gives them.

59. There is no accident so unfortunate but the prudent will make some advantage of it; nor any so fortunate that the imprudent will not turn to their prejudice.

60. Fortune turns every thing to the advantage of those she fa|vours.

61. The happiness and unhappiness of men depend no less on their humour, than on fortune.

62. Sincerity is an openness of heart: it is found in very few peo|ple; and that which we see commonly, is not it, but a subtle dissi|mulation to gain the confidence of others.

63. Our aversion to lying, is often an imperceptible ambition of making our affirmations considerable, and of procuring our affec|tions to be entertained with a religious respect.

64. Truth does not so much good in the world, as its appear|ances do mischief.

65. No encomiums are thought too great for prudence, yet it cannot insure as the least event.

66. A man of sense and ability, ought to assign to his several in|terests, their proper place, and to pursue them in their order; but this order our greediness often disturbs—putting ••s on running after so many things at once, that, too desirous of the less important, we miss the more considerable.

67. A good grace is to the body, what good sense is to the mind.

68. It is hard to define love: all that can be said of it is, that in the soul, it is a lust of power; in the spirits, it is a sympathy; and in the body, it is nothing but a secret and delicate desire of enjoy|ment after a great many difficulties.

69. If there is such a thing as love, pure and free from any mix+ture of our other passions, it is that love which lies concealed at the bottom of the heart, and is not known even to ourselves.

70. There is no disguise which can long conceal love where it is, or feign it, where it is not.

71. There are a few people but are ashamed that they ever loved one another, when they love one another no longer.

72. To judge of love by most of its effects, one would think it was more like hatred than kindness.

73. There are some women to be found, that never had an in|trigue, but rarely any to be sound, that never had but one.

74. There is no more than one sort of love, but there are a thou|sand different copies of it.

75. Love can, no more than fire, subsist without a continual mo|tion; the minute it ceases to hope or fear, it ceases to live.

76. It is with true love as with apparitions—a thing every body talks of, but few have seen.

77. Love lends his name to many a correspondence which is at|tributed to him, in which he has no more share than the dog•• has in what is transacted at Venice.

78. The love of justice, in most men, is nothing but a fear of suf|fering by injustice.

79. Silence is the safest course for the man that distrusts himself.

80. The thing that makes us so changeable in our friendships is, that 'tis difficult to know the qualities of the soul, and easy to know those of the understanding.

81. We cannot love any thing but with a regard to ourselves; and we do but pursue our inclination at pleasure, when we prefer our friends to ourselves; yet, 'tis this preference alone, that can make our friendships sincere and perfect.

82. Our reconciliation with our enemies, is nothing but a desire of bettering our condition, a weariness of the state of war, and a fear of some mischievous event.

83. The thing which men call friendship, is nothing but partner|ship, a mutual regard to their several interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is, in short, nothing but a trafic, in which self-love always proposes to itself in something or other to be a gainer.

84. 'Tis more dishonourable to distrust our friends, than to be de|ceived by them.

85. We often fancy that we love the persons that are greater in power than ourselves, when it is interest alone that is the cause of this kindness. We devote not ourselves to them for the good we de|sire to do them, but for the good we desire to receive from them.

86. Our own distrust justifies the deceit of others.

87. Men would not live long in society together, if they were not the bubbles of one another.

88. Self-love increases or lessens in our esteem, the good qualities of our friends, in proportion to the satisfaction we take in them: and we judge of their merit by their manner of living with us.

89. Every body complains of his memory, but no body of his judgment.

90. In our conversation in the world, we please oftener by our faults, than by our good qualities.

91. The greatest ambition has not the least appearance of ambi|tion, when it finds the thing aspired to, absolutely impossible to be attained.

92. To undeceive a man prepossessed with his own merit, is to do him as ill an office as that which was done to the madman at Athens, who fancied all the ships which arrived in the harbour were his own.

93. Old people love to give good precepts, to comfort themselves on their being no longer in a condition to give ill examples.

94. Great titles debase, instead of heightening the persons, who know not how to support them.

95. A certain sign of a man's having an extraordinary merit, is to see those who envy him most, constrained to commend him.

96. There are some ungrateful persons who are less to be blamed for their ingratitude than their benefactors.

97. 'T was a mistake when people made wit and judgment to be two different things: the judgment is nothing but a greater degree of wit, that penetrates into the bottom of things, observes all that ought to be observed, and discovers those things which seemed impossible to be discovered: from whence it must be concluded, that it is the greatest extent of wit which produces all the effects which are attri|buted to judgment.

98. Every man has assurance enough to boast of his honesty, but no one has impudence enough to boast of his understanding.

99. The politeness of the understanding consists in inventing oblig|ing things with delicacy.

100. The gallantry of the understanding lies in saying insinuating things after an agreeable manner.

101. It often happens, that things present themselves to our mind more finished than the mind an make them with a great deal of art.

102. The understanding is always the bubble of the passions.

103. They that are acquainted with the extent of their under|standing, are not always acquainted with the extent of their ho|nesty.

104. Men and actions have their point of light: there are some that must be seen near to make a right judgment of them; and others, that are never so well to be judged of as when at a distance.

105. That man is not a reasonable man whom chance throws upon reason; but he who knows, distinguishes and tastes it.

106. To know things well, it is necessary to know the particulars of them; but as those are almost infinite, our knowledge is always superficial and imperfect.

107. 'Tis one sort of coquetry to affect to be always exempt from it.

108. The understanding cannot for any long time act the part of passion.

109. Young men change their inclinations through heat of blood, and old men keep theirs through custom.

110. Men 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of nothing so liberal as of their advice.

111. The more a man loves his mistress, the nearer he is to hate her.

112. The defects of our mind increase as we grow old, like those of our faces.

113. Some marriages may be advantageous, but none can be deli|cious.

114. We are never to be comforted on our being cheated by our enemies, and betrayed by our friends; yet are often well enough pleased to be both cheated and betrayed by our own selves.

115. 'Tis as easy to deceive one's self without perceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others without being perceived.

116. Nothing is less sincere than the manner of asking and giving advice: he that asks it, appears to have a respectful deference for the opinion of his friend, though all he aims at is gaining an approba|tion of his own, and warranting his conduct by the other's authori|ty: and he that advises, requites the confidence reposed in him with an ardent and disinterested zeal, though most commonly he has no other end in the counsel he gives, than his own interest or re|putation.

117. The most subtle sort of tricking, is to know well how to feign ourselves caught in the snares that are laid for us; and never are we so easily deceived as when we are contriving how to deceive others.

118. Our intention of never deceiving any body, exposes us to be often deceived.

119. We are so used to appear in masquerade to others, that at last we appear in masquerade to ourselves.

120. Men are oftener treacherous out of weakness, than out of any formed design.

121. Men often do good, that they may be able to do ill with impunity.

122. If we are able to resist our passions, it is more through their weakness than our strength.

123. It would be but a little pleasure which we should have, were we never to flatter ourselves.

124. The most subtle men affect all their lifetime to condemn trick|ing, that they may make use of it on some great occasion, and for some important interest.

125. The common practice of tricking is the sign of a little un|derstanding; tricking being a sort of a disguise, by which a man hides himself in one place and exposes himself in another.

126. Tricking and treachery proceed from nothing but want of capacity.

127. The certain way to be cheated, is to fancy one's self more cunning than others.

128. Too great subtelty is a false delicacy, and true delicacy is real subtelty.

129. The dullness of some people, is often protection enough to secure them from being imposed on by a man of sense.

130. Weakness of mind is the only defect that cannot be amend|ed.

131. The least defect in women, who are so far abandoned as to make advances, is to make advances.

132. It is easier to be wise for other people than for ourselves.

133. The only good copies are those which expose the ridiculous|ness of bad originals.

134. Men are never so ridiculous for the qualities they have, as for those they affect to have.

135. A m••n is sometimes as different from himself, as he is from others.

136. There are some people who would never have been in love, if they had never heard of love.

137. When vanity does not make us talk, we talk but very lit|tle.

138. We choose to talk ill of ourselves, rather than not talk at all of ourselves.

139. One of the reasons why we meet with so few people who ap|pear reasonable and agreeable in conversation, is, that there is hardly 〈◊〉〈◊〉 body who does not think more on what he has a mind to say, than how pertinently to answer to what is said to him. Even men of the best sense, and most complaisance, content themselves with only pretending an attention, at the same time that it is observable, their eyes and minds are wandering from what is said to them, and they are impatient to return to what they long to say: instead of considering, that this violent pursuing their own pleasure, is but an indifferent way to please or persuade others, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 attentively to hear, and pro|perly to reply, are the greatest perfections any man can be master of to sit him for conversation.

140. A man of wit would be often at a grievous loss, were it not for the company of fools.

141. We o••ten make our boasts that we are never out of humour; and are so vain that we will not think ourselves bad company.

142. As it is the character of great wits, to express a great deal in a few words; so, little wits, on the contrary, have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.

143. It is more from an esteem of our own opinion that we extol the good qualities of other people, than from an esteem of their merit: and we are desirous to receive praise, when we seem to give it.

144. Nobody loves to praise another, and never does it without self-••••••••rest. Praise is an artful, disguised and delicate flattery, which by 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ways satisfies both the giver and receiver: one accepts it 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the reward of his merit; the other gives it to show his equity and discernment.

145. We often choose such praises as carry venom along with them, and which by a side blow, expose some defects in the person com|mended, that we durst not discover after another manner.

146. We commonly praise, only to be praised.

147. Few people are wise enough to prefer the reproof that does them good, to the praise that betrays them.

148. There are some reproaches which are praises, and some praises which are detractions.

149. To refuse praise, is to desire to be praised over again.

150. The desire of d••••erving the pr••••ses given us, strength•••••• our virtue: and those which are given to our wit, valour or beauty, contribute to increase them.

151. It is more difficult for us to avoid being governed, th••n to govern others.

152. If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery of others could never hurt us.

153. Nature gives merit, and fortune 〈◊〉〈◊〉 it at work.

154. Fortune breaks us of many faults which reason never could do.

155. There are some people who with merit are disgustful, and others, who with great defects are agreeable.

156. There are some people whose whole merit lies in saying and doing foolish things advantageously, and would spoil all should they alter their conduct.

157. The glory of great men ought always to be measured by the means they took to acquire it.

158. Flattery is a false coin, which would have no currency but for our vanity.

159. It is not enough for a man to have great qualities, he must have the good government of them too.

160. Let an action be never so glorious, it ought not to pass for great, when it is not the effect of a great design.

161. There ought to be a certain proportion between our actions and our designs, if we would reap all the effects which they are able to produce.

162. The art of knowing how to use indifferent qualifications, gains, as it were, by stealth, the esteem of the world, and often procures a man more reputation than real merit would do.

163. The conduct of some people in a thousand instances appears ridiculous, though the secret reasons for them are very wise and ve|ry solid.

164. It is easier to appear worthy of the employments we have not, than worthy of those we have.

165. Our merit gains us the esteem of men of sense, and our stars the esteem of the vulgar.

166. The world rewards the appearances of merit, oftener than merit itself.

167. Covetousness is more opposite to economy than liberality.

168. Hope, deceitful as it is, serves at least to lead us through a pleasant road to our lives end.

169. While laziness and timorousness restrain us within the bounds of our duty, our virtue often runs away with all the honour of it.

170. It is difficult to judge, whether a clear, open and honour|able proceeding, be the effect of probity or artifice.

171. Virtues are lost in interest, as rivers are lost in the sea.

172. If we well imagine the several consequences of our being out of humour, we shall find that it makes us wanting to more du|ties than interest itself.

173. There are several sorts of curiosity: One sort proceeds from interest, which inclin••s us to desire to learn t••ose things which may be useful to us; and the other from pride, which comes from a desire of knowing those things which other people are igno|rant of.

174. It is ••etter to employ the faculties of our mind ••o support the misfortunes which do happen to us, than to foresee those which may happen.

175. Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy, that causes us to fix our heart successively on all the qualities of the person we love▪ som••••mes giving preference to one, sometimes to another: So that

th••s constancy is nothing but an inconstancy, restrained and confined to one and the same object

176. There are two sorts of constancy in love•• one proceeds from our finding continually in the person beloved new motives for our love; and the other proceeds from our making it a point of honour to be constant.

177. Perseverance is neither praise nor blame-worthy, because it is only the continuance of some inclinations, and some sentiments which men neither give nor take away from themselves.

178. What makes us love new acquaintance, is not so much our being weary of the old, or a pleasure we take in change, as a dis|gust to find ourselves not sufficiently admired by those who are too well acquainted with us, and a hope of being more admired by those who are not acquainted with us so well.

179. We sometimes with levity complain of our friends, to justi|fy before hand our own levity.

180. Our repentance is not so much a remorse for the ill which we have done, as a fear of the ill which may happen to us.

181. There is an inconstancy which proceeds from the levity of the mind, or from its weakness, that causes it to receive all the opi|nions of other▪ people; and there is another which is more excusa|ble, which proceeds from a disgust of things.

182. Vices are mixed to compound virtues, as poisons are to com|pound medicines: prudence mingles and tempers them, and makes use of them successfully against the maladies of life.

183. This must be acknowledged to the honour of virtue, that the greatest misfortunes of men, are those that befal them from their crimes.

184. We confess our faults, to repair by our sincerity the damage they have done us in the minds of others.

185. There are heroes in evil as well as in good.

186. We despise not all those who have vices; but we despise all 〈◊〉〈◊〉 who have no virtues at all.

187. The name of virtue is a•• serviceable to our interest as any vice can be.

188. The health of the soul is no more to be depended on, than that of the body: and though we appear secure from passions, we are not in less danger of being hurried away with them, than we are of fall|ing sick, when we are in perfect health.

189. Nature seems to have marked out to every man at his birth, the bounds of his virtues and vices.

190. It belongs only to great men to have great faults.

191. Vices may be said to wait for us in the course of our lives, like the hosts of so many inns, with whom successively we are forced to lodge; and I doubt whether experience would teach us to avoid them, if it was permitted us twice to travel the same road

192. When vices leave us, we flatter ourselves with the belief that we leave them.

193. There are relapses in the distempers of the soul, as in those of the body; what we take for a cure, is most commonly nothing but an abatement, or a change of disease.

194. The defects of the soul are like wounds in the body: let what

care soever be taken to heal them, the sear always appears, and they are every minute in danger of breaking out again.

195. What prevents us often from giving up ourselves to one sin|gle vice, is, we have a great many vices.

196. We easily forget our faults when they are known only to our|selves.

197. There are some people of whom we can never believe any ill, unless we see it; but there are none in whom we ought to be surprised to see it.

198. We raise the reputation of some, to pull down that of others; and sometime the prince of Conde, and Mareschal de ••urenne would not be so much extolled, if it were not with an intention of lessen|ing either one or the other in the comparison.

199. The desire of appearing to be a man of sense and ability, of|ten hinders a person from being such.

200. Virtue would not go so far, if vanity did not bear her com|pany.

201. The man that fancies he his able to live without all the world, is very much mistaken; but he that fancies there is no living with|out him, is m••staken much more.

202. The pretended accomplished men are those who disguise their defects from others and themselves: the true accomplished men, are those who perfectly know their own defects, and confe••s them.

203. The true accomplished man, is one who values himself on nothing.

204. Womens coyness is only a dress or paint, which they use as ••n addition to their beauty.

205. Womens honour is often nothing but a love for their ease and their reputation.

206. A certain proof of a man's being truly accomplished, is to be willing always to be exposed to the view of accomplished men.

207. Folly attends us close in all the several ages of life. If some one man appears wise, it is only because his follies are proportioned to his age and fortune.

208. There are some silly people, who are sensible of their simpli|city, and make a wise use of it.

209. The man who lives without folly, is not so wise as he fan|cies.

210. As we grow old, we grow more foolish and more wise.

211. There are some men, like ballads, in request only for a while.

212. The generality of the wo••ld never judge of men, but by their reputation or by their fortune.

213. The love of glory, the fear of shame, the design of making a fortune, the desire of rendering life easy and agreeable, and a malici|ous humour of pulling down others, are often the causes of that va|••our so much celebrated among men.

214. Valour in private soldiers is a hazardous trade they have tak|en up to get a livelihood by.

215. Perfect courage and co••plete cowardice are two extremes which men seldom arrive to. The space that is between them is vast, and contains all the other sorts of courage: which differs too no less

from one another than mens faces and humours. The••e are some men who freely expose themselves at the beginning of an action, but abate of their warmth and are disheartened if it continues. There are some that content themselves, when they have done what was neces|sary to maintain their honour to the world, and do little beyond that. It is observable, some people are not always equally masters of their fears. Others are sometimes carried away by general terrors. Others advance to the charge, because they dare not stay at their posts. Some, by accustoming themselves to smaller dangers, harden their courage, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 themselves for venturing on greater. Some are brave with a sword, but fear a musket shot. Others are unconcerned at a m••sket, but afraid of a sword. All these several sorts of courage agree in this, that night increasing fear, and concealing all that is either well or ill done, gives every body the liberty of sparing themselves. There is still another more general regard that a man has for himself; for no body you see, upon occasion, does so much as he would be ca|pable of doing, were he sure to come safely 〈◊〉〈◊〉 So it is plain, that the fear of death considerably detracts from our courage.

216. Perfect courage consists in doing that without witnesses, which it would be capable of doing before all the world.

217. Intrepidity is an extraordinary force of the soul, that raises it above all the trouble, disorders and emotions, which the prospect of great dangers is able to excite: and it is by this force of soul, that heroes keep themselves serene and 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and preserves the free use of their reason i•• the midst of the most surprising and amazing accidents.

218. Hypocrisy is a homage that vice pays to virtue.

219. Most men expose themselves in war enough to save their ho|nour, but few are willing always to expose themselves, so much as it is necessary, to render the design successful, for which they do ex|pose themselves.

220. Vanity, shame, and, above all, constitution, make up, very often, the courage of men, and the virtue of women.

221. Men would not lose their lives, yet would ••ain acquire glory; which is the reason, that brave men show more dexterity and wit to avoid death, than the men, versed in the querks o•• law do, to pre|serve their estates.

222. There are few persons but discover, upon their first declining in years, where the failings of their body and mind are likely to lye.

223. It is with gratitude as with trust among tradesmen—it keeps up commerce; and we do not pay because it is just to discharge our debts, but to engage people the more easily to lend us another time.

224. All those who acquit themselves of the duties of gratitude, cannot, for all that, flatter themselves that they are grateful.

225. That which makes the false reckoning in the acknowledgments which are expected for favours done, is, because the pride of the giver, and the pride of the receiver, cannot agree upon the value of the obligation.

226. To be too hasty to return an obligation, is one sort of ingra|titude.

227. Happy people are never to be corrected; they always think they are in the right, when fortune supports the•••• ill conduct.

228. Pride would never owe, and self-love would never pay,

229. The good we have received from any person, requires that we should pay a respect to the injuries he does us.

230. Nothing is so contagious as example; and we never do any great good, or any great mischief, but it produces the like. We imitate good actions through emulation, and bad, through the ma|lignity of our nature, which shame held a prisoner, but which ex|ample sets at liberty.

231. It is a great folly to set up for being wise by ones self.

232. Whatever preaences we may have for our afflictions, nothing, very often, but interest and vanity, are the causes of them.

233. There are in afflictions, several sorts of hypocrisy. In one sort, under pretence of grieving for the loss of a person who was dear to us, we grieve for ourselves: we mourn for the loss of that good opinion he had of us; we grieve for the diminution of our pro|fit, our pleasure, and our reputation. Thus, the dead have the ho|nour of those tears, which are shed only for the living. This, I say, is a species of hypocrisy; because, in these sorts of afflictions, men impose on themselves. There is another sort of hypocrisy, which is not so innocent, because it imposes on all the world: it is the afflic|tion of certain persons, who aspire to the glory of a great and im|mortal grief. After that time, which consumes all things, has worn out that concern, which they really had, they still grow obstinate in their tears, complaints, and sighs: they set up for playing a mourn|ful part, and take pains, by all their actions, to persuade us, that their sorrow will never end, but with their lives. This dismal and tiresome vanity, is usual with ambitious women: as their sex has excluded them from all the ways that lead to glory, they strive to distinguish themselves by shewing the pomp of an affliction that is not to be comforted. There is yet another kind of tears, which have out shallow springs, that flow indeed, but are easily dried up. There are those that weep to gain the reputation of being tender: those that weep, that they may be pitied: those that weep to be condoled; and those, in short, that weep, to avoid the scandal of being thought insensible.

234. It is oftener through pride, than through any defect of un|derstanding, that men, with so much obstinacy, oppose opinions generally received: they find the first rank of the right side taken, and they disda•••• the second.

235. We are easily comforted for the disgraces of our friends, when they give us occasion of signalising our tenderness for them.

236. Self-love seems to be the bubble of good nature, and that it forgets itself when we labour for the advantage of others. Neverthe|less, it is the most certain way to accomplish its ends: it is l••nding at interest under the pretence of giving: it is, in short, gaining the affections of all the world, after a more subtle and delicate manner.

237. No man deserves to be commended for goodness, who has not spirit enough to be wicked: all other goodness is most commonly nothing but a listlessness and an impotence of the will.

238. It is not so dangerous to do ill to the greatest part of men, as to do them too much good.

239. Nothing flatters our pride mo•••• than the trust the great repose in us; because we look on it as the effect of our merit, without

considering, that this trust most commonly proceeds from their va|nity, or their want of power to keep a secret.

240. We may say of gracefulness distinguished from beauty, that it is a symmetry, the rules of which are unknown to us; and a se|cret conformity of the features with one another, and of the features with the complexion and air of the person.

241. Coqu••try is the natural humour of the sex: though all wo|men do not practise it, because some are awed by fear, and others restrained by reason.

242. We frequently are troublesome to others, when we think it impossible for us ever to be troublesome.

243. There are few things impossible in their own nature; and it is for want of application, rather than of means, that we are unsuccessful.

244. The perfection of capacity consists in knowing well the value of things.

245. It is a great point of capacity to be able to conceal ones capacity.

246. That which appears to us to be generosity, is nothing of|ten but an ambition disguised, which despises little interests to pursue greater.

247. The fidelity which appears in the greatest part of men, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 nothing but an ••••vention of self-love, to oblige others to con|fide in us: it is a means to set us above others, and to make us the confidents of their most important secrets.

248. Magnanimity despises all in order to obtain all.

249. There is not less eloquence in the tone of the voice, in the eyes and an of the person that speaks, than in the choice of expressions.

250. True eloquence consists in saying all that ought to be said▪ and in saying no more.

251. There are some persons whose defects become them; and others, who have the misfortune to displease with their good qua|lities.

252. It is as common for men to change their tastes, as it is uncommon for them to change their inclinations.

253. Interest sets at work all sorts of virtues and vices.

254. Humility is often nothing but a feigned submission, which men make use of to engage others to submit to them: it is an arti|fice of pride, which debases itself on purpose to be exalted; and though it transforms itself into a thousand shapes, is never bet|ter disguised, and more capable of deceiving, than when it con|ceals itse•••• under the form of humility.

255. The sentiments of the mind have each of them a certain tone of vo••••, certain gestures and airs, which are proper and peculiar to them; and this propriety, either well or ill observed, agreeable or disagreeable, is the thing which makes persons pleas|ing or displeasing.

256. The men of all professions affect the air and exterior ap|pearance of what they would be esteemed 〈◊〉〈◊〉; so that it may be said, that the world is made up of nothing ••ut appearances.

257. Gravity is an affectation of the body, put on to conceal the defects of the mind.

258. A good taste is the effect of judgment more than wit.

259. The pleasure of love is loving: and a man is more happy in the passion he feels, than in that which he gives.

260. Civility, is a desire of receiving civility, and of being esteem|ed well bred.

261. The education we commonly give young people, is a second self-love, with which we inspire them.

262. There is no passion in which self-love reigns so powerfully as in love: and we are always readier to sacrifice the ease of those we love, than to part with our own.

263. What we call liberality, is nothing, most commonly, but the vanity of giving, of which we are fonder than of the thing we give.

264. Pity is often a sense of our misfortunes, in the misfortunes of other men: it is a wise foresight of the disasters that may befal us: We relieve others, to engage them to relieve us on the like occasions: and the services which we do them are, properly speaking, so many kindnesses which we do to ourselves before|hand.

265. Littleness of mind is the cause of stiffness in opinion; and it is not easily that we believe any thing beyond what we see.

266. It is a mistake to believe that none but the violent pas|sions, such as ambition and love, are able to triumph over the other passions. Laziness, as languid as it is, often gets the mastery of them all: usurps over all designs, and actions of life, and insensibly destroys and consumes both passion and virtue.

267. A readiness to believe ill, without the examination, is the effect of pride and laziness. We are willing to find others guilty; and unwilling to give ourselves the trouble of examining into their crimes.

268. We except against some judges in things of the least con|cern, yet are willing to have our reputation and honour depend on the judgment of men who are all against us, either through jealousy, prejudice, or want of discernment: and it is only to engage these to pronounce sentence in our favour, that we expose to many several ways our ease and our lives.

269. There are few men have understanding enough to know the ill they do.

270. The honour a man has acquired▪ is security for that which the will one day acquire.

271. Youth is a continual drunkenness; the fever of reason.

272. Nothing ought more to mortify the men who have deserv|ed great applause, than the pains they are still at, to make them|selves considerable by a great many little things.

273. There are persons whom the world approves of, whose only merit consists in vices, that are useful and pleasing to others.

274. The charm of novelty is to love, what the bloom is upon fruit; it gives it a lustre that is easily effaced, and never returns.

275. Good-nature, which boasts of being so very sensible, is often stifled by the smallest interest.

276. Absence lessens moderate passions, but increases great ones; like the wind which blows out ••apers, but kindles sire.

277. Women often fancy themselves in love, when there is nothing of love in the case. The amusement of an amour, the commotions of mind that an intrigue gives them, the natural inclinations they have for the pleasure of being beloved, and the pain of refusing, persuade them that what they feel is passion, when it is nothing but coqu••try.

278. What often makes us dissatisfied with those that negoti|ate our affairs, is, that they almost always abandon the interest of their friends, to advance the success of their negotiation: the interest becoming their own, by the credit they gain in suc|ceeding in the thing they undertook.

279. When we magnify the tenderness that our friends have for us, it is often not so much out of gratitude, as a desire to give others an opinion of our merit.

280. The approbation we give those that are just entering into the world, proceeds often from a secret envy which we bear those who have made a fortune in it already.

281. Pride which inspires us with so much envy, serves often to allay it.

282. There are some disguised falsities which represent the truth so well, that it would be wronging our judgments not to be deceived by them.

283. It is not less prudence sometimes to know how to use good advice, than to be able to advice one's self.

284. There are some had men who would be less dangerous if they had no virtues at all.

285. Magnanimity is sufficiently defined by its name; yet it may be said to be the most judicious act of pride, and the most noble method of acquiring applause.

286. It is impossible to love a second time the thing that we have once truly ceased to love.

287. It is not so much the fruitfulness of our invention which suggests to us many expedients to effect the same affair, as it is the defect of our judgment, which makes us pitch upon every thought that presents itself to our imagination, and prevents us from discerning the best at first.

288. There are affairs and distempers, at certain junctures, which remedies render desperate: and a great deal of skill is required to know when it is dangerous to apply them.

289. Affected simplicity is a finer sort of imposture.

290. There are more defects in mens' humours than in their un|derstandings.

291. Mens' merits have their seasons, as well as fruits.

292. Mens' humours may be said, like the generality of buildings, to have several fronts; some agreeable, others disagreeable.

293. Moderation can never have the glory of combating with am|bition, and conquering it: for they never meet with one another

Moderation is the langour and sloth of the soul, as ambition is the vigour and activity of it.

294. We always love those that admire us, but we do not always love those whom we admire.

295. We are far from knowing all our desires.

296. It is hard for us to love those whom we do not esteem: but it is no less hard to love those whom we esteem much more than ourselves.

297. The humours of the body have a constant and regular course, by which our will is imperceptibly moved and turned; they take their circuit, and suc••••ssively exercise a secret empire within us: so that they have a considerable share in our actions, without our being able to know it.

298. The gratitude of the generality of men, is nothing but a se|cret desire of obtaining greater favours.

299. Every body, almost, takes a pleasure to return small obliga|tions; many are grateful for moderate ones; but there is hardly any body but is ungrateful for great ones.

300. There are some follies which are as catching as infectious dis|eases.

301. Many men despise wealth, but few know how to be liberal.

302. It is but in things of small concern, commonly, in which we venture to disbelieve appearances

303. Let men say never so much good of us, they tell us nothing that is new to us.

304. We often forgive those who in conversation are tiresome to us, but we cannot forgive those whom we are tiresome to.

305. Interest, which we accuse of all our crimes, deserves often to be commended for our good actions.

306. We seldom find people ungrateful, as long as we are in a con|dition to oblige them.

307. It is as commendable in a man to entertain a good opinion of himself, as it is ridiculous to shew it.

308. Moderation has been made a virtue, with a design to limit the ambition of great men, and to comfort the meaner sort, on the smallness of their fortune, and of their merit.

309. There are some people predestined to be fools, who not only commit follies by choice, but who are forced into them even by for|tune herself.

310. There happen sometimes accidents in life, out of which, it is necessary for a man to be a little mad, to extricate himself.

311. If there are some people whose blind sides have never been discovered, it is because no man of sense has taken pains to search for them.

312. The reason why lovers and their mistresses are never tired with conversing together, is because their discourse is always of them|selves.

313. How comes it about that our memory should serve us to re|tain even the smallest circumstances of the things that have happened to us; and yet that it should not serve us to remember how often we have told them all to the same person?

314. The extreme pleasure that we take in talking of ourselves, ought to make us afraid that we give but little to those that hear us.

315. That which hinders us commonly from letting our friends see the bottom of our hearts, is not so much the diffidence we have of them, as the diffidence we have of ourselves.

316. It is not in the power of a weak man to be sincere.

317. It is no great misfortune to oblige ungrateful people; but it is an intolerable one to be obliged to a brutal man.

318. Means may be found to cure madness, but there are none to reform a perverse understanding.

319. We cannot long preserve the sentiments we ought to have of our friends and benefactors, if we allow ourselves the liberty to talk often of their failings.

320. To praise princes for virtues which they have not, is a secure way of abusing them.

321. We are more inclined to love those that hate us, than th••se who love us more than we have a mind they should.

322. There are none who are afraid to be despised, but those th•••• are despicable.

323. Our wisdom is no less at the mercy of fortune than our wealth.

324. In jealousy there is more self-love than love.

325. We often comfort ourselves through weakness for misfor|tunes, under which reason has not strength enough to comfort us.

326. A man's blind side dishonours him more than real disho|nour.

327. We never confess our small faults, but to make it believed that we have no great ones.

328. Envy is more irreconcileable than hatred.

329. Men sometimes fancy that they hate flattery, but they only have the manner of it.

330. We forgive as long as we love.

331. It is more difficult for a man to be faithful to his mistress, when he receives favours from her, than when he is scurvily used by her.

332. Women are not sensible of all their coquetry.

333. Women are never completely severe but where they have an aversion.

334. Women can more easily get the better of their passion than of their coquetry.

335. In love, deceit goes almost always farther than distrust.

336. There is a certain sort of love, whose excess prevents jealousy.

337. It is with certain good qualities as it is with our senses; those that are entirely deprived of them, can neither discern nor comprehend them.

338. When our hatred is too violent, it sinks us beneath those w•• hate.

339. We are not sensible of our good or ill-fortune, but in proportion to our self-love.

340. Wit in most women serves more to improve their folly th••n their reason.

341. The fire of youth is hardly a greater obstacle to salvation, than the coolness and insensibility of age.

342. The character of a man's native country, is as inherent to his mind and temper, as the accent of it is to his speech.

343. He that would be a great man, ought to know how to push his fortune to the utmost.

344. Most men, as well as plants, have secret virtues which are discovered by chance.

345. There is no regulating the passions and minds of women, if the constitution is not consenting.

346. Accidents and occasions make us known to others, but much more to ourselves.

347. We rarely allow any people to have good sense but those of our own opinion.

348. When we are in love, we doubt often of the thing which we believe the most.

349. The greatest miracle that love can work is curing co|quetry.

350. The thing that make us so severe upon those that put tricks upon us, is, because they fancy themselves to have more wit than we have.

351. Lovers find it difficult to break off, after they have done loving.

352. We are almost always tired with those people whom we ought never to be tired with.

353. A man of sense may love like a madman, but never like a fool.

354. There are some faults which, being set to advantage, appear more bright than virtue itself.

355. We often lose some persons whom we miss more than we lament; and others we lament, but miss very little.

356. We commonly praise nobody heartily but those who ad|mire us.

357. Little minds are too much disordered by little things; great minds see all things, and are disordered by none.

358. Humility is the true proof of Christian virtues: with|out it we retain all our faults, and they are only covered over with pride, that conceals them from others, and often from ourselves.

359. Infidelity ought to extinguish love, and we should never be jealous when we have ground to be so: there are no persons but those that avoid giving us jealousy, that are worthy of our being jealous of them.

360. The least infidelity to us, discredits the person that com|mits it in our esteem, more than the greatest infidelity to any body else.

361. Jealousy is always born with love, but does not always die with it.

362. Most women lament not the death of their lovers, so much because they loved them, as because they would appear worthy of being beloved.

363. The violences done to us by others, are often less pain|ful than those we do ourselves.

364. We are sensible enough that a man ought not to talk of his wife; but are not sensible enough that ••e ought still less to talk of himself.

365. There are some good qualities, which degenerate into defects when they are natural; and others which are never perfect when they are acquired: thus, for example, it is reason that must make us frugal of our wealth and of our secrets; and nature, on the con|trary, that must give us good humour and courage.

366. What diffidence soever we have of the sincerity of those whom we converse with, we always believe they speak more truth to us than to any body else.

367. There are few honest women but what are weary of their profession.

368. Most honest women are hidden treasures; only secure be|cause they are not sought after.

369. The violences which we use to ourselves to prevent loving, are often more cruel than the rigours shewn us by the person we love.

370. There are few cowards who always know the extent of their fears.

371. It is almost always the fault of the man that is in love, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to be sensible when he ceases to be loved.

372. The generality of young people fancy themselves to be na|tural and unaffected, when, they are only rough and ill-bred.

373. There are some tears, which after they have imposed on others, often impose on ourselves.

374. If a man fancies he loves his mistress for her own sake, he is mightily mistaken.

375. The people of moderate parts commonly condemn every thing that is beyond their reach.

376. Envy is destroyed by true friendship, and coquetry by true love.

377. The greatest fault in penetration is not its falling short, but its going beyond the mark.

378. We may give good counsel, but cannot bestow good conduct.

379. When our merit declines, o•• taste decline••••••••.

380. Fortune discovers our virtues and vices, as light does objects.

381. The violence which we use to preserve our fidelity in love, is little better than infidelity.

382. Our actions are like blank ••••ymes, to which every body applies what sense he pleases.

383. The fondness we have of talking of ourselves, and of the wing our fa••lings on the side we would have them shew••, makes up a part of our sincerity.

384. Nothing ought to make us wonder, but that we should be still able to wonder at any thing.

385. Men are almost equally difficult to be contented when they are much in love, or when they are got out of it.

386. No people are oftener in the wrong than those who can|not bear being so.

387. A blockhead has not stuff enough in him to be good for any 〈◊〉〈◊〉.

388. If vanity does not quite overturn our virtues, at least it makes them all to totter.

389. The thing that makes other people's vanity insupportable to us, is, that it shocks our own.

390. We forego our interest with more case than we do our taste.

391. Fortune never appears so blind as she does to those whom she never favours.

392. We ought to treat fortune as we do health; enjoy her when good, bear with her when 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and never apply vio|lent remedies, unless in great necessity.

393. The air of a citizen is sometimes lost in a camp, but ne|ver in a court.

394. One man may be more cunning than another, but not more cunning than every body else.

395. We are sometimes less unhappy in being deceived by the person we love, than in being undeceived.

396. Women are a long time true to their first love, except they happen to have a second.

397. We have not the assurance to say in general, that we have no failings, and that our enemies have no good qualities; but let us descend to particulars, and we are not far from believing so.

398. Of all our failings, laziness is that which we are most easily induced to confess: we persuade ourselves, that it partakes of all the peaceable virtues, and that, without ••ntirely destroying the others, it only suspends the exercise of them.

399. There is on 〈◊〉〈◊〉 which is independent of fortune; this a certain air which distinguishes us, and seems to design us to great things; it is a value which insensibly we set upon ourselves; it is by this quality chiefly that we extort respect from others 〈◊〉〈◊〉 this is it which commonly raises us above them more than either birth, ho|nours, or m••rit, itself.

400. There is some merit without elevation, but no elevation, with|out some sort of merit.

401. Elevation is to merit, what dross is to a fine woman.

402. The thing which is least to be met with in gallantry is love.

403. Fortune sometimes makes use of our failings to advance us; and there are some troublesome people, whose merit would be ill rewarded, if we were not desirous at any rate to purchase their ab|sence.

404. Nature seems to have concealed, in the inmost recesses of our 〈◊〉〈◊〉, some ••alents, and some one ability unknown to 〈◊〉〈◊〉; the pas|sions alone have the power of bringing these to light, and of furnish|ing us sometimes with more 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and more completed designs, than any that art is able to do.

405. We arrive altogether raw at the several stages of life, and of|ten find at our arrival at them, that time ••tself has not been able to teach us experience.

406. Coquets take a pride in being jealous of their lovers, ••o con|ceal the envy they bear to other women.

407. Those that are over-reached by our artifices, do no•• appear nigh so ridiculous to us as we appear to ourselves, when we are over|reached by the artifices of others.

408. The most ••••andalous blind side of women advanced in years, that have been once beautiful, is to forget that are so no longer.

409. We should often be ashamed of our brightest actions, if the world could see upon what motives they were performed.

410. The greatest effort of friendship, is not the discovering our ••ailings to a friend, but the she wing him his own.

411. There are but ••ew defects which are not more pardonable than the means that are used to conceal them.

412. What shame soever we may have deserved, it is almost al|ways in our power to recover our reputation.

413. The man can never please long that has but one sort of wit.

414. Mad men and fools see only by their humour.

415. Wit sometimes gives us a privilege to play the fool boldly.

416. The vivacity which increases with old age, is not far remov|ed from madness.

417. In love, the party that is first cured, is always the best cured.

418. Young women that would not appear coquets, and old men that would not be ridiculous, ought never to talk of love as a thing that concerned them.

419. We may appear great in an employment below our merit: but we often appear little in an employment too great for us.

420. In our afflictions, we often take want of spirit for constancy of mind; and we bear them without so much as daring to look them in the face, as poor passive cowards are killed, because they are afraid to defend themselves.

421. Confidence furnishes more to conversation than wit.

422. All the passions cause us to commit faults, but love to com|mit the most ridiculous ones.

423. Few people know how to be old.

424. We value ourselves on the defects which are most opposite to our own; when we are irresolute, we boast of being obstinate.

425. Penetration has an appearance of divining, which flatters our vanity more than all the other qualities of our mind.

426. The charms of a new acquaintance, and the influence of an old one, as opposite as they are to one another, do equally hinder us from finding out the failings of our friends.

427. The generality of friends put us out of conceit with friend|ship, and the generality of devout persons put us out of conceit with devotion.

428. We easily forgive in our friends the faults that have no rela|tion to us.

429. Women in love more easily forgive great indiscretions than small infidelities.

430. In old love, as in old age, we live to pain when we live no longer to pleasure.

431. Nothing hinders a man so much from being unaffected, as the fondness of appearing so.

432. To commend brave actions with warmth, is in some mea|sure, to give ourselves a share in the merit of them.

433. The truest sign of a noble soul, is to be placed by nature above envy.

434. When our friends have betrayed us, a bare indifference is

only due to their professions of friendship; but a sensible concern is always due to their misfortunes.

435. Fortune and humour govern the world.

436. It is easier to know mankind in general, than any one man in particular.

437. We ought not to judge of the merit of a man by his great qualities, but by the use he knows how to make of them.

438. There is a certain gratitude so sensible, that it not only dis|charges us of the obligations we have received, but even makes our friends indebted to us, while we do but pay what we owed to them.

439. There would be but few things which we should desire passionately, if we knew perfectly the nature of the things we desired.

440. The reason why most women are so little touched with friendship, is, because friendship is but insipid to those that have been sensibl•• of love.

441. In friendship, as in love, we are often more happy, by the things we do not know, than by those we know.

442. We endeavour ••o make ourselves valued on the failings which we have no mind to amend.

443. The most violent passions often give us some respite, but vanity never lets us be at quiet.

444. Old fools are greater fools than young ones.

445. Vice is not so oppos••••e to virtue as w••akness.

446. The thing that renders the pains of shame and jealousy so sharp, is, because vanity can be of no use to us in supporting them.

447. Decency is the least of all laws, yet the most observed.

448. A man of a good understanding finds it less troublesome to submit to a humoursome man than to gover•• ••im.

449. When fortune surprises us with the gift of some great post, which we were neither advanced to by degrees, nor prepar|ed for by our hopes, it is almost impossible to behave ourselves well in it, and to appear worthy of it.

450. Our pride is often increased by the retrenchments we make from our other failings.

451. There are no fools so troublesome as those that have wit.

452. There is no man who believes himself in every respect in|ferior to the man of the world, whom he esteems the most.

453. In great affairs we ought not with so much application to seek occasions, as to make our advantage of those that offer them|selves.

454. There are few occasions in which we should make a bad bargain, to renounce all the good that is said of us, on condition to have no ill said of us.

455. As much disposed as the world is to be sensorious, it of|tene•• shows favour to false merit, than it does injustice to true.

456. A man may be a fool with wit, but never with judgment.

457. We should gain more by letting the world see us just such as we are, than by striving to appear what we are not.

458. Our enemies come nearer the truth, in the judgments they make of us, than we do, in those we make of ourselves.

459. There are many remedies which cure love, but none are in|fallible.

460. We are far from knowing all the influence our passions have over our actions.

461. Old age is a tyrant, that forbids, on pain of death, all the pleasures of youth.

462. The same pride which makes us condemn the faults which we fancy ourselves to be free from, inclines us to despise the good qualities which we have not.

463. There is often more pride than good-nature in our conc•••••• for the misfortunes of our enemies; it is to make them sensible we are above them, that we show them any marks of compassion.

464. There is an excess of happiness and misery, that is beyond our sensibility.

465. Innocence is far from finding so much protection as guilt.

466. Of all the violent passions, that which is the least unbecom|ing of women, is love.

467. Vanity makes us do more things against our inclination than reason.

468. There are some great talents that are formed by bad qualities.

469. We never passionately desire the thing, which we only desire from the dictates of reason.

470. All our qualities are uncertain and doubtful, whether good or bad, and lie, almost all of them, at the mercy of opportunity.

471. Women, in their first inclinations, love the lover, but in all the rest, they love the passion.

472. Pride has its whimsies, as well as the other passions; we are ashamed to own ourselves jealous, yet value ourselves upon having been so, and upon being capable of being so.

473. As 〈◊〉〈◊〉 a thing as true love is, it is still less rare than true friendship.

474. There are ••ew women whose merit lasts longer than their beauty.

475. The greatest part of our confidence is made up of a fondness of being pitied, or of being admired.

476. Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.

477. The same constancy of mind that serves to resist love, serves also, to make it more violent and lasting; while weak people, who are always hurried with passions, are almost never truly possessed with any.

478. The imagination cannot invent so many several contrarieties as there are naturally in the heart of every man.

479. No persons, but those who have constancy, can have true sweetness of temper; those who appear to have it, have nothing but a weakness, that is easily turned into sourness.

480. Cowardice is a fault, for which it is dangerous to reprehend the persons whom we would have amend it.

481. Nothing is more rare than true good-nature; those even who fancy they have it, have, commonly, nothing but either easiness, or complaisance.

482. The mind, betwixt laziness and constancy, is fixed to what is either easy or agreeable to it; this habit always sets the bounds to

our enquiries, and no body ever gave himself the trouble to extend and carry his mind as far as it could go.

483. We speak ill of others, more from vanity than malice.

484. While the heart continues still moved by the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of a passion, it is more inclinable to receive a new 〈…〉〈…〉 entirely cured.

485. Those that have had great passions, find themselves perpetu|ally happy and unhappy in being cured of them.

486. There are still more people free from interest, than from en|vy.

487. We have more laziness in our minds than in our bodies.

488. The quiet, or the disturbance of our humour, depends not so much on the important things that happen to us in life, as on an easy or disagreeable disposition of the little things that happen every day.

489. As bad as men are, they dare not appear to be the enemies of virtue; and when they resolve to persecute it, they pretend to be|lieve it false, or lay some crime to its charge

490. We often pass from love to ambition, but rarely return from ambition to love.

491. Extreme covetousness is almost always mistaken; there is no passion which so often misses its aim, or on which the present has so 〈◊〉〈◊〉 influence, to the prejudice of the future.

492. Covetousness often produces contrary effects; there are a world of people, who sacrifice their whole estates to doubtful and distant hopes; others despise great advantages that are future, for a little profit that is present.

493. Men seem to think they have not defects enough; they in|crease the number of them, by certain singular qualities, that they 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to set themselves off with; and these they cultivate with so much care, that, at length, they become natural defects, which they no longer have the power to amend.

494. The thing which makes it plain, that men are more sensible of their failings than we imagine, i•• this that they are never in the wrong, when we hear them talk of their conduct. The same self-love which commonly blinds them, enlightens them then, and gives them so just views of things, as make them suppress or disguise the smallest matters that are liable to be condemned.

495. Young people, who are just coming into the world, ought to be either 〈◊〉〈◊〉 or giddy; a solemn and pretending air, turns, commonly, into impertinence.

496. Quarrels would not last long, if the wrong were only on one side.

497. It signifies nothing to be young, without being beautiful; no•• to be beautiful, without being young.

498. There are some persons 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and trifling, that they are as 〈◊〉〈◊〉 having real faults, as real good qualities.

499. A woman's first intrigue is commonly never reckoned, till she has had a second.

500. There are some men so full of themselves, that, when they are in love, they entertain themselves with their own p••ssion, instead of the person they make love to.

501. Love, as agreeable as it is, pleases more by the ways it takes to show itself, than by any thing in itself.

502. An indifferent share of wit, with judgment, is less tiresome at long run, than a great d••al of wit, with impertinence.

503. Jealousy is the greatest of all evils, yet it is the least pitied by the persons that occasion it

504. In the adversity of our best friends, we find something that doth not displease us.

505. After having spoken of the falsity of so many seeming vir|tues, it is but reasonable to say something of the falsity that there is in the contempt of death. I mean, that contempt of death, which the heathens boasted to derive from their own natural strength, with|out the hope of a better life. There is a great deal of difference be|tween suffering death with co••••tancy, and contemning it. The first is common enough, but the other. I am apt to believe, is never sin|cere. All that is possible to be said, to persuade us that death is no evil, has been written: and some of the weakest men, as well as the heroes, have given a thousand eminent examples in confirmation of this opinion. Yet, after all, I doubt whether any person of good sense ever believed it: and the pains they are at to persuade others and themselves, discover clearly enough, that it is no easy task to do it. A man may have many reasons to be disgusted with life, but can have no reason to despise death: those even who choose a voluntary death, esteem is not so slight a matter, and are as much startled at it, and decline it as much as others, when it comes upon them in any other manner than that they have chosen themselves. The inequality that is remarkable in the courage of a world of brave men, proceeds from this, that death discovers itself in different shapes to them, and appears more present to their imagination at one time than another: so it happens, that after having despised what they did not know, they are afraid at last of what they do know▪ If we would not be|lieve it the greatest of all evils, we must never look it in the face with all its circumstances. The wisest and bravest men are those that take the handsomest pretences to avoid the consideration of it: for all who, ••now what it is to see it, as it really is, find it a horrible thing. The necessity of dying, made up all the constancy of the philoso|phers; they thought they had best go with a good grace, since there was no help for their going; and not being able to eternize their lives, they omitted nothing to eternize their reputations and to save from shipwreck all that could be secured Let us, then, to put the best face on the matter, be contented with not discovering to our|selves, all that we think o•• it, and let us hope for more from our 〈◊〉〈◊〉, than from those weak seasonings which make us fancy we are able to approach death with indifference The glory of dy|ing resolutely, the hope of being lamented whe•••• gone, the desire of leaving a fair reputation behind us, the assurance of being freed from the miseries of life, and of depending no longer on the caprices of fortune, are remedies not to be rejected: but 〈◊〉〈◊〉 are not to be supposed infallible▪ They serve to embold••n us; as in war, a poor hedge does often to embolden the soldiers that are to make their ap|proa••••••s to a place, from whence the enemy is 〈◊〉〈◊〉 firing: while they are at a distance they imagine it may be a good shelter, but when near, they find it but a slight defence. It is flattering our|selves

to fancy, that death, when near, will appear the same thing that we judge it when at a distance; and that our sentiments, which are but weakness itself, should be of so hardened a temper as to en|dure, without suffering from the blow, the severest of all proofs. Be|sides, it is to be but little acquainted with the effects of self-love, to think that is like to help us to consider that thing a trifle, which must necessarily be its destruction: and reason, in which we expect to find so much relief, has not the power, in this case, to make us believe that we wish to find true. It is reason, on the contrary, that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 betrays 〈◊〉〈◊〉, and which, instead of inspiring us with a con|tempt of death, serves to discover to us its terror and hideousness.—All that reason is able to do for us, is to advise us to avert our eyes, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to fix them on some other objects. Cato and Brutus chose illus|trious deaths. A lackey, sometime ago, had so little concern, as to dance upon the scaffold, where he was to be broke on the wheel. Thus though the motives be different, they produce, often, the same effects. So true it is, that what disproportion there may be be|tween great men and the vulgar, we have seen a thousand times, both the one and other meet death with the same countenance: but it has been always with this difference, that in the contempt of death which the great men show, it is the love of glory that removes it from their sight; and in the vulgar, it is nothing but an effect of their want of understanding, that prevents their knowing the greatness of the evil, and leaves them at liberty to think of something else.

ON SELF-LOVE.

SELF-LOVE is the love of one's self, and of every thing for the sake of one's self: it makes men idolizers of themselves, and would make them tyrants to others, if fortune furnished them with the means of doing it. It never takes any rest but within itself, or dwells longer on any other objects, than bees do upon flowers, to extract what may be to its advantage Nothing is so impetuous as its desires, nothing so secret as its designs, nothing so artful as its con|••uct▪ In agility, it surpasses all representation; in transforming it|self, it exceeds all the metamorphoses and in refining, goes beyond all the art of chymistry: there is no fathoming the depth, or pierc|ing thro' the darkness of its abyss Here it is concealed from the most penetrating eyes, and makes a thousand insensible turnings and wind|ings. Here it is often invisible to itself, and conceives and breeds up a vast number of inclinations and aversions unknown to itself: some of which are so monstrous, that when they are brought forth, it does not know them, or cannot be prevailed on to own them: from this obscurity, with which it is overcast, arise the ridiculous conceits that it has of itself: hence proceed the errors, ignorance, the gross and silly mistakes it entertains of itself Hence it is, that it fancies those passions dead in itself, which are only laid to sleep; that it ima|gines it has laid aside the desire of pursuing, when it does but rest to take breath; and thinks it has lost the appetites, which it has only satisfied for the present: and yet this obscurity, thick as it is,

to hide it from itself, hinders it not from seeing perfectly the things which are without itself; in which it is like our eyes, which perceive all things, and are only blind with respect to themselves. Indeed, in its greatest concerns and most important affairs, where the vio|lence of its desires summons all its attention, it sees, and feels, and hears, and imagines, and suspects, and penetrates, and foresees every thing so well, that a man would be tempted to believe that every one of its passions was guided by a sort of magic peculiar to it. No|thing is so close and strong as its engagements, which in vain it at|tempts to break at the sight of great and threatening disasters. Yet sometimes it affects that in a little time, and with little pains, which it could not effect in the course of many years with all its endeavours: from whence it may probably enough be concluded, that its desires are kindled by itself, rather than by the beauty or merit of its ob|jects; that its own palate gives them the value that enhances them, and the gloss that sets them off; that itself is the thing that it pursu••••, and its own humour what it follows, when it follows the objects that suit its humour. It is made up of contrarieties; it is imperious and submissive, sincere and hypocritical, compassionate and cruel, timorous and audacious; it puts on different inclinations, according to the different tempers that dispose and devote it sometimes to glory, some|times to riches, and sometimes to pleasure. All which too it changes, as our age, fortune or experience change; but as to itself, it is indif|ferent whether it has many, or but one: because it divides itself into many, and collects itself into one, as its pleasure or necessity requires. It is inconstant, not only from the changes produced by foreign cau|ses; but from a thousand others, that spring from itself: it is incon|stant from inconstancy, levity, love, weariness and disgust: it is whimsical, and may be observed sometimes ••o labour with the ut|most vehemence, and with incredible pains 〈◊〉〈◊〉 obtain those things that are not only of no advantage, but are hurtful, which yet pursue it will, merely because it will: it is fantastical, and often sets all its applica|tion at work about the most frivolous employments; takes delight in the most insipid things, and preserves all is haughtiness in the most con|temptible circumstances; it enters into all states and conditions of life; it lives in every place, it lives upon every thing; nay, it lives upon no|thing: it makes itself easy, either with the enjoyment of things, or with the want of them: it takes part with the people that make 〈◊〉〈◊〉 upon it, engages in their desig••••; and, what is wonderful, joins wi•••• them in hating itself, conspires its own destruction, and works its own ruin: in short, its whole care is to exist; and provided it does but exist, it is contented to be its own enemy. We ought not, therefore, to be surprised to see it associating itself with the most rigid austeri••••, and entering boldly into league with its adversary to destroy itself, because at the same time that it loses in one place, it gains in another: when we think it renounces its pleasure, it only suspends or changes it; and when it is so conquered that we fancy it entirely routed, we find it triumphing in its own defeat. Behold the true picture of self-love, the whole life of which is but one great and long agitation: the sea is a very sensible image of it; the waves of which, in their flux and r••flux, ••aithfully express the turbulent succession of its thoughts, and the eternal commotions of its mind.

MAXIMS.

1. MANY people are desirous to be devout; but nobody is desirous to be humble.

2. The labour of the body frees us from the pains of the mind; and this it is which makes the poor happy.

3. Real mortifications are those which are not known; vanity makes the others easy.

4. Humility is the altar on which God would have us offer our sacrifices.

5. There are but few things wanting to make the wise man happy: nothing can make a ••ool content; which is the reason why almost all men are miserable.

6. We torment ourselves less to become happy, than to make it believed we are so.

7. It is easier extinguishing the first inclination we have, than gra|tifying all those that come after it.

8. Wisdom is to the soul, what health is to the body.

9. Since the great men of the world can neither give health of body, nor repose of mind, we constantly pay too dear for all the good they are able to do us.

10. Before we desire a thing passionately, it ought to be consider|ed what is the happiness of the person that possesses it.

11. A true friend is the greatest of all possessio••s, yet is that which we least of all are careful to acquire.

12. Lovers see not the failings of their mistresses, till their en|chantment is at an end.

13. Prudence and love are not made for one another; for just as love increases, prudence decreases.

14. It is sometimes agreeable for a husband to have his wife jea|lous of him; he is sure to hear the thing talked of that he loves.

15. How is the poor woman to be pitied, that is at once strongly possessed with love and virtue!

16. The wise man finds his advantage in not engaging, more than in conquering.

17. It is more necessary to study men than books.

18. Happiness, or unhappiness, commonly go to them who have most of the one or the other.

19. An honest woman is a hidden treasure, which, he that finds, is in the right not to boast of.

20. When we love too passionately, we do not easily discover when we cease to be beloved.

21. We never find fault with ourselves, but with a design to be commended.

22. We are almost always uneasy with those that are uneasy with us.

23. A man is never so hard put to it to speak well, as when he is ashamed to be silent.

24. Our faults are always pardonable, when we have so much power over ourselves as to con••••ss them.

25. There is nothing more natural, nor more deceitful, than to believe we are beloved.

26. We take more pleasure to see the persons we have done good to, th••n to those that have done good to us.

27. It is harder to dissemble the sentiments we have, than to feign sentiments which we have not.

28. Friendships renewed, require more care to cultivate them, than those that have never been broken.

29. The man that is pleased with nobody, is more unhappy than the man with whom nobody is pleased.