never understand They never imagine never think nicely enough to taste the delicacy of the Sense or the elegance of a Thought They may serve well enough for Expositors to Grammarians they drudge the same way and are made of the same Lump but they can never rightly apprehend any Man of Sense among the Antients such a Talent is diametrically opposite to theirs In History they neither mind Men nor matters they lay the whole weight on Cronology and for the date of a Consul's Death neglect the knowledge of his Character or of the Transactions during his Consulate Tully with them had been no more then a Compiler of Harangues or Caesar then a Scribler of Commentaries The Consul the General slip by 'em without notice the Spirit that animates their Works is unperceiv'd and the principal Matters they treat of unknown I value infinitely a Critic of Sense if the expression may be allow'd Such is the excellent Work of Machiavel upon the Decades of Livy and such wou'd be the reflections of Monsieur de Rohan upon Caesars Commentaries had he peirc'd deeper into his Designs and expos'd to a clearer light the secret Springs of his Conduct Notwithstanding I must own that he has equall'd if not outreach'd the penetration of Machiavel in his remarks upon the clemency of Caesar in the Civil Wars But we may see that his own experience of such Wars gave abundance of light to those judicious Observations After the Study of polite Learning for which I have a more particular affection I Love the Science of those great Lawyers who might themselves be Legislators who reascend to that Original Justice that rules Humane Society that know what liberty Nature permits in establisht Governments and what for the publick Good easies private Men of the burthen of Politicks The Conversation of Mr. affords these instructions with as much pleasure as profit From Hobbs that great genious of England we may receive these shining Lights yet not altogether so true for somethings he mistakes others he pushes too far Were Grotius yet alive all things might be Learnt of that universally Learn'd Man who is yet more valuable for his Reasonings than for his Learning Tho' he is Dead his Writings still resolve the most important difficulties and were Justice only regarded they might be a standing rule to all Nations in points of War and Peace His Book de Iure Belli Pacis ought to be the chief Study of Soveraign Princes their Ministers and whoever else have any share in the Government of the People Nay even the knowledge of that Law which descends to the affairs of private Men ought not to be slighted But this is left to the care of the Gentlemen of the Gown and denied to Princes as a thing below-them tho' every moment of their Reign they issue out Warrants that extend to the Fortunes Liberties and Lives of their Subjects They are only entertain'd with Harangues about Valour which is only an instrument of Destruction and Discourses of Liberality which is but a more regular method of squandering unless it is bounded by Justice They ought indeed to suit the Vertues they preach to the necessities of every ones temper To infuse Liberality into the Covetous to spur the unactive with the thirst of Glory and curb as much as is possible the ambitious with the Reins of Justice But amongst all the diversity of Tempers Justice is still most requisite for it keeps up order as well in him that does it as in them to whom it is done This is not a constraint that lessens the power of a Prince for in doing it to others he learns to do it to himself and so it is in him a voluntary act tho' we necessarily receive it from his power I read not in History of any Prince better Educated then Cyrus the great They were not contented exactly to inform him what was Justice in all respects but they made him put his Instructions in Practice as often as occasion was offer'd so that they did at the same time imprint the notions of it on his Mind and establish an habitual Justice in his Soul The Education of Alexander was of somewhat too large an extent He was Taught the knowledge of every thing in Nature but himself His ambition afterwards diffus'd it self as far as his Learning and knowing all he grew desirous to Conquer all But he had little or no method in his Conquests and abundance of irregularity in his Life for want of knowing what he owed to the publick to private Men and to himself No Men Whatsoever can take too effectual a care to make themselves just for they have naturally too strong a Biass the contrary way Justice is the foundation and the Fence of all Society without it we should still be Strowlers and Vagabonds our impetuosity would soon reduce us to our primitive confusion out of which we are happily extricated yet instead of chearfully acknowledging the benefit we find a regret to submit to that happy Subjection it keeps us in and still long after that Fatall Liberty which would be the unhappiness of our Lives When the Scriptures tell us that the Just are few it means not in my Opinion that Men are not yet inclin'd to good Works But it seems to intimate how little an Inclination they have to 'em out of a principle of Justice Indeed were Mens good Actions examined they would most of em be found to have their source from the consideration of some other Vertues Bounty Friendshiâ— and Benevolence are the ordinary Springâ— from whence they flow Charity supplies our Neighbours wants Liberality bestows and Generosity obliges Justice which ought to partake in all is laid aside as burthensome and necessity alone gives it a share in our Actions Nature endeavours to find a kind of self complaisance in these first qualities where we act upon pleasing Motives But in this she finds a secret violence where anothers Right extorts from us what we owe and we only acquit our selves of our own Obligations not lay any upon them by our beneficence It is a secret aversion to Justice that makes us fonder of giving than returning of obliging than acknowledging Thus we see the most liberal generous Men are not usually the most Just. Justice includes a regularity that bridles 'em as being founded on a constant method of Reason oppos'd to those natural impulses which are the Hinges upon which liberality almost always moves There is something I know not what heroical in great Liberality as well as in great Valour and there is a great Analogy between those two Vertues the one raises the Soul above the Consideration of Wealth as the other beyond the management and desire of Life But with all these gay and generous Motives without good Conduct the one becomes ruinous and the other Fatal Those whom cross accidents of Fortune have undone are pityed by all the World because it is a misfortune the Conditions of Humanity submit us to
proceeds from its choice appears to be solely made for it and reduces it to the necessity of being no longer happy than by its possession 'T is for this Reason that too passionate Lovers cannot partake of other pleasures than those which they receive from Love Notwithstanding this Good of Opinion the Good of the choice of the Soul is not more solid or more durable than the rest and as soon as it comes to fail the Soul which knew nothing else for the object of its felicity no longer knows where to betake it self It sees nothing that can make amends for what it has lost and till such time as it has formed another Idea full as strong and as agreeable it remains fixed in the contemplation of the change it finds in its object or else it acts in the search of other objects When it was fixed its pain is stupid and dumb when it moves its pain is restless and complaining To cure our selves of Opinion and consequently of the pain it occasions to us we must do against it the contrary of what it doth against us We must frame to our selves a true Idea of Good and Evil and either correct what is false in the Idea we have or if we conceive a just one to apply it well to objects In order to frame a true Idea of Good and Evil a Man has nothing else to do but to consult Nature what it avoids is really bad what it searches after is unquestionably good But we must take care that there are things which it avoids or desires merely for themselves and likewise that there are other things which it avoids or desires to shun or obtain others The first are pleasure and pain the second are those which may afford us pleasure and pain We must also remark that the things which Nature desires for themselves are those one may call good of themselves and that all others have but a borrowed goodness Examine as long as you please all the Goods of the World and you will always find them much more desirable than really they are till you have enjoy'd them Examine likewise all the Evils and you will always find them to be feared beyond what they ought to be till you have made the experiment your self You may demand of me here why Virtue opposes Pleasure if Pleasure is the good of Nature And you may likewise add That Virtue ought not to be called a Good if it is contrary to the essence of Good But if you regard Virtue near at hand you will observe that it is not Pleasure which it opposes but only the species and excess of Pleasure You will also see that when it opposes either the species or the excess of it 't is only done in its favour to render it greater or more secure All moral Virtues are but means to preserve both Pleasure in Nature and Nature in Pleasure Might I assume the freedom here to make a little digression I would make you sensible that the severest Virtues are but honest Mediators between pleasure and pain But what should we say of those Christian Virtues which have no other object or at least no other allurement but Pleasure and which conduct us to God no otherwise than as He is the source of Eternal pleasures What shall we say of those Expressions used by the Prophets who say that God will o'rewhelm us with a torrent of pleasure In a word what shall not we say of the opinion of the greatest Doctors and the greatest Saints who believed That the joy of seeing God would make up the essence of our Eternal felicity All these advantages would be of mighty use to establish pleasure for the single good of Nature But let us keep to the most simple and most evident Reasons and agree That since there is nothing good but what affords pleasure and nothing bad but what affords pain it is certain that pleasure and pain are really the good and evil of Nature All this being well understood would you believe Madam that a pretended Prince of Philosophers has affirmed that Nothing was the greatest of all evils and that Death was the most formidable Will not you maintain against him That they are not evils since they represent no Idea of pain Can Nothing do an injury to what is not And can Death prejudice what is no more Nothing takes away the subject of pain Death destroys it and neither of them can be the principle of it since they are both Nothing and that to produce there must be existence in the Case You see theu that by forming to your self a just and natural Idea of evil you exterminate presently the two most formidable Monsters that opinion ever brought forth I own there is an infinite number of things which we call evils Shall we then give the Lie to Mankind or shall we force it to change its Language No Madam I know that the publick Voice has right to impose Names But have not we also a right to interpret the names which it imposes We may say then that this name of Evil which properly belongs to pain has been transferred to all things that may produce it We have divided them into Evils of Nature of Opinion and of Fortune The evils of Fortune and of Opinion only differ in this That all the evils of Fortune are evils of Opinion and that all the evils of Opinion are not evils of Fortune Wheresore we may reduce all evils to those of Opinion and Nature Under this term of evils of Nature we understand all kinds of Pains and Distempers and all natural inconveniencies And we use to comprehend them in three conditions of Life in which it is as it were impossible to be without pain And they are Indisposition of Body Slavery and Poverty But these three conditions sometimes leave us so much indolence and tranquillity that one cannot so much call them the evils of Nature as evils of Opinion It is not enough for us to have a just Idea of evil in general we must also have a just one in particular and after having known that all evils are pains we must know what are those pains which are called evils of Nature and what are those the World calls evils of Opinion It will likewise be of great service to learn how to regulate and put them in order to the end that we may not only avoid running the risk of taking Evils for what they are not but also that we may be exempt from the danger of apprehending them for greater than they are The Evils of Nature are those which without our thinking of them excite in us the sentiment of Pain The Evils of Opinion are those which excite it only when we think upon them We may also say That the evils of Nature are those which not only make themselves felt without our thinking of them but which make us even think of them because we feel them And that the evils of Opinion are those
which we don't feel but when we think of them and because we think of them Upon this Rule it will be judged that Hunger and Thirst are evils of Nature and that the death of a Father or a Husband are evils of Opinion You may derive from thence four consequences which will serve you to assign a difference and order amongst all evils to judge rightly of their greatness and in a word to regulate your sense of them The first is That the evils of Nature are but the evils of the Body and that the evils of Opinion are no more than the evils of the Mind For they are only the evils of the Body that depend not upon our Thoughts and evils of the Mind that depend thereon The second is That the evils of Nature are in some sort the Masters of our Mind since they compell it to be present at all their actions and fall upon us as it were with full right but that our Mind is Master of the evils of Opinion since to remove our selves from them we need only remove them from us and that they cannot act upon us but by a borrowed Authority The Third That the more the evils of Nature are Masters of our Mind the greater they are and that the more our Mind can be Master of the evils of Opinion the lighter they are The Fourth That the evils of Nature are sometimes so small that they cannot Rule over our Mind and then they are but as evils of Opinion but that the evils of Opinion are sometimes so great that our Mind cannot be absolutely Master of them and then they hold the place of evils of Nature For which Reason 't is said to be natural to bemoan ones Father and when any one is too much possessed with the thought of a small indisposition he is reproached with being sick of Fancy After having thus established an Order between the evils of Nature Is it not likewise possible to establish one between the evils of Opinion But who can regulate what proceeds from so disorderly a Cause Is it not too adventurous a design to prescribe limits to the Caprices of Men and to endeavour to make out how far our Grief should extend when it goes beyond the evils of Nature No undoubtedly And since our Mind can be Master only of the evils of Opinion 't is against them alone that it is not amiss to afford Instructions How is it Madam that one comforts the Afflicted Don't we diminish the idea of their misfortunes in order to diminish their Grief Can that be done in the evils of Nature Can one deceive the sense of a Man Tormented with the Cholick Is it possible to make him believe that his Gripings are but illusions Can one even propose to render him attentive to such a Discourse And if he could be capable of hearkning what effects would remonstrances have except it were to add anger to pain and joyn a great passion to a great disorder The best method we can take in the evils of Nature is to cry out upon the greatness of the Distemper and the patience of the indisposed and 't is exactly the contrary of what 's done in the evils of opinion It is true there are some conmforters in the World who begin by the aggravation of evils but that 's only to obtain a free admittance in the mind of the afflicted and to surprise their belief Thus we may artificially oppose the Grief of feeble Minds But we openly and sincerely oppose that of Stronger ones We consider what is the source the principle of their affliction and attack it immediately But which way soever we proceed whether with the strong or with the weak either we don't comfort at all or else we effect it by lessening the idea of the evils and this is no where possible but in the evils of Opinion So that 't is no rashness to endeavour to establish some Order amongst evils and to give certain Precepts how to combat them The Order of the evils of Opinion is not harder to find than the Order of the evils of Nature For if the greatest evils of Nature are those which expose us most to pain the greatest evils of Opinion should be those which expose us most to the evils of Nature I see but two kinds of the evils of Opinion that expose us to the evils of Nature One is the loss of Persons that are dear to us The other is the loss of Estates I understand by these words of dear Persons both those whom we Cherish and those that Cherish us For the loss of those whom we Cherish and who don 't Cherish us is not an evil of much consequence and therefore no great strength of Reasoning is necessary to comfort us upon this Article In the first of these losses we comprehend the Death of Relations of Lovers and of Friends In the second we comprehend the loss of Law-Suits Storms Barrenness Fires Pillages and all things that bring a diminution to our fortune The last of these evils exposes us to Poverty but the first exposes us to all the evils of Nature Wherefore we may allow it the first rank amongst the evils of Opinion If we happen to be sick by whom are we relieved but by Persons that are dear to us What are the cares of our Physitians and our Chirurgions These Mercenary Cares are seldom confined to above a quarter of an hours useless presence or hazardous Operation blind Advice or frivolous Conference Of what consideration of what advantage can these Cares be in comparison of the Charitable Offices the continual Assiduities and the kind Disquietudes of our Friends and our Relations How often are we delivered by their indefatigable Zeal from that quickness of of Pain wherein the insensibility or negligence of Physitians often leaves us If we become Slaves by whom are we redeemed but by persons that are dear to us Do ordinary Friends contributed towards our Ransom Do they undertake great journeys for our Deliverance If we are reduced to Poverty who shares his Fortune with us but those dear persons The rest either abandon us to our Misery or assist us but sorrily or only serve us out of Vanity and whatsoever kindness they do us it always costs us both some repugnance to demand it and shame to receive it A true Friend a passionate Lover prevents our necessities They will not suffer us to perceive that we are Miserable They employ all their Addresses to avert our Misfortune all their force to oppose it all their Power to Alleviate it and all their Discretion to conceal it What have we then that defends us better from the evils of Nature than persons that are dear to us And consequently what have we that can pass for a greater evil in the Order of Evils of Opinion than the Death of those Persons But as indisposition of Body altho it is the first evil of Nature is no great evil if it doth not expose us much to
not always required the privation of pain well used renders our Condition sufficiently happy If any misfortune befall me I am naturally little sensible of it without dashing this happy Constitution with any thoughts of Constancy For Constancy is only dwelling longer upon our Miseries It appears the most aimable Vertue in the World to those who are under no afflictions but is truly a new load to such as are Resistance only Fretts us and Instead of easing one grievance adds another Without Resistance we suffer only the evils inflicted on us with it our own improvements too For this reason under present Calamities I resign all to Nature I reserve my prudence for times of tranquillity Then by reflecting upon my own Indolence I take pleasure in the pains I endure not and by this means make happy the most indifferent State of Life Experience grows with Age and Wisdom commonly with Experience But when I ascribe this Vertue to Old Men I mean not that they are always Masters of it This is cerrain that they have always the Liberty to be wise and to knock off decently those Fetters which prejudice has put upon the World They only are allow'd to take things for what they really are Reason does as 't were plant every thing in our Education which is afterward in a manner quite over-run by Fancy Age only has the power to drive out the one from what she had usurp'd and reestablish the other in what the had lost For my self I observe religiously all real Duties The imaginary I refuse or admit as I like or dislike ' em For in things to which I am not oblig'd I think it equal reason to reject what does not please me or to accept what does Every day frees me from one link at least of the Chain nor is it less for the advantage of those from whom I disengage my self then me who regain my liberty They are as great gainers in the loss of an useless Man as I should have been a loser by idely devoting my self any longer to ' em Of all Ties that of Amity is the only one that has in my Opinion almost irresistible Charms and were it not for the disgrace that attends no Return I cou'd love meerly for the pleasure of Loving even where I was not belov'd again In Love ill plac'd the Sentiments of Amity entertain us purely by their own agreeable sweetness But we ought to divest our selves of a just hatred for the Interest of our own quiet Happy is that Mind which can entirely deny some Passions and only unbend it self to some others It would then be void of Fear Sadness Hatred or Jealousie It wou'd desire without violence Hope without impatience and Enjoy without transport The state of Vertue is not a state of Indolence We suffer in it a perpetual Conflict betwixt Duty and Inclination Now we do what disgusts us and now oppose what relishes well Being almost always under force both in our Actions and Abstinence That of Wisdom is sweet and calm It reigns Peaceably over our movements being only to Govern well as Subjects what Vertue Combats as Enemies I can say one thing of my self as extraordinary as true that is that I have never in my self felt any Conflict between Passion and Reason My Passion never oppos'd what I resolv'd out of Duty and my Reason readily comply'd with what my Pleasure Inclin'd me to I pretend not that this easie accord is praise worthy on the contrary I confess I have been often the more Vicious for it Not out of any perverse disposition to Evil but because Vice cover'd the Crime with an appearance of Pleasure It is certain the nature of things is much better discover'd by reflection on 'em when past then by their impressions at perception Now the great Commerce with the World hinders all attention in Youth What we see in others hinders us from examining well our selves Crowds please us at an Age when we Love as one may say to diffuse our selves Multitudes grow troublesome at another when we naturally recoil to our selves or instead of numbers come to paucity of Friends who are more united to us 'T is this humour that insensibly withdraws us from Courts We begin through that to seek some Mean between Hurry and Retirement We grow afterwards asham'd to show an old Face amongst young Fellows Let us not flatter our selves with our Judgments A brisk Buffoonery will run it down and the false glittering of a youthful Fancy will turn to Ridicule our most delicate Conversations If we have Wit the best use of it is in private Companies for in a Crowd the Spirit maintains it self but ill against the Body This Justice which we are oblig'd to do our selves ought not to make us unjust to the young Men. We ought not perpetually to cry up our own Times or enviously always condemn theirs Let us not rail at Pleasures when we are past them or censure Diversions whose only Offence is our Incapacity Our Judgments ought to be always the same We may live but must not judge by Humour There is in mine an odd peculiarity which makes me measure Magnificence more by its trouble than pomp Shows Feasts and great Assemblies invite not me to the sight of 'em The Inconveniencies I must suffer deter me The elegant harmony of Consorts engages not me so much as the difficulty of adjusting 'em disobliges me Abundance disgusts me at my Meals and Rarities seem to me an affected Curiosity My fancy cannot recommend any thing to my palate by my scarcity My choice shou'd be of things easily to be had that my Delicacy may not be ruled by Fancy I am as fond of Reading as ever because it depends more particularly on the mind which tires not like the Senses In truth I seek in Books my Pleasure rather than my Instruction As I have less time for Practice I have less desire to learn I have more need of a stock of Life than of methods of living and the little that remains is better spent in things agreeable than Instructive The Latin Authors afford me the most and I read whatever I think fine a thousand times over without being cloy'd A nice Choice has confin'd me to a few Books in which I seek rather found than fine Wit and the true Taste to use a Spanish Expression is ordinarily found in the Writings of considerable Men. I am pleas'd to discover in Tully's Epistles both his own Character and that of those Persons of Quality that Write to him He never divests himself of his Rhetorick and the least recommendation to his most intimate Friend is as artificially Insinuated as if he were to prepossess a Stranger in an Affair of the greatest Consequence in the World The Letters of the rest want those fine turns but in my Mind they have more good Sense than his and this makes me judge very Advantageously of the great and general Abilities of the Romans at that time Our Authors
Decius Only the Christian Religion composes all our inquietudes softens all our Feirceness sets all our tender movements a going not only for our Friends and Neighbours but for the indifferent and even for our Enemies This is the end of the Christian Religion and this was once the practice of it If it be otherwise now it is because we have let it lose its influence on our Hearts and given way to the Encroachments of our Imaginations Hence springs the division of our minds about Faith instead of the Union of our wills in good Works so that what ought to be a band of Charity betwixt Men is now become the Subject of their quarrells their jealousies and their ill Nature From this diversity of Opinions has arisen that of Parties and the adherence to Parties has caused Revolts and Wars Many Thousands have Died in disputing the manner of takeing the Sacrament which they have agreed must be taken This mischeif will last till Religion quits the curiosity of our Minds for the tenderness of our Hearts and discourag'd by the Foolish presumption of our enquiries shall return to the sweet motions of our Love him capable of perceiving his Folly and by this means to kill himself out of meer shame and despair The greatest and most prudent of the Goddesses favours scandalous Passions and lends her assistance to carry on a Criminal Amour The same Goddess employs all sorts of Artifice to destroy a small hand-full of innocent People who by no means deserved her indignation She thought it not sufficient to employ her power and that of the other Gods whom she solicited to ruine Aeneas but even corrupts the God of sleep to cast Palinurus into a Slumber who so ordered affairs that by his Treachery the poor Pilot dropt into the Sea and there perished There is not one of these Gods in these Poems that does not bring the greatest misfortunes upon Men and set them on the most Fatal attempts Nothing is so Villainous here below which is not executed by their Order or authoriz'd by their Example And this is one of the things that principally contributed to give Birth to the Sect of the Epicureans and afterwards to support it Epicurus Lucretius and Petronius wou'd rather make their Gods lazy and enjoying their Immortal Nature in an uninterrupted tranquility than see them active and cruelly employ'd to disturb our Repose Nay Epicurus by doing so pretended he show'd his great respect for the Gods and from hence proceeded that saying which Bacon so much admire Non Deos vulgi negare profanum sed vulgi Opinionem Diis applicare profanum Now I don't mean by this that we are oblig'd to discard the Gods out of our works and much less from those of Poetry where they seem to enter more Naturally than any where else A Iove principium Musae I am for introducing them as much as any man but then I wou'd have them bring their Wisdom Justice and Clemency along with them and not appear as we generally make them like a pack of Impostors and Assassins I wou'd have them come with a conductto regulate all matters and not in a disorder to confound every thing Perhaps it may be reply'd that these extravagancies ought only to pass for Fables and Fictions which belong to the jurisdiction of Poetry But I wou'd fain know what Art and Science in the World has the power to exclude good Sense If we need only write in Verse to be priviledged in all extravagancies for my part I wou'd never advise any Man to meddle with Prose where he must immediately be pointed at for a Coxcomb if he leaves good Sense and Reason never so little behind him I wonder extreamly that the Antient Poets who were so scrupulous to preserve probability in Actions purely Human violated it after so abominable a manner when they come to recount the Actions of the Gods Even those who have spoken of their Nature more soberly than the rest cou'd not forbear to speak extravagantly of their Conduct When they establish their Being and their Attributes they make them Immortal Infinite Almighty Perfectly wise and Perfectly good But at the very moment they set them a working there is no weakness to which they don't subject them there is no folly or wickedness which they don't make them commit We have two common sayings which appear to be directly opposite to one another and yet I look upon both to be true The one is that Poetry is the Language of the Gods the other that there is not such a Fool in Nature as a Poet. Poetry that expresses with force and vigour those impetuous Passions that disturb Mankind that Paints the Wonders of the Universe in lively expressions does elevate things purely Natural as it were above Nature by the sublimity of its Thoughts and the magnificence of its Discourses which may justly enough be called the Language of the Gods But when Poets come once to quit this noble Field of Passions and Wonders to speak of the Gods they abandon themselves to the caprice of their own Imagination in matters which they do not understand and their Heat having no just Ideas to govern it instead of making themselves as they vainly believe wholly divine they are in truth the most extravagant Sots in the World It will be no difficult matter to be perswaded of the truth of this Assertion if we consider that this absurd and fabulous Theology is equally contrary to all Notions of Religion and all the Principles of good Sense There have been some Philosophers that have founded Religion upon that Knowledge which Men may have of the Divinity by their Natural reason There have been Law givers too that have stiled themselves the Interpreters of the will of Heaven to establish a Religious Worship without any concurrence of Reason But to make as the Poets have done a perpetual Commerce a familiar Society and if I may use the expression a mixture or hotch potch of Men and Gods against Religion and Reason is certainly the boldest and perhaps the most unaccountable thing that ever was It remains for us to know whether the Character of a Poem has virtue to rectifie that of impiety and folly Now as I take it we don't give so much power to the secret force of any Charm That which is wicked is wicked for good and all that which is extravagant can be made good Sense on no respect As for the Reputation of the Poet it rectifies nothing any more than the Character of the Poem does Discernment is a Slave to no body That which is effectually bad is not a jot the better for being found in the most celebrated Author And that which is just and solid is never the worse for coming from an indifferent hand Amongst a hundred fine and lofty thoughts a good Judge will soon discover an extravagant one which a great Genius threw out when it was warm and which too strong an imagination was produced in
defiance of good On the other hand in the course of an infinite number of extravagant things this same Judge will admire certain Beauties where the Spirit in spight of its impetuosity was just and regular The elevation of Homer and his other noble Qualities don't hinder me from taking notice of the false Character of his Gods And that agreeable and judicious equality of Virgil that pleases all Learn'd Men does not conceal from me the least defects of his Aeneis If amongst so many noble things which affect me in Homer and Virgil I cannot forbear to remark what is defective in them yet amongst those passages that displease me in Lucan either for being too flat or weary me for being too far carried on I cannot forbear to please my self in considering the just and true grandeur of his Heroes I endeavour to relish every word in him when he expresses the secret movements of Caesar at the discovery of Pompey's Head and nothing escapes me in that inimitable Discourse of Labienus and Cato where they debate whether they shall consult the Oracle of Iupiter Ammon to know the destiny of the Common-Wealth If all the ancient Poets had spoken as worthily of the Oracles of their Gods I should make no scruple to prefer them to the Divines and Philosophers of our time and 't is a passage that may serve for an Example in this matter to all succeeding Poets One may see in the concourse of so many People that came to consult the Oracle of Ammon what effects a publick Opinion can produce where Zeal and Superstition are mingled together One may see in Labienus a pious sensible Man who to his respect for the Gods unites the consideration and esteem we ought to preserve for true Virtue in good Men. Cato is a religious severe Philosopher weaned from all vulgar Opinions who entertains those lofty thoughts of the Gods which pure undebauched Reason and a truly elevated Wisdom can attain to Every thing here is Poetical every thing is consonant to Sense and Truth it is not Poetical by the ridiculous Air of a Fiction or by the extravagance of an Hyperbole but by the daring greatness and Majesty of the Language and by the noble elevation of the Discourse 'T is thus that Poetry is the Language of the Gods and that Poets are wise And 't is so much the greater wonder to find it in Lucan because it is neither to be met in Homer or Virgil. OF RETIREMENT By Mr. BROWN WE see nothing more ordinary with Old Men than to desire a Retirement and nothing so rare with them as not to repent of it when they are once retired Their Souls that are in too great a Subjection to their Humours are disgusted with the World for being tiresome but scarce can they quit this false Object of their misfortune but they are as angry with solitude as they were with the World disquieting themselves where nothing but themselves can give them any disquiet This infirmity in some manner is peculiar to Old Age But 't is not impossible for a wise man to preserve himself from it A wise man that knows what is really good in every thing draws all the assistances and agreements which they have as well in a Retirement as in Society The essential reason that obliges us to withdraw our selves out of the World when we are Old is to prevent that laughter and contempt which Age brings along with it If we quit the World to good purpose we shall still preserve the Idea of that merit which we had there If we tarry too long in it we shall proclaim our own defects and what we are then will efface the memory of what we were Besides 't is a shame for a Person that values his credit to drag about him the infirmities of Old Age at the Court where the end of his Services occasions that of his interests and merit Nature does redemand us to liberty when we have nothing more to hope from Fortune Behold what a sense of decency what the care of our Reputation what good Manners and Nature it self require from us Nor is this all for the World has still a right to demand the same thing of us It s Commerce furnished us with pleasure so long as we were capable of relishing it And it would be the highest ingratitude to be a charge to it when we can give it nothing but disgust As for my self I am fully resolved to live in a Convent or a Desert rather than give my Friends an occasion to pitty me or to furnish those that are not so with a subject for their malicious Mirth and raillery But the mischief is that a Man is not sensible when he becomes weak and ridiculous It is not enough to know that we are wholly worn away but we ought to be the first that perceive this declension and like prudent Men to prevent the publick knowledge of this alteration Not that every alteration that Age brings along with it ought to inspire us with the resolution of retiring 'T is true we lose a great deal by growing Old but amongst the losses we sustain some of them are recompensed by considerable advantages If after I have lost my Passions the affections continue with me still I shall find less inquietude in my Pleasures and more discretion in the conduct of my Life And in respect of others if my imagination diminishes I shall not please so much sometimes but I shall be infinitely less importunate for the general part If I quit all Company I shall be less Embarassed If I come from large Companies to the Conversation of a few 't is because I know how to make the better choice Besides this 't is to be considered that if we change we do it amongst People that change as well as our selves Men of equal Infirmities or at least subject to the very same And therefore I shall not be at all ashamed to search in their presence some relief against the weakness of Age nor shall I be afraid to supply by Art what begins to fail me by Nature The greatest precaution against the injury of time the nicest management of a Health that daily becomes more feeble cannot scandalize any Men of Sense and we ought not to trouble our selves with those that are not so For to say the Truth that which displeases in old People is not too affected a care of their own preservation We should easily forgive them every thing that relates to themselves if they had but the same consideration for others But the authority they assume is full of injustice and indiscretion for they unadvisedly oppose the Inclinations even of those that bear the most with their infirmities Their long course of life has untaught them how to live amongst their fellow Creatures for they show nothing but a Spirit of rudeness austerity and contradiction to those very Men from whom they are so unreasonable as to exact affability condescension and obedience All
have their name for the diversion they give us from tiresome objects to those that are Pleasant and agreeable Which sufficiently shows how difficult a matter it is to overcome the hard-ships of our Condition by any force of Mind but that a man may turn them away from him by dexterity and address In effect chuse the firmest Soul upon Earth can she digest without regret the knowledge of what we are and of what we shall one day be As for my part I believe it is almost impossible but tho' by a long habitude and solid reasoning we may arrive to such a pass as to look indifferently upon all troublesome objects whatever yet they will at least give us an austere humour far from any Sentiments of Pleasure nay from the very Idea of joy 'T is the distinguishing Character of God alone that he can view himself and there find perfect Felicity and Repose We can scarce cast our Eyes upon our selves but we there discover a thousand defects which obliges us to seek elsewhere that which is wanting in us Glory Reputation and Fortune are a mighty relief against the rigours of Nature and the miseries of Life Thus we had Wisdom given us for no other end but only to regulate these Goods and to direct our conduct but let our stock be never so great we shall find it stands us in small stead when we are alarm'd with the pains and approaches of Death I know there are several persons who prepare themselves against it by solid judicious reflections and by designs well concerted But it generally so happens that the extremity of pain dashes all these fine resolutions to pieces that a Feavour throws them into a delirium or that by doing every thing out of Season they are strangely fond of Life when they ought to take up a Resolution of quitting it These empty Pretenders so vain and high Flying That Preach up a Constancy without Relenting Resemble the Fop who as he lay dying Begg'd his Maker to give him three Years to Repent in All the circumstances of Death regard only those that remain behind The Weakness the Resolution the Tears the Indifference all is equal at the last moment and 't is very ridiculous to imagine that this ought to be considered as a great matter by those who are going to be nothing themselves There is nothing that can effectually conquer the horrour of this dissolution but a firm perswasion of another Life we must put on a Spirit of confidence and place our selves in such a scituation as to hope every thing and fear nothing In truth 't is impossible not to make some reflections upon a thing so Natural nay a man must be guilty of a strange effeminacy not to dare to think of it We may say the same thing of sadness and indeed of all sorts of grief 't is a Chimera for Man to wish to disengage himself absolutely from them I may add they are sometimes lawful and I think they may be reasonably used on certain occasions An indifference is perfectly scandalous in some sort of Misfortunes A tenderness is justly paid to the Calamities of a faithful Friend but then we are to observe that as greif ought to be rare so it ought to be soon laid aside After having observed the greatest part of People that hunt after their pleasures I have found four sorts of them and I am apt to perswade my self that I know all their Sentiments exactly They are the sensual the hasty or Choleric the voluptuous and the delicate The sensual apply themselves more grosly to that which is most Natural and like other Animals follow their own simple Appetites That which touches the Voluptuous makes an impression upon the Senses which reaches as far as the Soul I don't mean that intelligent Soul from whence proceeds the light of Reason but a Soul more mixt and interessed in the Body which the passions cause to languish and which may be tickled with all manner of Pleasures The Choleric have a more lively Sense and a more violent Soul sensible of impressions and full of Heat in all their Movements The Mind has a greater share in the taste of the Delicates than in that of others To these do we owe our inventions and refinements in Luxury without them Gallantry had been unknown Musick harsh and rude and our Eating mean and ill ordered To these are we indebted for the eruditus luxus of Petronius and all the exquisite discoveries the politeness of our Age has made But it must be confest that if these Persons are ingenious in preparing Pleasures for other Men they are fruitful in disgusts for themselves and having too great an Idea of the perfection of things are over difficult to be pleased I have made some observations too upon the objects that please us and methinks I have remark'd very particular differences in them There are a slight sort of impressions that if you 'l pardon the expression only glance upon the Soul and employ it for the time upon agreable things where it is fixed with complacency without the least invention of care to disturb it This we call agreeableness and it is conformable enough to the humour of the most Virtuous Persons who mingle this sort of Pleasure with their most serious Occupations I have observed another which the Ancients called Mollities a soft voluptuous impression that flatters and tickles the Senses and diffuses it self deliciously all over the Soul From hence arises a certain Laziness that insensibly robs the Mind of its vivacity and vigour insomuch that being once Charm'd with it 't is a difficult matter to shake off so sweet a Lethargy Offensive disagreeable Subjects are felt after a manner quite opposite to this They do violence to the Senses the Soul is wounded by them and this proceeds so far as to give a disturbance and inquietude to the Mind But the highest degree of merit in Objects is that which is touching which penetrates even to the bottom of the Heart which raises the finest Images in our Minds and moves us after the most tender manner imaginable It is hard to speak of it well and there is no expression but comes infinitely short of what those persons enjoy that are affected by it These transports and deliquiums proceed from the want of proportion between the Objects and the Soul that receives the impression of them Whether it is because not being able to contain our selves we are as it were carried out of our selves by a sort of ravishment or that overwhelmed with excess of pleasure we faint away under the weight of it I should never have done if I were minded to pursue all the differences that are to be found in so copious a Subject The best way is to chuse what we find most conformable to our taste to our Inclination or to our Genius Let gay Persons search after diversion and joy let the indifferent content themselves with what is agreeable let the Delicate
refine upon the most curious things let passionate Souls suffer themselves to be touched with tender Objects provided that Reason banishes all disorder and corrects the excess of them This is all I had to say to you upon the Article of Pleasure It now remains that I say something of a Mind which is restored to it self and enjoys a perfect degree of tranquillity We are not always possessed by our Passions and it is to be feared that instead of tasting true liberty a lazy unactive Scene of Repose may throw us into a state of wearisomness However that time which a Man renders tedious to himself by his sullen Humour is no less placed to his account than the sweetest part of Life and those Melancholy hours we desire to pass away with so much precipitation do full as much contribute to fill up the measure of our days as those that escape us with regret I am not of their Opinion who spend their time in complaining of their condition instead of thinking how to relieve and sweeten it Vnhappy knowledge source of all our Woes Destructive of our Pleasure and Repose Why when some dire mischance has been sustain'd Should the ungrateful Image be retain'd Must we to Grief this slavish homage pay As sigh our best our dearest Hours away Or to improve the pressures of our doom Must we bewail the past and fear the Ills to come I freely leave these Gentlemen to their Murmurs and take what care I can to extract some comfort from those very things they complain of I endeavour to entertain my self with an agreeable remembrance of what is past and furnish my self with pleasant Ideas of what is to come If I am obliged to regret any thing my regrets are rather sentiments of tenderness than of grief If in order to avoid any Evil we must of necessity foresee it my fore-sight never goes so far as Fear 'T is my aim that the knowledge of feeling nothing that troubles me and the consideration to see my self free and Master of my self shou'd give me the spiritual pleasure of good Epicurus I mean that agreeable indolence which is not as the vulgar imagine a state without grief and without pleasure but the sentiments of a pure and delicate joy which proceeds from a repose of Conscience and a serenity of Mind After all whatsoever sweetness we find in our selves let us take care to keep it there as long as we can 'T is an easie leap from these secret joys to inward griefs and there is no less good Husbandry required in the Enjoyment of our own proper goods than in the use of those that are external Who does not know that the Soul is tired to be always in the same posture and that at long run it would lose all its vigour if it were not awaken'd by the Passions In short a man must make but very few reflections upon life if he designs to pass it happily nay he ought to use a quite different Conduct He must often steal as it were from himself and amongst the pleasures that other Objects give him forget the knowledge of his own Misfortunes A Letter to Monsieur D. L. YOU left me yesterday in a Conversation that insensibly became a furious dispute There was every thing said that can be alledged pro or con either for the disgrace or advantage of Learning It is not necessary to acquaint you with the parties you need only know they were both of them interested very much to maintain their own cause B. having little obligation to Nature for his Genius and N. might say without being ungrateful that he ow'd his Talent neither to Arts nor Sciences The occasion of the dispute was this Some body happen'd to commend the great variety of Madam G 's knowledge When N. all on the sudden rose from his Chair and taking off his Hat with a scornful Air. Gentlemen says he if Madam G. had known no more than the customs of her own Country she had continued there still To learn our Language and Customes to put her self in a condition of making a Figure eight Days in France she has lost all that she had See what good is come of her Knowledge and fine Learning which you boast of so much B. seeing such an injury done to Madam G. whom he esteemed so highly and to learning in general which he has so great a value for lost all manner of consideration and beginning his discourse with an Oath One must be very unjust answers he to impute to Madam G. for a Crime the noblest action of her life As for your aversion to the Sciences I don't at all wonder at it this is not the first time that you have made merry with them If you had read the most common Histories you would then be sensible that her Conduct is not without Example C. V. is no less celebrated for the renouncing of his Kingdoms than for his Conquests Did not Dioclesian quit the Empire and Sylla the Dictatorial power But all these things are utterly unknown to you and 't is down right madness to dispute with an Ignorant To conclude where can you find me any extraordinary Man who was not a Man of Letters and exquisite knowledge He began with Monsieur the Prince and went on as far as Caesar from Caesar to Alexander the Great and God knows how far the matter had gone if N. had not interrupted him with so much vehemence that he was forced to hold his Tongue In troth says he you do mighty feats here with your Caesars and Alexanders For my part I don't know whether they were learned or unlearned it does not signifie a farthing But this I am sure of that ever since I knew the World no Gentlemen were oblig'd to study but only those that were designed for the Church and now for the generality of them they content themselves with the Latin of the Breviary As for those that are designed for the Court or for the Army they go fairly and honestly to an Academy There they learn to ride the great Horse to Dance to handle their Arms to play upon the Lute to Vault Then comes a little spice of the Mathematicks and that 's all We have in France several thousand Souldiers and all of them Men of honour By this means such and such Gentlemen I could name to you if I were minded made their Fortune Latin I thank myStars for 't ever since I was born Latin has been thought scandalous for a Gentleman I know the great qualities of Monsieur the Prince an am his Humble Servant But I must tell you there was a certain person of Quality that knew how to maintain his Credit in the Provinces and his Interest at Court yet was not able to Read with the Devil a word of Latin but only good French on his side It happen'd luckily for N. that his Adversary had the Gout otherwise he had revenged the Quarrel of Latin with something more
Party by their Numbers and those that are considerable give it some credit by their Quality As for the Politicians they employ each of them their Talent to govern the Machine by ways and resorts unknown to the particular People whom they set on work Those that Write or preach upon Grace that handle this Question which is so celebrated and has been so often discussed Those that place the Councils above the Popes who oppose themselves to Innocent their Pastor who defeat the great pretensions of the Court of Rome act with a góod Faith and are effectually perswaded of the truth of what they say Our Directors are but little concerned for the different Sentiments of the Doctors Their aim is to set Catholic against Catholic and Church against Church to make a great Party in the Church and a great Faction in the State They are for making a Reformation in the Convents but don't think of reforming themselves they exalt Penance to the Skies but never practice it they recommend the eating of Herbs to those People that have a mind to distinguish themselves from the rest of their Brethren by a few singularities but at the same time they are so complaisant to their own Bodies as to eat every thing that persons of the best Rank use to eat After all our Politicians such as I have described them do the Jansenists more service by their Directions than our Writers do with all their Books 'T is their Sage and prudent Conduct that supports us and if ever Monsieur de G. B. Monsieur de L. Monsieur de C. Monsieur de B. fail us unless I am mightily mistaken we shall find a great change amongst the Iansenists The reason is because our Opinions will hardly subsist of themselves They commit an everlasting violence upon Nature they take away from Religion all that comforts us and in the room of it place Fear and Grief despair The Iansenists who by their good will would make every Man a Saint are scarce able to find out ten Men in a Kingdom to make such Christians as they would have Christianity without question is divine but they are Men still that receive it and whatever measures we take we ought to accommodate our selves to Human Nature Too austere a Philosophy makes few wise Men too rigorous a Government few good Subjects too harsh a Religion few religious Souls I mean that will long continue so Nothing is durable that is not suited to Nature Grace it self of which Monsieur A speaks so much accomodates it self to it God makes use of the docility of our Minds and the tenderness of our Hearts to cause himself to be receiv'd and lov'd by us It is certain that your austere Casuists cause a greater aversion to themselves than to Wickedness The Pennance they preach up perswades the Ignorant to prefer the Ease they find in continuing to be wicked to the difficulties in getting free from Vice The other Extream appears equally Vitious to me I hate those Sullen Melancholy Spirits that fancy there is Sin in every thing no less do I hate those easie complaisant Doctors that admit it no where that favour the Irregularities of Nature by making themselves secret Partisans of Evil Manners In their hands the Gospel allows us more indulgence than Morality does and Religion as it is managed by them opposes all manner of Crimes more feebly than Reason I respect virtuous intelligent Persons that judge soundly of our Actions that seriously exhort to what is good and disswade us as much as in them lies from what is Wicked I heartily wish that a just and nice discernment wonld make them know the real difference of things That they wou'd distinguish the effect of a Passion from the execution of a design That they wou'd distinguish a Vice from a Crime and Pleasures from Vices That they wou'd excuse our Weaknesses and condemn our Disorders That they would not confound light simple and natural Appetites with wicked and perverse Inclinations In a word I am for a Christian Morality neither too severe nor too indulgent Of Friendship By another Hand THE first Friendship which arises in the World is that which is formed in the Bosom of Families The continual habitude of being always together and of considering our selves as being of the same Blood the same opinions in which we are brought up the conformity there is between us the communication of secrets of affairs and interests All these things contribute as much to its production as Nature it self They Consecrate at least the Name of Brother Sister and the rest as much as the tye of the same Blood For whatever is affirmed of certain Natural inclinations which a Man feels at the meeting of those Relations who are as yet unknown to him it is certain that the Examples thereof are either aggravated or extraordinary and that we should use them like meer Strangers if we were not accustomed to consider our near Relations as our selves This therefore is the first conjunction of our Hearts It were to be wished that this first Friendship would continue during Life ni the same condition wherein we find it in our first Years But it decay's insensibly In the first place by the great number of Persons whereof a Family is compos'd For it is a certain Principle that Friendship cannot long subsist between several Persons Besides a Man leaves his Family in order to establish himself in the World He enters by Marriage into new alliances or by the profession of a particular Piety he goes out of his Family without having the Pleasure of adopting another Thus he contracts on one side in some sort an obligation to forget his Parents and on the other a Duty of Loving new ones What shall I say of the interest which so often divides Families Admit a regulation of all these things yet a single separation lessens something of the first affection During this absence a Man insensibly contracts particular manners whether for the the Conduct of his Life or for his Fortune or in Relation to the Government of his Family The first Bond of Friendship is scarce of any further use afterwards than to express it self a little more than we would do if they were our Rrelations to have a little more curiosity in their respect and to behave our selves with care enough not to appear inferiour in any point to others Not but that when there happens any essential occasion of being serviceable to them we take a pride in not being wanting therein Thus this first Friendship which is tender in the first Years which admitts some degrees of relaxation in the succession of Life appears notwithstanding always strong when any important Interest is in agitatiou And as for me I believe that of all sorts of Friendship this ought to be managed with most Care There is a Second kind of Friendship which has also its perfections and imperfections as well as the first we have spoken of It
HORTENSIA de MANCHINI was born at ROME of an Illustrious Family Her Ancestors were always considerable but tho they had all of them governed Empires they had not brought her so much Glory as she reflects back upon them Heaven formed this great Masterpiece by a Model unknown to the Age we live in To the shame of our time it bestow'd upon Hortensia the Beauty of ancient Greece and the Virtue of old Rome Let us pass over her Infancy in silence without stopping our Discourse there Her Infancy was attended with a thousand pretty simplicities but had nothing of Importance enough for our Subject Gentlemen I demand your Tears I demand your Admiration To obtain them I have both Misfortunes and Virtues to represent to you It was not long before Cardinal Mazarine was sensible of the Advantages of his beautiful Niece and therefore to do Justice of the Gifts of Nature he destin'd Hortensia to carry his Name and to possess his Wealth After his death she had Charms that might engage even Kings to court her out of Love and a fortune capable to oblige them to do it out of interest But what occasion had you Madam to become a Sovereign Do's not your Beauty make you reign wherever you go There is no Nation that do's not pay a voluntary Submission to the Power of your Charms there is no Queen that has not a greater ambition for your Beauty than you can possibly have for her Grandeur All Climes and Countries do adore her Fresh Triumphs on her Beauties wait The World injustly calls her Rover She only views the limits of her State In effect what Country is there which Hortensia has not seen What Nation has seen her that has not at the same time admir'd her Rome beheld her with as great Admiration as Paris did That City in all ages of the World so glorious boasts more upon giving her to the World than producing such a race of Heroes She believes that so extraordinary a Beauty is preferable to the greatest valour and that more Conquests were to be gained by her eyes than by the Arms of her Citizens Italy Madam will be everlastingly obliged to you for abolishing those importunate Rules that bring a greater constraint than regularity with them for freeing her from a science of Formality Ceremony and Civility mixt together from the tyranny of premeditated respects that render Men unsociable even in Society itself 'T is Hortensia who has banish'd all Grimace and all affectation from thence who has destroy'd that art of Trifles which only regulates appearances that Study of exteriour things that only composes mens Countenances 'T is she who has rendred ridiculous a stiff awkward Gravity which supply'd the place of Prudence and who has triumph'd over a politick Itch without concern and without interest busied only to conceal the defects a Man finds in himself 'T is she who has introduced a sweet and innocent Liberty who has rendred Conversation more agreable and made Pleasure more pure and delicate A Fatality caused her to come to Rome and a Fatality caus'd her to leave it Madam the Constable Colonna's Lady had a mind to quit her Husband and imparted this resolution to her Sister Her Sister as young as she was represented to her upon this occasion all that a Mother could have done to hinder it But seeing her unalterably fixt to execute her design she follow'd her out of Love and Affection whom she could not disswade by her Prudence and shared with her all the Danger of flight the Fears the Inquietudes and the Inconveniencies that always attend such sort of Resolutions Fortune who has a great Power in our Enterprises but a much greater in our Adventures made Madam the Constable's Lady wander from Nation to Nation and threw her at last into a Convent at Madrid Right Reason advised Hortensia to seek her repose and a desire of retirement oblig'd her to settle her abode at Chambery There she found in her self by her Reflexions by a Commerce with learned Men by Books and by Observations all that solid Satisfaction which a Court do's not give Courtiers who are either too much taken up with business or too much dissolved in Pleasures Three whole years did Hortensia live at Chambery always in a state of Tranquillity but never obscure Whatever Inclinations she might have to conceal herself her merit establish'd for her a small Empire in spight of her and made a Court of a Retreat In effect she commanded that City and all the Country about it Every one acknowledged with pleasure those Rights which Nature had given her even He who had them over all the rest by virtue of his Birth forgot them freely and entred into the same subjection with his People Those of the greatest merit and quality quitted the Court and neglected the Service of their Prince to apply themselves particularly to that of Hortensia and considerable Persons of remote Countries made a Voyage to Italy to furnish themselves with a pretence to see her 'T is an extraordinary thing to be able to establish a Court at Chambery 'T is as it were a Prodigy that a Beauty which had a mind to conceal it self in places almost inaccessible should make a greater noise in Europe than all Europe together The most beautiful Persons of every Nation had the displeasure to hear a continual mention made of an absent Fair. The most lovely Women had a secret Enemy that ruined all the Impressions they could make It was the Idea of Hortensia which was pretiously preserved in those places where she had been seen and was formed with pleasure in those where she had never been Such was the Conduct of Hortensia such was her Condition when the Duchess of York her Relation passed through Chambery in the way to find the Duke her Husband The singular merit of the Duchess her Beauty her Wit and her Virtue inspir'd Hortensia with a desire to accompany her but her Affairs would not permit her So she was obliged to delay that Voyage till a more favourable opportunity the curiosity she had to see one of the greatest Courts in the World which she had never beheld fortified her in this Resolution the death of the Duke of Savoy determined it This Prince had the same Sentiments of her as all People that had the happiness to behold her He had admired her at Turin and this Admiration Madam of Savoy interpreted to be Love A jealous black Impression produced a behaviour very little obliging towards the person who hád caused it There needed no more than this to oblige Hortensia to depart out of a Country where the new Regent was in a manner absolute To separate herself from the Duchess of Savoy and approach the Duchess of York was but one and the same Resolution Hortensia acquainted her Friends with this determination who imployed all their Arguments to disswade her from it but 't was in vain never was seen so great a profusion of Tears As
any one but her are mere slavery The most regular Visitants secretly reproach themselves for stealing from her the time of looking after her Family They never come soon enough and never depart late enough They go to bed with the Regret to have quitted her and they rise with the desire to behold her afresh But how great is the uncertainty of our human condition At the time when Hortensia seemed to enjoy her Health the best at the time when she innocently enjoy'd all the pleasure which Inclination desires and Reason does not prohibit that she tasted the Sweetness to see herself beloved and esteemed by all the World that those Ladies who had opposed themselves to her establishment were charmed by her Conversation that she had as it were extinguished self-love in the Soul of her Friends every one expressing the same kind Sentiments for her which it is natural to have for ones self At the time when the most lovely of the fair Sex forbore to contend with her Beauty that Envy had concealed itself in the bottom of their Hearts that all repining against her was private or appeared ridiculous as soon as she begun to appear At this happy time an extraordinary indisposition seizes her and we were upon the point to lose her in spight of all her Charms in spight of all our Admiration and Love You were just a perishing Hortensia and so were we You through the violence of your pains we through that of our affliction But is was more than being simply afflicted We felt all that you did and were sick as you were Your unequal moments sometimes carried you to the brink of Death and sometimes recalled you to life We were subject to all the Accidents of your Sickness and to know how it fared with you it was not at all necessary to enquire after your Health We needed only to observe in what state we our selves were Praised be that universal dispenser of good and evil praised be Heaven that has restored you to our Vows and given you again to your self Behold you are living and so are we but we have not as yet recovered the cruel fright that this danger gave us and a cruel Idea still remains behind which makes us more lively conceive what must one day befall you Nature will destroy this beauteous Fabrick which it has taken so much pains to frame Nothing can cxempt it from that lamentable Law to which we are all subject She who was so visibly distinguished from others during her life will be confounded with the meanest at her death And do you then complain you that have only an ordinary Genius a common Merit or an indifferent Beauty do you complain that you must dy Don't murmur injust as ye are Hortensia will dy like you A time will come Oh that this infortunate time would never come when we may say of this Miracle She 's now resolv'd to common Clay She that did Beauty's Empire sway Fate cruel Fate would have it so Fate that governs all below Now vulgar Souls learn to resign your Breath And without murmuring submit to Death In my opinion a Funeral Oration ought not to end without leaving some Consolation to the Auditors After we have drawn their Tears for a Person who has quitted the World 'T is usual to tell them the party deceased is in heaven that the Idea of his Happiness may form in us some Sentiments of Joy Let us pass let us pass from Grief to Pleasure we have already wept because we saw Hortensia upon the point to dye Let us now rejoyce to behold her living Our Sovereign is well What can be greater What can we desire more There are but few Reigns which we are not glad to see finished The lightest Chains are heavy to those that bear them They appear easie to none but those that wear them not Your Reign Madam still continues and we wish it may continue for ever Your Subjects find themselves happy under your Government There is not one of them but looks upon his Liberty at the greatest Misfortune Set us rejoyce our Sovereign is living and we live To live is the chief of humane Blessings and to live for her is the chief of them 'T is the sweetest and the best use we can make of our Life REFLECTIONS Upon the DOCTRINE OF EPICURUS By Mr. Brown EVery one knows that the greatest part of Men condemn Epicurus and reject his Doctrine not only as unworthy of a Philosopher but what is more severe as dangerous to the Common-wealth They solemnly declare that a Man becomes vicious from the very moment he declares himself one of his Disciples that his Opinions are directly contrary to good manners and thus they cover his Name with all imaginable Scandal and Infamy Notwithstanding all this the Stoicks who were his greatest Enemies never treated him so ill they combated his Hypothesis but never invaded his Reputation and the Books they have left us plainly discover in abundance of Places the singular Esteem and Respect they had for him From whence then proceeds this extraordinary difference and why don't we rather follow the opinion of the wise It is an easie matter to give the true Reason of it which is that we don't do as they do We don't vouchsafe to inform our selves of any thing but blindly adhere to what is told us without instructing our selves in the nature of things we judge those to be the best that have the most Examples and the greatest Crowd of Admirers we don't follow Reason but only the resemblances of it We stifly retain our Errors because they are countenanced by those of other Men. We rather chuse to believe implicitly than to put our selves to the expence of judging and are so strangely injust as to conclude that the Antiquity of an Opinion is a sufficient Title to authorise us to defend it even in defiance to reason it self This in short is one of the Causes that has made Epicurus fall into the publick Hatred aud has prevail'd with almost the generality of Mankind to discard him out of the number of Philosophers We have condemn'd him without condescending to know him we have banish'd him without hearing him speak for himself nay we have deny'd him the justice to explain his own Sentiments But after all in my Opinion the chief and indeed the most plausible Pretence that Men have had to despise his Doctrine has been the irregular Life of some Libertines who as they abused the Name of this Philosopher so they have ruined the Reputation of his Sect. These People have recommended their own Vices under the reputation of his Wisdom they have corrupted his Doctrine by their ill Manners and came over in vast Numbers to his Party only because they understood that Pleasure was mightily commended by them All the Mischief is that they would not know what this Pleasure was and what these Praises meant that they contented themselves with his Name in general that they
Heroes but Persons full as unhappy as the Off-spring of Tantalus Let the Son of Amphiareus make his Entrance frighted with Visions and demanding help against the Furies that press him What do I see Whence do these Flames arise From gaping Tombs they seem to strike my eyes Oh help me to put out this cruel Fire In whose embraces I shall soon expire At me their Whips the restless Furies shake Their angry Snakes a dreadful Consort make See see they come I feel the pointed Pain And in my labouring soul unruly Tempests reign And after Alcmeon has made us see the Tortures of Conscience and Pressures of the Soul let Philoctetes entertain us with the Miseries to which he finds himself reduced let him speak let him complain of his ill fortune Do's he not paint out a very wretched Person when he says Who e'er thou art in what e'er Country known Whom Winds upon the Lesbian shore have thrown Pity a Wretch abondon'd by his Stars Who for the space of Nine revolving years Has been devoured by Sicknesses and Cares Behold these Cliffs whose tops invade the Sky Here tortur'd with my pains I piece-meal die View but the frightful horrors of this place The Scene of all my Sorrows and Disgrace Where robb'd of Glory to a Rock confin'd I bear all Plagues of Body and of Mind And my keen Arrows for the Birds prepare Their Plumes my raiment and their Flesh my fare After this let him shew us the pains of the Body when his Ulcer being inflamed he despairs he bemoans himself in these following Lines Alass What Friend to ease me of my Pain Will kindly send me headlong to the Main Now now quick Shootings all my Sinews tear What Racks what Torments can with this compare A raging Vlcer angry Heaven did send Which an eternal Feaver does attend Thus in Complaints the day in Groans the night I spend Or if these Misfortunes are not sufficicient let us heap together as Ovid has done all the Plagues all the Calamities that old Fables afford us and wish they may light upon one single Person and then judge whether his Condition is happier than that of Orata or of the famous Vatia who merited heretofore this Exclamation O Vatia you alone know what it is live and conclude all with an Exclamation of the like nature O Epicurus you and only you know how to Philosophize From all these evident Truths it is an easie matter to conclude that Pleasure is not only worthy the Commendations of all Men but that it is the sovereign Good and only end Nevertheless since this first Proposition makes the principal point in the Doctrine of Epicurus and as it is the truest so it is also the most contested since I say we have begun to undeceive the Enemies of this Proposition we ought to conclude with Instructions and leave the truth of this Opinion so well established in their minds that they shall have no occasion to question it without being guilty of the greatest Injustice That they may therefore submit to so Catholick a Truth I only desire them to turn their eyes on the side of Nature the Effects of which are reasonable and the Experiences certain They will not only find that it authorises what we have asserted but it will likewise give them such clear such visible Demonstrations of it that unless they hoodwink themselves on purpose they must be forced to submit to it Let them consider what this Common Mother does in the Birth of Animals that is to say in its perfect Purity and before its Corruption They will soon observe that it inspires them with the love of Pleasure and an aversion to Pain that it carries them towards what pleases them and teaches them to avoid what would hurt them that it instructs them if I may be allowed the Expression both in what is good and what is bad and when they attain the former she causes them to rejoice and be satisfied with it This is the Reason why our Philosopher following the Dictates of Nature pronounces a voluptuous Life to be the end of Man but does not give himself the Trouble to prove so obvious a Proposition As he imagined there was no necessity of force of reason to perswade People that Fire is hot that Snow is white and that Hony is sweet because they are all sensible things so he believed that to make Men comprehend the Love of Pleasure which may easily be known by the Effects of Nature there was occasion for no more than a bare Observation of these Effects and an ordinary Reflection Nevertheless though we have Nature on our side that is to say an infallible Decision though we find in our Souls a natural Inclination to avoid Evil and to follow Pleasure though the very beginnings of our Desires of our Disgusts and of all our Actions derive their Original from Pleasure and Pain yet because some Philosophers pretend that Pain ought not to be reckoned amongst Evils nor Pleasure amongst things that are good and that to establish this Opinion they bring abundance of plausible Arguments we must not so strongly rely upon our own Opinions as we ought to keep up to the simple Truth We must therefore produce Reasons in behalf of Epicurus's Doctrine and show that Reason as well as Nature is of his side And in effect in those Philosophers that have condemn'd this Pleasure had well considered her before-hand if they had throughly known her before they attack'd her they would easily have discovered that it was not she they meant that they were mistaken in their Invectives and only rejected her out of a consideration of those Pains that sometimes attend her they would have perceived that those Pains did not proceed from her but from the Irregularities of those Persons that use her ill And then they had never decryed her after so furious a manner For they must be forced to acknowledge That there is not one single Person in the World that hates Pleasure as it is Pleasure or loves Pain meerly as it is Pain Now because those that abuse the most innocent Pleasures do afterwards feel a great deal of Torment and Uneasiness and that on the other hand there are certain times when Labour and Pain produce and prepare some sort of Pleasures this hath been the reason that these Philosophers who only considered the consequences of an ill managed Pleasure and the Advantages of a profitable and necessary Labour have effaced the former out of the number of good things and then placed Pain amongst those that are desirable But now it is high time to employ all our Forces to carry our Enterprizes This is the hour we ought to Combat in good earnest that so we may obtain a glorious Victory It is not our business here to defend Pleasure nor to consider it as the Sovereign good of humane Life we must elevate her above the throne of Virtue itself that disputes this Title with her and although we don't
shines equally upon all Men could it ever give us its light by chance And that exquisite proportion that we may observe in it could it ever proceed but from an eternal Wisdom After these Meditations I consider'd the perpetual Disagreement of the Elements and I could never enough admire that Happy War which entertains the World with so many wonderful Motions But above all I made my Reason give place and my whole Soul bend to that Prodigy of the Flux and Reflux of the Sea The vast extent of Waters amaz'd me But when I came to consider that the most Threatning Billows broke against the smallest Rocks and that having no sooner met 'em but in despight of all their forwardness they were oblig'd to return with Violence into themselves 't was here that I cry'd out transported with Wonder and seiz'd with Astonishment The Sea eternally does roar It s angry Billows beat the passive shoar But Mounds of Sand their might restrain And force them to their watry Realms again Neptune with Indignation sees His Waves ingloriously retreat Then from the conquering Cliffs he flies And murmurs at his shame and sighs at his Defeat At last when I had sufficiently consider'd of these Objects I took great pleasure to descend into my self and there to observe the Structure of an Humane Body and to contemplate all the Springs that move this admirable Machine I reflected upon the disposition of so many differing parts and yet all necessary to the composition and conservation of our Bodies as Bones Nerves Muscles Blood and Spirits I consider'd the marvellous Oeconomy of all these parts and cry'd out with Admiration Poor Man who knowst not these things but by means of thy senses Nevertheless canst thou boast thy self Author of so excellent a Work Thou who understoodst it not till after 't was made And must all the parts be expos'd to thy Eyes to give thee the least Insight 'T is certain that the experience of many Ages has made thee comprehend the cause of thy Living Digestion Motion c. and yet in despight of thy most exact Observations thou dost not know it but after a very imperfect manner On the other side casting my Eyes on the rest of Creatures I examin'd with admiration the different Figures of Animals the Scales of Fish the Feathers of Birds the Furs of Beasts and all those Things which regarded without attention represent nothing distinctly to the mind but sensibly discovered to me the greatest Wonders in Nature For call that Destiny Nature Knowledge or Divinity which creates and governs all below yet is it not always a Soveraign Power Is it not always an Infinite Wisdom Then I remain'd confounded to think where I had been and I could never enough wonder at the malice of the wicked or the blindness of the unbelieving For a Man must altogether forget himself and lose the knowledge of all things before he loses that of his Creator On whatever part we cast our Eyes we presently perceive the Character of the Divinity and whoever studies Nature throughly shall find sensible Proofs of the Power on which it depends But we have some lazy would-be-wits now a-days always bent to the imitation of others who without ever examining themselves or considering of the matter espouse the Cause of Impiety only to be thought Partners with some famous Libertines There are also some men who by an extravagant reach of Soul will in nothing depend on their Maker imagining that the Obedience which they should pay to this Infinite Majesty would take away the Freedom of their Opinions Not but that we see sometimes the best and most knowing men in the world fall under some sort of Incredulity or doubt But these do not give themselves the trouble to discover an Eternal Intelligence by the Order of the Vniverse Their Curiosity drives them to consider what is possible to be and after having stunn'd their Understanding with those Infinite Qualities which the Soul of Man cannot comprehend they oftentimes become incredulous because they cannot reconcile the Sentiments of their Conceptions to those of their Conscience Now as we ought to laugh at Sots and abhor the Wicked I think that we ought to have compassion for the last and to pity 'em only because they are miserable Some people are upon the rack to perswade themselves to believe that which they cannot comprehend Others attack Heaven it self through a fearful Malice and blaspheme a God whose Power they do not understand So as they are always in trouble and despair and after having been toss'd by the Fury of Impiety they find themselves torn by the Remorse of their own Conscience especially when the Light forsakes 'em and the Company which upholds 'em leaves 'em in the Desart of Solitude There is no passion so tormenting but they feel the sting on 't Fear Trouble Disquiet and Madness torture 'em by turns It were better for their Quiet if they never thought than to have but the least Commerce with their Conscience for nothing equals the Torments of the Wicked If some lewd Blasphemies he pours In endless pains he spends the Conscious Hours Hagg'd by the Ghastly Image of his sin No safe retreat without no peace within He flyes the Day he fears the Night He runs from Truth 's all searching light His Conscience too would leave behind But in himself both Iudge and Torturer does find The Unbelieving though they are not altogether so faulty are not less Miserable Tbey hunt after with difficulty a thing they never find and at every turn accufe Nature of being cruel only in regard of Man Thence proceeded the Complaints of that Great Man who envy'd the Advantage which Beasts enjoy'd of living in a commodious Ignorance of all things without disquieting themselves with a search after any Truth Thence also proceeds the discontent of those Men who cannot think without envying those of other Countries Nor see any Beast in the sweetness of his Repose without envying the Tranquility that Nature has bestow'd on him It is then certain That the Belief of a God makes the best foundation of all Pleasures and the Opinion we have of him never suffers a Man to be without satisfaction in his Prosperity and comfort in his Adversity A Mind well ordered does not only tast delights in the enjoyment of a Good it receives it also finds Dainties to thank its Benefactor for and every Reflection it makes upon 'em is a new Subject of satisfaction 'T is to God we must have recourse in Afflictions and there is no Anguish so great but it may be sweetned by a total resignation to His Providence Then let every one judge how much Religion imports us How much it advantages us to acknowledg God and to submit our selves to his will as well in consideration of our Duty as for the interest of our Repose CHAP. III. That we ought to restrain the Violence of our Appetites by considering the true Worth of those things we
desire I Find nothing more profitable and more important to any one that has a mind to taste true Content in this Life than to oppose his greatest Inclinations and reduce his desires to those simple Motions which we call Wishes Nevertheless as there is no Man but has some particular Inclination and Favourite Passion so it is not an easie thing to come to an Indifference But one may notwithstanding weaken ones Chains for there are no Bonds so strong which Reason and Experience cannot break in time In effect as the sweetest Objects have their Call so there is no doubt but the Heart looses much of the force of its desires by some disgust At such a time a Man lifts himself insensibly up above the World the Pleasures that he was wont to hunt after with so much earnestness then appear Insipid to him He then sees how much it imports him to understand the True Price of Glory What pain or what satisfaction one finds in knowledg that so we may not attempt any thing we may repent of or expect any thing we cannot hope to enjoy With these prospects Is there any Man whose Reformation one ought to doubt of He that has been always us'd to Submission and Obedience shall not he raise his desires to the glory of Command The needy shall not they establish their happiness in abundance tho' they have been opprest with want A Sluggard that suffers the reward of his Idleness and the remorses of a bad Life shall not he reckon him happy whom he sees in the esteem of all honest and good Men Those that are embarrass'd with a Crowd will they not with for the quiet of the Private The Court and its Pomp tires us The Woods and the Fields become uneasie to us But whoever has not tasted fully of Vexation cannot easily be persuaded of its strange effects In short we may disgust our selves with our condition but not with those we have never experienc'd And see here the manner we ought to make use of on this occasion to find the Vanity of all things Although one has not all the Riches all the Merit all the fair Qualities yet one may reflect on them who have acquir'd them by Fortune or Virtue and discover the Anxiety they labour under We may see them then opprest with the same Maladies subject as we to the same Diseases that Nature afflicts us with We shall see a Wise Man not able to defend himself from humour and folly An Heroe feâ—ble full of defects and as much a Man as they which are below him And the greatest Originals of Europe as subject to particular weaknesses as the lesser Copies We shall find in the end that 't is impossible to renounce Nature and to raise our selves above the condition that God has plac'd us in For in truth there are no great Men if we compare 'em one with another but they are in themselves weak unequal and deficient in some part or other Pomp and Splendor do not satisfy all those whom they surround The excess of Delights palls our Appetites oftner than it pleases and all the advantages of Nature and Fortune join'd together know not how to create a full and entire Happiness This confideration moderates the fierceness of our desires and it may be will destroy those Inclinations we have to the most sensible and pleasing Objects And then we shall search after our Content without disquiet enjoy it without eagerness and lose it without regret CHAP. IV. Of REPVTATION By Another Hand THere is no Passion which makes more unhappy people than this which almost all Men entertain for an Universal esteem For excepting some Persons of truly Heroical Minds who act only for the satisfaction of their Conscience and perhaps too for the approbation of good Men all the rest do that for Noise which ought to be done for Virtue and suffer themselves to be inchanted with the shadow and appearance of a Thing whose real Body doth not so much as affect them They would have all their Actions be esteemed Virtuous but not that they should indeed be so They wish nothing more than the applause of the people tho' in the midst of such a crowd and agitation 't is almost impossible to discern the Truth and without considering the Opinion of the Wise they suppose that all things are to be decided by Numbers and that the sentiments of Learned Men whom they are pleased to call Fantastical Persons cannot eclipse their Fame The most Ingenious demonstrate on this occasion a sufficient siness in their Conduct for being satisfied with themselves and having had the luck to content honest Men by some essential quality they accommodate themselves in a gross manner to the humour of the People and gain the Vulgar by outward shew and appearance They commit voluntary Fopperies to agree with real Fops They appear without parts to the Stupid Subile with Intriguzing Persons Generous with Men of Honour and in a word adapt themselves to all sorts of Characters with so dextrous a compliance that one would say Their humour is that of all others But besides that in this way of proceeding we betray our proper sentiments and that we oppose ourselves to the design of Nature which has made us more for our selves than for other Men I don't observe that these persons with all their good-humour and complaisance with all their feints and their dissimulations ever arrive at the point which they propose to themselves On the other side I have known it a Thousand times by experience That those Men who are so greedy of Reputation almost always lose it by that very irregularity and greediness with which they seek it and that nothing so much interrupts their design as their excessive Passion to obtain it In effect shew me the Man who has at anytime had merit and good fortune sufficient to acquire an esteem truly general Who is he that was ever powerful enough to suppress the calumnies of all his Enemies And who is he that has been able hitherto to stop the mouth of Envy I can certify that I have known some Persons so very agreeable and so virtuous that a Man could not converse with them without admiration and love They made Partisans even of their own Enemies and one must have been brutal even to excess either to withstand the Charms of their Conversation or not to be won by the Goodness of their Nature Yet for all this I have seen some envious Devils oppose their malice to so conspicuous a Virtue and according as they had either address or power stop the course of an esteem so just and so well established Now since it is impossible to caâ—ch this flying Vapour after which I see the whole World runs What folly is it to labour to obtain it with so much application and pains so ill rewarded Besides this a Fop that desires this esteem with passion and does not deserve it cannot long enjoy it A good Man on
the Groans of the People I cannot understand their Cries nor behold their Tears without feeling my self affected with a real Compassion I cannot be a spectator of the disorders of my Countrey nor consider the ambition of its Oppressors without conceiving an invincible aversion for them We likewise experience another sort of Vexation which invades us in the midst of Pleasure it self It is nothing else oftentimes but a disgust of abundance for our Soul having not strength enough to digest it suffers a mighty remission in the vigour of its faculties and yields at length to the violence of these excesses Now for this I find no better and indeed no other remedy than to moderate our Passions and to manage our Pleasures with a prudent and wise Oeconomy Thus Epicurus revived his Appetite by abstinence and avoided all excesses to shun the inconvenience of Debauchery and as the continual society even of the best Men becomes at length tiresom or insensible those persons that have a delicate apprehension of Pleasure will voluntarily remove themselves from one another to avoid the disquiet that threatens them and to have a better tast of the charms of Conversation by a new vigour which they bestow upon their Thoughts There remains nothing more for me to speak of but another sort of Vexation whose Cause I am not able to divine and as 't is extreamly difficult to know the real subject of it I find that it is hard to sweeten it or to withstand it It is a Secret Displeasure which hides it self in the bottom of the Soul and which we feel much better than we can discover 'T is that which goes to Bed with us which awakes and rises with us which attends us at our Repasts which follows us in our Walks which we carry along with us as well in a Crowd as in Retirement and which doth not forsake those whom it has once seized till it has exhausted all its power upon them I have had a wearisome experience of this Malady and have often felt the whole bitterness of it I have gone with it to the Play-house and have come out with the same I have carried it into the best Conversations without any relief I have during its excesses used the most agreeable Diversions but was insensible to them all the while and in the midst of the publick Ioy have been constrained to shew my ill humour and to appear disgusted 〈◊〉 the sweetest contentments of Life and at last have found no other Remedy to Charm it but the pleasure of good Eating and good Drinking Good Cheer with our Friends is the Soveraign Remedy against this sort of Vexation for besides that Conversation which then becomes more free and pleasant insensibly sweetens it 't is certain that Wine revives the forces of Nature and gives our Soul vigour sufficient to exclude all sorts of Melancholly I know some morose unsociable Persons will at least in outward shew and appearance declare a great aversion for this Remedy whose Delights notwithstanding they do not contemn But let us banish all grimaces here I am little disturbed at their mistaken severities since the most rigid Philosopher of the World has prescribed us this very Remedy since the severest of our Illustrious Men have submitted if I may so express my self their most austere Virtues to the charms of this agreeable pleasure and since the best sort of Persons disown not the Use of it but are only content to condemn the Excess CHAP. VI. Of PLEASVRES By Mr. MANNING of the Inner-Temple The same Hand with the former AFter having discoursed of our Disgusts and the means of qualifying the bitterness of them it is not improper to entertain our selves about the Pleasures of Life Although to speak the Truth extrinsic things contribute much to our Pleasures and 't is not enough to have Senses unless we have Objects to content them yet the multitude of them being almost infinite as in effect we find it seems that our happiness depends in some measure upon ourselves and that our greatest diversions are unpleasant to us if our Senses are not in a disposition to receive them As for my self I am of opinion that we should never debar our minds of those innocent pleasures which occurr but live free from all those disquietudes that a consideration of what is past uses to infuse as from the disturbance we conceive for what 's to come The present time only is ours and if we were wise we should manage every moment as it were the last but nothing is more ordinary than the evil use we make of that time which Nature has allowed us There are few Men but would live long enough if they knew how to live well but it happens for the most part that when we are a dying we complain of not having lived as yet If we are destined to a long Life we disturb it by the fear of not arriving to it and when we are come to our limitation we have nothing else left us but the concern of having manag'd it very ill This Pleasure which now presents it self is perhaps the last I shall be sensible of an infinite number of pains may overwhelm me a moment after Who then shall hinder me from enjoying my self innocently whilst I may Must the difference of places or the inequality of Objects keep me always in disorder when I have power to live contented in all parts of the Earth I grant that indeed certain Persons are dearer to us and more agreeable than others that as there are different Subjects to divert us so there are delights more and less affecting But for the sake of a pleasure which I earnestly hoped am I to despise all others That Life which slides away in the Countrey is no less mine than that I pass at Paris The days wherein I am wholly buried in Grief will be reckoned to me as well as my most joyful Festivals and will contribute as much as they to make up the number which must confine my years Why then should the charms of my Repose be troubled here by the remembrance of those Pleasures I should have tasted or by the imagination of those which I pretend to enjoy 'T is an imprudence to be desirous thus to return to those places we had forsaken and to endeavour to be present in those where we cannot be so soon If the Pleasures we find in the Countrey are different from those of the Court let us endeavour to adapt our minds to them For who can hinder us from exalting and humbling our selves in this manner We have here neither Musick-meetings nor Balls nor Play-house but then we have no disgraces no servitude to fear or undergo Conversation is not so agreeable here Admit it is not a Man may have Commerce with himself and with Persons that however are not troublesome Cato entertain'd himself with Children after he had applied himself all the day to the Service of the Commonwealth and our best Wits
in France disdain not to hear a Tale from one of their Servants after the most serious Discourses A Man must endeavour to live easily in all places and tast those Pleasures which his respective abode can furnish him with Let us not play the Philosophers so much as to condemn by our austerity the Magnificence of the Court I wish we could imitate the Virtue of the Ancient Romans Let us be Just let us be Generous as they were but we may very well neglect those extravagant Maxitus whose severity Corrects fewer Persons than it scares If we have not wherewith to be splendid let us not accuse others of an immoderate splendor for certainly one cannot condemn so much fine Workmanship produced by human Industry without being fantastically severe One may admire the Pomp of a glorious City very innocently one may partake of the delights of Perfumes and the satisfactions of Musick In short one may behold with pleasure the delicacy of Painting and yet not infringe the Laws of Temperance If by constraint or inclination we have established our residence in the Countrey let us there leave off admiring the Labours of Man in order to Contemplate the Works of the Creator and the Wonders of Nature Let us remove our thoughts from the Pride and Glories of the Court and innocently tast the sweets which occur in solitary places The Heavens the Sun the Stars the Elements have not they Beauties enough to satisfy the mind that contemplates them The extent of Plains the course of Rivers the Meadows the Flowers the Rivolets have not they sufficient Charms to enchant the sight The Musick of Birds is that ever wanting in our Groves And if it is true that men have learnt theirs from the Nightingales What advantage may we receive by having so great a number of these little Masters at our Service without being in our Pay WEll whate're sins by turns have sway'd me Ambition never reach'd my heart It 's lewd pretences ne're betray'd me In publick ills to act a part Let others Fame or Wealth pursuing Despise a mean but safe retreat I 'll ne're contrive my own undoing Nor stoop so low as to be great The faithless Court the pensive Change What solid Pleasures can they give Oh let me in the Country range 'T is there we breath 't is there we live The beauteous Scene of aged Mountains Smiling Valleys murmuring Fountains Lambs in flow'ry Pastures bleating Ecchos our complaints repeating Birds in cheerful Notes expressing Nature's bounty and their blessing These afford a lasting pleasure Without guilt without measure In a word we may live contented in any part of the World and we only change our pleasure when we change the place of our abode Here the mind finds its satisfaction in the study of Nature Here our Senses meet with their delights and whoever is capable of moderation may find in all places but too fertile a scene for his contentment Neither the limits of Solitude nor the little space of a Prison can hinder a wise Man from finding his tranquillity He may meditate there and with pleasure reflect on the good Actions he has done and comfort himself by the pleasing thoughts of his Innocence A Man does not always lie under a necessity to enjoy the full extent of the Fields in order to be happy Our happiness for the general part lies in our selves and as we sometimes find our selves uneasy under the full enjoyment of our Liberty so it may very well happen that we may be satisfied even in those Prisons in which we are confined The most cruel Tyrants in the Universe could never yet find Dungeons for our Souls they cannot become Masters of it unless we are willing to enslave it ourselves Their Chains cannot bind it and let the Body be enclos'd in what place it will it changes neither place nor habitation Thus we may find contentments every where Let us endeavour only to enjoy them with moderation and rest persuaded that it is an error to condemn Pleasures as Pleasures and not as they are unjust and unlawful In truth let them be never so innocent the excess is always criminal and tends not only to our disgrace but to our dissatisfaction A Man that loseth his Reputation by Debauchery very often loses his Health too and hurts his Constitution no less than his Honour If we are insensible to the Charms of Pleasure let us excite our Tast and our Appetite by a just consideration of those pains which are their contraries Let those who find themselves abound in the conveniencies of Life tast their happiness by the opposition of the necessities of others and let the thought of misfortunes make them deliciously enjoy that felicity which they possess Let a good Man make reflections upon the state of his Conscience and rejoyce that he finds neither remorse nor anguish in the bottom of his heart Let Health which we ordinarily tast after the same manner as we do an insensible Good let this rich present of Nature I say be felt more lively by the comparison of Diseases and Infirmities to which so many others are liable Let a Man of good Health esteem himself happy not only in the enjoyment of his felicity but let the thought of enduring nothing amongst so many troublesom Objects that encompass him render him still more undisturbed Let him rejoyce not only for the good fortune which he enjoys but likewise for the unhappiness he has not Let the Pleasure which he tasts and the Pain which he suffers not contribute equally to give him new satisfactions As to what remains let us banish that disorderly passion of Envy that vile infamous passion which corrupts all our Pleasures Let not our Eyes or Ears become in the least concerned for possessions that don't belong to us but let us partake without Covetousness of all the Charms of those places which we go to see Every thing that is made for the pleasure of sight Doth it not belong to me so long as it is exposed before mine The Louvre Luxembourg House and the Tuilleries as much belong to me when I am gazing upon their Beauty as to those whose legally they are For to speak properly nothing can be ours but by an actual enjoyment The conclusion which I infer from all these Discourses is that we ought to rejoyce with Moderation To apprehend this Assertion rightly all that is done in the World is done only for pleasure and tho we take different ways yet we see all mankind incline to the same end He that searches for Reputation in the Field and breaks through all the dangers of Fire and Bullets to obtain Honour would not expose himself to the least Danger if he did not expect that satisfaction one finds in himself or that which is derived from Fame He that grows old in his Closet amongst a parcel of Mouldy Moth-eaten Books would not employ the least pains in the acquisition of Sciences if he did not receive some pleasure
in the pursuit All our Actions have no real object but Pleasure without that the most Laborious Persons would Live languishing and idle 'T is that alone which makes us active 't is that which stirs all bodies 't is that which gives motion to all the Universe Let every one then follow that method which suits best with his innocent inclinations and enjoy all Delights that present themselves to him when they are not repugnant to the true Sentiments of Honour or Conscience To Mademoiselle L. …A Consolatory Discourse upon the Death of Monsieur M… By Mr. MANNING I Hear Madam that you lament the death of Monsieur M… and am sensible that it is your Duty to lament it He was a person of extraordinary Merit he Lov'd you tenderly he had done you great Services How cruel how unjust nay how ungrateful would you be if you did not bewail his loss I am so well perswaded of the greatness of it that I am even in pain to know if you have been able to preserve your Senses all this while I wish the abandoning of your Eyes and Mouth to sorrow may be the utmost of your affliction What way soever you escape you will give the World sufficient proofs of your Wisdom if you don't run Mad. Let others shed Tears by measure and proportion their sadness to the occasion of it I shall not be surprised but it would be an amazing thing to see you afflict your self by Rules you who may so justly mourn you who have no other way to signalize your gratitude than by your lamentation Perhaps it may be represented to you that you ought to weep with more moderation and that your Sex your Age and your Condition exempt you from abandoning your self intirely to your Grief But believe me Madam don't for all that deprive your self of the satisfaction of Weeping Answer the Duties of a just Friendship to the full Mourn without constraint for a Man whose chast delights you were and without shame lament a Man who could not be but the delights of the Chast. In dying he has set all your Sentiments at Liberty and his death delivers you from those scruples which tormented you during his Life It would be in vain for Slander to misinterpret your complaints The Relation that was betwixt him and you doth but too highly justify you 'T is apparent as you were so nearly joyn'd in blood nothing but a lawful correspondence could be established between you You could find nothing in him but Wit Honour and Wisdom These Qualities generally speaking are not overmuch the favourites of our Senses They are fitter to raise Friendship than Love and to serve as a support for Virtue than to afford matter for Passion You could not be tempted either with Youth Beauty Riches or Splendor He had neither wherewith to purchase or seduce you and Nature and Fortune equally conspired to deny him what might engage a Lady of your merit to Love and what might engage himself to miscarry Alas who is ignorant that if you had been inclined to one of the two either your Love might have chosen Demy-Gods for its Objects or your Wants might have found Treasures for their Recompense Let them alone then let them talk who have not the gift of silence Innocence and Virtue are not a sufficient sanctuary against Calumny Sanctity it self has not defended the Pauls the Melanius's and if Canonized Friendships have been suspected why should not yours as untainted as it is be brought into question Besides Where 's the advantage of constraining your self you run an equal hazard both by dissimulation and by divulging your Grief If you divulge it you will perhaps awaken the Reproach but if you dissemble you will undoubtedly encrease it And as it is always sooner fastened upon concealed Actions than those that are above-board it will impute your moderation to your Artifice and the serenity of your Face to the easie submission of your mind But Madam I would have your Grief keep to appearances and take a superficial Calm for a profound Tranquillity What will you advance by this Conduct If it doth not find you too tender it will find you too ungrateful I leave it to you to judge whether it is better to be accused of a Vice or of a Passion And if it is more shameful to appear susceptible of Love than capable of ingratitude But why should I seek Reasons to encourage your affliction Can it be possible that you should fear to hazard your Tears upon the death of your Friends and that you must be heartned against the attempts of Calumny to dispose you to pay the last offices to Friendship In the mean time what can my design be here and who obliges me to wish that your Grief may be free and violent instead of being moderate and constrained I would have it free lest it should prove dangerous I would have it violent for fear it should be of continuance It might attempt some violence upon you if you should keep it captive It would be lasting if you should let it be moderate I consent to have it make your tenderness appear but I pretend likewise to have it demonstrate your force of Mind you will acquit your self of the Duty of a good Friend in lamenting your Friend As you will perform the duty of an Heroic Woman in not lamenting too long Manage your self then in such a manner that your Grief may not be unworthy of him and that it may be worthy of your self Lament then if you please as a Heroe but lament him in the quality of a Heroine I allow you more than this abandon your self for some time to your affliction but take care to see it so well satisfied in that time that it may require no farther a Tribute from you Entertain it as long as you think fit with the Idea you conceive of your Illustrious Deceased Represent to your self that Noble Countenance that severe Air those venerable Wrinkles in a word that Head of Socrates which denoted so well both the Soldier and Philosopher Then proceed to the qualities of his Mind Reflect upon that natural elevation which rendred things of the greatest moment entirely familiar to him Consider with what clearness he pierced into the obscurest matters with what subtilty he examined the most curious with what fecundity he handled the most barren and with what solidity he made choice of the most important From thence proceed if you will to the equality of his Soul Consider what an absolute Command he had over his Senses and his Moderation that made him renounce all Pleasures Then after you have considered the regularity of his Manners consider also how easie they sate upon him What indulgence had he not for all those defects that might be supportable in a civil Life Did he not seem to believe that he singly was obliged to be Wise And directly opposite to the rest of Men did he not more easily dispense with the greatest
Example of all those who Mourn to prove that privation is but an occasion of Grief I can use for my own justification the example of all those who are Comforted Is it not true that those who are comforted are in a state of Privation as well as those who are Afflicted 'T is therefore probable that Privation is not precisely a cause of pain and that we must admit some other which suffers degrees and variations I am of opinion Madam it would not be improper here to discover to you this Cause and to let you see why it doth not act upon some particular minds Why it acts upon others Why it ceases or continues to act and in a word why it acts with more or less Violence But as this Discussion would engage me in too large a Field so it would put you to the expence of too intense an Application which perhaps in your present condition you are not capable of making I would treat you as a Lady of Resolution and Learning and also as a languishing or a curious Person I am for leaving to your She-Friends the care of sweetning your Affliction by their Tears and for reserving to my self the employment of engaging it with my Reasons But as I pretend to consine my self to useful things I will apply my self only to what may be proper for your cure To which end Madam you need only make a short Reflection upon the Causes of Grief You know that all Grief immediately proceeds from Separation and that there are two kinds of Separation For one relates to things continued and t'other to things united But you are perhaps still to be informed that the Separation of continued things occasions the pain of the Body and that the Separation of things united causes the pain in the Mind In the mean time 't is of no great importance to dwell longer upon this cause by reason it is not possible to hinder Separation from producing Pain and that it is even impossible to hinder Separations We must ascend somewhat higher and in that imitate the Conduct of the Physitians who seldom have any regard to the nearest Cause but always apply themselves to that which is remote because 't is that which seeds the Distemper and is the cause of ill Humours and 't is chiefly against this that their Remedies exert their Vertue The remote cause of the pain in the Mind is Opinion But what is this Opinion Some say that it is an undertermined Iudgment As for my self I take it to be the evil Choice of our Iudgment At least I don't apprehend how indetermination agrees with what one ordinarily calls Opinion There is nothing less indeterminate than that For does it not principally proceed from the force of Opinion that we expose our selves to Dangers to Vexations and to Death it self Wou'd we incur so many Hazards for real Benefits What likelihood then is there that Opinion would engage us so far if it was nothing but an undetermined Iudgment I have here great Discoveries to make to you did I rather propose to my self to satisfy your Mind than to calm your Heart I would then endeavour to shew you after what manner Opinion is formed and how it moves the Mind and the Body But when you have well considered that Opinion is the remote cause of Grief you will have almost all the Knowledg which is necessary for your Cure Pleasure and Pain are the Sentiments which our Soul has of what is agreeable or offensive to us But because nothing can feel if it doth not touch nor be felt if it is not touched it follows of necessity that what produces pleasure and pain must touch the Soul it is certain then that all sensible Beings necessarily touch it But all Beings are not necessarily sensible There are none but those which are delightful or prejudicial to us in themselves that are so and these are the Goods or Evils of Nature The rest which are called indifferent are not so but when they lose their indifference and they never lose it but when Opinion fastens to them the Idea of Good or Evil and then they become the Goods or Evils of Opinion But the Idea of Good or Evil is no sooner fix'd to an Object but the Soul unites it self with it or separates from it This Vnion is made by a kind of touch which gives pleasure to the Soul and this Separation is made by a motion which gives pain to it and which cannot be better expressed than by the word Divulsion which Physick has appropriated to its own use You see then Madam that the separation of the Soul from its Objects is the immediate Cause of Pain and that Opinion must be the remote Cause of it since it is the cause of this separation This Principle being once established it is easie to explain all the degrees and differences of Pain by the greater or lesser violence which the Soul endures in disengaging it self from those objects to which it was fastened But we must pass to a more useful consideration and observe after what manner Opinion acts against us that we may know how to act against Opinion I find then that Opinion cheats us three ways Sometimes it gives us an Idea of Good and Evil altogether false oftentimes it gives us one that is false in part and almost always misapplies their real Idea to objects It gives us an Idea of good and evil altogether false when it makes them pass with us for what they are not It gives us an Idea partly false when it makes us conceive them to be less or greater than they really are It misapplies their real Idea to Objects either when it applies it to an object from which it disagrees or to an object with which it agrees less than with another or to an object with which it agrees no more than all other objects of the like nature Thus although Existence and Nothing Life and Death are neither Goods not Evils yet Opinion has made them pass for the greatest Goods and the greatest Evils in the World Notwithstanding Health is the most valuable Gift of Nature yet the Covetous prefer the Gifts of Fortune to it and fear less to become indisposed than to become poor After that Opinion has given us these Ideas either absolutely false or false in part or misapplied as to the Objects it wholly puts the Soul upon possessing the Good or avoiding the Evil which it presents to it It prepossesses it so much that it hinders it from disposing it self to the contemplation and enjoyment of other Goods and leaves it no leisure to beware of other Evils and to avoid them Insomuch that it seems the Soul knows but one Single Good and one single Evil or at least but one great Good and one great Evil. This state of prepossession is a kind of divorce that the Soul makes from all other Goods in order to unite it self more strictly to the Good it espouses This Good which
presently they will not be so Your Grief appears somewhat long The Earth which covers the Ashes of your Friend is almost stiff Think upon recalling your firmness Reason and Decency do now oppose your Grief Your Friend opposes it himself and if you make use of his Precepts hereafter you shall be only free to extol his Merit to consider his Relations to cherish his Friends and to respect his Memory CHAP. I. Of the True and False Beauty of Ingenious Writings By Mr. SAVAGE IF the Idea which all Men have naturally of the True Beauty of Works of the Mind were not effac'd by the great Number of false Iudgments there would not be so mâ—ny various Opinions about their Merit For this Idea would be a certain Rule which every one would be obliged to follow unless one would expose himself to the Universal Censure of Readers who would easily discover when they were out of the way I will not here take notice of the Causes that have created in the greatest part of our Writers the common custom of giving so many wrongful Opinions Some of them are general which have so extinguisht the light of the Soul upon all objects which are not exposed to our Senses that there are Infinite Errors in all Sciences and even reach to the distinguishing of Good and Evil. There are some other particular Causes which are apt tohinder of themselves the knowing the true or false Beauty of the Works of the Mind when Reason would be otherwise Just Exact and Clear That which is must common is Precipitation For every one flatters himself that he is capable to judge either through Pride not to be thought Ignorant or through Affection and Hate according as one is engaged in any Party or through Imitation neither judging for or against but only as one has heard the World talk or in fine through Caprice Chance Elevatition and Sallie of Humour as happens oftentimes to persons of Quality who pretend that their Rank gives 'em all the necessary illuminations to know the Price and worth of the Gifts of the Mind But whatever these Causes are General or Particular the variety of Opinions is too evident to doubt the certainty of this truth viz that we don't judge upon the same Idea or by the same Rule tho' it be not certain there is one 'T is to form it in the Mind that Rhetorick and Poetry and the Art of writing History has been employ'd But the more rules are invented the more they seem to be neglected And 't is a wonder that the most expert Masters of the World as Aristotle Cicero Horace Quintilian c. should have so few perfect Followers It seems then that we ought to forsake the way of Precepts and search elsewhere for sure and immutable Guides either to Write Well or to Iudge well of the Merit of Authors To give ones self a just and exact Idea I think it would be necessary chiefly to examine any Book with some other which has acquired an Universal Approbation Malherbe in the late Reign excelled in the beauty of his Odes and they have preserved to this day the same Charms to their Intelligent and Judicious Readers Wherefore when you read any Ode to the Glory of this King compare the Stile with that of Malherbe and according as you find 'em agree so you may venture to decide But then the Piece you compare it to must be of establish'd reputation and which you must be sure is like to continue such we have seen several Authors who have had very great Applause but it only continued for a very few years during which the buzzing of the Readers and the suffrage of their Friends gave 'em their short-liv'd worth There are but very few true Modells Voiture himself is none and much less Balzac The pretty Conceits of Voiture and the Flights of Balzac have both an Affectation which naturally displeases The one endeavours to be agreeable and make us laugh in whatever humour we are The other would be admir'd and esteem'd by the number of his Words and the excess of Amplifications The two Letters writ to Monsieur de Vivonne imitating both their manners of Writing are an excellent Satyr on their Stile and easily discover the ridiculousness of these two Authors who were not long since so famous It were easie to foretell that such will be the Fate of a certain Author who Composes his Works upon the Memoirs of the Streets and Female Fooleries who believes that all the beauty of a Book when the subject is the Life of a Saint consists in bringing in some new term or smart expression and is very well satisfied with himself when the Period which has neither depth nor solidity rowls agreeably to the Point But not to make any further offensive Predictions we know that Seneca writ no otherwise than scattering through all his Works Points Antithesis's and Paradoxes He surprized his Times with the Arrogance of his Decisions and there are some yet alive who hold him for a Model of Eloquence But they must write very ill that imitate him and they may be assur'd to tire those Readers that have any taste or relish 'T is not with these extraordinary flourishes that Nature explains her self Whatever requires a continual attention displeases because the greatest part of Men are not capable of it There is a force and weakness in all Writers whatever This Fantastical mixture makes us naturally conclude those Works to be disagreeable where we must have too intense a thought to conceive 'em or at least are so much below one that they deserve not the least regard Nevertheless there are but few good Writings where the Author excell'd so far as to stand for a Model We have Homer and Virgil for Heroick Poetry Horace is a perfect Original of Satyrs Epistles and Familiar Discourses I dont say the same thing of his Odes and I would explain my self farther if the excellency of some of 'em did not oblige me to a respectful silence of the rest If the Author of the long Comments upon him disapproves my Opinion I will add what may perhaps appease him That those of Anacreon are more lively more sweet more engaging and by consequence more perfect Let 's return to the Authors of our own Language Corneille and Racine are admirable in Tragedies nevertheless it were to be wisht that the cleanness of Expression in Corneille suited with the variety and abundant fertility of his Thoughts Few Authors can arrive to represent so many different Characters To invent so many Intrigues To make so many Persons Reason with so much connexion and solidity We assist at the very Action whilst he does but represent it and pass immediatly from the figure to the reality 'T is Augustus that we hear speak in Cinna 'T is the Cid that we see in his first work who Cause so much talk in the Court and the City and was as it were the signal of the course where
if it be possible to find a better Life being short and the occasions of improving it very rare To the Earl of Ormond ALL Men have a mind to be Happy This Desire leaves us not during the course of our Lives 't is a Truth wherein all the World are of one Opinion But to render our selves Happy with less trouble and to be so with Security without fearing to be disturb'd in one's Happiness we ought to act in such a manner My Lord that others may be so with us for if one pretends to take care only of himself he will find continual Oppositions And when we will not be happy but upon condition that others may be so likewife all Obstacles are removed and all the World agrees with us 'T is this management of Happiness for our selves and others which we ought to call Honesty and which properly speaking is nothing but Self-love well manag'd Honesty ought then to be consider'd as the desire of being Happy but after a manner that others may be so too Let us look into let us examine all Vertuous Actions and we shall find they are all of this Nature and that they all move upon the same Principle To possess this Honesty in the highest Degree we ought to have a sound Understanding and our Hearts honest and both to agree together By the power of our Understanding we know what is most Just and most Reasonable to say and do and by the Honesty of the Heart we never fail to be willing to do and say the same When a Man has but one of these two he cannot pretend to compleat Honesty for the power of the former does vainly comprehend Reason and Justice if the integrity of the Heart ben't on its side nothing is executed nothing is done And in like manner if the integrity of the Heart be alone and the Assistance of the Soul be wanting to guide it it will blindly feell out its way without ever knowing exactly the road it ought to take These two things are Essential to make an honest Man and since 't is so rare a matter to see them separately how much ought it to be more rare to see them together But My Lord when they meet in the same Person What Greatness do they not show what Justice what Charms and what Reason A Man of this Character compleats equally all his Duties however extended or different they may be He is a good Subject a good Father a good Friend a good Citizen a good Master He is Indulgent Humane Assisting Charitable and Sensible of the Misfortunes of another He is Circumspect he is Modest he doth not act the Man of Censure or Pride he takes notice of another's Faults but never talks of them nor does seem to have seen them He is not in the least interess'd but as he knows the Necessities of Life his Conduct is always regulated and he never lives in Disorder He is not mov'd but by true Merit That which is call'd Grandeur Authority Fortune Riches all these do not enchant him and 't is this which hinders him from taking sometimes the way to Fortune Although he be agreeable and of good Converse yet he is enough retir'd and loves not a Crowd So we may see he seldom endeavours to show himself upon the Theatre of the World but if his Birth or Fortune are pleas'd to place him there as he has a vast Wit as he is prodigiously Apprehensive Penetrating Expert and what not he performs his Part esxceedingly well The honest Man makes a great account of Wit but yet he makes a greater of Reason He loves Truth in all things he would willingly know all things but is not vext if he knows nothing He takes care of all examines all knows the Worth Force and Weakness of all He esteems nothing but according to its true Value The nicest Errors and Disappointments do not impose upon him nor make any Impression upon his Mind The honest Man in short says nothing and does nothing which is not Agreeable Just Reasonable and which does not lead to the making all Men Happy 'T is then evident My Lord That to make the World Happy 't is necessary to establish Honesty in it But to bring this about 't would not suffice to know in what Condition it is at present in 't is necessary also to know how it ought to be and how it would be in effect if all Men were Reasonable In the present Estate of the World every thing is almost out of Order Honesty has no place in it and honest Men live in it as it were a strange Country The Re-establishment of Honesty amongst Men would be easie for Kings and to accomplish this great Work they would have nothing else to do but to prefer good Men and punish the bad If all Men were reasonable there would be nothing among us but our Natural Infirmities as Sickness Old Age and Death Nevertheless we have a thousand others as Prevention Madness Ambition Perfidiousness Ignorance and the Contempt of Knowledge There is nothing else in the World that attracts the eyes and esteem of all Men but great Birth and the Glory of War all other Deserts if I may speak so are sad and languishing and not taken notice of 'T is very just that the Merits of War should be consider'd the Fatigues Wounds and Death itself to which the Brave are so often expos'd ought yet to be more taken notice of then they are Nevertheless if one compares the Honours that are bestowed upon 'em with those of Persons dignify'd in other Arts we shall find that they are enough rewarded There is this unhappiness in the Merit of the Mind that few People understand it and that even in this small number there are some who have no great esteem for it It is not the same with Riches all the World esteems them the Poor as well as the Rich The other Gifts of Fortune have the same advantages the Men of the lowest birth aim at Greatness and do what they can to raise themselves c. Maxims for the Vse of Life MEN never commend freely and without interest Some advantage must come to 'em or it must cost him something considerable that has a mind to be well prais'd Those that are of high Birth are continually respected their name alone is a great Elogy there is not a greater Priviledge amongst Men. The Conditions of the most Unfortunate are the most despised their Miserie 's alone are not enough but there must be added to 'em Shame and Scorn Men are in truth very cruel One must never say Citizen Country Boor and such like All these names are injurious and words of contempt one must endeavour to avoid 'em for they do but create malice amongst Men but we must preserve the names of Knave Traytor Ungrateful Fellow and others of such nature on purpose to cast a shame on those that deserve it We ought not to despise those that are in want but
rather on the contrary give 'em some marks of our Esteem And as Contempt is it may be one of the greatest misfortunes of Poverty we may sweeten in some manner their troubles by declaring without affectation that we do not esteem 'em less however unhappy they be One must be affable and courteous to one's Domesticks and by this behaviour comfort 'em in their conditions 'T is the work of Fortune that they are so low and that we are above'em We must not be rigorous in what regards our own interests Nothing becomes a Man better than to release a little of his priviledge One must avoid great Play 't is a Divertisement too dangerous Anger Heat and Quarrels accompany it always it procures a Man often times bad nights and at long run it perpetually incommodes him Nor is this all he must be always upon his gard lest he be cheated and 't is but an uneasie condition to be always as in an Enemy's Country A Man ought not to have any thing remarkable or too gay in his Habit Discourse or Manners It seems to me that the modest Air becomes one better than that which they call the Bel-air 't is good to have in one's Countenance something great that procures both Esteem and Respect but the Courteous and Honest Air does not create less good Effects 't is from thence that we make our selves belov'd For the fierce Air that is so much esteem'd in my Opinion is only proper for War We ought to learn not to disquiet our selves and to study well this Lesson The Court if I may say so is an Epitome of the whole Kingdom whatever is most Exquisite and Pure is there met with The manner of speaking the the Modes the Air and the Customs are there excellent The greatest part of these things are not learnt but by the Success as Physick is not well understood but by Experience However it seems to me that one ought to endeavour to know them by their Causes which would be the best and surest way And to this end we ought to know the nature of those things which please and be skill'd in the Hearts of Men. There is no other Study but how to please in the Courts of Princes because there a Man makes his Fortune by rendring himself agreeable Hence it comes that Courtiers are so Polisht On the contrary in Towns and Republicks where Men manage their Affairs by Labour the the last of their Cares is to Please and 't is that which renders them so Clownish That which we call the Last in a Figurative Sence is a very rare thing and is found but in very few People One can scarce learn it or teach it but it must be born with us Exquisite Knowledge seems to be above it and carries a greater Latitude but in truth for the Commerce of the World and most affairs of Life a true Judgment equals its Worth and possesses its place When we have got this Advantage we ought not to despise those which have it not To be agreeable and good Company a Man ought to think discreetly and readily upon all that is said in Conversation and this cannot be if one has not an excellent Wit a great deal of Memory and an Imagination suitable One ought also to be Master of one's Language by knowing all the Niceties Beauties and Delicacies of it We ought to suit ourselves to the Capacities of those we converse with and to take in some manner the Heighth and the Degree of their Wit We ought to take a great deal of care not to affect the Vanity to be the head of the Company One makes himself more agreeable when one hears willingly and without Jealousie and susters others to have Wit as well as himself There is no Subject so barren upon which there may not be something well said but even when the Subject affords nothing a Man of sense has always in Reserve some agreeable manner of speaking of which he is an absolute Master and which can never fail him Apt Words are rare and depend upon Time and Chance Narratives and Stories do not always succeed we ought not to make use of them often but when we find ourselves engaged in them we must take care that they be not long and that there be always something particular and diverting to surprize the Company One must avoid Repetitions We care not to hear what we know already and we can reap no more benefit by Things that are New Great Universal and those which have the Air of great Persons are always pleasing because Men are Curious because they despise those things that are limited and of small consequence and are commonly very much affected with Grandeur 'T is for this Reason that what comes from the Country from little Towns and private Quarters is but indifferently received We are apt to imagine that Politeness and a good Tast is not to be found there The same Reason occasions also that Figures dâ—â—wn from War Hunting and the Sea are so well receiv'd and that we cannot endure those that are taken from mean Professions of which the World makes but small account One must not expect that Conversations should be always equal they depend upon Chance as well as other things A Man can't become Learn'd or Agreeable if he does not love Reading without it the best natural Parts are commonly dry and barren He ought to behave himself so that in his Actions Discourse and Manners there may be always a certain Air of Politeness that never forsakes him Nothing is more shameful than to be Ignorant Politeness is a mixture of Discretion Civility Complaisance and Circumspection accompanied with an agreeable Air scatter'd throughout whatever one says or does And as so many things are Essentially necessary to acquire this Politeness it is no wonder if it is uncommon Whether it is that Women are naturally more Polite or that to please them the Spirit raises and embellishes itself 't is principally from them that this Politeness is learnt A Letter to Monsieur Justel By Mr. Savage I Am over-joy'd to see you in England The Conversation of a Man so Knowing and so Curious as you will give me a great deal of Satisfaction But permit me to disapprove of the Resolution you have taken to quit France so long as I see you maintain for her so tender and so loving a Memory When I see you doleful and desolate on the shoar of our Thames wishing for Paris you put me in mind of the poor Israelites bewailing their Jerusalem upon the Banks of Euphrates Either live happy in England in an entire Liberty of Conscience or accommodate your self to the Catholick Religion in your own Country to enjoy the advantages you thirst after Is it possible that Images Ornaments Ceremonies and other such like things upon which you establish so many ill grounded Disputations and which you make so unreasonably the Subject of Separation should trouble the Quiet of Nations and be the