will no more bear reasoning upon than the relish of the Palate or the choice of Colours XLVIII All the gifts of fortune are just as our own humour is pleased to rate them XLIX Happiness does not consist in the things themselves but in the relish we have of them and a man hath attained to it when he enjoys what he loves and desires himself and not what other people think lovely and desirable L. Every mans good and ill fortune is constantly more or less than he esteems it LI. People that are conceited of their own Merit take a pride in being unfortunate that so themselves and others may think them considerable enough to be the envy and the mark of Fortune LII Nothing ought in reason to mortifie our Self-satisfaction more than the considering that we condemn at one time what we highly approve and commend at another LIII How different soever mens fortunes may be there is always something or other that balances the ill and the good and makes all even at last LIV. Though Nature be never so Liberal yet can She not make a Hero alone Fortune must contribute Her part too and till both Concur the Work cannot be perfected LV. When the Philosophers despised Riches it was because they had a mind to vindicate their own Merit and take a Revenge upon the injustice of Fortune by vilifying those Enjoyments which She had not given them This was a secret to ward off the Contempt that Poverty brings a kind of winding By-path to get into the Esteem of the World and when Riches had not made them considerable to make themselves so some other way LVI We hate Favourites because we are fond of Favour our selves The indignation we profess against others who are in Possession sooths and softens a little the concern for our own being excluded And we deny to pay them our respects because we would fain but cannot take away that which makes them respected by all the World besides LVII The common way to do ones Business and rise in the World is to use all possible means of perswading People that ones Business is done already LVIII Though Men are apt to flatter and exalt themselves with their Great Atchievements yet these are in Truth very often owing not so much to Design as Chance LIX Our Actions seem to have their lucky and unlucky Stars to which a great part of that Blame and that Commendation is due which is given to the Actions themselves LX. There is no accident so exquisitely unfortunate but wise Men will make some advantage of it nor any so entirely fortunate but Fools may turn it to their own prejudice LXI Fortune converts every thing to the advantage of her Favourites LXII Mens Happiness and Misery depends altogether as much upon their own Humour as it does upon Fortune LXIII Sincerity is a certain openness of Heart It is to be found but in very few and what we commonly look upon to be so is only a more cunning sort of Dissimulation to insinuate our selves into the Confidence of others LXIV Our aversion to a Lye is commonly a secret Ambition to make what we say considerable and have every word received with a Religious respect LXV Truth has scarce done so much good in the World as the false appearances of it have done hurt LXVI No Praises are thought too great for Wisdom And yet the highest pitch of it cannot ensure a Man the most inconsiderable event the reason of which is that Man is the Subject of its Operation and he is the most fickle and changeable Creature in the World LXVII A wise Man should order his Designs and set all his Interests in their proper places This Order is often disturbed by a foolish greediness which while it puts us upon pursuing several things at once makes us eager for matters of less consideration and while we grasp at trifles we let go things of greater Value LXVIII Gracefulness is to the Body what good Sense is to the Mind LXIX It is very hard to give a just Definition of Love The most we are able to say of it is this That in the Soul it is a desire to Govern in Spirits it is a Sympathy and in the Body it is only a secret Desire and a Curiosity to enjoy the thing Beloved after a great deal of Bustle and Formality LXX Love pure and untained with any other Passion if such a thing there be lies hidden in the bottom of our Heart so exceeding close that we scarce know it our selves LXXI It is not in the Power of any the most crafty Dissimulation to conceal Love long where it really is nor to Counterfeit it long where it is not LXXII Considering how little the beginning or the ceasing to Love is in our own power it is foolish and unreasonable for the Lover or his Mistriss to complain of one anothers Inconstancy LXXIII If one were to Judge of Love according to the greatest part of the effects it produces it might very justly pass for Hatred rather than Kindness LXXIV Some Ladies may be met with who never had any Intrigue at all But it will be exceeding hard to find any who have had one and no more LXXV Love is one and the same in the Oriâ—â—nal but there are a Thousand Copies 〈◊〉 it and it may be all differing from one â—â—other LXXVI Love can no more continue without a â—onstant Motion than Fire can and â—hen once you take Hope and Fear aâ—ay you take from it its very Life and â—eing LXXVII It is with True Love as with Ghosts â—nd Apparitions a thing that every body â—alks of and scarce any body hath seen LXXVIII Love hath its Name borrowed by a World of dealings and affairs that are faâ—her'd upon it when alass Love hath â—o more concern in them than the Doge â—ath in what is done at Venice LXXIX What the Generality of People call â—he Love of Justice is onely the Fear of â—uffering by Injustice LXXX Silence is the best Security to that Mâ—â— who distrusts himself LXXXI The thing that makes our Friendships so short and changeable is that the Qualities and Dispositions of the Soul are very hard to be known and those of the Understanding and Wit very easie LXXXII The most Disinterested Love is after all but a kind of Bargain in which the Dear Love of our own selves always proposes to be the Gainer some way or other LXXXIII The Reconciliation of Enemies is commonly Mens desires to better their own Condition a being Harassed and Tired out with a State of War and a Fear of some ill Accident which they are willing to prevent LXXXIV When we have Loved our Selves weary the kindest and most welcome â—hing that can be is some Act of Infideâ—â—ty which may fairly disengage our Afâ—ection LXXXV It is much less for a Man's Honour to â—istrust his Friends than to be deceived by â—hem LXXXVI We oftentimes fansie that we Love Persons above us when it is
form and employ the Justice and Mercy of God just according to their own Apprehensions of things LVIII In the Study of humane Learning our Soul ought always to preserve its own Freedom and not inslave it self to other Peoples Fancies The Liberty of the Judgment should have its full Scope and not take any thing upon Trust from the Credit of any Man's Authority When different Opinions are proposed to us we should consider and choose if there are such odds between them as to admit of a Choice and if there be not then we should continue in suspence still LIX Contradiction should awaken our Attention and Care but not our Passion Those that oppose us ought rather to be heard than avoided For we must be of no Interest but that of Truth after what manner so ever she happen to Discover her self to us LX. Ostentation and Pride upon the account of Honours and Preferments is much more offensive than upon any personal Qualifications It argues Men do not deserve Great Places when they can Value themselves upon them if a Man would be truly Valued the way to it is by being illustriously Good For even the greatest Men are more respected for the Eminence of their Parts and Vertue than for that of their Fortune LXI There is nothing so mean but hath some Perfection It is the peculiar happiness of a discerning Palate to find out each thing 's particular Excellence But the malice of our corrupt Nature puts us oftentimes upon discovering one Vice among many Vertues that so we may Aggravate and Proclaim that to their Disparagement Now this is not so much an Argument of a Nice Judgment as of a Base Disposition and that Man hath but an ill Life on 't who feeds himself with the Faults and Frailties of other People LXII There is a particular way of hearkening to ones Self that is ever displeasing for it is as great a Folly to hear ones self in Company as to talk all and hear no Body but ones Self LXIII A Man is but little the better for liking himself when no Body else likes him For an Immoderate Love of ones Self is very often chastised by Contempt from others LXIV There is always under the greatest Devotion a proportion of self-Self-love concealed great enough to set bounds to our Charity LXV Some People are so Blind and flatter themselves to so great a Degree that they always believe what they with and think to make every body believe what they have a mind to though the Arguments they would perswade with are never so poor and weak their prepossessions are so strong that they think they need only talk Loud and Big and be very positive to make all the World of their Opinion LXVI Ignorance creates Irresolution and Fear Learning makes Men Bold and assured but nothing disturbs a Mind that is truly wise and knows how to distinguish things rightly LXVII It is a general Failing that Men never think their own Fortunes too great nor their own Wit too little LXVIII There cannot be a meaner thing than to take Advantage of ones Quality and Greatness to ridicule and insult over those of an inferiour Condition LXIX When a Positive Man hath once begun to dispute any thing his mind is barred up against all light and better Information Opposition provokes him tho there be never so good ground for it and he seems to be afraid of nothing more than lest he should be convinced of the Truth LXX The Shame of being commended without any Desert sometimes puts Men upon doing what otherwise they would never have once attempted to do LXXI It is much better that great Persons should thirst after Honour nay that they should even be vain upon the account of doing well than that they should be wholly clear of this Passion for though the good they do proceeds not from a principle of Vertue yet the World however hath this Advantage that their Vanity makes them do what if they were not vain they would not have done LXXII They that are so Foolish as to value themselves merely for their Quality do in a great measure slight that very thing that gave them their Quality for though they receive it by descent now yet it was the Virtue of their Ancestors that first ennobled their blood LXXIII Self-love makes us impose upon our selves in almost every kind of thing We hear Faults condemned by other People nay we often condemn them with our own Mouths and yet take no care to amend them and that either because we are not sensible of the Ill that we carry about us or else that we look upon our own Ills through false Glasses and mistake them for something that is Good LXXIV It is no Consequence that a Man is Vertuous because we see him do vertuous Actions We are grateful for a Kindness sometimes only to serve our selves the Reputation of Gratitude and to gain an Advantage of being more boldly ungrateful for some other Favours which we are not inclined to acknowledge LXXV When great Men hope to make the World believe they have some Excellence which really they have not it is a thing of ill Consequence to shew that we suspect them For when you destroy their hopes of passing upon the World you at the same time destroy all their desires to do those good Actions that are agreeable to the Vertues they would be thought to have LXXVI The best disposition when untaught is always blind and unsettled A Man ought to take all imaginable care to inform himself that his ignorance may make him neither Childishly fearful nor Ridiculously confident LXXVII The mutual Society and indeed the Friendship of most Men is no better than a mere Trading Correspondence kept up just as long as their own occasions make it necessary LXXVIII Though the generality of Friendships contracted in the World do by no means deserve the Honourable Name of Friendship yet a Man may very well make his best of them as he sees occasion as of a Trade that is not fixed upon any sure Fund and where nothing is more usual than to find our selves cheated LXXIX Wheresoever Love is real it is the governing of Passion It perfectly forms the Soul the Affections and the Vnderstanding after its own Model It s being greater or less does not depend upon the Capacity of the Person of whom it hath taken Possession but upon its own Strength and Proportion and in truth Love seems to bear the same relation to the Person in Love that the Soul bears to the Body animated by it LXXX Love hath such peculiar distinguishing Qualities that it can neither be concealed where it really is nor counterfeited where it really is not LXXXI All Diversions that are very Entertaining are of dangerous consequence to Christianity but of all that the World hath found out none should be more cautiously used than Plays They give so nice so natural a Representation of the Passions that they really beget and
L'Amour de la Verite MORAL REFLECTIONâ— Moral Maxims AND Reflections In Four PARTS Written in French by the Duke of ROCHEFOVCAVLT Now made English LONDON Printed for M. Gillyflower in Westminster-Hall R. Sare at Grays-Inn-Gate and J. Everingham in Ludgate street 1694. THE Translator's Preface AS soon as this little Book fell into my Hands I could not forbear making Enquiry whether any of our Countrymen had done the good Service of communicating it to the English Readers The Entertainment it gave me the exceeding Characters I had heard of it which indeed I thought Extravagant till my own Perusal convinced me they were it's just due and the desire of making these wise Observations and the Advantages of them more diffusive as well as that of impressing them more strongly upon my self moved me to resolve upon spending some leisure hours in Naturalizing this Great Foreigner But the Undertaking soon appeared more difficult than the Proportion of the Book tempted me to expect For the Translating every where literally and concisely would have left some Passages Dark and scarce Intelligible And a loose Paraphrase besides that it is a Liberty not to be indulged except in Cases of great Necessity would take off from the Beauty and Strength of such Reflections the very design of which Requires a short Close Style With what success I have endeavoured to decline both these Extreams the Judicious Reader will discern better because more impartially than I can and the Failings he discovers will I promise my self be easily forgiven for the sake of so good a Design as the giving him this Ingenious Book in our own Language For it is to be hoped he will think it more pardonable that this is done now by a very indifferent and unknown Hand than that it hath not had this Right done it by some of the best and most Eminent before Mrs. Behn indeed hath attempted part of it but she seems not to have intended a perfect Work so much as the Entertaining her Self and her Lysander with such Passages as were most applicable to her Darling Passion of Love Upon which occasion and some others she takes the Freedom of Paraphrasing and Accommodating as she saw fit more perhaps to her own Diversion than the doing Justice to the Author And besides Her 's is only a Collection of some scattered Reflections out of the First and Second without any Notice taken of the Third and Fourth Parts This Translation follows the Edition of Lyons 1691. But because there is another of the same Year at Paris without any distinction of Parts in which there are several Additions to what my Original hath in the two first Books I have taken care to subjoyn those Additions at the end of the second Part here and believe that in Comparing the two Books together none will be found to have escaped me nor any other difference between them now remaining except in the Order of the Reflections The Passages added are likewise Numbred according to the Paris Edition from whence they are taken The French Preface to the Reader Translated from thence because something larger and referring particularly to a Discourse upon these Reflections wholly wanting in the Impression at Loyns That Discourse Englished by another Hand is likewise inserted here the design whereof is to remove some Objections to which this Book hath been thought liable So that all due care hath been taken that this Translation might have it's utmost Perfection and the Author now appears in English more full and with much greater Advantage than any Edition of his that ever I yet saw in the Original Language THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE General Approbation which the Publick has been pleased to give these Moral Reflections is infinitely above what I am able to say in their Favour and if they are really of that intrinsic Value as I take them to be and have very good Reasons to believe 't is almost impossible to do them a greater injury than to imagine they stand in need of an Apology I shall at present content my self to remark too things First That by the word Interest our Author does not always understand what we commonly call worldly Interest which has the pursuit of Wealth for its only Object but an Interest of Honour and Glory My Second Remark is and 't is in a manner the Foundation of all these Reflections that the judicious person who made them only considers Mankind in the present Deplorable State of Nature as 't is over-run with Ignorance and corrupted by Sin and therefore whatever he says of that infinite number of defects that are to be found in their apparent Vertues does not in the least concern those Happy but few favourites whom Heaven is pleased to preserve from them by a particular Grace To remove the prejudices which some well meaning People have entertained against these Maxims I thought it convenient to insert the following Letter which lately fell into my Hands and was Written since the first Edition of this Manuscript and now at this juncture when every Reader takes the freedom to pass his own judgment upon them it comes out very seasonably to clear the principal Difficulties that may be urged against these Reflections as also to explain the true Sentiments of our Author This at least it has performed it has abundantly Demonstrated them to contain nothing but a pure Abridgment of Morality conformable to several Fathers of the Church and that the Person who Writ them had a great deal of reason to believe that he could not well miss his way in following such Experienced and Disinterested Guides And lastly that he had full Liberty to speak of Man after the very same manner as the Fathers had done before him Now after all if the Veneration which is due to these Illustrious Lights of the Church is not sufficient to stop the Mouths of the Criticks but they are resolved in Opposition to good Manners and Sense to condemn the Opinion of these Great Men in condemning this Book I wou'd advise the Reader not to be influenced by such partial Judges nor suffer himself to be determined by the first Motions he finds arise in his Heart and to take all imaginable care that self-Self-love shall have no share in the judgment which he passes upon them for if he suffers himself to be Directed by so corrupt a Counsellor it is not to be supposed that he will shew any great favour to these Maxims As they particularly charge Self-love with Debauching the Reason that powerful Seducer will be sure by way of Requital to prepossess the Mind against them Vpon this score the Reader ought to take care that this prevention or prejudice shall not justifie the Truth of them and to perswade himself that nothing can so effectually Establish the truth of these Reflections as that Heat or Subtilty he expresses in combating them But as it will be a difficult matter to perswade every sensible Man that he cannot condemn
very bottom of our Hearts is not so much from any distrust we have of them as that we have of our selves CCCXVI. Half-witted People can never be sincere CCCXVII The misfortune of obliging unthankful People is no very great misfortune but to be obliged to a Knave is one not to be endured CCCXVIII Some Remedies may be found to cure a Man of his Folly but there are none that can reform a perverse Spirit CCCXIX. No body can continue long to think so respectfully of their Friends and Benefactors as they ought if they allow themselves the liberty to talk often of their Faults CCCXX To commend Princes for Vertues which they have not is only to take a safe way of abusing them CCCXXI. We may sooner be brought to Love them that Hate us than them that Love us more than we desire they should do CCCXXII No body fears being despised but those that deserve it CCCXXIII Our Wisdom lies as much at the mercy of Fortune as our Possessions do CCCXXIV Jealousie is not so much from the love of another as the love of our selves CCCXXV We oftentimes are comforted for misfortunes by the want of Reason and Judgment which the strength of Reason could not comfort us under CCCXXVI The exposing of a Man and making him Ridiculous dishonours him more than a real dishonour CCCXXVII When we own small Faults it is with a design to make People believe we have no great ones CCCXXVIII Envy is more capable of a Reconciliation than Hatred CCCXXIX Men fansie sometimes they have an aversion to Flattery when alas it is only to the manner of expressing it CCCXXX As long as we Love we can Forgive CCCXXXI It is harder to continue Faithful after good Success than after ill Usage CCCXXXII Women are not sensible how exceeding Coquet they all are CCCXXXIII Women are never absolutely reserved except where they have an Aversion CCCXXXIV Women can more easily conquer their Passion than their Affectation of being courted and admired CCCXXXV Deceit goes generally farther in Love than Distrust CCCXXXVI There is one kind of Love where the excess of it prevents Jealousie CCCXXXVII Some good Qualities are like our Senses those that never had the use of them can never have any Notion of them CCCXXXVIII When our Hatred is too fierce it subjects us to the Persons we hate CCCXXXIX Our good and our ill Fortune are both resented in proportion to the Love we have for our selves CCCXL Most Womens wit tends more to the improving their Folly than their Reason CCCXLI The Passions of Youth are not much more Enemies to a Mans Salvation than the Lukewarmness of Old Age. CCCXLII The Twang of a Mans native Country sticks by him as much in his Mind and Disposition as it does in his Tone of Speaking CCCXLIII He that would make a Great Man must learn to turn every Accident to some Advantage CCCXLIV The generality of Men are like Plants that have secret Vertues which are found out by Chance CCCXLV. Opportunities make us known to others and much more so to our selves CCCXLVI Women never can have any such thing strict Rules in their Mind and Disposition if their Constitution be but consenting CCCXLVII We seldom meet with any Wise Men except such as are of our own Opinion CCCXLVIII When a Man is in Love one Doubts very often what he most firmly believes CCCXLIX The greatest Miracle Love can work is to cure People of their Coquet Humour CCCL The reason why we have so little Patience with those that have Tricked us is because they fansie themselves to have more Wit than we CCCLI When a Man is out of Love with himself he finds it the hardest thing in the World to break it CCCLII. We are generally weary of those Men most whom we ought never to be weary of at all CCCLIII An accomplished Man may love Indiscreetly but not Sottishly CCCLIV. There are some Faults which when Dexterously managed make a brighter shew than Vertue it self CCCLV. Some Men are more miss'd than lamented when we lose them and others are very much lamented and very little miss'd CCCLVI. We very seldom commend any body in Goodness except such as admire us CCCLVII Mean Souls are exceedingly struck with little things but great Souls see them and are not moved at all CCCLVIII Humility is the sure mark of Christian Vertues without this we retain all our Faults still and they are only covered over with Pride which hides them from other Mens Observation and sometimes from our own too CCCLIX Vnfaithfulness ought to quench our Love quite and we do ill to be jealous when there is Reason no body deserves the jealousie of another who will give any just occasion for it CCCLX Small Faults whereby our selves were Sufferers lessen the Committers of them in our Esteem more than great ones committed against other People CCCLXI. Jealousie is always born with Love but it does not always die with it CCCLXII Most Ladies lament the Death of their Lovers not so much because they loved them as that they may be thought the more worthy to be beloved again CCCLXIII The violences that other People use toward us are oftentimes less painful than those we commit upon our selves CCCLXIV It is a Rule generally known not to talk much of ones Wife but Men do not consider as they should that they ought much less to talk of themselves CCCLXV Some good Qualities if they be Natural usually degenerate into Faults and others again are never complete if they be acquired For instance a Man should learn good Husbandry in his Estate and his Confidences from Reason and Experience only if he would keep this quality from being Vicious and on the other side Courage and good Nature must be born with us or we can never have them in any good degree CCCLXVI Though we pretend never so much to distrust the Sincerity of those we converse with yet still we think they tell more Truth to us than to any body else CCCLXVII There are very few honest Women but what are weary of their Trade CCCLXVIII The generality of honest Women are like hid Treasures which are safe only because no body hath sought after them CCCLXIX The force Men use to themselves to hinder Love is oftentimes more cruel than the severest usage from the party beloved CCCLXX Very few Cowards know the utmost of their own Fears CCCLXXI It is commonly the fault of People in Love that they are not sensible when they cease to be beloved CCCLXXII Nothing is so unwelcome a sight as the Person we Love when we have been Coquetting it with some body else CCCLXXIII There are some Tears that after they have cheated other People carry on the deceit and impose upon our very selves at last CCCLXXIV The Man that thinks he loves his Mistress for her own sake is mightily mistaken CCCLXXV A Man may bear his Faults pretty patiently when he is hardned so far as to own them CCCLXXVI True Friendship
Men are they that take the fairest and most Honourable Pretences to avoid the consideration of it But every Body that knows it as it really is finds it to be a thing full of Horrour The necessity of Dying was what the Philosophers owed their Constancy of mind to they thought when there was no Remedy but a Man must go it was best to go with a good Grace And since there was no possibility of making their lives Eternal they would stick at nothing to make their Names so and secure all that from the wreck which was capable of being secured Let us put the best Face upon the matter we can satisfie our selves with not Speaking all we think and hope more from a happy Constitution than all the feeble Reasonings that gull us with a Fancy of our being able to meet Death unconcerned The Honour of dying Gallantly the Hope of being Lamented when we are gone the Desire of leaving a good Name behind us the Certainty of a Deliverance from the Miseries of the present Life and of depending no longer upon a fickle and humoursome Fortune are Remedies that we shall do well to make our best of But these though they be no contemptible Remedies yet we must not suppose they are infallible ones They may help to put us in Heart just as a poor Hedge in an Engagement contributes to Encourage the Soldiers that are to March near where the Enemy are Firing behind it While they are at a distance they imagine it may be a good Shelter but when they come up to the place experience convinces them it is but a thin Defence 'T is a vain Imagination and too fatal a Flattery to think that Death hath the same Face near at Hand which we fansie him to have while we view him at a Distance and that our Reasonings which in Truth are weakness it self will prove of so hardned a Temper as to hold out proof and not yield to the severest of all Tryals Besides it shews we are but little acquainted with the Power of Self-love when we imagine that will do us any service toward the looking upon that very thing as a Trifle which must of necessity be its utter Ruine and Reason in which we so often take Sanctuary hath not the power upon this occasion to make us believe what we wish to find true So far from that that this betrays us oftener than any other thing and instead of animating us with a Contempt of Death gives us a more lively Representation of all its Terrour and Gastliness All it is able to do in our behalf is only to Advise that we would turn our Heads another way and divert the thought by fixing our Eyes upon some other Objects Cato and Brutus chose Noble ones indeed A Page not long ago satisfied himself with Dancing upon the Scaffold whither he was brought to be Broke upon the Wheel And thus though in the Motives there was a vast difference yet still the Effects were exactly the same So true it is that after all the disproportion between Great and vulgar Minds people of both sorts have given a World of instances of meeting Death with the same unconcernedness But still there is this difference observable betwixt them that in the Contempt of Death which great Men express the Desire and Love of Honour is the thing that blinds them and in People of a meaner Capacity and Disposition their Ignorance and Stupidity is the thing that keeps them from seeing the greatness of the Evil they are to suffer and leaves them at Liberty to take their thoughts off from this Subject and place them upon something else New Moral Reflections PART II. I. A Man can never Please long that hath but one sort of Wit II. Fools and Coxcombs see all by their own Humour III. Wit serves sometimes to make us play the Fool with greater Confidence IV. Briskness that encreases with Old Age is but one Degree removed from Folly V. The first cure in Love is always the best VI. Young Women that would not be thought Coquett and Old Men that would not be Ridiculous should never talk of Love as if they had any concern in it VII We may seem Great in an Employment below our Desert but we very often look little in one that is too Big for us VIII We often in our Misfortunes take that for Constancy and Patience which is only Dejection of Mind we suffer without daring to hold up our Heads just as Cowards let themselves be knockt o' th' Head because they have not Courage to strike again IX Confidence goes farther in Company than Wit X. All our Passions engage us in Faults but those are the most Ridiculous ones that Love makes us commit XI Few Men know how to be Old XII We value our selves and take a pride in the Faults most distant from our own when we are fickle and irresolute we brag of being Obstinate and Peremptory XIII A Penetrating Wit hath an Air of Divination which swells our Vanity more than any other Accomplishment of the Mind XIV The Beauty of Novelty and the length of Custom though so very opposite to one another yet agree in this that they both alike keep us from discovering the Faults of our Friends XV. Most Friends grow weary of their Friendship and most of their Vows XVI We easily forgive our Friends those Faults by which our selves are not offended XVII Women in Love can sooner forgive great Indiscretions than small Infidelities XVIII It is with an old Love as it is with old Age a Man lives to all the Miseries but is dead to all the Pleasures of Life XIX Nothing hinders a thing from being Natural so much as the sraining our selves to make it seem so XX. When we commend good Actions we make them in some measure our own XXI The surest sign of a noble Disposition is to have no Envy in ones Nature XXII When our Friends have deceived us there is nothing but indifference due to the Expressions of their Kindness but still we owe them a tender sense of their Misfortunes XXIII Fortune and Humour govern the World XXIV It is easier to know what Mankind is in general than what any one Man is in particular XXV A Mans worth is not to be esteemed so much according to his good Qualities as according to the use he makes of them XXVI There is a kind of Acknowledgment that does not only discharge us of all past Obligations but makes our Friends our Debtors for new kindnesses while we pay what we are indebted for old ones XXVII We should desire very few things Passionately if we did but perfectly know the Nature of the things we desire XXVIII The Reason why most Women have so little Sense of Friendship is because this is but a cold and flat Passion to those that have felt that of Love XXIX In Friendship as well as Love Ignorance very often contributes more to our Happiness than Knowledge XXX We attempt
every change something that may still recommend them to the World XXIII Devotion is a Temper of the Mind purely Spiritual and derives it self from God Consequently it is a very Nice thing and ought to be observed very narrowly and with exceeding Caution by those that would keep themselves from being deceived in it XXIV The highest Pitch of Perfection that Men are capable of is to be throughly acquainted with their own Weakness their Vanity and Misery and the less Wit any one hath the less he knows of these Matters XXV There is a sort of Ignorance that knows nothing at all and yet is not near so despicable as that kind of Ignorance which is full of Errour and Impertinence and passes upon a great many for Learning and Knowledge XXVI Too servile a Submission to the Books and opinions of the Ancients as if these were Eternal Truths revealed by God himself hath spoiled many an ingenious Man and plagued the World with abundance of Pedants XXVII If we set aside those Cases in which Religion is concerned a Man ought to measure his Studies and his Books by the Standard of his own Reason and not enslave his Reason to his Books XXVIII Studious Men propose to themselves the filling their heads with Notions that they may talk Fluently and Nicely and be taken notice of in the World more than their own real improvement and better information that they might be Qualified to make a right Judgment of things XXIX Such words as Sympathize Je ne scay quoy's Occult Qualities and a Thousand more of the same kind have no Sense nor Signification at all A Man is wonderfully deceived if he Fansies himself one jot the Wiser for them They were only found out to supply the want of Reason and to be Used when we would fain say something but indeed have nothing to say XXX We attribute more to Reason than is her due She frequently Usurps what of Right belongs to our Constitution and would have but few Advantages if she had no more than are strictly her own XXXI It is but very seldom that Reason cures our Passions but one Passion is commonly cured by another Reason indeed often strikes in with the strongest side And there is no Passion so Extravagant but hath its Reason ready to keep it in Countenance XXXII Good and Right Reason is a Light in the Mind by which it Discerns things as they are in themselves But in this World this Light is encompassed and darkned by a thousand Mists and Clouds XXXIII Reputation would not be so highly valued if we did but duly consider how very unjust Men are both in the giving and the taking of it away again We should be sure to deserve it by doing well and when that care is once taken not be over anxious about the success XXXIV Too tender a Sense of what other People say ill of us does but entertain the Malice of the World which desires nothing more than that it may disturb us XXXV The absolute want of such a Sense so as to be moved at nothing they say is a contrary extream that produces the same effect This is such a sort of Contempt as the World is concerned to revenge it self upon XXXVI There is a middle State and a Temper to be found between these two Extreams which inclines the World to make allowances for some Actions in one Man which yet they condemn without any Mercy in others This makes the mighty difference between Ladies that yet have taken the same Liberties So that some are run down and it is Scandalous to be seen in their Company and others are esteemed as chast as Nuns and no reflections cast upon them XXXVII That pure Platonick Love which some Persons Fansie to themselves is all imagination and delusion The Body hath a greater share in this Passion than the Mind XXXVIII It is no strange thing that some Nations who wanted the Light of the Gospel should worship Love for a God for indeed the Effects and the Resentments of it are very odd very extraordinary and such as seem to exceed the Power of Nature XXXIX The Conversation of fine Women puts a Man's Salvation upon greater Hazard than the softest and most moving Plays Those are the Original these only the Image and Copy Those kindle and inspire the Passions these only awake and entertain them XL. Plays and Musick would have but few admirers if one had never felt Love nor any other Passions XLI It is a common thing to imagine we love a Man of great Interest and Fortune with a very sincere Passion But this is what we cannot be sure of till he be stripp'd of all the advantages of Power and Greatness Then one quickly discerns what it was that engaged our affections If Interest were at the Bottom of it though Honour may keep it up for some time yet it quickly grows weary and lets it fall to the Ground XLII Gratitude is the Vertue of Wise and Generous Minds XLIII Ingratitude is the Fault of Fools and Clowns XLIV There are some sort of People that never look into a Book and yet with their own stock of Natural Parts have a better Sense of things that depend upon clear and true Reason than some great and Bookish Professors XLV Good Sense and Reason ought to be the Umpire of all Rules both Ancient and Modern whatever does not agree with this Standard cannot be Sterling XLVI Nature was given to exercise the Philosophers like some dark Riddle every one makes his own Sense the Key and out of that contrives his own System He that by these Principles explains most difficulties may be allowed thus far to Value himself that he hath hit upon the most probable Opinion XLVII Bodily Pain is the only Evil attending humane Life that is Past the Power of Reason either to cure or to asswage XLVIII Fortune gives out the parts Men are to play upon this Stage of the World blindly and just according to her own unaccountable Humour This is the Reason why there is so much ill acting because Men very seldom hit upon those Characters that are fit for them Or to speak in a more Christian Style what we call Fortune is no other than the Providence of God which permits those disorders for Reasons which we are not able to comprehend XLIX Reason and Experience ought always to go Hand in Hand in the Discovery of Nature L. If frequent Meditations upon Death do not make us better Men yet methinks they should moderate our Passions however and put some restraint upon our Avarice and Ambition LI. Every thing in this Life is accidental even our Birth that brings us into it Death is the only thing we can be sure of And yet we behave our selves just as if all the rest were certain and Death alone accidental LII Life is good in its own Nature the greatest good in the World but the most unthriftily squander'd away and it is not of this but
seen in a perfect state of Purity and that the greatest part of our Actions are never without a mixture of Error and Truth Perfection and Imperfection Vice and Vertue He considers the Hearts of Men corrupted invaded by Pride and Self-love and encompass'd about with ill Examples as the Governour of a Town besieged who is in want of Silver he makes Money of Leather and Past-board This Money in shape and figure resembles the good 't is put off at the same Price but nothing but downright misery and necessity makes it go current among the Besieged After the same manner the generality of humane Actions which pass with the world for so many Vertues oftentimes have only the bare image and resemblance of them Nevertheless they don't cease to carry some merit with them and to challenge our esteem in some measure it being very difficult humanely speaking to have any better But admitting our Author believed that there was no truly perfect vertue in Man yet considering him in the pure state of Nature he is not the first that advanced this Opinion If I were not afraid to lie under the Scandal of a mighty Man in Quotation with you I cou'd cite you several Authors nay Fathers of the Church and celebrated Saints who were of Opinion that Self-love and Pride were the very Soul of the most Heroical Actions the Pagans can boast off I cou'd make it appear that some of them have not even pardoned the chastity of Lucretia whom all the World believed to be vertuous till they discover'd the falsity of that vertue which produced the liberty of Rome and has drawn the admiration of so many Ages after it Can you imagine Sir that Seneca himself who makes his Wiseman stand upon the same level with the Gods was truly wise or that he was really perswaded of what he endeavours to inculcate to other people with so much Insolence and Ostentation Nevertheless his Pride cou'd not hinder him from owning in other places that he had never beheld in the World an example of that Idea which he proposed that it was impossible to find so consummate a virtue among Men and that the most perfect among them was he who had the fewest Defects He franckly confesses that one may reproach Socrates with maintaining some suspected Correspondences Plato and Aristotle with being Covetous and Epicurus with his Prodigality and Pleasure And yet he cries out in a most wonderfull Passion at the same time that we should be but too happy cou'd we arrive to Copy and imitate their very Vices This worshipfull Philosopher had been much in the right on 't if he had said as much of his own Vices for to say the Truth a Man wou'd not have been over unhappy cou'd he have been able to enjoy as this poor Stoick did all manner of Riches Honour and Pleasure at the same time when he made a mean of despising them to see himself absolute Master of the Empire and Emperour nay and a Gallant of the Empress at the same time to possess magnificent Palaces delicious Gardens and thus full stretch'd at his ease as he was to preach up Moderation and Constancy and the Lord knows what in the midst of a prodigious plenty and wealth Do you believe Sir that this mortified Hypocrite who so well counterfeited the Master of his Passions cou'd in Conscience pretend to any Vertue but that single one of concealing his Vices and that when he ordered his Veins to be opened he did not repent him a thousand times that he left his Imperial Pupil the power to make him Die Do but view this mighty Pretender at a nearer distance and you 'll see that in making all these fine reasonings upon the immortality of the Soul he endeavors to Hoodwink himself against the fears of Death he summons up all his forces to make a solemn Grimace at parting he bites his Tongue least he should confess that pain is an Evil he pretends that Reason is able to divest a man of all Passion and instead of humbling his Pride he raises himself above the Divinity Now in my Opinion he had acted much more like an honest Man if he had fairly own'd the Weaknesses and Corruption of Humane Nature and not taken so much pains to Banter the World with his impracticable Notions On the other hand the Author of these Reflections uses a different Conduct he lays open all the Miseries of Man but then we must understand him of Man as he is abandon'd to his own Caprice and not of a Christian He makes it evidently appear that in spite of all the Efforts of his reason Pride and self-Self-love will still take Sanctuary in some of the most private recesses of his Heart where they meet from time to time with sufficient nourishment to spread their Venom imperceptibly upon the greatest part of its Movements The second Objection you told me of and which has a great deal of Affinity with the former is That these Reflections pass in the World rather from the Subtilties of an Austere Censor who puts an ill Construction upon the most indifferent Actions than for solid Truths You tell me that some of your Friends have assured you with all the imaginable appearances of Sincerity that they knew by their own experience that a man does sometimes do good without having any other view or prospect than that of good nay sometimes without any view at all either for Good or Evil but by a natural integrity of mind which inclined him to what is good without his own thinking of it I wish it were in my power to believe these Gentlemen upon their word and that it were true that Humane Nature has none but reasonable Motions and that all our Actions were naturally vertuous But Sir how shall we reconcile the testimony of your Friends to the sentiments of the greatest Fathers of the Church who have assured us That all our Vertues without the Assistance of Faith are only imperfections that our will was born blind that its desires were blind its Conduct still more blind and that it was no wonder if a man under so much blindness was in a perpetual state of wandring Nor is this all for they proceed to talk in a higher strain and tell us that in such a condition the prudence of man does not penetrate into future things and appoints nothing but as it has a relation to Pride that his Temperance moderates no excesses but those that his Pride condemned before that his constancy no farther supports its self under the pressure of Calamities than as it is encouraged by his Pride and lastly that all his vertues with that exterior pomp of merit which makes them be admired had no other end but this Admiration the love of vain Glory and the interest of Pride One might find almost an infinite number of Authorities upon this Opinion but if I should once begin to cite them regularly to you the effect wou'd
Power and Opportunities of shewing it It never rests or fixes any where from Home and if for a little while it dwell upon some other thing 't is only as Bees do when they light upon Flowers with a design to draw all the Virtue there to their own advantage Nothing is so raging and violent as its Desires nothing so close as its Designs nothing so ingenious as its Management of them it hath more Fetches and Doubles than can ever be described it transforms it self into more different shapes than are in all Ovid's Metamorphoses and its Extractions are more subtle and refined than any Chymistry can Parallel It is an Abyss too deep ever to be sounded and too dark ever to be seen thorough There it sits undiscovered even from the nicest and most penetrating Eye and runs a thousand wild Mazes undiscerned Nay it is sometimes concealed from its own self and conceives and cherishes and brings up a world of Inclinations and Affections without so much as being sensible when they are Born or how they are Bred. And some of these Conceptions are so monstrous that when they come to the Birth it either does not know them or cannot be prevailed upon to own them From this gross Darkness proceed all its extravagant and ridiculous Opinions of its self all its Errours and Ignorances and sottish Stupidities in its own case This is the reason why it often thinks those Passions killed and dead which are only laid to Sleep Happiness it self is content to sit down quietly when it is only taking Breath for a fresh Chase and thinks those Appetites quite lost which are only satisfied a little for the present And yet this thick Mist which hinders it from seeing it self is no Obstruction to its sight of any thing else for in this it is like the Eyes of our Body which perceive all other Objects and are blind only with regard to themselves And thus where iâ— own Interest is concerned and the matter is of Consequence so great as to move the desires vigorously and by â—hem to call â—o all its Attention it Sees and Feels and Hears and Imagines and Suspects and Penetrates and Presages perfectly well so that nothing escapes it and a Man would be apt to suspect that each of these Passions under its Conduct have some strange Magical Power peculiar to it No Cement is so strong none so close as its Engagements which it attempts to break or dissolve but to little or no purpose even when driven to it by the greatest and most impending Mischiefs And yet it happens sometimes that what the continued Endeavours of many years were not able to accomplish a very little time and pains effects which gives us just Ground to conclude that its desires are all kindled by its own hand and owing more to it self than to the Beauty or the worth of its Object and that its own Palate gives them all their Value and Fancy is the false Gloss that sets them off That it self is the only Game it pursues and its own Inclination the thing it follows rather than the Objects that sute its Inclination it is all extremes and acts in the greatest contradictions to it self It is Imperious and Submissive Sincere and Hypocritical Frank and Formal Compassionate and Cruel Cowardly and Couragious It puts on different Inclinations according to the different Tempers that dispose and devote it sometimes to Honour sometimes to Riches sometimes to Pleasure It shifts these as our Age or our Fortunes or our Experience change but as to it self it is the same thing whether it have one or more such Inclinations for it divides it self to several or collects and determines it self entirely to one at pleasure and as occasisions offer themselves It is fickle not only because the things without us are unstable but from a thousand inward Causes entirely owing to it self Inconstancy Levity Love of Novelty Nauseatings and Disgusts and being tired with what it hath already make it changeable every Moment It is Whimsâ—cal and Humoursome and you may sometimes observe it taking infinite pains and using the utmost Application and Zeal for things that cannot be any advantage nay which are sure to prove Prejudicial and yet pursue them it will merely because it will have them It is unaccountable and childish and often busies it self about Trifles and Impertinencies finds the greatest Relish and Delight in the flattest and most insipid things and reserves all its eagerness and warmth for the meanest and most contemptible It enters into all Qualities and all conditions of Life it lives in every place it lives upon every thing nay it lives upon nothing it serves it self both of the Enjoyment of things and of the want of them It takes part with the very Men that make War upon it and Engages in their Designs against it self and which is most surprising it joins with them in the Hating of it self Plots to its own Disadvantage and Conspires and Endeavours its own Destruction In a word all its care is to subsist and rather than not be at all it is content to be its own Enemy We ought not therefore to think it strange if we meet it sometimes in Conjunction with the most rigorous Mortification and find it entring boldly into League with this Adversary to work its own Ruine for at the same time that it pulls it self down in one place it builds it self up in another When we think it renounces and forsakes its pleasure it only suspends or changes it and when we fansie it Conquered and totally Routed we find it rise Victorious and its very Defeat contributes to its Triumph This is the true Picture of Self-love which is so predominant that a mans whole life is but one continued Exercise and strong Agitation of it the Sea indeed is a very sensible resemblance of this Passion and the perpetual Ebbings and Flowings of the Waves there are a lively and faithful Embleme of that restless Succession of Thoughts and those Boisterous rowlings of the Mind which are eternally caused and kept up by it III. self-Self-love is the greatest Flatterer in the World IV. When a Man hath travelled never so far and discovered never so much in the World of Self-love yet still the Terra Incognita will take up a considerable part of the Map V. self-Self-love is more ingenious than the most ingenious Man in the World VI. The continuance of our Passions is no more in our own Power than the term of our Life VII Passion very often makes the wisest Men Fools and very often too inspires the greatest Fools with Wit VIII Those great and glorious Actions that even dazle our Eyes with their Lustre are represented by Politicians as the result of great Wisdom and excellent design whereas in truth they are commonly the effects of Passion and Humour Thus the War between Augustus and Antony which is usually thought to proceed from Greatness of Soul and the Ambition each of them had to
become Master of the World was very probably no more than Envy and Emulation IX The Passions are the only Orators that are always successfull in perswading they are a kind of Art in Nature that proceeds upon infallible Rules and the plainest Man with the help of Passion shall prevail more than the most Eloquent Man without it X. There is in the Passions such a constant tendency to private Interest and Injustice that it is dangerous to be guided by them and indeed we should not dare to trust them even then when they appear most fair and reasonable XI The heart of Man ever finds a constant succession of Passions insomuch that the destroying and pulling down of one proves generally to be nothing else but the Production and the setting up of another XII The Passions so odd a way of Breeding they have do very often give birth to others of a nature most contrary and distant from their own Thus Avarice sometimes brings forth Prodigality and Prodigality Avarice A Man's resolution is very often the effect of Levity and his daring Boldness that of Cowardice and Fear XIII After all the care Men can take to conceal their Passions and put them off under the dress of Piety and Honour the disguise is too thin and will be sure to discover all at one time or other XIV The love of our selves can better bear to have our Opinions condemned than our Inclinations XV. Men are not only apt to forget the kindnesses and injuries that have been done them but which is a great deal more they hate the Persons that have obliged them and lay aside their resentments against those that have used them ill The trouble of returning Favours and revenging of Wrongs is a slavery it seems which they can very hardly submit to XVI The Clemency of Princes is very often only a State-trick to gain upon the affections of their Subjects XVII That Clemency which the World crys up for such a mighty Vertue proceeds sometimes from Ostentation sometimes from Laziness and Neglect very often from Fear and almost always from a mixture of all these together XVIII The moderation of People in prosperity is the effect of a smooth and composed Temper owing to the Calm of their good Fortune XIX Moderation is a fear of falling into that Envy and Contempt which those who grow giddy with their good Fortune most justly draw upon themselves it is a kind of boasting the greatness of our mind and in short the moderation of Men in the most exalted Fortunes is a desire to be thought above those things that have raised them so high XX. No body is so weak but he is strong enough to bear the misfortunes that he does not feel XXI The constancy of the Wise is nothing else but the knack of concealing their Passion and Trouble XXII We often see Malefactors when they are led to Execution put on Resolution and a Contempt of Death which in truth is nothing else but fearing to look it in the Face So that this pretended Bravery may very truly be said to do the same good office to their mind that the Handkerchief or Night-cap does to their Eyes XXIII Philosophy finds it an easie matter to vanquish past and future Evils but the present are commonly too hard for it XXIV Very few People are acquainted with Death They undergo it commonly not so much out of Resolution as Custom and Insensibility and the greatest part of the World pretend they are content to die only because they know they cannot help it XXV When great Men sink under the length of their misfortunes this discovers that it was not the greatness of their Soul but of their Ambition that kept up their Spirits so long and that setting aside abundance of Vanity Heroes are just like common Men. XXVI It requires more Vertue to bear a good fortune than ill XXVII Death and the Sun are two things not to be looked upon with a steady Eye XXVIII Men are often so foolish as to boast and value themselves upon their Passions even those that are most vicious But envy is a Passion so full of Cowardice and Shame that no body ever had the confidence to own it XXIX There is something to be said for Jealousie because this only designs the preservation of some good which we either have or think we have a right to but Envy is a rageing Madness that cannot be satisfied with the good of others XXX Our good Qualities expose us more to Hatred and Persecution than all the Ill we do XXXI We do not want strength so much as will to use it and very often the fansying things impossible to be done is nothing else but an excuse of our own contriving to reconcile our selves to our own Idleness XXXII If we had no defects of our own we should not take half so much satisfaction in observing those of other people XXXIII Jealousie is bred in doubts when those doubts change into certainties then the Passion either ceases or turns absolute Madness XXXIV A Proud man can never be a loser no not even then when he renounces his Pride XXXV The being proud our selves makes us complain of others and uneasie at their being so XXXVI All men are proud alike the only difference is that all do not take the same methods of shewing it XXXVII It looks like an indulgence of Nature to give us pride that after she had taken such wise care to fit the Organs of the body for our happiness and convenience we might be delivered from the trouble of knowing our own imperfections XXXVIII Pride hath a greater share than Goodness in the reproofs we give other people for their faults and we chide them not so much with a design to mend them as to make them believe that we our selves are not guilty of them XXXIX We promise in proportion to our Hopes and we keep in proportion to our Fears XL. Interest speaks all manner of Languages and acts all sorts of Parts nay even that of a man that hath no regard at all to Interest XLI Interest makes some people Blind and others quick-sighted XLII They that use to employ their minds too much upon Trifles commonly make themselves incapable of any thing that is serious or great XLIII We have not strength enough to follow our Reason so far as it would carry us XLIV A man often thinks he governs himself when all the while he is governed and managed and while his understanding directs to one design his affections insensibly draw him into another XLV The strength and weakness of a Man's mind are mistaken and improper terms for these are really no other than the Organs of our Bodies being well or ill disposed XLVI The whimsicalness of our own humour is a thousand times more fickle and unaccountable than what we blame so much in fortune XLVII The fondness or indifference that the Philosophers express'd for life was purely a tang of the love of themselves which
nothing but â—nterest that makes us fond of them And all our Applications and Attendances are not so much upon the account of any good we desire to do them as for what we expect and hope they may do us LXXXVII Our own Jealousie gives a fair pretence for the Knavery of other People LXXXVIII With what Face can we expect another should keep our Secrets when we cannot keep them our selves LXXXIX The Love of our Selves makes our Friends appear more or less Deserving in Proportion to the Delight we take 〈◊〉 them and the Measures by which 〈◊〉 judge of their Worth depend upon the Manner of their Conversing with us XC Every body complains for want of Memory but you never find any body complain of the Weakness of his Judgment XCI When Idle men have indulged themselves as much as they think fit no body is then so full of hast and activity as they because they hope this quickning of others will give them the Reputation of Diligence XCII The greatest Ambition does not appear least so when it finds what it would fain aspire to absolutely impossible to be attained XCIII The disabusing a man strongly possess'd with an opinion of his own worth is the very same ill office that was done the Fool at Athens who fansied all the Ships that came into Harbour were his own XCIV Old Folks love mightily to give good Advice because this makes them some sort of Amends for being incapable now of setting Ill Examples XCV Great Characters do really lessen instead of exalting those that know not how to maintain and make them good XCVI That man we may be sure is a Person of true worth whom we find those who envy him most are yet forced to commend XCVII It is an Argument our own Affection is but small when our Friends grow cold to us and we are not sensible of it XCVIII The making a Difference between the Wit and the Judgment is a Vulgar Error The Judgment is nothing else but the Exceeding Brightness of the Wit which like Light pierces into the very Bottom of Things observes all that ought to be observed there and Discovers what seemed to be past any bodies finding out From whence we must conclude that the Energy and Extension of this Light of the Wit is the very thing that produces all those effects usually ascribed to the Judgment XCIX Every body takes upon him to give a good Character of his own Courage but no body to speak well of his own Wit C. The Polite Wit consists in Nice Curious and Commendable Thoughts CI. The Gallantry of the Wit is Exprest in Flattery Well-couched CII It often happens that some things offer themselves to our Wit and are finer in the very first thought than it is possible for a man to make them by the Additions of Art and Study CIII The Wit is constantly the Cully of the Courage CIV Many People are Acquainted with their own Wit that are not Acquainted with their own Heart CV Men and Actions are like Objects of Sight and have their nice points of being distinctly discerned Some you must come very near to to judge of them exactly and others are better seen at a greater distance CVI. He is not to pass for a Man of Reason who stumbles upon Reason by chance but he that knows and can Judge and hath a true relish of it CVII It is necessary in order to know things throughly well to know the particulars of them and these being infinite make our Knowledge ever superficial and imperfect CVIII It is one kind Coquet humour to put people always upon observing that we are not Coquet CIX It is not in the power of the Wit to dissemble the Inclinations very long CX Heat of Blood makes young People change their Inclinations often and Custom makes old ones keep to theirs a great while CXI There is nothing that Men are so free of as their Advice CXII The more Passionately a Man loves his Mistress the readier he is to hate Her CXIII The Defects of the Vnderstanding are like those of the Face the older People are the worse they grow CXIV Matrimony is sometimes convenient but never Delightful CXV Men are never to be comforted for the Treachery of their Friends or the over reaching of their Enemies and yet they are often very highly satisfied to be both cheated and betrayed by their own selves CXVI It is as easie a matter to deceive a Mans self and not be sensible of it as it is hard to impose upon others and yet for them not to be sensible of it CXVII Nothing betrays more want of Sincerity than the methods commonly used in asking and receiving Advice He that asks it pretends to a respectful Deference for the Opinion of his Friend and all the while only designs to have his own approved and shelter his own Actions under the Authority of another and he that gives it returns these Professions with a pretended Kindness and impartial Zeal and yet hath generally no other end in the advising him but his own Interest and Honour CXVIII The cunningest Dissimulation is when a Man pretends to be Caught and a Man is never so easily over-reached as when he is thinking to over-reach others CXIX An honest Intention of imposing upon no Body lays us open to be frequently imposed upon our selves CXX We are so used to dissemble with other People that in time we come to Deceive and Dissemble with our selves CXXI Treachery is oftner the Effect of Weakness than of a fixed Design CXXII Men frequently do good only to give themselves opportunity of doing ill with greater Security CXXIII The resistance we make to our Passions is owing to their Weakness more than our Strength CXXIV Men never would enjoy any Pleasure if they never flattered themselves CXXV The most ingenious Men pretend to condemn tricking continually but this is often done that they may use it more conveniently themselves when some great Occasion or Interest offers it self to them CXXVI To use crafty Dealing is a sign of a little Soul and it generally falls out that he who conceals himself by it in one Instance betrays himself as much by it in another CXXVII Tricks and Treachery are the practice of Fools that have not Wit enough to be Honest CXXVIII The most effectual way to be Bubbled is to fansie ones self wiser than ones Neighbours CXXIX Too great a degree of Subtilty is counterfeit Exactness and true Exactness is the best and most substantial Subtilty CXXX The being a Blockhead is sometimes the best security against being imposed upon by a Man of Wit CXXXI A weak mind is the only defect out of our power to mend CXXXII When once Women have given themselves over to make Love the doing it on is the least fault they can be guilty of CXXXIII It is much easier to be wise in another Mans concern than in ones own CXXXIV There are no good Copies except such as expose the folly
successively sometimes admiring one and sometimes another above all the rest so that this Constancy roves as far as it can and is no better than Inconstancy confined within the compass of one Person CLXXVII Constancy in Love is of two sorts one is the effect of new Excellencies that are always presenting themselves afresh and attract our affections continually the other is only from a point of Honour and a taking a Pride not to change CLXXVIII Perseverance is in Strictness neither Praise-nor blame-worthy for it seems to be only the lasting of certain Inclinations and Opinions which men neither give nor take away from themselves CLXXIX The love of new Notions and greater Knowledge is not so much from being weary of what we had before or any satisfaction there is in change as it is the concern for being too little admired by those that know us well and the hope of being admired more by them that know us but little CLXXX We complain sometimes that our Friends are Fickle only to be beforehand with them and justifie our own Inconstancy CLXXXI Our Repentances are generally not so much a Concern and Remorse for the Ills we have done as a Dread of those we were in danger of suffering CLXXXII There is an Inconstancy that proceeds from an unsettled Judgment a natural Levity and Weakness that espouses all Opinions as they come and thinks as other people think and there is another much more excusable that arises from a dislike and disapproving of the things themselves CLXXXIII Vices are mingled with Vertues just as poisonous Ingredients are put into Medicines A wise and skilful Hand tempers them together and makes excellent use of them against the misfortunes that attend Humane Life CLXXXIV Some Crimes get Honour and Renown by being committed with more Pomp by a greater Number and in a higher Degree of Wickedness than others And hence it is that publick Robberies Plunderings and Sackings have been lookt upon as Excellencies and noble Atchievements and the seizing whole Countries though never so Unjustly and Barbarously is dignified with the Glorious Name of gaining Conquests CLXXXV We confess our Faults by that Sincerity to make amends for the Injury they have done us in the Esteem of others CLXXXVI Some Heroes have been accounted so for being greatly Ill no less than others for being greatly Good CLXXXVII We may Hate and Despise mens Vices without any Contempt or Malice against their Persons but it is impossible not to Despise those that have no kind of Vertue to recommend them CLXXXVIII The name and pretence of Vertue is as serviceable to ones Interest as real Vices CLXXXIX The Health of the Soul is what we can be no more secure of than that of our Body And though a man may seem far from Vice and Passion yet is he in as much Danger of Falling into them as one in a perfect state of Health is of having a sit of Sickness CXC Nature seems at each Man's Birth to have markt out the bounds of every ones Vertues and Vices and to have determined how Good or how Wicked that Man shall be capable of being CXCI. None but Great Men are capable of being greatly ill CXCII Vices may be said to take us from one to another in the Course of our lives just as Inn-keepers where we Lodge upon a Journey do and I Question whether if we could Travel the same Road twice over the Experience of having been once ill used would prevail with us to change our House next time CXCIII When our Vices forsake us we please our selves with an Opinion that we parted first and left them CXCIV The Distempers of the Soul have their Relapses as many and as dangerous as those of the Body And the Remedies we take are oftentimes no perfect cure but either an abatement of the same Disease or the changing of that for another CXCV. The Defects and Faults of the Mind are like Wounds in the Body after all imaginable eare hath been taken to heal them up still there will be a Scar left behind and they are in continual Danger of breaking the Skin and bursting out again CXCVI. The only Reason why we do not give our selves entirely to one Vice is oftentimes because our Affections are divided and we are fond of several CXCVII We easily forget our Faults when no body knows them but our selves CXCVIII. Some Men are so good that one cannot fairly believe any thing ill of them without the Demonstration of seeing it our selves but never any were so good that we should be astonished when we do see it CXCIX We pull down one Man's Reputation to set up anothers and sometimes Men would not be so copious in the praise of the Prince and Monsieur Turenne if it were not out of a design to lessen them both CC. The desire to be thought a wise Man oftentimes hinders ones coming to be really such CCI. Vertue would not make such Advances if there were not a little Vanity to bear it Company CCII. He that fansies such a sufficiency in himself that he can live without all the World is mightily mistaken but he that imagines himself so necessary that other people cannot live without him is a great deal more mistaken CCIII Those Men have but a counterfeit Vertue who dissemble their Faults and hide them from others and themselves The men of true unaffected Goodness know their own failings perfectly and confess them freely CCIV. He that would be a truely honest Man must be immoderately desirous of nothing CCV Niceness of Behaviour in Women is only a Dress or Paint which they use the better to set off their Beauty CCVI. Womens vertue is frequently nothing but a regard to their own Quiet and a tenderness for their Reputation CCVII. There is no better proof of a man's being truly Good than his desiring to be constantly under the observation of good Men. CCVIII Folly dogs us every where and at all times If one Man seem wiser than his Neighbours it is only because his Follies are better suited to his Age and his Fortune CCIX. There are a great many Cullies that know it and make very good use of the weakness and easiness of their own Temper CCX He that lives without Folly is not so wise as he imagines CCXI. Both Folly and Wisdom come upon us with Years CCXII. Some Men are like Ballads that every body Sings at one time or other though they be never so dull and insipid CCXIII. The generality of the World know no other way of judging Peoples worth but by the Vogue they are in or the fortunes they have met with CCXIV. The love of Reputation the fear of Shame the designs of promoting an Interest the desire of making Life easie and convenient and a longing to pull down some above us are frequently the causes of that Valour so much cryed up in the World CCXV Valour in private Soldiers is a Hazardous Trade which they have bound themselves too to get
their Livelihood CCXVI Compleat Courage and absolute Cowardice are extremes that very few Men fall into The vast middle space contains all the intermediate Kinds and degrees of Courage and these differ as much from one another as Mens Faces or their Humours do Some Men venture at all upon the first Charge or two but if the Actio continue they cool and are easily dejected Some satisfie themselves with having done what in strict Honour was necessary and will not be prevailed upon to advance one step farther 〈◊〉 is observable that some have not the command of their Fears and not master them at all times alike Others are some times carried away with a general Consternation some throw themselves into the Action because they dare not stay at their own Post Now and then the being used to smaller Dangers hardens the Courage and fits it for venturing upon greater Some Fellows value not a Sword at all but fear a Musket-shot and others are as unconcerned at the Discharge of a Musket and ready to run at the sight of a Naked Sword All these Couragious Men of so many Sorts and Sizes agree in this that Night as it adds to their fear so it conceals what they do well or ill and gives them opportunity of sparing themselves And there is besides this another more general tenderness of a Man's self for you meet with no body even those that do most but they would be capable of doing a great deal more still if they could but be sure of coming off safe Which makes it very plain that let a Man be never so Stout yet the fear of Death does certainly give some damp to his Courage CCXVII True Valour would do all that when alone that it could do if all the World were by CCXVIII Fearlessness is a more than ordinary strength of Mind that raises it above the Troubles Disorders and Emotions which the prospect of great Dangers are used to produce And by this inward strength it is that Heroes preserve themselves in a Calm and quiet State enjoy a presence of Mind and the free use of their Reason in the midst of those terrible Accidents that amaze and confound other People CCXIX. Hypocrisie is a sort of Homage which Vice pays to Vertue CCXX Most Men are willing to expose their Persons in an Engagement for the love of Honour but very few are content to expose themselves so far as the design they go upon requires to render it Successful CCXXI The Courage of a great many Men and the Vertue of a great many Women are the effect of Vanity Shame and especially a suitable Constitution CCXXII Men are loth to lose their Lives and yet they are desirous of getting Honour too which is the reason why Men of Gallantry use more Dexterity and Wit to decline Death than all your Religious Knaves do to secure their Estates CCXXIII. There are very few Persons but discover as soon as they come to decline in Years where the chief failings lie both of their Body and their Mind CCXXIV. Gratitude among Friends is like Credit among Tradesmen it keeps Business up and maintains the Correspondence And we frequently pay not so much out of a Principle that we ought to discharge our Debts as to secure our selves a place to be trusted in another time CCXXV. Some there are who have done all that can be expected by way of Gratitude can be required from them by way of return are not able for all that to please themselves upon their being grateful and which are not satisfied with what they have 〈◊〉 CCXXVI That 〈◊〉 occasions so many mistakes in the Computations of Men when they expect returns for favours is that both the Giver and the Receiver are Proud and so these two can never agree upon the value of the kindnesses that have been done The Giver over-reckons and the Receiver undervalues them CCXXVII To be uneasie and make too much hast to return an Obligation is one sort of Ingratitude CCXXVIII Men find it more easie to set bounds to their Acknowledgments than to their Hopes and their Desires CCXXIX Pride never can endure to be in Debt and Self-love never cares to Pay CCXXX The good that we have received should qualifie for the ill that hath been done us CCXXXI Nothing is of so pestilent spreading a Nature as Example and no Man does any exceeding good or very wicked thing but it produces others of the same kind The good we are carried to the imitation of by our Emulation and the bad by the Corruption and Malignity of our Nature which shame indeed confines and keeps up close but Example unlocks its Chains and lets it loose CCXXXII To think to be Wise alone is a very great Folly CCXXXIII Whatever other pretended cause we may father our Afflictions upon it is very often nothing but Interest and Vanity that are the true causes of them CCXXXIV There are Hypocrisies of several kinds in our Afflictions in one sort we pretend to lament the loss of some Friend exceeding dear to us and all the while this Lamentation is only for our selves We are troubled to think our selves less Happy less Easie less Considerable and less Valued than we were before Thus the Dead carry the Name and the Honour of those Tears that are shed only upon the account of the Living And this I call Hypocrisie of one kind because in these Afflictions People impose upon themselves There is another kind not so Harmless as this because that imposes upon all the World And this is the Affliction of a sort of Persons that pretend to a 〈◊〉 and a never dying concern in their Grief When Time the Waster of all things hath worn off the concern they really had then they will needs be obstinate in their Sorrows and still carry on their Complaints and their Sighs They put on all the Characters of Mourning and Sadness and take a great deal of pains by all their Actions to make the World believe their Melancholy can never have any Rest any Cessation but in the Grave This Dismal Tiresome and Solemn Vanity is most usual among Ambitious Women Their Sex hath shut them out from all the common ways that lead to Honour and that makes them attempt to signalize themselves by all this Pageantry of an Affliction too deep to admit of any Comfort There are yet another sort of Tears that have but shallow Springs quickly and easily flow and are as easily dryed up again these are such as weep to gain the Reputation of Tenderness and good Nature such as cry because they would be pitied such as cry because they would make other People cry and in a word such as cry only because they are ashamed not to cry CCXXXV Our concern for the loss of our Friends is not always from a Sense of their Worth but rather of our own occasions for them and that we have lost some who had a good Opinion of us CCXXXVI We are Easily Comforted
for the Disgraces of our Friends when they give us an occasion of Expressing our Tenderness for them CCXXXVII One would think that Self-Love were Over-reached by Good-Nature and Vertue and that a Man wholly Forgets and Neglects himself when he is employ'd in Promoting the Advantage of Others But when all is done this is the most effectual way of compassing a Man 's own ends it is putting out to Interest when we pretend to Give Freely In a word it is Winning over the Affections of all that know us and gaining upon them by a more nice and dexterous way CCXXXVIII No Man deserves to be commended for his Vertue who hath it not in his Power to be Wicked all other Goodness is Generally no better than Sloth or an Impotence in the Will CCXXXIX It is safer to do most Men Hurt than to do them too much Good CCXL Nothing Imposes more upon our Pride than the Intimacy and particular Confidences of Great Persons for we look upon our selves as admitted to these by Virtue of our own Desert and never consider that it happens much oftner from a particular Vanity in their Humour or the not being able to keep a Secret For indeed a Man may observe that the Unbosoming ones Self to another is a kind of Release to the Soul which strives to Lighten its Burden and find Ease by throwing off the Weight that lay heavy upon it CCXLI. If we look upon Agreeableness distinct from Beauty we may call it a sort of Proportion the Rules of which no body can positively define a secret relation and affinity of the Lines to one another and of all these together to the Complexion and Air of the Person CCXLII. A Cocquet Humour is the very Nature and Inheritance of Women But all of them do not practise it because some are restrained either by Fear or by better Sense CCXLIII We frequently bring others under an Inconveniency when we think it impossible for us ever to do so CCXLIV There are but very few things Impossible in their own Nature and we do not want Means to Conquer Difficulties so much as Application and Resolution in the Use of Means CCXLV The Principal Point of Wisdom is to Know How to Value Things Just as they Deserve CCXLVI It is a Great Act of Wisdom to be able to Conceal ones being Wise CCXLVII. What we take for Generosity is very often no other than Ambition well Dissembled that scorns Mean Interests onely to Pursue Greater CCXLVIII That which Most Men would put upon us for Fidelity is onely a Contrivance of Self-Love to make our Selves Trusted It is a Trick to set our selves above other People and get the Most Important Matters Deposited with us upon a Confidence that they are then in Safe Hands CCXLIX Magnanimity Despises all that it may Grasp all CCL Eloquence is as much seen in the Tone and Cadence of the Voice as in the Choice of Proper Expressions CCLI True Eloquence consists in Saying all that is Fit to be Said and Leaving Out all that is not Fit to be Said CCLII There are some Persons upon whom their very Faults and Failings Sit Gracefully and there are others whose very Excellencies and Accomplishments do not Become them CCLIII It is as common for Men to Change their Palates as it is unusual to see them Change their Inclinations CCLIV Interest is the Thing that puts Men upon Exercising their Vertues and Vices of All Kinds CCLV. Humility is very often only the Putting on of a Submission by which Men hope to bring other People to Submit to Them It is a more Artificial sort of Pride which Debases it self with a Design of being Exalted and though this Vice Disguise and Transform it self into a Thousand several Shapes yet this is never more effectually done nor more capable of Deceiving the World than when Concealed under a Form of Humility CCLVI. The Resentments of the Soul have each of them their Tone and Cadence of the Voice their Gestures of the Body and their Forms and Air peculiar to them And as this Propriety is Well or Ill observed in the same Proportion the Persons Please or Displease us CCLVII Men of all Professions Affect an Air and Outside that may make them Appear what they are thought to be So that a Man may say That the whole World is made up of nothing but Formalities CCLVIII. Gravity is a kind of Mystical Behaviour in the Body found out to Conceal and Set Off the Defects of the Mind CCLIX There is an Eloquence in the Eyes and the Air of a Man no less Powerful and Perswasive than that in Words CCLX The Pleasure of Love is Loving and a Man is more Happy in his own Passion for Another than in that Another hath for Him CCLXI Civility is a desire to be Civilly Used and to be thought an Accomplished Well-bred Man CCLXII The Breeding we Give Young People is but an Additional self-Self-Love by which we make them have a Better Conceit of Themselves CCLXIII self-Self-Love hath no-where a greater share nor is more predominant in any Passion than in that of Love And Men are always more disposed to Sacrifice all the Ease of them they Love than to part with any Degree of their Own CCLXIV What we call Liberality is for the most part onely the Vanity of Giving and we Exercise it because we are more Fond of that Vanity than of the Thing we Give CCLXV. Pity and Compassion is frequently a Sense of our own Misfortunes in those of Other Men. It is an Ingenious Foresight of the Disasters that may fall upon us hereafter we Relieve Others that they may Return the like when our Own Occasions call for it and the Good Offices we Do Them are in Strict Speaking so many Kindnesses done to Our Selves Before-hand CCLXVI. It is from a Weakness and Littleness of Soul that Men are Stiff and Positive in their Opinions and we are very loth to Believe what we are not able to Comprehend and make out to Our Selves CCLXVII It is a Mighty Error to suppose that none but Violent and Strong Passions such as Love and Ambition are able to Vanquish the rest Even Idleness as Feeble and Languishing as it is sometimes reigns over Them This Usurps the Throne and sits Paramount over all the Designs and Actions of our Lives and Insensibly wasts and destroys all our Passions and all our Vertues CCLXVIII A readiness to believe Ill before we have duly Examined it is the Effect of Laziness and Pride Men are pleased to find Others to Blame and loth to give Themselves the Trouble of Enquiring how far and whether they are so or not CCLXIX We refuse some Judges in Matters of less concern and yet are content to have our Honour and Reputation depend upon the Judgment of People that are sure to be against us for either their Jealousie or their Prejudices or their Ignorances will incline them to be so And we should never expose our Ease and
destroys Envy and true Love breaks a Coquett Humour CCCLXXVII The greatest Fault of a Penetrating Wit is not coming short of the mark but overshooting it CCCLXXVIII Other Men may give us good Advice but they cannot give us the Wit to make a wise use of it CCCLXXIX When our Merit lowers our Palate lowers with it CCCLXXX Fortune makes our Vertues and Vices visible just as Light does the objects of Sight CCCLXXXI When a Man forces himself to be constant in his Love this is no better than Inconstancy CCCLXXXII Our Actions are like the last Syllables in Words which every Man makes Rhime to what he thinks fit CCCLXXXIII The desire of talking of our selves and shewing our failings on that side we are content they should be seen on makes up a great part of our Sincerity CCCLXXXIV There is nothing deserves so much to be wondered at as that Men should live so long and wonder at any thing CCCLXXXV Men are as far from being satisfied with a great deal of Love as with a little CCCLXXXVI No Men receive more Injuries and Affronts than those that can least bear them CCCLXXXVII A Block-head hath not stuff enough to make a good Man of CCCLXXXVIII If Vanity do not quite over-turn our Vertues yet at least it makes them Totter CCCLXXXIX We have no patience with other Peoples Vanity because it is offensive to our own CCCXC Interest is more easily forgone than Inclination CCCXCI No body thinks Fortune so blind as those she hath been least kind to CCCXCII We should manage our selves with regard to our Fortune as we do with regard to our Health when good enjoy and make the best of it when ill bear it patiently and never take strong Physick without an absolute necessity CCCXCIII The Air of a Citizen is sometimes lost in an Army but never in a Court. CCCXCIV One Man may be too cunning for another but no body can be too cunning for all the World besides CCCXCV 'T is better for a Man sometimes to be deceived in what he Loves than to be undeceived CCCXCVI The first Lover is kept a long while when no body can accuse them of a second CCCXCVII We have not the confidence to say in general terms that our selves have no ill Qualities and that our Enemies have no good ones but when we talk of particulars we are pretty near thinking so CCCXCVIII Of all our Defaults we are most easily reconciled to Idleness we perswade our selves that it sticks close to all the peaceable Vertues and as for the rest that it does not destroy any of them utterly but only suspends the Exercise of them CCCXCIX There is a Sublimity of mind that hath no dependence upon Fortune 'T is a certain air of Authority that seems to lay us out for great things 't is a value which we insensibly set upon our selves and by this quality it is that we claim the respects of other People as if they were our due and this it is commonly that raises us more above them than either Birth or Honours or even Desert it self CCCC There is Worth sometimes without a greatness of Soul but there is never a great Soul without some degree of Worth CCCCI Greatness of Mind sets off Merit as good Dressing does handsome Persons CCCCII. Love is the least part of a modish Courtship CCCCIII Fortune sometimes makes our very Failings the means of raising us and there are some troublesome Fellows who deserve to be rewarded so far as to have their Absence purchased by preferments at a distance CCCCIV Nature seems to have treasured up in every one of our Minds some secret Talents and some one particular faculty which we are not sensible of it is the privilege of the Passions alone to bring these to Light and to direct us sometimes to surer and more excellent Aims than it is possible for Art to do CCCCV. We come altogether Fresh and Raw into the several Stages of Life and notwithstanding we have lived so long are as much to seek sometimes as if we had never had any Experience at all CCCCVI Coquettes pretend to be jealous of their Lovers only to conceal their Envy of other Women CCCCVII Those that are overtaken by any Subtilties of ours do not seem near so Foolish and Ridiculous to us as we our selves are in our own Opinion when we have been outwitted by them CCCCVIII Nothing is more Ridiculous in old People that have been Handsome formerly than to forget that they are not so still CCCCIX. We should often blush for our very best Actions if the World did but see all the motives upon which they were done CCCCX The boldest stroke and best act of Friendship is not to discover our failings to a Friend but to shew him his own CCCCXI The greatest part of our Faults are more excusable than the Methods that are commonly taken to conceal them CCCCXII Though we have deserved Shame never so much yet it is almost always in our own Power to recover our Reputation CCCCXIII After having exposed the falsity of so many seeming Vertues it is but reasonable I should add somewhat of that Deceit there is in the Contempt of Death That Contempt of it I mean which the Heathens pretended to derive from the strength of Nature and Reason without any hope of a better Life to animate them There is a great deal of difference between suffering Death with Bravery and Resolution and slighting it The former is very usual but I very much suspect that the other is never real and sincere There hath been a great deal Written 't is confess'd and as much as the Subject will bear to prove that Death is no Evil and Men of very inferiour Characters as well as Heroes have furnisht us with a great many eminent Examples in confirmation of this Opinion But still I am very much perswaded that no wise Man ever believed so and the trouble they are at to perswade others and themselves shews plainly that this was no such easie undertaking There may be a great many Reasons why Men should be out of conceit with Life but there can be none why we should despise Death Even those who run voluntarily upon it do not reckon it so inconsiderable a matter but are confounded and decline it as much as others if it approach them in any other shape but that of their own choosing The great Disparity observable between the Courage of a World of brave Men hath no other Foundation than this That they have different Ideas of Death and that it appears more present to their Fancy upon some occasions and at some times than it does at others Hence it is that after having slighted what they did not know they are afraid when they come to be better acquainted with it If a Man would perswade himself that it is not the very greatest of Evils he must decline looking it in the Face and considering all its Gastly Circumstances The Wisest and the Bravest
to Vindicate and value our selves upon those Faults we have no design to mend XXXI The strongest Passions allow us some rest but Vanity keeps us perpetually in Motion XXXII The older a Fool is the worse he is XXXIII Irresolution is more opposite to Vertue than Vice XXXIV The pains we feel from Shame and Jealousie are therefore so cutting because Vanity can give us no Assistance in the bearing them XXXV Decency is the least of all Laws and yet the most followed XXXVI A good Disposition finds it easier to submit to perverse ones than to direct and manage them XXXVII When Fortune surprises a Man with a great Preferment to which he is neither Advanced by Degrees nor raised before by his own Hopes it is scarce possible for one to behave himself well and make the World think he deserves his Character XXXVIII What we cut off from our other Faults is very often but so much added to our Pride XXXIX There are no Coxcombs so troublesome as those that have some Wit XL. Every Man thinks himself in some one good Quality or other equal to the Person he hath the highest esteem for XLI In affairs of Consequence it is not a Mans Business so much to seek Occasions as to make the best of those that offer themselves XLII Generally Speaking it were a good saving Bargain to renounce all the good Men said of us upon Condition they would say no ill XLIII As much as the World is inclined to think ill of one another we see them oftener favourable to false Merit than injurious to true XLIV A Man of Wit may sometimes be a Coxcomb but a Man of Judgment never can XLV We shall get more by letting the World see us as we really are than by striving to appear what we are not XLVI The Judgments our Enemies make concerning us come nearer to the Truth than those we pass concerning our selves XLVII Several Remedies are good to cure Love but there is never a one of them Infallible XLVIII We none of us know the utmost that our Passions have the Power to make us do XLIX Old Age is a Tyrant that forbids us all the Pleasures of Youth upon pain of Death L. The same Pride that disposes us to condemn the Faults we think our selves free from inclines us to undervalue the good qualities we want LI. The bewailing our Enemies misfortunes is sometimes more the effect of Pride than of Good Nature we express our Pity and Compassion to make them know that we are above them LII It is impossible for us to love any thing without some respect to our selves and we only consult our own Inclination and our own Pleasure when we preferr our Friends before our own Interest and yet this preference is the only thing that can render Friendship perfect and sincere LIII What Men call Friendship is no more than Society 't is only a mutual care of Interests an exchange of good Offices In a word it is only a sort of Traffick in which Self-love ever proposes to be the Gainer LIV. There is an Excess both in Happiness and Misery above our power of Sensation LV. Innocence does not find near so much Protection as Guilt LVI Of all violent Passions that which does a Woman least hurt is Love LVII Vanity prevails with us to deny our selves more than Reason can do LVIII There are some bad Qualities that make great Accomplishments LIX Men never desire any thing very eagerly which they desire only by the Dictates of Reason LX. All our Qualities are Doubtful and Uncertain both in Good and Evil and they are almost all at the disposal of Time and Opportunity LXI At first Women love their Lover but afterwards they love the Passion it self LXII Pride as well as other Passions hath its unaccountable Whimsies we are shamed to own our selves Jealous when we are so and yet afterwards we value our selves upon having been so and for being capable of being so LXIII As uncommon a thing as true Love is it is yet easier to find than true Friendship LXIV Few Womens Worth lasts longer than their Beauty LXV The greatest part of our intimate Confidences proceed from a desire either to be Pitied or Admired LXVI Our Envy always lasts longer than the good Fortune of those we Envy LXVII The same Resolution which helps to resist Love helps to make it more violent and lasting too People of unsettled Minds are always driven about with Passions but never absolutely filled with any LXVIII It is not in the Power of Imagination it self to invent so many odd and distant Contrarieties as there are naturally in the Heart of every Man LXIX No Man can have a true Sweetness of Temper without Constancy and Resolution they that seem to have it have commonly only an easiness that quickly turns Peevish and Sowre LXX Cowardice is a dangerous Fault to tell those of that we would have mend it LXXI It ought to be agreed on all hands for the Honour of Vertue that Mens greatest Miseries are such as their own Vices bring upon them LXXII True good Nature is a mighty Rarety those that fansie they have it are commonly no better than either weak or complaisant LXXIII Idleness and Constancy fix the mind to what it finds easie and agreeable this Habit always Confines and Cramps up our Notions and no body was ever at the pains to stretch and carry his understanding as far as it could go LXXIV We speak ill of other People commonly not so much out of Malice as Pride LXXV When the Soul is Ruffled by the remains of ones Passion it is more disposed to entertain a new one than when it is entirely cured and at rest from all LXXVI Those that have had great Passions find themselves perpetually Happy and Unhappy in being cured of them LXXVII There are fewer Men free from Envy than void of Interest LXXVIII Our minds are as much given to Laziness as our Bodies LXXIX The Composedness or the Disorder of our Humour does not depend so much upon the great and most considerable Accidents of our Lives as upon a suitable or unsuitable Management of little things that befall us every Day LXXX Though Men are extremely Wicked yet they never had the Confidence to profess themselves Enemies to Vertue and even when they take delight in persecuting it they either pretend not to think it real or forge some Faults and lay to its charge LXXXI Men often go from Love to Ambition but they seldom come back again from Ambition to Love LXXXII Extream Covetousness is generally mistaken no Passion in the World so often misses of its Aim nor is so much prevailed upon by the present in prejudice to a future Interest LXXXIII Covetousness sometimes is the cause of quite contrary Effects There are a world of People that Sacrifice all their present Possessions to doubtful and distant Hopes and others again slight great Advantages that are future for the sake of some mean and pitiful
gain in present LXXXIV One would think Men could never suppose they had Faults enough they are so perpetually adding to the number of them by some particular Qualities which they affect to set themselves off with and these they Cherish and Cultivate so carefully that they come at last to be Natural and past their Power to mend though they would LXXXV Men are more sensible of their own Failings than we are apt to imagine for they are seldom in the Wrong when we hear them talk of their Conduct the same Principle of Self Love that blinds them at other times makes them quick sighted upon these Occasions and shews them things in so true a light that it forces them to suppress or disguise the least matters that are liable to be Condemned LXXXVI When Youngmen come first into the World it is fit they should be either very Modest or very Heavy for brisk Parts and a composed Temper commonly turn to Impertinence LXXXVII Quarrels would never last long if there were not Faults on both sides LXXXVIII It signifies little for Women to be young except they be Handsom nor Handsom except they be young LXXXIX Some Persons are so extreamly Whiffling and Inconsiderable that they are as far from any real Faults as they are from substantial Vertues XC A Ladies first Intrigue is never reckon'd till she admits of a second XCI Some Men are so exceeding full of themselves that when they fall in Love they entertain themselves with their own Passion instead of the Person they make Love to XCII Love though a very agreeable Passion pleases more by the ways it takes to shew it self than it does upon its own Account XCIII A little Wit with a good Disposition is less Troublesome at long run than a great deal of Wit with a perverse Temper XCIV Jealousie is the greatest of Evils and meets with least pity from the Persons that occasion it XCV Men of Indifferent Parts are apt to Condemn every thing above their own Capacity XCVI Most Youngmen think they follow Nature when they are Rough and ill Bred. XCVII The Grace of being New is to Love as the Gloss is to the Fruits it gives it a Lustre which is easily Defaced and when once gone never returns any more XCVIII If we look nicely into the several Effects of Envy it will be found to carry a Man more from his Duty than Interest does XCIX Most men are ashamed of having loved themselves when they leave off doing it C. A Good tast of things is more the effect of Judgment than Wit CI. Men are obstinate in contradicting Opinions generally received not so much because they are Ignorant as because they are Proud those that are on the right side have got the upper hand and they Scorn to take up with the lower CII Prosperous Persons seldom mend much they always think themselves in the right so long as Fortune approves their ill Conduct CIII Nothing should be a greater Humiliation to Persons that have deserved great Praises than the Trouble they are Eternally at to make themselves valued by poor and little things CIV Flattery is like false Money and if it were not for our own Vanity could never pass in Payment CV The ungratefull Man is less to blame for his Ingratitude than the Person that laid the Obligation upon him CVI. Our bad Qualities commonly take better in Conversation than our good ones CVII Men would never live so long together in Society and good Correspondence if they did not mutually make Fools of one another CVIII What we call Passions are in Truth nothing else but so many different Degees of Heat and Cold in the Blood CIX Moderation in Prosperity is generally nothing else but apprehension of the Shame that attends an indecent Transport or the Fear of losing what one hath CX Moderation is like Temperance a Man would be well enough pleased to eat more but only he is afraid it will not agree with his Health CXI All the World thinks that a Fault in another which they think so in themselves CXII When Pride hath used all its Artifices and appeared in all its Shapes and played all the parts of Humane Life as if it were grown weary of Disguises it pulls off the Mask and shews its own true Face at last and is known by its Insolence So that properly Speaking Insolence is the breaking out the very Complexion and true Discovery of Pride CXIII We are sensible only of strong Transports and extraordinary Emotions in our Humour and Constitution as of Anger when it is Violent and very few discern that these Humours have a regular and stated Course which move our wills to different Actions by gentle and insensible Impressions They go their rounds as it were and command us by turns so that a considerable part of what we do is theirs though we are not able to see how it is so CXIV One considerable part of Happiness is to know how far a Man must be Unhappy CXV If a Man cannot find ease within himself it is to very little purpose to seek it any where else CXVI No Man should engage for what he will do except he could answer for his Success CXVII How should we be able to say what will please us hereafter when we scarce know exactly what we would have at present CXVIII Justice with many Men is only the fear of having what is our own taken from us This makes them tender of their Neighbours property and carefull not to invade it This fear holds Men in within the compass of that Estate which Birth or Fortune hath given them and 〈◊〉 it not for this they would continually be making Incursions upon one another CXIX Justice in well behaved Judges is often only the love of their Preferment CXX The first motion of Joy for the Happiness of our Friends is not alwaies the Effect either of Good Nature or Friendship but of Self-love which flatters us with the Hope that our turn of being Happy is coming or that we shall reap some Benefit from their Good Fortune CXXI As if the power of Transforming it self were small Self-love does frequently transform its Objects too and that after a very strange manner It not only disguises them so Artificially as to deceive it self but it perfectly alters the Nature and Condition of the things themselves Thus when any Person acts in opposition to us Self-love passes Sentence upon every Action with the utmost Rigour of Justice it aggravates every Defect of his and makes it look Monstrous and Horrible and it sets all his Excellencies in so ill a Light that they look more Disagreeable than his Defects And yet when any of our Affairs brings this Person back again to Reconciliation and Favour the satisfaction we receive presently restores his Merit and allows him all that our Aversion so lately took from him His ill Qualities are utterly forgot and his good ones appear with greater Lustre than before nay we summon
all our Indulgence and Partiality to excuse and justifie the quarrel he formerly had against us This is a Truth attested by every Passion but none gives such clear Evidence of it as Love For we find the Lover when full of Rage and Revenge at the Neglect or the Unfaithfulness of his Mistress yet lay by all the violence of his Resentments and one view of her calms his Passions again His Transport and Joy pronounces this Beauty innocent accuses himself alone and condemns nothing but his own condemning her before By this strange Magical Power of Self-love the blackest and basest Actions of his Mistress are made White and Innocent and he takes the fault off from Her to lay it upon Himself CXXII The most pernicious Effect of Pride is That it blinds Mens Eyes for this cherishes and increases the Vice and will not let us see any of those Remedies that might either soften our Misfortunes or correct our Extravagances CXXIII When once Men are past all Hopes of finding Reason from others they grow past all reason themselves CXXIV The Philosophers and especially Seneca did not remove Mens Faults by their Instructions but only directed them to contribute the more to the setting up their Pride CXXV The wisest Men commonly shew themselves so in less matters and generally fail in those of the greatest Consequence CXXVI The nicest Folly proceeds from the nicest Wisdom CXXVII Sobriety is very often only a Fondness of Health and the Effect of a weak Constitution which will not bear Intemperance CXXVIII A Man never forgets things so effectually as when he hath talked himself weary of them CXXIX That modesty that would seem to decline Praise is at the bottom only a desire of having it better express'd CXXX There is this good at least in Commendation that it helps to confirm Men in the practice of Vertue CXXXI We are to blame not to distinguish between the several sorts of Anger for there is one kind of it Light and Harmless and the result of a warm Complexion and another kind exceeding Vicious which if we would call it by its right Name is the very Rage and Madness of Pride CXXXII Great Souls are not distinguished by having less Passion and more Vertue but by having Nobler and Greater Designs than the Vulgar CXXXIII self-Self-love makes more Men Cruel than natural Sternness and a rough Temper CXXXIV Every Man that hath some Vices is not Despised but every Man that hath no Vertue is and ought to be despised CXXXV Those that find no Disposition in themselves to be guilty of great Faults are not apt upon slight grounds to suspect others of them CXXXVI Pompous Funerals are made more out of a design to gratifie the vanity of the Living than to do any Honour to the Dead CXXXVII In the midst of all the uncertain and various accidents in the World we may discern a secret Connexion a certain Method and regular Order constantly observed by Providence which brings every thing in in its due place and makes all contribute to the fullfilling the Ends appointed for it CXXXVIII Fearlessness is requisite to Buâ—y up the mind in Wickedness and Conspiracies but Valour is sufficient to give a Man constancy of mind in Honourable Actions and the Hazards of War CXXXIX No Man can engage for his own Courage who was never in any Danger that might put it upon the Tryal CXL Imitation always succeeds ill and even those things which when Natural are most graceful and charming when put on and affected we Nauseate and Despise CXLI Goodness when Universal and shewed to all the World without distinction is very hardly known from great Cunning and Address CXLII The way to be always safe is to possess other People with an Opinion that they can never do an ill thing to us without suffering for it CXLIII A Man 's own Confidence in himself makes up a great part of that Trust which he hath in others CXLIV There is a kind of General Revolution not more visible in the turn it gives to the fortunes of the World than it is in the Change of Mens Understandings and the Different relish of Wit CXLV Magnanimity is a bold stroke of Pride by which a Man gets above himself in order to get above every thing else CXLVI Luxury and too great Delicacy in a State is a sure sign that their Affairs are in a declining Condition for when Men are so Nice and Curious in their own concerns they mind nothing but private Interest and take off all their care from the Publick CXLVII Of all the Passions we are exposed to none is more concealed from our Knowledge than Idleness It is the most Violent and the most Mischievous of any and yet at the same time its Violence we are never sensible of and the damage we sustain by it is very seldom seen If we consider its Power carefully it will be found upon all Occasions to Reign absolute over all our Sentiments our Interests and our Pleasures This is a Remora that can stop the largest Ships and a Calm of worse consequence to our Affairs than any Rocks and Storms The Ease and Quiet of Sloth is a secret charm upon the Soul to suspend its most eager pursuits and shakes its most peremptory Resolutions In a Word to give a true Image of this Passion we must say that it is a supposed Felicity of the Soul that makes her easie under all her Losses and supplies the Place of all her Enjoyments and Advantages CXLVIII There are several Vertues made up of many different Actions cast into such a convenient Order by Fortune as she thought fit CXLIX Most Women yield more through Weakness than Passion and this is the Reason that bold daring Men commonly succeed better than others who have as much or more Merit to recommend them CL. The Sincerity which Lovers and their Ladies Bargain for in agreeing to tell one another when they can Love no longer is not asked so much out of a desire to be Satisfied when their Love is at an End as to be the better assured that Love does really continue so long as they are told nothing to the contrary CLI Love cannot be compared to any thing more properly than to a Fever for in both Cases both the Degree and the continuance of the Disease is out of a Man 's own Power CLII. Most young People impute that Behaviour to a Natural and easie Fashion which in Truth proceeds from no other Cause than the Want of good Breeding and good Sense Maxims and Mixed Thoughts PART III. Maxims I. AS nothing betrays greater weakness and want of Reason than to submit ones Judgment to another Man 's without any Examination or Consideration of our own so nothing Argues a great Spirit and true Wisdom more than the submitting to Almighty God with an absolute and implicit Faith and believing whatever he saies upon the single Authority of his own Word II. True worth does not depend upon Times
inspire them and especially that of Love when it is described as a modest and a vertuous Passion For the more Innocent it appears to Innocent Persons the more still they find themselves disposed to receive and submit to it They fansie to themselves a Sense of Honour and at the same time that this is no way injured by so discreet an Affection Thus people rise from a Play with their Hearts so full of the softnesses of Love and their Judgments so satisfied of its Innocence that they are in a perfect Disposition to take in its first impressions readily or rather indeed to seek and court occasions of infecting some body else with it that so they may receive the same Pleasures and the same Devotions which they have seen so movingly represented upon the Stage Mixed Thoughts PART IV. I. SElf Love according as it is rightly or otherwise understood and applyed is the cause of all the Moral Vertues and Vices in the World II. That Prudence which is made Use of in the good management of Men's Affairs when taken in its true Sense is only a Wise and more Judicious Love of our selves and the opposite to this is perfect Blindness and Inconsideration III. Though it may be said with great Truth upon this Principle that Men never act without a regard to their own Interest yet will it be no Consequence from thence that all they do is corrupt and no such thing as Justice nor Honesty left in the World Men may Govern themselves by noble Ends and propose Interests full of Commendation and Honour And indeed the very thing that Denominates any Person a Man of Justice and Honour is this just distinction of Self Love regulated as it ought to be When though all things are done with respect to his own Advantage at last yet still this is with a due Allowance and reservation to the Laws of Civil Society IV. The Love of our Neighbour is the Wisest and most Useful good Quality in the World It is every Whit as necessary in Civil Societies for our happiness in the present Life as Christianity hath made it in Order to that of the next Life V. Honour and Disgrace are but Empty and Imaginary things if we take them apart from those real Advantages and Misfortunes that attend them VI. Those that give themselves a World of Trouble and that tempt a World of Dangers merely for the sake of trasmiting a great Name to after ages are in my Opinion very Whimsical People All this Honour and Reputation which they look upon as boundless is yet confined within a little Room in their own Imagination For this crowds all Posterity into one Age by setting those Men before their Eyes as if they were all present together which they shall never live to see nor enjoy VII This Maxim That the most secret things are discovered at one time or other is to say the least of it very uncertain for we can only judge of what we do not know by what we know already and consequently what we do not yet know can give us no farther light into it VIII Nothing conduces more to the making our Life happy than to know things as they really are And this Wisdom must be acquired by frequent Reflections upon Men and the Affairs of the World for otherwise Books will contribute but little to it IX Almost all the miseries of Life are owing to the false Notions Men have of the World and all that is done in it X. True Eloquence is good Sense delivered in a Natural and unaffected way That which must be set off with Tropes and Ornaments is acceptable only because the Generality of Men are easily imposed upon and see things but by halves XI Maxims are to the Minds just what a Staff is to the Body when a Man cannot support himself by his own Strength Men of sound Sense that see things in their full and just Proportions have no need of General Observations to help them out XII The great Characters of being Men of Honour and Justice are very often grounded more upon Forms and a knack of appearing to be such than any true and solid Worth XIII Those that have the accomplishments Essential to the making a good Man supposing they need no Art neglect Formalities Act more according to Nature and consequently more in the Dark For those that judge of them have something else to do than to examine them and so they pronounce Sentence only according to outward appearances XIV No Man can be perfectly Just and Good without a great Measure of Sense and Right Reason which will always carry him to Choose the juster side in every Action of his Life And it is a Foolish thing to extol wicked Men and Knaves as the World commonly do for Persons of Wit and Understanding Such People have only one part of that Sound Sense which is the reason why they are successful upon some Occasions but imperfect and at a loss upon a Thousand others XV. Courage in Men and Chastity in Women are esteemed the principal Vertues of each Sex because they are the hardest to practise When these Vertues want either that Constitution or that Grace that should sustain and keep them up they soon grow weak and are presently sacrificed to the Love of Life and Pleasure XVI You shall scarce meet with a Master but cries out upon all Servants that they are Rogues and the Plagues of a Family and if Servants ever come to be Masters they will say just the same thing The Reason is because generally it is not the Qualities but the Fortunes of Men that makes the difference between them XVII People do not make it their Business to be in the right so much as to be thought so This makes them stickle so stifly for their own Opinions even then when they know and are satisfied they are false XVIII Errours sometimes have as long a run as the greatest Truths Because when these Errours are once received for Truths Men admit whatever makes for them with an implicit Consent and reject or overlook all that is capable of undeceiving them XIX Tricking and Lying are as sure Marks of a Low and Poor Spirit as false Money is of a Poor and Low Purse XX. When once Men that are under a Vow of Devotion engage themselves in the Business of the World without absolute necessity for so doing they give us great cause to suspect the reality of their Devotion XXI All Devotion which is not grounded upon Christian Humility and the Love of our Neighbour is no better than Form and Pretence 't is only the Pride and Peevishness of Philosophy which thinks by despising the World to revenge it self upon all the Contempt and Dissatisfactions Men have met with from it XXII The Devotion of Ladies growing into Years is frequently no better than a little kind of Decency taken up to shelter themselves from the shame and the jest of a Fading Beauty and to secure in