Family A Letter to Monsieur the Count de C. By the same Hand AS I interest my self infinitely in all that concerns you the particulars of your gallant Actions have created in me a sincere pleasure Persons that have been perfectly acquainted with 'em have taken the pains to send me an account of 'em and I should be ready to complain to you for concealing them as a Secret if I did not fear to disturb a Joy so great as yours by reproaches of Friendship How truly Glorions are you Sir after having so often given proofs of your Valour against the Enemies of the State to have vanquish'd amidst the Delights of the City the most merciless Creature in the World and who had defy'd all the Earth I know that charming Person in whom Beauty Wit and Manners seem to dispute which shall gain her the greatest Esteem lovely delicious and now for you only becomes a Lover In truth Sir I enter into those very Transports which have made you forget all the World to imprint in your Soul only the Idea of a Person so accomplisht I pardon your abandoning yourself wholly to her and I conceive it is difficult for you to have any Kindness left for Madam de L. who is so much below her in Charms of Body But at length Sir your forgetting and abandoning excusable in the beginnings of so great a Fortune would be so no longer if they should last always You know that Madam de L. has a Merit very much distinguisht you know all that you owe her She loves you as much as ever any lov'd Ought not her Love then to take place of Beauty And this Acknowledgment with which you were smitten so much heretofore does it not oblige you to some manner of Return For my part I confess to you that the Description she makes of your Insensibility and of her Griefs is so lively and touching in the Letter she writ to me upon this Subject that I cannot avoid entring into her Interests Suffer then Sir I beseech you my Remonstrances you owe this to our Friendship and I owe them to the Confidence that an Unhappy Lady has repos'd in me I do not mean here that you should forsake in favour of her this Beauty that so bewitches you you have nothing more to do than to give yourself the trouble to deceive Madam L. You will do it easily because she 'll assist you herself And I believe you will not pretend to so squeamish a conscience as to make a scruple of it You are not ignorant that your new love will be mixt with some Confusions and Coldnesses you may allow those Intervals to Madam L. and she 'll be content with 'em and you may make use of her to re-inflame the fires of t'other that unlucky Accidents or a meer Cessation may extinguish Yet once more Sir do not despise a Woman that a great many others would be glad of permit her to think that she has yet some place in your breast Alcibiades did not disdain to eat course Bread and black Porridge with the Lacedemonians after he had tasted the Delights of Athens he came out of the arms of the lovely Aspasia the most charming Creature of all Greece where he enjoyed all the Spirit and Delicacy of a tender Love and yet submitted himself to the Embraces of the Queen of Sparta whose Manners were fulsom and who was very far from having the Charms of Aspasia See here Sir an Example to follow consider also with a little attention the Character of Alcibiades and you may find it throughout to have much resemblance with yours which I presume will not be thought disadvantageous A Letter to Madam D. D. B. C. By the same Hand FRom what I understand Madam you 've a mind to become a Religious I thank God for it with all my heart having more need in your Conversation of the Purity of Sentiments you are about to have then all those you may be inspired with from the Conversation of Men. I conjure you then in the name of Heaven to take up a sincere Devotion and to render it such as it ought to be take care to avoid the Defects which that of other People is so often accompanied with There are some Men who think they have the ardour of a lively Zeal There are some who enjoy themselves in a good and solid Piety There are others who could be able to die for God through the Sentiments of a couragious Faith But in truth there are very few who can live according to the Laws of the Gospel and Religion You may expect all from their Heat where there is occasion to employ it but you must hope almost nothing from 'em where there is need of Constancy and Discretion Let us see how they behave themselves in things which God requires from their Submission and when they show a Rule in their Manners a Modesty in their Conversation a Patience in Injuries then will I be convinc'd of their Devotion by their Conduct Govern yourself Madam by the Errors of others and having a mind to give yourself to God let that less enter into your Devotion which you love than that which pleases him If you do not take care in this your heart may bear its inclinations to him without receiving the impressions of his Grace and you will be altogether your own when you think you are altogether his Not but that there may be an holy and happy Agreement between his will and yours you may love what he loves you may desire what he desires but we do commonly by a pleasing and secret Impression that which we desire of ourselves and 't is this which ought to render us more attentive and inclin'd to do nothing but by a consideration of what he enjoyns You need not nevertheless for this reason subject yourself wholly to the Conduct of those Directers who make use in their Maxims of a certain Spiritual niceness which you do not understand nor perhaps they themselves The Will of God is not so conceal'd but it may be discover'd by those who have a mind to follow it and generally speaking you 'll have less need of Inspiration than Submission Those things which have relation to your desires are easily understood and easily follow'd Those which encounter your inclinations explain themselves enough but Nature resists and an indocible Soul defends its self from their Impression I should desire then Madam two things of you in the Devotion you are about to engage your self in the first is That you would take care not to raise your Heart to God because you believe it more proper for the Passions of Men. The second is That you would not disguise your Animosities under an appearance of Zeal or prosecute those you with ill to under a false pretence of Piety A Relation of a Dispute between the Mareschal of Hocquincourt and Father Canaye a Iesuite By M. D. S. E. AS I din'd t'other day with the Mareschal d'
the choice of the Men with whom I Convers'd then at present I am and I think my self not so much a Loser in point of Delicacy as a gainer in point of Sense I then sought for Men that cou'd please me in every thing I now seek every thing that may please me in any Man A Man in all respects agreeable is too great a Rarity and it is no Wisdom to hunt for what we are hardly ever like to find That Delicacy of pleasure which our imagination paints to us is what we seldom enjoy the sickly nice Fancy gives us a disrelish of those things which we during the whole course of our lives might obtain Not that to say Truth it is impossible to find such Jewels but it is very rarely that Nature forms 'em and that Fortune favours us with ' em My good Stars made me know one of this rank in France and another of equal merit in a Forreign Country who was the whole delight of my Life Death has robbed me of this Treasure and I can never think on that cruel day on which Monsieur Daubigny died but I may with a sad and sensible regrett say Quem semper acerbum Semper honoratum sic dî voluistis habebo Among your other measures for the conduct of Society you must take care to apprehend the good things seperately beware to distinguish Solidity from Prolixity good Nature from want of Sense Science from Ridicule You will find these Qualities promiscuously blended not only among those Men whom you may at pleasure make choice of or repudiate but even among those whom your interest or other tyes as obligatory shall bind you to I have seen a Man of the gayest natural parts in the World lay aside the happy facility of his Genious and engage in Arguments of Science and Religion in which he betray'd a ridiculous ignorance I know one of the most Learned Men in Europe of whom one may Learn a Thousand things curious or profound in whom nevertheless you will find an impotence of Beleif in every thing extraordinary fabulous or exceeding Credit That great Master of the Stage to whom the Romans are more beholding for the Beauty of their thoughts then to their own Wit or Vertue Corneille who sufficiently discovers himself without naming speaks like an ordinary Man when he speaks for himself He exhausts all his stock of thought for a Greek or a Roman A French-man or Spaniard abates his courage and when he speaks for him he is quite dispirited He racks his imagination for all that is noble to adorn his Old Heroe's and you would say that he debarr'd himself the advantage of his own proper Wealth as if he were not worthy the use of it If you know the World perfectly you will find in it abundance of Men valuable for their Talent and as contemptible for their failing Expect not they shou'd always display their good Qualities and discreetly cover their Infirmities You shall see 'em slight their Vertues and fondly indulge their defects It rests upon your Judgment to make a better choice then themselves and by your Address to draw from 'em that worth which they cou'd not easily communicate For these Ten Years which I have spent in a Forreign Country I have found as much pleasure and been as happy in the enjoyment of Conversation as if I had been all the time in France I have met with Persons of as great Worth as Quality whose Society has been the greatest comfort of my Life I have known Men as witty as any I have ever seen who have join'd the pleasure of their Friendship to that of their Company I have known some Ambassadors so delicate that it seem'd to me a considerable loss whenever the Duty of their Character suspended the exercise of their more peculiar Excellencies I have formerly thought that there were no Man of Honour but in our Court that the effeminacy of warmer Climates and a kind of Barbarity in the colder hinder'd the Natives from being rais'd to this pitch except very rarely But experience has at length convinc'd me that there are such every where and if I have not discocover'd it soon enough it is because it is difficult for a French-man under long use to relish any but those of his own Country Every Nation has it's excellence with a certain turn proper and peculiar to its Genious My Judgement too much wedded to our own Air rejected as faulty what was Foreign to us Because we see 'em imitate us in the Fashion of things Exterior we wou'd impose upon 'em the imitation of us even in the Dress of Vertue too In truth the grounds of any Essential Quality are every where the same but we endeavour to fit the Extrinsicks to our Humour and those among us that pay the greatest deference to Reason must have with it something to gratifie their Fancies The difference which I find between the Air of us and other Nations to speak ingenuously is that ours is industriously affected and that of other Nations impressed by Nature as it were in an indelible Character In all my life I have never known but two Persons that were universally taking and those differently The one had agreeable Qualities of all sorts for the ordinary sort of Men for the Humorists and even for the Fantastical he seem'd to have in his Nature wherewith to please every body The other had so many rare Accomplishments that he might assure himself of esteem where-ever Vertue was rever'd The first cou'd insinuate himself and never fail'd to gain the Affections The second was somewhat morose and fierce but commanded esteem To compleat this difference a Man gave himself up with pleasure to the insinuations of the former and submitted oftentimes with reluctance to the worth of the latter I had a strict Friendship with 'em both and can say That I never saw anything in the one but what was agreeable or in the other but what was valuable When I want the company of men of Conversation I have recourse to the Learned and if I meet with Men skilfull in polite Learning I think my self no great loser by exchangeing of the delicacy of the present for that of past Ages But there are very few that have a true Judgment Polite Learning is by most Mens management rendered very nauseous Of all the Men I ever knew Antiquity is the most indebted to Mr. Waller not only for the nicety and fineness of his apprehension which he employs to dive even into the Soul of the Antients for their true meaning but likewise for the Beauty of his Fancy with which he embellishes their Thoughts too I have seen in few Years abundance of Criticks and but few good Judges I affect not that sort of Learned Men that rack their Brains to restore a Reading which is not mended by the Restitution The whole Mystery of their Learning lyes in what we might as well be ignorant of and what is worth the knowing they
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
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
Asia in order to raise her own Grief and that of the Spectators for who is it that can avoid being sensibly touched with this Discourse Must Ilium then the Scene of all my Joys Must all this Wealth be made a Grecian prize The rich aspiring Mansions of the Gods Worthy their names their presence and abodes And glitt'ring Roofs Or what heart would she not inspire with horror and pity when she thus goes on All this I saw consum'd by impious Fire And Priam by a barb'rous hand expire â—ove's Altar with the Royal Victim stain'd And Hector's Blood by common dust prophan'd Nor was this all But my prevailing Miseries to Crown From a high Tower his Son thrown head-long down So that I don 't at all wonder if the people of Rome were strangely affected when they heard these Verses repeated or if when I read them my self I cannot forbear the Tribute of a few Tears To say the Truth Hecuba had great reason to complain of her ill Destiny she had lost her Husband her Son her Kingdom and her Liberty If she had beheld these Calamities without lamenting them she had been insensible and we should be inhumane if after so many Losses we should hinder her Tears But then after she had for some time wept we should not be at all unjust to prescribe bounds to her Grief to regulate her Complaints and her Sorrow and lastly to advise her to oppose strength of Reason to that of Despair Some Persons that are touched with her Complaints may perhaps alledge in her Justification that those who would limit her Grief and not suffer it to exceed its first Motions would resign themselves up to it till the very last Moments of their Life if they once shared with her those Misfortunes the weight of which they can only conjecture and that our Philosophy which speaks of nothing less than Conquests and Triumphs would faint under such a pressure of Calamities if it saw them present and inevitable Now for my part I wish a perpetual Sunshine of Prosperity to so tender so melting a Man as this is for no doubt on 't if any Disgrace happens to him he will discover his Infirmities very plentifully on this condition that by way of requital to me for my Wish he will dispense with me for not believing what he says nor oblige me to judge of the strength of Philosophy by the weakness of his Reason For without losing any time to refute word by word this sort of Reasoning which can obtain credit no where but amongst effeminate Men I shall content my self to convince those Persons that make use of it by two known Examples that ought to overwhelm them with confusion These Examples are drawn from two Persons whom their Age and their Sex ought to render extremely feeble but who notwithstanding all this weakness preserved such a presence of mind that I shall despair to find the like among the Philosophers Let us consider Astianax and Polixena as they are going to die one is a Boy the other a young Maid The Greeks had condemned both of them to Death Observe Vlysses who advances first leading the former by the hand and marching hastily to throw him down the Precipice But see the Child does not follow him with less Assurance Sublimi gradu Incedit Ithacus parvulum dextrâ trahens Priami Nepotem nec gradu segni puer Ad alta pergit moenia Consider that amongst all those that accompany him and weep for him he is the only Person whose eyes are dry and who refuses to pay Tears to his own death Observe that whilst these barbarous Executioners invoke the Gods to this bloody Sacrifice he throws himself headlong from the Tower from the top of which they were to cast him and voluntarily puts an end to that Life which he had scarce begun But now turn your eyes on the other side for by this time Polixena is placed upon Achilles's Tomb and only waits the fatal Blow which is to appease the Anger of the Greeks and to rejoyn her Soul to that of her Parents Admire her Beauty that still appears so charming and so serene Her Countenance is not at all changed with the Apprehensions of Death On the other Hand this Sun which is going to set for ever seems to receive a new Splendor at the last moments of its light Nay there is something in her air more bold and undaunted than her Sex and her present Circumstances ought to promise And to do her right she is not content to wait the Blow for without avoiding it she goes to meet it with an Heroick Bravery Conversa ad ictum stat truci vultu ferox And when Pyrrhus has given her the cruel stroke it seems that her last Action is an Action of Courage that she does not suffer herself to fall upon the Sepulchre of Achilles but with a design to make the earth lie more heavy upon him and to revenge herself upon him even as she dies Tell me now freely is it not a shame for Hecuba to see her Children more couragious than herself Tell me whether it looks well for her to shed so many Tears when Astianax and Polyxena die without shedding any Tell me whether you don't think these two Persons infinitely happy in comparison of this miserable Creature Or if you have nothing to say for her confess at last with us that she has too little courage in her Misfortunes and that she wanted strength of Mind to resent them less cruelly Now if it be true that Weakness is the only thing that renders our Misfortunes insupportable to us and which causing us to abandon the Helm in the most violent Tempests makes us suffer Shipwrack in those places where we might have rode securely ought we not to search after this strength of Mind to serve us instead of an Anchor to oppose it to the fury of the Wind and Water and preserve us from the violence of the Storm We ought to sustain our selves by this Pillar which serves as the Basis to Pleasure and to joyn this Virtue to Temperance and Wisdom and that we may live in repose and in a privation of Misery believe that by her influence a couragious persevering Spirit is above all Pain and ill Fortune since it despises Death and is so prepared for Pain that it always reshembers itself that Death is the remedy of the most violent ones that the lesser have abundance of good Intervals and that it is the Master of the ordinary ones Matters being thus we ought to say that we don't blame Cowardise and Weakness as also that we don't practise Temperance and Valour for their own particular respect but that we are to reject the former and desire the latter because those foment Griefs but these preserve us from them It only remains now for us to examine Justice and then we shall have dispatched the principal Virtues But these things one may say on this Chapter are almost the same with
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
he carryed away the Prize Not but that the copiousness of his Subject the whole exttent whereof he penetrates his vast imagination and his Inexhaustible Genius sometimes has left in his Expressions too much confusion as if it were impossible to be profound and solid and yet clear enough at the same time to be understood But these Faults hinder not but Authors of this Reputation may pass for excellent Models If I were obligd to speak precisely which of the two I would choose for a Model when I were to write for the Theatre I would answer That it were more difficult to follow the former and that 't would be more sure to imitate the latter So much shall suffice upon this Subject and I do not think it necessary to tarry any longer upon the first Head At present I will make bold to add That instead of asking your self Would Virgil have writ after this manner Did Malherb sing his excellent Odes in such a tone Or if you please Is it thus that Corneille or Moliere drew to their Theatres both the Court and the whole Kingdom Ask you your self Is there any Method more confus'd than that of this Work Is there any Design less ingenious The Expressions could they ever be more imperfect Is there any Imitation more low and servile than that of this Book This is a fault very common and it oftentimes happens that one becomes a very bad Copier of a very good Original We ought also to take a great deal of care not to fall into the Whimsical design of that Painter who being to draw an extravagant Picture of Helena which he design'd to represent perfectly beauteous advis'd with himself to give her all the Graces that he had heard commended in the fairest persons In effect changing her Lips into Coral her Cheeks into Roses and her Eyes into Suns and unskilfully joining 'em together he made a Figure like to that which Horace describes in his Epistle to the Piso's 'T is certain he had a mind to laugh But Authors are serious people they are careful of their Reputation and copy with gravity But in short whatever good a opinion an Author may have of himself 'T is an easy matter to mortify his self-pride which these people cannot forbear shewing to their Friends by defying them to write worse upon the same Subject In such a case we ought to show our sincerity in the utmost degree and to explain our selves with the greatest freedom against the ridiculous Opinionatrate of those Scriblers who never read but to court your applause and not your Critiscism how reasonable and just soever it may be Nevertheless we ought to take care that we don't mistake implicity as where it is admirable for downright meanness 'T is the perfection of every Work and if I dare say so the embellishment of Beauty it self Horace has given us this advice when he would have the manner of explaining our selves appear so natural that thereupon an ordinary Reader might judge it would be very easy to speak the same things tho is nothing but a reflection upon all that is fine and delicate discovers the difficulty to express our selves with the same good Fortune Truth has nothing changeable in it Falsity imitates Truth in all sorts of ways We always find out the last if we have recourse to the first but are often cheated if we are not very diligent to discover the Imposture When we follow Reason with steadiness and arrive at thinking aptly and expressing truly our thoughts 't is impossible that the Reader should not be mov'd because there is in all men a natural propensity to Truth So that what is really false cannot please any longer than we are dazled with the appearance of Truth under which only it shews it self Upon this score if the Expression be mean it will present without trouble a great number of the like to your mind But if it be simple do what you will it will please you and you will think it the finest thing you ever saw If your Wit is not much superior to the Author's and your Experience in the Art of Writing much more advanc'd than his For this simplicity has different degrees of perfection as all other Objects have that present themselves to us But it we have a mind to profit by the two Rules we have already propos'd we must necessarily have some knowledge of the defects that are to be found in the most perfect Authors For it is not my design here to instruct ordinary persons but make some Remarks for the entertainment of the Curious The first is That one ought not to make use of Metaphors too often nor too longe We are very much wean'd from it in this age and since the world has taken a new measure of the taste of true Eloquence all this pompous heap of glittering falsities has disappear'd The Learned men of the last Age who were fill'd with it by reading some of the Antients be liev'd their Stile was adorn'd and set out by Metaphors there was then as strange a caprice in Eloquence as in their other Opinions At the vanishing of that profound Darkness wherein the foregoing Ages were as it were lull'd asleep we wak'd suddenly and then knew not distinctly enough which was the better side The use of Figurative and Metaphorical Expressions was first abolish'd from that minute when we begun to discern more clearly what we ought to say The French Genius which is lively natural and sincere cannot endure these Languishing Artificial and Embarras'd Discourses Nevertheless we have some Metaphors still left and it does not displease us to see Flames in Anger and Love but these Expressions are become proper and literal and can deceive no body The second Remark is That 't is an inexcusable fault to pass from one Metaphor by which we have begun to a new one and so to connect Images which have no agreement amongst themselves When a man is careful to write well he knows how to continue and support the same Idea I pitty him says the Author of the Characters I give him for lost he is cast away It is not thus that we ought to make use of the Wind to arrive at the delightsome Port of Fortune You see he takes care to mix nothing that is foreign with the first Image he gave us to express what the Rich think of the conduct of Philosophy This person is represented as it were upon the Sea The Rich Man saw he would be Ship-wrackt He saw him out of the road He judged that 't was not so that he ought to make use of the Wind and that he would never arrive at the Port of Fortune There is not here one term which is not Ally'd with the rest But the Author had committed an unpardonable Solecism If after all these expressions taken from Navigation he had hapned to say It is not thus one ought to bear against the Wind and build his fortune This
Hocquincourt Father Canaye who din'd there also let fall the Discourse insensibly upon the Submission of the Spirit that Religion requires of us and having related to us many new Miracles and some modern Revolations he concluded that we ought to avoid more than the Plague those head-strong Spirits who would examine all things by Reason To whom do you talk of head-strong Spirits says the Mareschal And who has known them better than me Bardouville and St. Thibal were the best of my Friends 't was they that engag'd me on the side of Monsieur le Comte against Cardinal Richelieu If I were acquainted with many more of these head-strong Wits I would write a Book of all they have said Bardouville being dead and St. Thibal retir'd into Holland I entertain'd a Friendship with Lafrete and Sauve Beuf these were not head-strong Wits but brave Men. Lafrete was a gallant Man and my very good Friend and I think that I have sufficiently testifi'd my self to have been his in the Distemper that he dy'd of I saw him die of a small Feaver which would have scarce killed a Woman and was enrag'd to see Lafrete that Lafrete who fought Bouteville go out neither better nor worse than a Farthing Candle We were concern'd Sauve Beuf and I to preserve the Honour of our Friend which made me take a resolution to kill him with a Pistol-bullet that he might dye like a Man of Courage I clapt the Pistol to his Head when a certain Bougre of a Jesuit pusht my Arm aside and hinder'd my Design This put me in so great a rage that presently I resolv'd to become a Iansenist Take notice my Lord says the Father take notice how Satan is always lying in wait for us Circuit Quaerens quem Devoret You conceive a kind of Displeasure against our Order which he takes occasion of to surprize and devour you nay worse than devour you to make you turn Iansenist Vigilate Vigilate One cannot be too much upon his guard against the common Enemy of Mankind The Father 's in the right says the Mareschal I have heard that the Devil never sleeps We must have a good Guard a good Foot and a good Eye upon him But let 's leave the Devil and discourse of the things I love I have lov'd War above all things Madam de Monbazon next to War and such as you see me Philosophy after Madam de Monbazon You have reason to love War replys the Father and War also loves you she has crown'd you likewise with Honour Don't you know that I am also a Warrior The King has given me the Direction of the Hospital of his Army in Flanders Is not this enough to be a Warrier Who would ever have believ'd that Father Canaye should ever have become a Soldier I am such my Lord and do not render less Service to God in the Camp than I did in the College of Clermont You may then love War innocently to go to War is to love one's Prince and to serve one's Prince is to serve God But as for what concerns Madam de Monbazon if you have lusted after her you must permit me to tell you that your Desires were criminal You should not lust after her my Lord but love her with an innocent Friendship What says the Mareschal would you have me love like a Sot The Mareschal of Hocquincourt has not learnt in Ladies Chambers to do nothing but Sigh I would my Father I would you understand me well I would Oh how many I would In truth my Lord you rally with a good Grace Our Fathers of St. Louis would be astonisht at these I woulds When one has been a great while in the Army one learns to bear all No more no more you speak this my Lord I suppose to divert your self There is no such Divertisement in 't Father Do you know for what design I lov'd her Vsque ad Aras My Lord No Aras my Father Look here says the Marshal taking a Knife and grasping the Haft fast in his hand look here if she had commanded me to kill you I would have buried the Blade in your Heart Father Canaye surprised at this Discourse and more frighted at the Transport had immediate recourse to his Mental Devotion and prayed God secretly that he would deliver him from the danger wherein he found himself But not trusting altogether to Prayer he leap'd insensibly out of the Marshal's reach by an unperceivable motion of his Buttocks The Marshal followed him in the like manner and one that had seen his Knife always lifted up would have sworn that he was going to put his Order into Execution My ill Nature made me take pleasure a while in the fears of our Reverend Spark but fearing at length that the Marshal in his Transports might render that Scene melancholy which was before only pleasant I caus'd him to remember that Madam de Monbazon was dead and told him That fortunately the Father Canaye had nothing to fear from a Person that was no more God does all for the best replies the Marshal The fairest Woman in the World began to play the fool with me when she dy'd There was always near her a certain Abbot de Rauce who talkt to her of Grace before People and entertain'd her with other things in private This made me forsake the Iansenists before I never miss'd a Sermon of Father Desmarez and never swore but by the Gentlemen of Port-Royal I have always been at Confession with the Jesuits since that time And if my Son has ever any Children I am resolv'd they shall study at the Colledge of Clermont upon pain of being disinherited Oh how wonderful are the Ways of God! crys out Father Canaye How profound is the Mystery of his Justice A little Weather-cock of a Iansenist to follow a Lady whom my Lord wisht well to The merciful God made use of Jealousie to put the Conscience of my Lord into our hands Mirabilia Iudicia tua Domine Wonderful are thy Judgments O Lord After the good Father had finisht his pious Reflections I thought it might be permitted me to enter into the Discourse and I askt the Marshal If the Love of Philosophy had not succeeded his Passion for Madam de Monbazon I have lov'd Philosophy but too well said the Marshal I have lov'd it but too well but I have at length left it and will trouble my head with it not more A Dog of a Philosopher had so puzzled my Brain about our first Parents the Apple the Serpent Terrestrial Paradise and the Cherubins that I was about to believe nothing of the matter The Devil take me if I believ'd any thing then but from that time I would have crucify'd myself for my Religion 'T is not that I see more reason in it now but on the contrary less than ever But I cannot help telling you I would nevertheless have sacrific'd myself without knowing wherefore So much the better my Lord replies the Father with a tone