Monsieur d' Aubigny weary of his gravity was now minded to end the Conference and after the usual civilities at parting every one returned to his home extreamly well satisfied Mr. d' Aubigny had afterwards a very particular Conference with the Woman and in spite of the Rules of Marriage she told him all that happen'd during their imaginary Possession A LETTER To Monsieur D'OLONNE By the same Hand AS soon as I heard of your disgrace I gave my self the honour of writeing to you in order to testify my great concern for you and I write to you at present to let you know that you ought at least to avoid so troublesome a Companion as Melancholy is at a time when it is not in your power to relish any joy If such valuable commodities as Men of good Sense are to be had in the place where you are their Conversation may in some manner repair the loss of the Correspondences you have quitted And if you find none there Books and good chear may be a great assistance to you and give no ordinary consolation I speak to you like a Master that designs to prescribe Lessons not that I presume much upon the force of my Reasoning but I fancy I have some right to assume an Authority over persons that are Unfortunate by the long experience I have had of Misfortunes and unhappy Revolutions Amongst the Books you are to choose for your entertainment in the Country apply your self principally to those that strike in with your humour by their agreements rather than those that pretend to fortify your Mind by Arguments and Reasons The last engage with your Distemper which is always done at the expence of the person in whom this troublesome Scene is Acted The first makes it to be forgotten and it is no hard matter to make a sentiment of Joy succeed to an obliterated Grief Systems of Morality are only proper to set the Conscience in good order and retrieve it from confusion and I have seen several grave and composed Men come out of its School who were not over-stocked with the Rules of a prudent behaviour Your true Men of Sense need not hunt Books to read these Lessons but only to make Lessons for themselves for as they know what 's good by the singular exactness of their Taste so they are disposed to it by their own voluntary motion Not but that there are certain occasions wherein such assistances are not to be rejected but where it is a Man's fortune to have need of its aid he may easily deliver himself from these perplexities If you were reduced to the necessity of having your Veins opened I would permit you to read Seneca and to imitate him Yet would I choose rather to fall into the carelessness of Petronius than to study for a constancy which is not obtain'd without a great deal of difficulty If you were of a humour to devote your self for your Country I would advise you to read nothing else but the lives of those Romans who courted a glorious Death for the good of their Nation But considering your present Circumstances I think you lie under an Obligation to live for your self and to spend the remainder of your life as agreeably as you can Now things being in this scituation leave off all study of Wisdom which doth not contribute to the lessening of your troubles or to the regaining of your Pleasures You will seek for Constancy in Seneca and you will find nothing in him but severity Plutarch will be less troublesome however he will make you grave and serious rather than sedate Montagne will instruct you better in what relates to Man than any other But after all this rational Tool this Man with all his mighty stock of knowledge which is usefull indeed in good Fortune to teach him moderation has nothing but sad and afflicting Thoughts which serve to deject him in the bad Let not the unhappy then seek in Books to be disturbed at Our Miseries but to rejoyce at Our follies For this reason you will prefer the Reading of Lucian Petronius and Don Quixot before that of Seneca Plutarch and Montagne But I recommend to you Don Quixot above all What pressure soe're of affliction you have the fineness of his ridicule will insensibly conduct you to the taste of Joy You will tell me perhaps that I am not of so pleasant and easie a humour in my own Misfortunes as I appear to be in yours and that it is indecent for a Man to afford all his concern to his own unhappiness when at the same time he preserves an indifference nay and even a gayety for the misfortune of his Friends I should agree with you in that respect if I behaved my self so But I can affirm to you with reality that I am not less concerned at your Exile than your self and the joy which I advise you to is in order to have a share of it my self when I shall see you capable of receiving any As for what relates to my Misfortunes if I have formerly appeared to you more afflicted under them than I seem to you at present it is not that I was so in effect I was of opinion that disgraces exacted from us the decorum of a Melancholy Air and that this apparent Mortification was a respect we owe to the will of Superiors who seldom think fit to punish us without a design to afflict us But then you are to know that under this sad out-side and Mortified Countenance I gave my self all the satisfaction I could find in my self and all the Pleasure I could take in the correspondence of my Friends After having found the vanity of that grave temper we learn from Morality I should be ridiculous my self if I continued so serious a discourse upon this score I shall quit the Subject and give you some Counsels that shall be less troublesome than Instructions Adapt as much as possibly you can your Palate and Appetite to your Health 't is a great secret to be able to reconcile the agreeable and the necessary in two things which have been almost always repugnant and opposite Yet after all to arrive to this great secret or mistery we want nothing but Sobriety and Judgment and what ought not a sensible man to do that he may learn to chuse those delicious Dishes at his Meals which will keep both his Mind and Body in a good disposition all the remainder of the Day A man may be Sober without being Delicate but he can never be Delicate without being Sober Happy is the Person that enjoys both these qualities together He doth not separate his Diet from his Pleasure Spare no cost to obtain the Wines of Champagne were you 200 Leagues from Paris Those of Burgundy have lost all their credit with Men of good taste and scarce do they preserve a small remainder of their old Reputation with the Merchants There is no Province that affords excellent Wines for all Seasons but Champagne
he carryed away the Prize Not but that the copiousness of his Subject the whole exttent whereof he penetrates his vast imagination and his Inexhaustible Genius sometimes has left in his Expressions too much confusion as if it were impossible to be profound and solid and yet clear enough at the same time to be understood But these Faults hinder not but Authors of this Reputation may pass for excellent Models If I were obligd to speak precisely which of the two I would choose for a Model when I were to write for the Theatre I would answer That it were more difficult to follow the former and that 't would be more sure to imitate the latter So much shall suffice upon this Subject and I do not think it necessary to tarry any longer upon the first Head At present I will make bold to add That instead of asking your self Would Virgil have writ after this manner Did Malherb sing his excellent Odes in such a tone Or if you please Is it thus that Corneille or Moliere drew to their Theatres both the Court and the whole Kingdom Ask you your self Is there any Method more confus'd than that of this Work Is there any Design less ingenious The Expressions could they ever be more imperfect Is there any Imitation more low and servile than that of this Book This is a fault very common and it oftentimes happens that one becomes a very bad Copier of a very good Original We ought also to take a great deal of care not to fall into the Whimsical design of that Painter who being to draw an extravagant Picture of Helena which he design'd to represent perfectly beauteous advis'd with himself to give her all the Graces that he had heard commended in the fairest persons In effect changing her Lips into Coral her Cheeks into Roses and her Eyes into Suns and unskilfully joining 'em together he made a Figure like to that which Horace describes in his Epistle to the Piso's 'T is certain he had a mind to laugh But Authors are serious people they are careful of their Reputation and copy with gravity But in short whatever good a opinion an Author may have of himself 'T is an easy matter to mortify his self-pride which these people cannot forbear shewing to their Friends by defying them to write worse upon the same Subject In such a case we ought to show our sincerity in the utmost degree and to explain our selves with the greatest freedom against the ridiculous Opinionatrate of those Scriblers who never read but to court your applause and not your Critiscism how reasonable and just soever it may be Nevertheless we ought to take care that we don't mistake implicity as where it is admirable for downright meanness 'T is the perfection of every Work and if I dare say so the embellishment of Beauty it self Horace has given us this advice when he would have the manner of explaining our selves appear so natural that thereupon an ordinary Reader might judge it would be very easy to speak the same things tho is nothing but a reflection upon all that is fine and delicate discovers the difficulty to express our selves with the same good Fortune Truth has nothing changeable in it Falsity imitates Truth in all sorts of ways We always find out the last if we have recourse to the first but are often cheated if we are not very diligent to discover the Imposture When we follow Reason with steadiness and arrive at thinking aptly and expressing truly our thoughts 't is impossible that the Reader should not be mov'd because there is in all men a natural propensity to Truth So that what is really false cannot please any longer than we are dazled with the appearance of Truth under which only it shews it self Upon this score if the Expression be mean it will present without trouble a great number of the like to your mind But if it be simple do what you will it will please you and you will think it the finest thing you ever saw If your Wit is not much superior to the Author's and your Experience in the Art of Writing much more advanc'd than his For this simplicity has different degrees of perfection as all other Objects have that present themselves to us But it we have a mind to profit by the two Rules we have already propos'd we must necessarily have some knowledge of the defects that are to be found in the most perfect Authors For it is not my design here to instruct ordinary persons but make some Remarks for the entertainment of the Curious The first is That one ought not to make use of Metaphors too often nor too longe We are very much wean'd from it in this age and since the world has taken a new measure of the taste of true Eloquence all this pompous heap of glittering falsities has disappear'd The Learned men of the last Age who were fill'd with it by reading some of the Antients be liev'd their Stile was adorn'd and set out by Metaphors there was then as strange a caprice in Eloquence as in their other Opinions At the vanishing of that profound Darkness wherein the foregoing Ages were as it were lull'd asleep we wak'd suddenly and then knew not distinctly enough which was the better side The use of Figurative and Metaphorical Expressions was first abolish'd from that minute when we begun to discern more clearly what we ought to say The French Genius which is lively natural and sincere cannot endure these Languishing Artificial and Embarras'd Discourses Nevertheless we have some Metaphors still left and it does not displease us to see Flames in Anger and Love but these Expressions are become proper and literal and can deceive no body The second Remark is That 't is an inexcusable fault to pass from one Metaphor by which we have begun to a new one and so to connect Images which have no agreement amongst themselves When a man is careful to write well he knows how to continue and support the same Idea I pitty him says the Author of the Characters I give him for lost he is cast away It is not thus that we ought to make use of the Wind to arrive at the delightsome Port of Fortune You see he takes care to mix nothing that is foreign with the first Image he gave us to express what the Rich think of the conduct of Philosophy This person is represented as it were upon the Sea The Rich Man saw he would be Ship-wrackt He saw him out of the road He judged that 't was not so that he ought to make use of the Wind and that he would never arrive at the Port of Fortune There is not here one term which is not Ally'd with the rest But the Author had committed an unpardonable Solecism If after all these expressions taken from Navigation he had hapned to say It is not thus one ought to bear against the Wind and build his fortune This
Party by their Numbers and those that are considerable give it some credit by their Quality As for the Politicians they employ each of them their Talent to govern the Machine by ways and resorts unknown to the particular People whom they set on work Those that Write or preach upon Grace that handle this Question which is so celebrated and has been so often discussed Those that place the Councils above the Popes who oppose themselves to Innocent their Pastor who defeat the great pretensions of the Court of Rome act with a góod Faith and are effectually perswaded of the truth of what they say Our Directors are but little concerned for the different Sentiments of the Doctors Their aim is to set Catholic against Catholic and Church against Church to make a great Party in the Church and a great Faction in the State They are for making a Reformation in the Convents but don't think of reforming themselves they exalt Penance to the Skies but never practice it they recommend the eating of Herbs to those People that have a mind to distinguish themselves from the rest of their Brethren by a few singularities but at the same time they are so complaisant to their own Bodies as to eat every thing that persons of the best Rank use to eat After all our Politicians such as I have described them do the Jansenists more service by their Directions than our Writers do with all their Books 'T is their Sage and prudent Conduct that supports us and if ever Monsieur de G. B. Monsieur de L. Monsieur de C. Monsieur de B. fail us unless I am mightily mistaken we shall find a great change amongst the Iansenists The reason is because our Opinions will hardly subsist of themselves They commit an everlasting violence upon Nature they take away from Religion all that comforts us and in the room of it place Fear and Grief despair The Iansenists who by their good will would make every Man a Saint are scarce able to find out ten Men in a Kingdom to make such Christians as they would have Christianity without question is divine but they are Men still that receive it and whatever measures we take we ought to accommodate our selves to Human Nature Too austere a Philosophy makes few wise Men too rigorous a Government few good Subjects too harsh a Religion few religious Souls I mean that will long continue so Nothing is durable that is not suited to Nature Grace it self of which Monsieur A speaks so much accomodates it self to it God makes use of the docility of our Minds and the tenderness of our Hearts to cause himself to be receiv'd and lov'd by us It is certain that your austere Casuists cause a greater aversion to themselves than to Wickedness The Pennance they preach up perswades the Ignorant to prefer the Ease they find in continuing to be wicked to the difficulties in getting free from Vice The other Extream appears equally Vitious to me I hate those Sullen Melancholy Spirits that fancy there is Sin in every thing no less do I hate those easie complaisant Doctors that admit it no where that favour the Irregularities of Nature by making themselves secret Partisans of Evil Manners In their hands the Gospel allows us more indulgence than Morality does and Religion as it is managed by them opposes all manner of Crimes more feebly than Reason I respect virtuous intelligent Persons that judge soundly of our Actions that seriously exhort to what is good and disswade us as much as in them lies from what is Wicked I heartily wish that a just and nice discernment wonld make them know the real difference of things That they wou'd distinguish the effect of a Passion from the execution of a design That they wou'd distinguish a Vice from a Crime and Pleasures from Vices That they wou'd excuse our Weaknesses and condemn our Disorders That they would not confound light simple and natural Appetites with wicked and perverse Inclinations In a word I am for a Christian Morality neither too severe nor too indulgent Of Friendship By another Hand THE first Friendship which arises in the World is that which is formed in the Bosom of Families The continual habitude of being always together and of considering our selves as being of the same Blood the same opinions in which we are brought up the conformity there is between us the communication of secrets of affairs and interests All these things contribute as much to its production as Nature it self They Consecrate at least the Name of Brother Sister and the rest as much as the tye of the same Blood For whatever is affirmed of certain Natural inclinations which a Man feels at the meeting of those Relations who are as yet unknown to him it is certain that the Examples thereof are either aggravated or extraordinary and that we should use them like meer Strangers if we were not accustomed to consider our near Relations as our selves This therefore is the first conjunction of our Hearts It were to be wished that this first Friendship would continue during Life ni the same condition wherein we find it in our first Years But it decay's insensibly In the first place by the great number of Persons whereof a Family is compos'd For it is a certain Principle that Friendship cannot long subsist between several Persons Besides a Man leaves his Family in order to establish himself in the World He enters by Marriage into new alliances or by the profession of a particular Piety he goes out of his Family without having the Pleasure of adopting another Thus he contracts on one side in some sort an obligation to forget his Parents and on the other a Duty of Loving new ones What shall I say of the interest which so often divides Families Admit a regulation of all these things yet a single separation lessens something of the first affection During this absence a Man insensibly contracts particular manners whether for the the Conduct of his Life or for his Fortune or in Relation to the Government of his Family The first Bond of Friendship is scarce of any further use afterwards than to express it self a little more than we would do if they were our Rrelations to have a little more curiosity in their respect and to behave our selves with care enough not to appear inferiour in any point to others Not but that when there happens any essential occasion of being serviceable to them we take a pride in not being wanting therein Thus this first Friendship which is tender in the first Years which admitts some degrees of relaxation in the succession of Life appears notwithstanding always strong when any important Interest is in agitatiou And as for me I believe that of all sorts of Friendship this ought to be managed with most Care There is a Second kind of Friendship which has also its perfections and imperfections as well as the first we have spoken of It
their Suffering It is hard to comprehend how the Soul can be perfectly happy while Diseases afflict its Companion the Body how it can think of Joy whilst the violence of pain extorts Complaints from it or how it can be sensible of Pleasure whilst it is present at all those Places where the Indisposition rages Let the Stoicks boast as long as they please of the insensibility of their wise Man and of this rigorous Virtue that laughs at Pain When they come once to the suffering part they 'll find that their Body is by no means of this Opinion and that although these Discourses are really magnificent and lofty yet for all that they are neither to be reconciled to Nature nor to Truth I will not justifie this Proposition by the Examples of the generality of their Philosophers I will not cite any name which they may have the least Pretence to reject nor urge any Man upon them whose Virtue may be called in question Hercules alone shall assert the truth of what I have delivered This Hercules who is reckoned amongst the Gods whom so many Exploits have made immortal and whom the Stoicks have chose for a perfect model of their Strength and Wisdom Let us a little reflect upon the dying behaviour of this Heroe and consider the last Actions of his Life Without doubt this invincible Man will depart out of the World as he came into it by doing something Heroical and great To be sure he 'll not let a syllable drop from him that may dishonour his mighty Exploits or seem unworthy of his former Character We shall find our selves extremely mistaken if we are of this Opinion The force of his Pain triumphs over his Courage his Constancy yields to the rage of the Poyson that burns him He does not only complain but he weeps he cries he stamps he flings about At circum gemunt petrae Locrorum alta Euboeae promontoria And by these his last effects of Rage and Despair he quits his life to go and take his place amongst the Gods Let the Stoicks therefore come over to our party Let them amuse us no more with their insensibility let them not pretend that their wise Man can be happy amidst his Tortures and let them not despise pain with their usual insolence since they see Hercules himself could not support himself under the Pressure of it But if they answer that the Poet has been guilty of a great Solecism in representing Hercules after this manner and continue to give other Relations of this Heroe contrary to the Authority of Books and the Consent of the Theatre Posidonius heretofore one of the Masters of Cicero and the greatest of all the Stoicks for so this celebrated Disciple of his calls him will furnish us with a notorious Example and we shall see one of the strongest Pillars of the Porch shaken by a slight Indisposition The Gout which at last attacqued this Philosopher proved to be the rock on which his Constancy split He complained of his pain with as much impatience as any ordinary man would have done and tho he reproached it by vaunting that all its Efforts should never constrain him to own that it was an Evil yet he could not forbear to afflict himself with it to complain of it and herein he testified more Opiniatretè than Constancy and Reason It seems that Cicero was scandalized at weakness of this wise Man or at least that he was astonished at it I have beheld says he Possidonius the greatest Man amongst the Stoicks suffer the pains of the Gout with as little Resolution and Bravery as my Landlord Nichomachus the Tyrian whom he esteemed but as an ordinary Man And indeed I am so far from believing that the Felicity of Humane Life is compatible with pain that I am of Opinion it would be the Action of a wise Man to quit it in case he were not able to set such an uncomfortable Attendant as some distance from him And although I have the memory of Maecenas in great Veneration and think that no one ought to mention his Name but with the profoundest respect yet I could wish if it were possible to be done that some Verses of his were utterly lost and that he had never inform'd us that he was more fond of a wretched Life than I don't say a Philosopher but a Man of the meanest Courage ought to be You cannot offer him Life upon never so disadvantageous Terms but he readily accepts it Let him be deformed it signifies nothing let him be crooked he still comforts himself that he is alive Let him endure all the united Torments of the most violent Diseases he is still contented if they are not mortal and though you should condemn him to the most cruel Death imaginable yet by his good will he would not be brought to quit his Life provided he could still preserve it amidst the most terrible Punishments Debilem facito manu Debilem pede coxâ Tubber astrue gibberum Lubricos quate dentes Vita dum superest bene est Hanc mihi vel acutâ Si sedeam cruce sustine His effeminacy no doubt on 't dictated these Verses to him whilst he tasted all the pleasures of Life He had never experimentally known what pain was before and I dare boldly aver That if he had found himself in this lamentable Condition of his own chusing he would have earnestly desired Death to rid him of his Torments By this 't is an easy matter to conjecture that Maecenus was a Man of Pleasure but not an Epicurean since those Philosophers had too elevated a Soul to condescend to such ignominious Conditions They were less apprehensive of Death than of Pain and sometimes renounced Pleasure for the sake of Pain And the reason is That Epicurus very well judging that the generality of Men corrupted by the enjoyment of Pleasures and suffering themselves blindly to be hurried on by their Appetites would not be in a Condition to foresee the Griefs and Afflictions which would be the certain consequences of their irregular Courses And on the other hand fearing that the love of Ease and an effeminacy of Spirit join'd to the fear of Labour and Pain would oblige them to be deficient in their respective Duties and render them inserviceable in the whole course of their Life he was of opinion that at some certain times when a wise Man had full liberty to chuse for himself and nothing hindered him to pursue his full Satisfaction he might abandon himself to Pleasure and entirely remove himself from Pain But then that there were certain conjunctures when the obligation of his duty and the necessity of affairs ought to incline him not to refuse Pain and to reject Pleasure It was this generous Maxim that obliged Cato Vticensis to dye For although he might have continued safe upon the Ruins of his own Party and Cesar would have been proud to have given him his Life Nevertheless the Shame to survive the loss
give me a greater relish of delight than my Imagination promis'd me And I may truly say that amongst the greatest liberties of my Senses I have enjoyed the pleasure with so little confinement that ordinarily I have Meditated upon my most serious Affairs The divertisement of the Theatre whither we see so many people flock dayly Has it created any true delights in its most profest Followers For my part I could never see the most part of them without being tired and the best Plays which seem'd to ravish all the Audience have had no other power over me than to make me grieve for the Misfortunes of a Heroine who suffered no more what afflicted me or for those of some Imaginary Heroe whose false griefs drew from me true Tears and filled me with Indignation against my self Neither the beauty of the Tuilleries which enchant all eyes nor the Magnificences of Courts adorn'd with the glorious confusion of haughty Equipages nor the most shining Assemblies of the fairest Ladies nor Shews nor Balls nor Art nor Riot nor Riches can give a full satisfaction to any Man in this World Those that frequent but seldom publick Representations are as it were forbid 'em and cannot digest the hurly burly of these great divertisements those that visit 'em osten are insensible of 'em and both together through extasie or stupidity cannot peaceably enjoy their Charms Those who out of the abundance of all things flatter their Minds with whatever is excellent Do not they give us marks of their Melancholly amidst their Pleasures complaining as it were that excess of delights rendered 'em odious But if ever any Man desired to be happy it must be granted 't was that great Prince who had Wisdom his Lot without ever burthening his Mind with Chimera's he carried himself to the search of solid Good His Abilities gain'd him immediate possession Every thing succeeded according to his wishes and the enjoyment always followed close his desires Nevertheless he declared That he found so much vanity in Pleasures that he could scarce forbear to hate Life and to have in abhorrence his very Being Then we must conclude there is no perfect happiness for Man here below and ought rather to think of defending our selves against the Mischiefs that oppress us than to sigh after a Bliss that is out of our reach But although it be true that we cannot find in this Life the Imaginary Happiness we look after yet we ought not to wish for death nor abandon our selves as through despair to our Miseries For thence springs our ordinary folly to look for Happiness where we cannot find it and to overlook it when it is under our hands Our Pleasures are short 't is true and they are not freed from Gall but as they are Pleasures they overweigh our sorrows and 't is one of the greatest Vses of Life to manage 'em with Address As we ought to be capable to support the Ill so we ought also to know how to enjoy the Good we ought to have it equally in our power to lull asleep our senses for Grief as to awaken 'em for Pleasure for Temperance is far removed from all Excess She is no less an enemy of excessive Fasting than excessive Debauchery and he that should suffer himself to die with hunger would as much offend her Laws as he that should choak himself with too much eating Madmen that we are always complaining of the rigours of our Birth the uncertainty of our Life and the misery of our Death nevertheless we every day add new miseries to the old and it looks as if we were only rational to Render our selves the more wretched This sort of Conduct is very different from that of the Wiseman we mention'd just before He made as it were an Essay of all things of this World for which we have the most ardent desires and presently knew the vanity of them But yet he did not suffer himself to go to a general disgust of all things that he had lookt after but remaining always in the same station he enjoyed peaceably his pleasures But let 's return to our Subject and see how we ought to manage the Good and the Evil for the Vse of Life CHAP. II. Of the Existence of GOD. WHen I make an exact Reflection upon all my Life I acknowledg I have had sorrows and satisfactions according to the different Opinions I had a mind to assume My Thoughts have as well created my Griefs as my Ioys and I have always found within my self the source of my Miseries or Happiness I 'll not dissemble my Thoughts The Persuasion of a Deity and the uncertainty of our Condition after Death have many times very much intrench'd upon my Repose and in these moments of confusion I consider'd that all our Watchings all our Knowledg all our Employs our Profits and our Honours must end in Death and that none of those things being eternal we ought to search elsewhere for refuge But I often suffered my Soul to think licentiously of these things and not respecting enough the first Truth I met with nothing but doubts and difficulties about the Immortality of the Soul And as I always relied in this Affair upon the Reasons of other Men so I could never have certain Notions and the confusion of the different Opinions of our Authors gave me Insupportable uneasinesses never were my Mind and Conscience of one Opinion I was constrain'd to suffer the shocks of these two Parties which combated incessantly within me and nothing equal'd my disquiet so much as the difficulty to resolve the Question which was the Subject At length finding my self foil'd by all this Forreign Assistance I was resolv'd to rerire within my self and consult my own Thoughts as those sick Men do who finding themselves abus'd by the Ignorance of their Physicians undertake to cure themselves 'T was here I cut off Commerce with all Books where I never found any thing but difficulties and uncertainties 'T was here I resolv'd to consider with my self and consult my own Opinion upon the structure of the Universe and the Admirable Order and Symmetry which Reigns in all things And when I consider'd the Heavens the greatness of those wonderful Vaults filled me with astonishment and with I know not how awful a respect The beauty of the Stars the silence and the solitude of the Night pierc d me with such a secret horror as dispos'd me insensibly to Religion Can it be possible said I to my self that the Motions of the Spheres so just and regular should not have an Intelligent Being for their Author If these wonderful Globes know and govern themselves are they not the Gods who command the World as they please And if they suffer the controul of some Superior Power who can sway these fearful Machines but a supream Hand Who can move these Huge Bodies but an unaccountable Force Who can reconcile their various Motions but an Infinite Wisdom This glorious Sun continu'd I which
leave a bad Idea behind it All that we can suffer a sick Man to do is to tell his Distemper we give some ease to his indisposition in hearkning to him with some little attention But this complaisance which we express to his infirmity is no excuse for it especially if he descends into too long a relation of particulars But except this occasion 't is not possible to make a description of things for which we have naturally an aversion without offending the Company notwithstanding this has been the defect of many Authors Buchanan has described a Dream with all the luscious figures of Rhetoric St. Amant has discovered a World of Debaucheries with all the plainness peculiar to his Stile but upon such subjects both Rhetorick and plainness are unseasonably lost Let us return to Cicero Now ought this Consul when he was declaiming against Piso in the presence of the Senate to have made use of terms which in so lively a manner represent the most beastly circumstances of Drunkenness His discription is charged with particulars which must needs be very nauseous and disagreeable Catullus also might have given to the Annals of Volusius another term than that of Cacata charta This Poet who pretended to a purity of Stile should have abstained from an Epithet so gross and so licentious Martial found out a by-way to commend the cleanliness of his Mistresses Lap-Dog yet for all that he has faln into a very unseasonable expression Gutta pallia nec fefellit ulia It had been more proper to have said nothing of it Without doubt these Authors were corrupted by their bad Morals There was in their times how fine soever we may represent them so total an ignorance of what the Laws of true decency require from us that they have not produced one Author who has observed them with exactness But in endeavouring to avoid this fault be cautious least you fall into another very common in our days Passions and Vices are described to us in such pretty colours even in the Pulpit that a Man can hardly perceive what deformity they have in them There are those persons that know how to conceal the impieties and extravagancies of the most pernicious manners in order to hide what conformity they maintain to the weakness and frailty of our Hearts We should be too much startled to know the impiety thereof No body would draw down upon himself the vengeance of Heaven We are too much humbled in a severe examination of our extravagancies and no one has a mind to be ridicuous But to be frail to be subject to infirmities this is no more than being born Man and no one thinks he ought to be ashamed of his birth or of his destiny I should therefore rather chuse a description which would faithfully represent things than those flattering Pictures which fortify Men in their false opinions or in their usual disorders However don't follow Iuvenal's footsteps or assume the liberty to make the grossest representations of the greatest irregularities In vain doth an Author so abominably licentious and impudent persuade me to hate the excesses of Messalina I hate him even more than I do her and the lewdnesses of his wit that are sufficiently discovered in the boldness of his Stile scandalize me infinitely more than those of the most abandon'd Women who are blindly transported by the fury of their Passions I love his Translator better than him He took great care to preserve the cleanness of his Stile in such ill Company He has omitted nothing in the Satyrs of his Author but what might hinder the secure reading of them His fine indignation at the Vices of Rome his Fire his Vivacity even to the tone of Declame which was the true Character of Iuvenal he has preserved entire And let it never be said that Satyr divested of these excesses is less agreeable for 't is certain that nothing but the Salt of acute Raillery makes up the whole entertainment in that sort of Poetry and that on the other side grossness of expression and thought cannot fail to displease those Gentlemen that have the least delicacy Which is easily justified by the example of Monsieur Despreaux For do we read any of the Ancients with greater satisfaction And yet can one carry further than he has done discretion and reservedness His Muse always chast always modest knows how to pursue Vice and to condemn it as Virtue it self uses to do by its light and by its vehemence For we should overstretch things and push them to the utmost rigour should we say he had done better if he had afforded no room for the la Neveu in his Works What he says in that respect is so short that he deserves to be excused if it be a fault and if not we must acknowledg that he has taught us that a Man may speak sometimes of such a Person provided he observes the temperaments of this Author in one or two words and yet never infringe the Rules of Decency But Lucretius neglects this conduct at the end of one of his Books A Man must certainly have his Veins kindled with the flame of Love a Burning Aetna in the bottom of his Soul or to leave these great expressions A Man must be a Madman as in effect he was to tire his Reader with a long description and that in the most extravagant and nasty circumstances of the Dreams and Illusions of a young Man The more I consider of this passage the less I discover those Reasons which make People generally so fond of so violent so imperious an Author When he would act the Serious Man and the Reasoner 't is then he 's utterly lost and knows not what he says witness that verse which I have often heard so impertinently quoted Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor That is to say Fear induced Men to believe that there were Gods For if one should ask him Who is it that produced this Fear Would not he have been obliged to Answer That it is the natural Idea which Men conceive of a Divinity For Fear and other Passions are no otherwise raised in us than by the Objects which excite them by the means of the Imagination or Thought But if I find in my self the Idea of a Divinity before I find that fear which I ought to have for it this fear then is the effect and not the cause of the thought I conceive of it A man needs but very little penetration and extent of mind to make so obvious a discovery If he has a Mind to descend from this State which doth not suit with his Talent Why must he go throw away fine expressions to represent impertinent things to insist upon them so long and not to leave till he had exhausted it so ridiculous a Subject as that of the Dreams of an Age which performs nothing even in the day time that deserves our attention If this is Beauty or Delicacy or Learning I heartily congratulate
the grossness of our days which certainly would near bear so irregular a freedom in any Author whatsoever I wish with all my heart I could excuse Ausonius that illustrious Consul of Gaul but the consequence of this remark carries me in spite of my self to speak of him nay and to speak ill of him What can be finer than his Thanksgiving to the Emperor upon the subject of his Consulship Pliny the 2d would have envied him this work What can be more ingenious than the Punishment of Cupid in the Elisian Fields and those sufferings and reproaches which the Heroines made him undergo who had all of them some cause to make their complaints of him He must for the misfortune of his Reputation amuse himself in that employment which of all things in the World is most unworthy of a Learned Man Judge what time he lost in busying himself to pick up sometimes a beginning of a verse in Virgil sometimes an end and tack all these different parts together in order to compose a poor wretched Cento What shall I say of those expressions of Virgil which tho they were innocent as they lay in him yet as Ausonius has managed and sorted them they are conscious of all the indecencies that imagination can possibly form to it self Behold now a strange description of this Man He that was Author of a serious Work which he Addresses to a great Emperour who has Wit and Learning as we may sufficiently see in many other places of his Books is notwithstanding the same that prostitutes his Muse and composes an infamous Poem out of several pieces of Poetry very harmless in themselves To condemn all these insolences doth not argue too great a sowrness of Spirit many persons would be pleased to see even Virgil himself condemned for the interview of Eneas and Dido in that cave of the 4th of the Eneids Speluncam Dido Dux Trojanus eandew Deveniunt Nor would they be less willing to condemn Homer for what passed between Iuno and Iupiter upon the Mount Olympus These two great and illustrious Authors have avoided a thousand occasions wherein any other person would have lost himself If Paris and Helena converse together in the Iliad 't is only to reproach one another Calypso Circe the Syrens of the Odysses contain nothing that offends Modesty Vlysses doth not abuse the Favours of the Princess Nausicaa A Man who has a truly great Soul Elevated and Noble a vast genius and an imagination clear and well disposed will never stoop and descend to that meanness which I here condemn or any Method I will tell you with all sincerity what the Desire to satisfie you rather than Study or Experience suggested to me upon this Subject The first step that a Man makes into the World generally determines all the rest and is the Foundation of his Reputation and best Presage of his Fortune and from the first Marches that he makes those that have had Experience will tell you how far he will advance 'T is then very necessary to make this first step with a great deal of caution and to signalize ones Entry by something that is glorious and great There is a great deal of Art in gaining the publick Esteem and to make ones Talents appear so to advantage that the World shall never disgust or be glutted with ' em The means to preserve ones Reputation is to produce something more and more excellent and to provide a fresh Nutriment for the general Admiration which seems always to grow up equal with our Merit The great Actions we do promise something greater and the good ought to be follow'd by better A Great man ought not then to suffer the depth of his Capacity to be sounded if he will be always esteem'd by the Vulgar He ought on the contrary to behave himself after such a manner as never to discover all that he knows and that no man may have it in his power to assign Limits to his Learning For let a Man be never so learned the Opinion we have of him when we know him but by halves goes always farther than the Idea we conceive of him when we are wholly acquainted with him Therefore let him take care not to discover his Ability all at once but make an absolute use of his Cunning. He should always to manage himself with caution that he may be able to disengage himself from the Inconveniencies he may fall into and to have a hidden Reserve where he may command suitable Succours to repair his greatest Mistakes and to retrieve him from his greatest Oversights As the Success of the most Judicious Undertakings depends upon the meeting of a multitude of Conjunctures many of which Chance can only reconcile an excellent man ought not ever to commit his Reputation to the risque of a Conversation a Dispute or an Interview for if it does not succeed with him he never recovers it And no man can be sure not to fail in an Essay or a Tryal since nothing is more common than to find ones first Projects disappointed He ought then to expose his Reputation to the hazard of the Enterprize whatever Advantage he may promise himself from its Success On the contrary the great Art of all consists in not discovering all one knows at once but to unfold it if I may speak so by degrees and always to nourish and excite Curiosity The Magazine should always answer the Occasions and the Piece should not belie the Pattern In fine a Man ought always to keep exactly to what he promises 'T is upon this consideration only that great Masters never discover the whole Mystery of their Art in their Lessons to their Schollars and by that means they remain always the Masters the Source of their Instructions never dries away and as 't is not communicated but by proportion and measure they never exhaust that Fund of Knowledge whence they draw continually both to satisfie the expectation of others and to keep up their own reputation There is one thing more that I would recommend to an ingenious Man and that is To be seen as seldom as may be for as his presence diminishes the Esteem one has of him so his absence and distance augments it Fame every day encreases Objects and the Imagination goes much beyond the Sight We ought not then to be lavish of our selves we ought to make ourselves expected to be truly welcome The desire any one has for us is commonly the measure of the Esteem they have of us Happiness is better tasted when it has been a long time expected and the Pleasure that costs one something is much more ardently sought after than that which is easie so the nicest People find in Hunger a sauce that all the ragouts could not give to their Victuals and 't is a refining of Epicurism not to satisfie our senses and Appetites but by halves A Man should never make himself familiar with the Vulgar least he lose that Air of Dignity
having a Reason for it that is explain'd in so clear terms that it may naturally convince the Mind 2. For fear of suffering one's self to be carry'd away by a Precipitancy of Mind or Prejudice to which we are so obnoxious we ought to examine all the terms in which any Reason is laid down dividing it into as many parts as we can For it is not possible for us having our Minds so confin'd to judge well of a thing unless we examine it peice-meal 3. Moreover we ought to establish an Order in all the Thoughts that a Subject is fill'd with That which is the most simple most general and most easie to be understood ought to precede that which is most confus'd because there is nothing which is a greater help than this Order to know if one be not deceiv'd in Reasoning that is to say in making one thing follow another 4. In fine we ought to take a great deal of care to make so exact an Enumeration that we may be assur'd that nothing is omitted If but one thing be forgot 't is impossible there should not be some defect or other in what we propose To comprehend in fewer Words these four Maxims remember 1. Not to Judge of any thing which is obscure or without Proof 2. Divide the thing you are to judge of 3. Take care to have a Method in your Thoughts 4. That the Enumeration you make be entire Of the Multitude of Words or the Number of Books I Cannot well explain my Thoughts upon this Subject without making use of this Question viz. Whether it be not true That those who Divine or Conjecture upon any private Affairs do not speak much more and say many more things than those who know the Secret What is not daily said about Affairs of State when 't is the Prince only that knows the Mystery One word from his mouth would explain better all the different faces of things than all that the Politicians commonly babble Hence it seems to me That a Man may well think that the more Books he sees upon a Subject the more he may conclude we know nothing of the Matter Of every thing there is but one Truth to be known but for want of this Knowledge there is a multitude of groundless Conjectures Of Moral Philosophy MOral Philosophy ought to endeavour to conduct us in the search of Good as Logick guides us in the search of Truth So then that of the College is not truly Moral Philosophy for 't is certainly true that it only proposes some unprofitable Questions concerning the Idea that one ought to have of the Order of Things that create our Happiness of the number of our Passions and other Metaphysical Points which serve for nothing else but Matter for a Dispute The true Moral Philosophy ought to teach us 1. What it is truly to act like reasonable Creatures that is to say with liberty It therefore first treats of Humane Actions that is to say rational or free 2. After having suppos'd that nothing but free Actions are Good or Evil it inquires what this Goodness or Evilness of our Actions is or if there can be any indifferent 3. For this reason as the goodness of our Actions depends upon their Rule and their End it inquires what is the certain Rule and the certain End 4. Then it teaches us That we have not her Rule but the Law of God which it considers two ways 1. As it is written in the Books of Moses c. and the Gospel interpreted according to the Fathers of the Church And 2. In every Man's Conscience 5. As to what concerns the End it shows that it consists not in Vertue only which the Pagans sought after with so great a Passion but that God only ought to be the Object upon which all our Love is employ'd of which it discovers to us the absolute Necessity 6. Next considering that the Passions are a certain Obstacle to it it does not so much teach us to know them as how to tame them 7. In fine because Men are obliged by the Necessities of Life to live together it speaks of the Duties of Justice which we owe to one another whatever condition we are in It seems to me that if every one followed these Rules in the Study of Morality one might make a much greater Progress and find more Pleasure than in the insipid Systems of the Phylosophy of the Schools Maxims of Morality REason which obliges us to be oftentimes irresolute in our Judgments because the greatest part of Objects do not present themselves to our Minds with proof enough to make them well understood obliges us not to be so in our Actions for being to live with one another 't is necessary to chuse at last some sort of Conduct which we should constantly observe till we can find a better For in the same manner as a Man who pulls down one House to build up another makes choice by way of Provision of some place where to stand while he builds it so when a Man would examine with care his Thoughts and reform his Soul from the Prejudices it may have imbid'd he ought to provide himself after the same manner of a Morality which may serve him for a Rule This Morality may be reduc'd to four Maxims 1. To obey the Laws and Customs of the Country where one is born and to follow in all things the most moderate Opinions without disapproving or condemning any Person 2. To be so constant in this Conduct that one has chosen as not to have any regard to whatever may be said to put us out of conceit with it Like in this to Travellers who finding themselves in a Forrest ought not to wander this way or that way but go as directly as they can in the same path and not to change it for idle Reasons for at last they must come to some end wherein all probability they will be better than in the middle of the Wood. 3. To deliver themselves from all those Disquiets which are wont to move those feeble and staggering Spirits which suffer themselves to be turned inconstantly by all sorts of Examples For these Agitations and these unprofitable and confus'd Reflections amuse the Mind and take away from it all the force it should have 4. Of all the kinds of Morality we ought rather to make use of that which teaches us to vanquish ourselves than that which has no other end but to triumph over Fortune and to change our Desires without pretending to change any thing in the Order of the World I believe this was the Secret of thosej Philosophers who inspite of the Incommodities of Life were able to dispute Happiness with their Gods But it is impossible to experience this Secret unless one be throughly perswaded that there is nothing truly in our Power but our Thoughts and our Desires With these few Maxims one may observe a regular Conduct till one has formed another from long Experience