CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE 
 
 Joseph Whitmore Barry 
 dramatic library 
 
 THE GIFT Of 
 
 two friends 
 
 of Cornell University 
 
 1934 
 
PQ 1815 C A 0r 7Tl U 896 erS,,yLibrary 
 Ma nim iSii nf f!£l ...TUf. ?.S*i9ns upon man. 
 
 3 1924 026 375 521 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026375521 
 
Y.', >7//M 
 
MAXIMS 
 
 AND 
 
 Reflections upon Man 
 
 BY 
 
 Francis, Duke of La Rochefoucauld. 
 
 TransVatecV irom. ttve "French. 
 
 " Les Maximes de La Rochefoucauld sont les Proverbes des Gens 
 d'Esprit." — Pensees de Montesquieu. 
 
 " Our Virtues are generally Vices in disgruise. "— Motto to the French 
 edition 0/167/. 
 
 " As Rochefoucauld his maxims drew 
 From Nature,— I believe them true. 
 They argue no corrupted mind 
 In him— the fault is in mankind ! "— Swift. 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 PETER ECKLER PUBLISHER, 
 
 No, 35 Fulton Street. 
 
LIFE 
 
 FRANCIS, DUKE OF ROCHEFOUCAULD. 
 
 Francis, Duke of Rochefoucauld, Prince of Marsillao, 
 a distinguished wit and nobleman of the reign of Louis 
 XIV., was bom in 1613. He distinguished himself as the 
 most brilliant nobleman about the court, and by his share 
 in the good graces of the celebrated Duchess of Longue- 
 ville, was involved in the civil wars of the Fronde. He 
 signalized his courage at the battle of St. Antoine, in Paris, 
 and received a shot which for some time deprived him of 
 his sight. At a more advanced period, his houac vas the 
 resort of the best company at Paris, including Boile&i 1 , 
 Racine, and the Mesdames Sevigne and La Fayette. By 
 the former of these ladies, he is spoken of as holding the 
 first rank in " courage, merit, tenderness, and good sense." 
 The letters of Madame de Maintenon, also, speak of him 
 with high, but inconsistent praise. Huet describes him as 
 possessing a nervous temperament, which would not allow 
 him to accept a seat in the Frerch Academy, owing to his 
 want of courage to make a public speech. The Duke de 
 Rochefoucauld died with philosophic tranquillity, at Paris, 
 in 1680, in his sixty eighth year. This nobleman wrote 
 "Mfaioires de la Regne d'Anne d'Autriche," 2 vols. 12nw., 
 1713 m energetic and faithful representation of that fretful 
 
IV LIFE OP ROCHEFOUCAULD. 
 
 period ; but he is chiefly famous for a work entitled " R6 
 flexions et Maximes." 
 
 This hook has made much noise in the world ; it has 
 been abused, criticised, controverted, and yet no one can 
 deny that there is a great deal of truth in it, though it 
 generalizes too much. It is deemed by some writers to be 
 rather a satire upon, than an exposition of human nature, 
 and unfavorable to virtue, by giving it a principle in com- 
 mon with vice. 
 
 La Rochefoucauld attributed all the actions of men, good 
 or bad, to the moving-spring of self-interest. Friendship is 
 an exchange of good offices, generosity is the means of 
 gaining good opinion, justice itself is derived from the fear 
 of sufFering from the oppression of others.. This may be 
 all true, but still, there are actions in which men can have 
 no self-interest in view ; in which they act from enthusiasm, 
 or a strong sense of duty, or from benevolence, or some 
 motive other than self-interest ; such are, for instance, the 
 self-devotedness of the patriot, the perseverance of the 
 jpright man through good and evil report, the sacrifice 
 made ty pure love, and, above all, the calm resignation of 
 the Christian martyr. These, and other similar instances, 
 La Rochefoucauld has not taken into account, because, 
 probably, he had seen no specimen of them. Possibly a 
 somewhat deeper insight into the sources of human con- 
 duct, would show not only that self-love is the mainspring 
 of all action, but that all which is admirable in performance 
 is best promoted and explained by it. 
 
 La Rochefoucauld has accounted for most actions of a 
 great proportion of mankind, perhaps by far the greater ; 
 and for so doing he has been abused, because, as a French 
 lady observed, he has told every body's secret. He has 
 placed himself, with regard to private morality, in the same 
 
LIFE OP ROCHEFOtTCAttLD. V 
 
 predicament as Machiavelli with regard to political mo- 
 rality. J. J. Rousseau, who was certainly not free from 
 selfishness, has abused La Rochefoucauld's maxims, and 
 yet, in his " Emile," he observes that "selfishness is the 
 mainspring of all our actions;" and that "authors, while 
 they are ever talking of truth, which they care little about, 
 think chiefly of their own interest, of which they do not 
 talk." La Fontaine, in his fable, (b. i. 11,) " L' Homme 
 et son Image," has made an ingenious defence of La 
 Rochefoucauld's book. The " Maxims" receive a portion 
 of their peculiar point from the very courtly scene 
 of contemplation, and from the delicacy and finesse with 
 which the veil is penetrated that is spread over the surface 
 of refined society. It is well known that Swift was a 
 decided admirer of Rochefoucauld, and his celebrated poem 
 on his own death commences with an avowal of the fact.* 
 The misanthropy of that great man renders his suffrage 
 any thing but popular ; but possibly, as in the doctrine 
 of the invariable predominance of the stronger motive, 
 that of self-love simply bespeaks a more strict attention 
 to early cultivation and discipline, to render it not only 
 compatible with virtue, but strictly and philosophically 
 connected with the highest, the noblest, and, in common 
 
 * Dr. Swift wrote a poem of near five hundred liDea upon the 
 Maxima of Rochefoucauld, and was a long time about it. They were 
 committed to the care of the celebrated author of " The Test ;" an 
 edition was printed in 1738, in which more than one hundred lines 
 were omitted. Dr. King assigned many judicious reasons— though 
 some of them were merely temporary aud prudential — for the muti- 
 lations ; but they were so far from satisfying Dr. Swift, that a com- 
 plete edition was immediately printed by Faulkner, with the dean's 
 express permission. — Swift's Works, Sheridan's Edition, 19 vols, 
 London, 1801. 
 
VI LIFE OF ROCHEFOUCAULD. 
 
 language, the most disinterested fulfillment of all our 
 duties. 
 
 La Rochefoucauld's "Maximes" have gone through 
 many editions. The " (Euvres de la Rochefoucauld," 
 1818, contain, besides his already published works, several 
 inedited letters and a biographical notice. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The family of La Rochefoucauld is one of the most 
 ancient and illustrious in France. Its founder, according 
 to Andrew Du Chesne, was one Foucauld, or Fulk, a cadet, 
 as is supposed, of the house of Lusignan, or Lezignem, and 
 connected with the ancient Dukes of Guienne, who appears, 
 about the period a. d. 1000, as Seigneur, or Lord, of the 
 Town of La Roche in the Angoumois. He is described in 
 contemporary charters as Vir nobilissimus Fulcaldus, and 
 his renown seems to have been sufficiently extensive to 
 confer his name on La Roche, which has ever since borne, 
 and bestowed on his descendants, the distinctive appellation 
 of La Roche Foucauld. Guy, the eighth Seigneur de la 
 Roche Foucauld, is mentioned by Froissart as having per- 
 formed, in the year 1380, a celebrated tilt in the lists a< 
 Bordeaux, whither he came, attended by 200 of his kins 
 men and connections. 
 
 Francis, the sixteenth seigneur, had the honor of being 
 sponsor to, and bestowing his name on, King Francis I., 
 and was shortly afterwards advanced to the dignity of 
 Count de la Rochefoucauld. The widow of his son and 
 successor, in the year 1539, entertained, at the family seat 
 of Vertueil, the Emperor Charles V., and some of the Royal 
 Family of France. The Emperor is reported by a con- 
 temporary historian to have said on his departure, that he 
 had never entered a house which possessed such an air of 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 virtue, courtesy, and nobility as that. Francis, the fifth 
 count, was created the Duke de la Rochefoucauld in 1622, 
 and was father to Francis, the second duke, the celebrated 
 author of the Maxims, who was born on the 15th Decem- 
 ber, 1613. The principal events of his life are matter of 
 history rather than biography, as he was a leading actor in 
 the numerous and complicated state intrigues which took 
 place in France after the death of Lt uis XIII., and during 
 the minority of his successor. It is extremely difficult at 
 this period, and would hardly be worth while, to attempt 
 to trace the course of these cabals and the wars to which 
 they gave rise. Beyond the gratification of an absurd am- 
 bition, it is almost impossible to discover any object that 
 the contending parties had in view ; and the motives of 
 individuals are still more difficult to penetrate, from the 
 conflicting accounts given by the various actors themselves, 
 of the transactions in which they were engaged. The im- 
 pression left on the mind by a perusal of the histories of 
 the times, is a painful sensation of the corruption of the 
 government, the sad want of public, or even private, prin- 
 ciple on the part of the higher classes, and the frivolity and 
 folly generally prevalent in the society of the period. La 
 Rochefoucauld was early engaged on the side of the Fronde, 
 the party opposed to Mazarin, which was also espoused by 
 the Duchesse de Longueville, (whose lover La Rochefou- 
 cauld then was,) by the Prince de Conti, and afterwards by 
 the celebrated Conde. To these princes La Rochefoucauld 
 appears to have remained faithful during all the subsequent 
 mutations of the party. He took part in most of the mili- 
 tary proceedings that resulted from the troubles of the 
 times; and though he does not appear much in the character 
 of a general, is universally allowed to have displayed the 
 greatest bravery on all occasions. At the battle of St. An- 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 toine, near Paris, he received a severe wound in the head, 
 which for a time deprived him of sight, and was the occasion 
 of terminating his military career. Before he had recov- 
 e red, th e Fronde had fallen before the gold of Mazarinand 
 the arms of Turenne. Conde wai~3riven from France ; and 
 as the prodamatioiTof the King's majority appeared likely 
 to put an end to the miserable dissensions which had so 
 long existed, La Rochefoucauld, with the consent of Cond6, 
 reconciled himself to the court, and returned to Paris, where 
 he continued to live in the midst of the literary and fa snion- 
 able society of the time until his death in 1680. His most 
 attached friend was Madame de Lafayette, authoress of the 
 Princesse de Cleves ; but he was also intimately acquainted 
 with Madame de Sevign6, (in whose letters repeated men- 
 tion is made of him,) La Fontaine, Racine, Boileau, and 
 most of the celebrated men of his age. La Rochefoucauld 
 appears to have been a man of most amiable character and 
 of high personal probity ; for, amid the various party feelings 
 of the writers of that period, scarcely any thing can be dis- 
 covered in the accounts they have left which would throw 
 discredit on him. He possessed brilliant powers of mind, 
 but without any regular education ; and an easiness of tem- 
 per, combined, as it generally is, with fickleness and inde- 
 cision, which is supposed to have led him to engage so 
 constantly in the various intrigues of the time. He has 
 left us an entertaining sketch of himself, which is subjoined, 
 together with another character of him by Cardinal de Retz, 
 his great enemy, and also a character of De Retz, by La 
 Rochefoucauld. 
 
 In the leisure which succeeded to the stir of his early 
 life, La Rochefoucauld composed the " Memoirs of his own 
 Times," and the work on which his fame is founded, " Max- 
 ims and Moral Reflections." Voltaire's remark on the two 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 is well known, that the " Memoirs are read, and the Max- 
 ims are known by heart." It may be doubted, however, 
 whether the " Memoirs" are often read at the present day, 
 notwithstanding the extravagant compliment of Bayle, that 
 "there are few people so bigoted to antiquity as not to 
 prefer the ' Memoirs' of La Rochefoucauld to the ' Com- 
 mentaries of Caesar.' " In fact, their interest appears to 
 have passed away with that of the times of which they 
 treat. 
 
 The book of " Maxims" no doubt results from the ob- 
 servation of La Rochefoucauld's earlier years, combined 
 with the reflection of his later life. He appears to have 
 taken considerable pains with their composition, submit- 
 ting them frequently for the approval of his numerous cir- 
 cle of friends, and altering some of them, according to 
 Segrais, nearly thirty times. They were first published in 
 1665, with a preface by Segrais, which was omitted in the 
 subsequent editions; several of which appeared, with vari- 
 ous corrections, during the author's life.* 
 
 Scarcely any work, as Mr. Hallam observes, has been 
 more highly extolled or more severely censured. Dr. John- 
 son has pronounced it almost the only book written by a 
 man of fashion, of which professed authors had reason to be 
 jealous. Rousseau calls it, (Conf. b. 3,) " livre triste et 
 desolant," though he goes on to make a naive admission of 
 its truth, " principalement dans la jeunesse oii l'on n'aime 
 pas a voir l'homme comme il est." Voltaire's account of 
 it, in his " Age of Louis XIV.," is perhaps the most gen 
 
 * They were first translated into English in 1689, under the title 
 of " Seneca unmasked," by the celebrated Mrs. Aphara Behn, who 
 calls the author the Duke of Rushfucave. The work, as is the case 
 with all the English translations of the " Maxims," is full of faults. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 erally acquiesced in :— " One of the works which most con- 
 tributed to form the taste of the nation, and to give it a 
 spirit of justness and precision, was the collection of the 
 'Maxims' of Francis, Due de la Rochefoucauld. Though 
 there is scarcely more than one truth running through the 
 book — thatJ2_self-love is the motive of every thing F yet 
 this thought is presented under so many various aspects, 
 that it is almost always striking ; it is not so much a book 
 as materials for ornamenting a book. This little collection 
 was read with avidity ; it taught people to think and to 
 comprise their thoughts in a lively, precise, and delicate 
 turn of expression. This was a merit which, before him, 
 no one in Europe had attained, since the revival of 
 letters."* 
 
 It would be difficult to give higher praise than this to 
 the style of the " Maxims," to which, no doubt, the work 
 owes a great part of its popularity. If not precisely the in- 
 ventor, La Rochefoucauld is, at all events, the model of 
 this mode of writing, in which success indeed is rare, but 
 
 * Notwithstanding their popularity, and Voltaire's assertion that 
 they are known by heart, the " Maxims" have been most unblush- 
 ingly pillaged on almost all sides ; indeed there is hardly any modern 
 collection of thoughts or aphorisms which is not indebted to this 
 work. A late instance may be found in the review of Baron Wessen- 
 berg's " Thoughts," by the Quarterly Review, Dec, 1 848, where it ap- 
 pears by the extracts that the baron adopts, as his own, one of the 
 "Maxims," (No. 39,) which is quoted with approbation, and evidently 
 unrecognized by the reviewer. Some plagiarisms may be detected in 
 the illustrations quoted in the ensuing pages, which, however, have 
 not been collected for that purpose so much, as to compare the man- 
 ner in which different minds have expressed themselves on similar 
 subjects. Many other illustrations of the " Maxims" will, of course, 
 suggest themselves, according to the various extent of individual 
 reading. 
 
Xli INTRODUCTION. 
 
 when attained, it has many charms for the reader* " The 
 writing in aphorisms," as Bacon observes, (Adv. of Learn.,) 
 " hath may excellent virtues whereto the writing in method 
 doth not approach. For first, it trieth the writer whether 
 he be superficial or solid; for aphorisms, except they be 
 ridiculous, cannot be made but of the pith and heart of 
 sciences ; for discourse of illustration is cut off; recitals of 
 example are cut off; discourse of connection and order is 
 cut off; descriptions of practice are cut off: so there re- 
 main eth nothing to fill the aphorisms but some good quae 
 tity of observation : and therefore no man can suffice, nor 
 in reason will attempt, to write aphorisms, but he that is 
 sound and grounded. But in method 
 
 Tantum series juncturaque pollet, 
 Tantum de medio sumptis accedit honoris, 
 
 as a man shall make a great show of an art, which, if it 
 were disjointed, would come to little. Secondly, methods 
 are more fit to win consent or belief, but less fit to point to 
 action ; for they carry a kind of demonstration in orb or 
 circle, one part illuminating another, and therefore satisfy ; 
 but particulars being dispersed, do best agree with dis- 
 persed directions. And lastly, aphorisms representing a 
 knowledge broken, do invite men to inquire further; 
 
 * M. Villemain, in his " Eloge de Montaigne," seems to insinuate 
 that La Rochefoucauld may have been indebted to Montaigne for the 
 idea of the style of the " Maxims :" " Dans ce genre j'oserai dire qu'il 
 (Montaigne) a donne le plus heureux modeles d'un style dont La 
 Rochefoucauld passe ordinairement pour le premier inventeur." La 
 Rochefoucauld waB probably under many obligations in other respects 
 to Montaigne ; but it seems difficult to select two writers more dis- 
 similar in their mode of expressing themselves than the rambling, gos- 
 siping Montaigne and the precise, sententious La Rochefoucauld. 
 
INTRODUCTION. X1U 
 
 whereas methods, carrying the show of a total, do secure 
 men, as if they were at furthest." 
 
 A principal cause of the attractiveness of this mode of 
 writing lies in the necessarily epigrammatic turn of the 
 sentences, which constantly arrests the attention ; and while 
 it stimulates the reader's reflection, renders the point of the 
 observation more palpable and more easy to be retained in 
 the memory. It is, besides, no mean advantage to be 
 spared the exertion of wading through and deciding upon 
 the successive stages, each perhaps admitting of discussion, 
 of a tedious and involved argument, and to be presented at 
 once with ready-made conclusions. Notwithstanding Ba- 
 con's second remark on aphorisms, it seems questionable 
 whether the mind is not more disposed to assent to a prop- 
 osition when clearly and boldly announced on the ipse dixit 
 of a writer, than when arrived at as the termination of a 
 chain of reasoning. Where so much proof is required, men 
 are apt to think much doubt exists ; and a simple enuncia- 
 tion of a truth is, on this account perhaps, the more imposing 
 from our not being admitted, as it were, behind the scenes, 
 and allowed to inspect the machinery which has produced 
 the result. There is, besides, a yearning after infallibility 
 to a greater or less degree latent in every human heart, 
 that derives a momentary gratification from the oracular 
 nature of these declarations of truth, which seem to be ex- 
 empt from the faults and shortcomings of human reason, 
 and to spring, with all the precision of instinct, full grown 
 to light, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter.* 
 
 The chief, perhaps the only serious, defect incidental to 
 this mode of composition, is the constantly recurring temp- 
 tation to sacrifice the strict truth to the point of the maxim. 
 
 * See Aristot. Rhet. book ii. c 21. 
 a 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 For the sake of rendering the turn of expression more 
 smart and epigrammatic, truth is sometimes distorted, 
 sometimes laid down in such general and unqualified terms 
 as sober reason would not warrant. La Rochefoucauld is 
 by no means free from this fault, which perhaps is insepar- 
 able from the species of composition we are considering, 
 and may be regarded as the price we pay for its other 
 ad\ antages. 
 
 But while the style of the " Maxims" has been aim ist 
 universally admired, the peculiar views of morals they pre- 
 sent have been the subject of much cavil. The author is 
 generally considered as a principal supporter of the selfish 
 school of moralists; and, indeed, the popular opinion of the ' 
 " Maxims'' seems to be summed up in Voltaire's remark, 
 that there is but one truth running through the book ; that 
 " self-love is the motive of every action." Bishop Butler's 
 observations are to the same effect, (Pre/, to Sermons:) 
 " There is a strange affectation in some people of explaining 
 away all particular affections, and representing the whole 
 of life as nothing but one continued exercise of self-love. 
 Hence arises that surprising confusion and perplexity in the 
 Epicureans of old, Hobbes, the author of ' Reflections, (fee. 
 Morales,' and this whole set of writers, of calling actions 
 interested which are done in contradiction of the most 
 manifest known interest, merely for the gratification of a 
 present passion. Now all this confusion might be avoided 
 by stating to ourselves wherein the idea of self-love con- 
 sists, as distinguished from all particular movements to- 
 wards particular external objects, the appetites of sense, 
 resentment, compassion, curiosity, ambition, and the rest. 
 When this is done, if the words 'selfish' and 'interested' 
 cannot be parted with, but must be applied to every thing, 
 yet to avoid such total confusion of all language, let the 
 
INTEODUOTIOK. XV 
 
 distinction be made by epithets, — and the first may be 
 called cool or settled selfishness, and the other passionate 
 or sensual selfishness. But the most natural way of speak- 
 ing plainly is, to call the first only self-love, and the actions 
 proceeding from it, interested ; and to say of the latter, that 
 they are not love to ourselves, but movements towards 
 somewhat external, honor, power, the harm or good of 
 another, and that the pursuit of these external objects, so 
 far as it proceeds from these movements, (for it may pro- 
 ceed from self-love,) is no otherwise interested than as 
 every action of every creature must from the nature of the 
 thing be ; for no one can act but from a desire, or choice, 
 or preference of his own." The confusion of language com 
 plained of by Butler, has certainly been the cause of much 
 misapprehension on this subject; but it does not appear 
 right to charge La Rochefoucauld with this ambiguity ; on 
 the contrary, it will be evident to any attentive reader of 
 the " Maxims" that " self-love" and " interest" are clearly 
 distinguished from each other. If it were not so, and La 
 Rochefoucauld considered interest to be man's only motive, 
 Maxims 415, that " Men more easily surrender their inter- 
 ests than their tastes," and 512, that " There are more peo- 
 ple without interest than without envy," would involve 
 palpable absurdities, In fact, " self-love" and " interest," 
 in the " Maxims," stand to each other in their real relation 
 of a whole and one of its parts. 
 
 With regard to the question whether La Rochefoucauld 
 meant to represent self-love, in its more extended sense, as 
 the motive of all human actions, it seems not altogether 
 fair to charge him with the inculcation of any particular 
 theory or system, in the same manner as if the maxims 
 were formal deductions from a regularly reasoned treatise, 
 instead of being, as they are, unconnected observations on 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mankind and their actions. jTf he had, however, any regular 
 design, it was not so much to point out self-love as the 
 primum mobile, but rather to expose the. hypocrisy and pre-/ 
 tence so current in the world under the name of virtuej 
 This will be apparent from the heading he prefixed to the ^ 
 work, " Our virtues are generally only disguised vices," and j 
 from the commencement of the last maxim, " After having 
 spoken of the falsity of so many apparent virtues, 1 ' &c. 
 The key of his system (if he had one) would seem to l ; e 
 in the maxim, that " Truth does not do so much good, as 
 its appearances do evil, in the world." The assumption of 
 the name of virtue is prejudicial in many ways. It oper- 
 ates suicidally on the morals of the actor, because a long 
 course of imposition on others invariably ends in self-de- 
 ceit ; " We are so much accustomed to disguise ourselves 
 to others," as our Author remarks, " that at length we dis- 
 guise ourselves to ourselves." The history of the world is 
 full of examples of men whose career is represented in these 
 words. But this assumption is still more pernicious to the 
 interests of virtue itself. To use a common illustration, 
 nothing depreciates a iound coinage more than the existence 
 of well-executed counterfeits. Nothing tends so much to 
 disgust men with goodness, as the hollowness and artifici- 
 ality of what is palmed on them for goodness. Eepeatedly 
 disappointed in their search for the reality, they are led to 
 doubt its existence, and it is this feeling which is embodied 
 in the bitter exclamation of the despairing Roman : — " Vir- 
 tue, I have worshipped thee as a real good, but at length 1 
 find thee an empty name." 
 
 If the maxims can aid men to distinguish the true from 
 the false, the sterling from the alloy, they are so far from 
 injuring the cause of virtue that they obviously render it a 
 most important service. It will readily be admitted also 
 
INTRODUCTION. XVU 
 
 that any inquiry into the reality of virtue must go deeply 
 into the theory of human motives. An action may be 
 externally virtuous; but, when the motive comes to be 
 examined, may prove to be deserving of censure rather 
 than commendation. And it is evident that, to constitute 
 a virtuous action a virtuous motive is absolutely necessary. 
 " Celui," as La Bruyere observes, " qui loge chez soi dansi 
 un palais avec deux appartemens pour les deux sais ns, 
 vient coucher au Louvre dans un entresol, n'en nse pas 
 ainsi par modestie ; et autre, qui pour conserver une taille 
 fine s'abstient du vin et ne fait qu'un seul repas, n'est ni 
 sobre ni temperant ; et d'un troisieme, qui, importune d'un 
 ami pauvre, lui donne enfin quelque secours, l'on dit qu'il 
 achete son repos et nullement qu'il est liberal. Le motif 
 seul fait le merite des actions des hommes, et le desint6- 
 ressement y met la perfection."* The last illustration will 
 recall the parable of the unjust judge, which is familiar to 
 every one. In these instances the result may be beneficial ; 
 but, so far as the actor is concerned, this is evidently an 
 accidental effect to which it would be preposterous to give 
 the name of virtue. 
 
 It is this inquiry, then, into the motives of men which 
 La Rochefoucauld appears to have had in view in the 
 " Maxims," and in prosecuting this he has pointed out that 
 a vast part of what passes in the world for virtue and good- 
 ness, is by no means genuine, but the result of meaner 
 and more debased principles of action. He has unmasked-, 
 with consummate skill the appearances of virtue so fre- 
 
 * Montaigne is rather more plain spoken. " We ought to love 
 temperance for itself, and in obedience to God who has commanded 
 it and chastity ; but what I am forced to by catarrhs, or owe to the 
 vtone, is neither chastity nor temperance." 
 
 8* 
 
XVlii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quently put forward by men, and every one must be enter- 
 tained by the exquisite subtlety of manner in which he has 
 laid bare feelings and motives always most carefully hid- 
 den, often unacknowledged, sometimes unknown to the 
 '- actors themselves. Truly he may be said to have " anato- / 
 mized" man and shown "what breeds about his heart. 
 The spectacle he offers us is, it may be admitted, decidedly 
 gloomy, and by no means gratifying to human pride ; but, 
 ,-on the other hand, La Rochefoucauld is very far from de- 
 fying, as has been represented, the reality of virtue. Sev- 
 eral of the maxims show a complete recognition of its 
 existence, and indeed a desire that it should be freed from 
 the odium created by the pretenders that usurp its name. 
 The precise amount of truth which is allowed to be found 
 in the maxims will perhaps always vary with the experi- 
 ence or the feelings of individual readers : but it may be 
 remarked as strange, that any general denunciations of the 
 depravity of human nature are almost always tacitly, if not 
 readily, acquiesced in ; but when this principle comes to 
 be applied to particular actions, it is indignantly scouted. 
 The Scriptures have laid down that the heart of man is 
 " deceitful and desperately wicked ;" the Church, that " man 
 is far gone from original righteousness and has no strength 
 of himself to turn to good works ;" and that " not only do 
 all just works, but even all holy desires, and all good coun- 
 sels, proceed from God." Moralists as well as theologians 
 have been earnest in urging this point, and would appear 
 to have been successful, at least in theory ; but when an 
 author like La Rochefoucauld attempts to elicit the same 
 principle from a subtle and penetrating analysis of human 
 actions, the world seems to shrink from the practical appli- 
 cation of the theory it had approved. The reason appears 
 to be, that a genera] statement of a principle, as it concerns ' 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 no one in particular, comes home to no one more than 
 another ; but a close and searching scrutiny, like that of the 
 maxims, into the motives of particular actions, must raise 
 an uncomfortable sensation in every breast, which is thus 
 made to feel its own failings. As has been acutely ob- 
 served, the cause of La Rochefoucauld's unpopularity as a 
 moralist is that he has told every one's secret. Men have a 
 direct interest in maintaining appearances ; if they have 
 not the virtue, they at least may " assume it," and they 
 are naturally irritated at the dissipation of those delusions 
 which facilitated the assumption. 
 
 It might with more speciousness be objected to the 
 maxims that they are contrary in their tendency to the 
 spirit of that charity which " thinketh no evil, believeth 
 all things, and hopeth all things ;" that we should be 
 more ready to assign an action, if possible, to a good, 
 than an evil motive, and that the low opinion of our fel- 
 low-men which we may acquire from La Rochefoucauld's 
 observations, only tends to render our own tempers misan- 
 thropic and morose, without in any way conducing to 
 practical morality. There may certainly appear some want 
 of charity in any attempt to throw discredit on the motives 
 of an action ; but in practice it will be found that every 
 well-constituted mind, in proportion as it becomes more 
 sensible of the numerous and inherent failings of human na- 
 ture, is more and more willing to make allowance for weak- 
 nesses it knows to be so difficult to remedy, for temptations 
 which it feels are so hard to struggle with ; and no longer 
 thirsting for impracticable perfection, will show a sincerer 
 sympathy for the sins and errors of its fellow-mortals. To 
 quote La Bruyere again: "Rien n'engage tant un esprit 
 raisonnable a supporter tranquillement des parens et des 
 amis les torts qu'ils ont a. son egard, que la reflexion qu'i] 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 fait sur les vices de l'humanite, et combien il est p6nible 
 aux hommes d'etre constans, gen6reux, fideles, d'etre touches 
 d'une rimitie plus forte que leur interet. Comme il connait 
 leur portee, il n'exige point d'eux qu'ils penetrant les corps, 
 qu'ils volent dans l'air, qu'ils aient de l'equit6. II peut hair 
 les hommes en general, ou il y a si peu de vertu ; mais il 
 excuse les particuliers, il les aime merne par des motifs 
 plus releves, et il s'etudie a meriter le moins qu'il se peut 
 une pareille indulgence."* It might be sufficient, therefore, 
 to say that the maxims are only uncharitable in appearance; ' 
 but that, in reality, by increasing our knowledge of human 
 nature, they tend to render us more indulgent to human 
 weakness ; that, however charity may suffer in theory from 
 a low idea being entertained of human nature, it gains in- 
 finitely in practice from the avoidance of that soured and 
 despairing temper which is caused by the reaction from 
 overstrained hopes and enthusiastic imaginations of good : 
 but it may be further remarked, that whoever uses the 
 maxims merely for the object of making uncharitable 
 remarks on the conduct of others, has studied them to 
 little purpose. It is his own heart that they should teach 
 him most to reflect upon. In his preface to the edition of 
 1665, Segrais says, — "The best method that the reader can 
 adopt, is at once to be convinced that not one of the max- 
 ims is applicable to himself in particular, and that he alone 
 is excepted, although they appear to be generally applica- 
 ble ; then I will answer for it, he will be one of the first to 
 
 * " He whose opinion of mankind is not too elevated, will always 
 be the most benevolent, because the most indulgent to the errors in- 
 cidental to human perfection ; to place our nature in too flattering a 
 view is only to court disappointment and end in misanthropy." Bul- 
 
 frER LtTTON. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXi 
 
 subscribe to their correctness, and to reflect credit on the 
 human heart." The recommendation contained in this 
 remark, may be sufficiently palatable to disguise the sneei 
 which it involves ; but it would seem more honest, and in 
 the end more salutary; to reverse the advice, and to recom- 
 mend the reader to consider each maxim as applicable to 
 himself only, and in no way to his neighbors. He will 
 thus avoid any breaches of charity, and be led to the true 
 utility of the maxims, namely, the aid they give to the 
 extirpation of the dangerous habit of self-deceit, the habit 
 of all others the most fatal to virtue. They can hardly 
 fail to open the «yes of men to the various and singular 
 modes in which self-delusion operates, the readiness with 
 which it glosses over error, the acuteness with which it 
 discovers excuses applicable only to itself, nay, the per- 
 verse subtlety with which it would palm off its very errors 
 as instances of virtue. No man who is thoroughly imbued 
 with the spirit of the maxims, can pretend to that degree 
 of mental obliquityjwhich looks for illustrations of their 
 working solely in the conduct of others. 
 
 Should it still be considered that La Rochefoucauld pre- 
 sents us with too low a view of human nature to serve the 
 purposes of morality, it should be remembered, in his defence 
 as an author, that the times in which he lived, and the po- 
 litical and moral state of the society of his day, are known 
 to have closely corresponded with the general picture he 
 has offered us, and in this respect may be said to afford 
 him a complete justification.* Another circumstance for 
 
 * The writer whom La Rochefoucauld most frequently reminds us 
 of is Tacitus, and this coincidence may suggest a strong similarity in 
 the state of society at the respective periods wMch the two authors 
 had in view. 
 
*yii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 which due allowance should be made, has been already 
 hinted at, namely, that the mode of composition in detached 
 maxims, to be at all effective, requires a generality of ex- 
 pression greater than is strictly warranted by reason, or is, 
 perhaps, really intended by the author. Neither is it fair, 
 as before remarked, to charge La Rochefoucauld with any 
 deliberate system of vilifying human nature, or with any 
 theory destructive to morality. Like Montaigne, he might 
 plead, that he was not so much an instructor as an ob- 
 server : — " Others form man ; I only report him." 
 
 Controversy apart, there are many of the " Maxims," 
 the profundity of which will at once be admitted, and 
 which have been enrolled as axioms in moral science ; and 
 of all it may be safely pronounced, that there is sufficient 
 truth in them to make the work of the utmost value in its 
 true character, — that of a record of moral observations ; 
 not so much in themselves representing a theory of morals, 
 as hereafter to be used as the basis of new discoveries, and, 
 in the end of a scientific moral system. " As young men," 
 to use the words of Bacon, " when they knit and shape 
 perfectly, do seldom grow to a further stature, so knowl- 
 edge, while it is in aphorisms and observations, is in 
 growth ; but when it once is comprehended in exact meth- 
 ods, it may, perchance, be further polished and illustrated 
 and accommodated for use and practice, but it increaseth 
 no more in bulk and substance." 
 
PORTRAIT 
 
 OF 
 
 THE DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, 
 
 DRAWN BY HIMSELF. 
 (First Published in 1658.) 
 
 T am of a middling size, active and well proportioned. 
 My complexion is dark, but sufficiently uniform ; forehead 
 high and tolerably large ; eyes black, small and deep set, 
 and eyebrows black and thick, but well arched. I should 
 have some difficulty in describing my nose, for it is neither 
 flat, aquiline, large, nor pointed ; at least, I think not : as 
 far as I know, it is rather large than small, and extends a 
 trifle too low. My mouth is large ; the lips sufficiently red 
 in general, and neither well nor badly shaped. My teeth 
 are white and tolerably even. I have been sometimes told 
 that I have rather too much chin. I have just been exam- 
 ining myself in the glass to ascertain the fact ; and I have 
 not been able to make up my mind about it. As to the 
 shape of my face, it is either square or oval ; but which, 
 it would be very difficult for me to say. My hair is black, 
 curling naturally, and, moreover, thick enough and long 
 enough to give me some pretensions to a fine head. In my 
 countenance there is something sorrowful and proud, which 
 gives many people an idea that I am contemptuous, al- 
 though I am far from being so. My gestures are easy, in- 
 deed rather too much so ; producing a great degree of 
 action in discourse. 
 
XXIV CHARACTER O* 
 
 This, I confess candidly, is what I think of my outward 
 man ; and what I have said of myself will not, I consider, 
 be found different from the reality. I shall endeavor to 
 finish my portrait with the same fidelity ; for I have studied 
 myself sufficiently to be well acquainted with myself, and I 
 shall not want assurance enough to speak openly of any 
 good qualities I may have, nor sincerity enough frankly to 
 acknowledge my faults. First, then, as to my temper : I 
 am of a melancholy cast ; so much so that, in the course 
 of three or four years, I have not been seen to laugh above 
 three or four times. It seems to me, however, that ruy 
 melancholy would be quite supportable, and even agreeable, 
 if it only proceeded from my constitution ; but there are 
 so many other causes which fill my imagination with 
 strange ideas, and take possession of my mind in so singu- 
 lar a manner, that the greater part of my time I remain in 
 a kind of dream, without uttering a syllable, or else I at- 
 tach no meaning to what I do say. I am very reserved 
 with strangers ; and I am not extremely open even with 
 the generality of those I do know. It is a fault, I acknowl- 
 edge ; and I will do every thing to correct it. But, as a 
 certain sombre cast of countenance contributes to make me 
 seem more reserved than I really am, and as it is not in 
 our power to get rid of a disagreeable look proceeding from 
 the natural disposition of the features, I conceive that, even 
 after I shall have corrected myself within, the same bad 
 marks will, nevertheless, be always apparent outside. 
 
 I am clever; and I make no scruple of declaring it; for 
 why should I be delicate thereon 1 Going about the bush 
 and softening down so much the assertion of the qualities 
 we possess is, in my way of thinking, hiding a little vanity 
 under the mask of modesty, and slyly endeavoring to make 
 ourselves appear to have more merit than the world has. 
 
MORAL REFLECTIONS, SENTENCES, 
 AND MAXIMS. 
 
 1. 
 
 Self-love is the love of one's self, and of 
 every thing on account of one's self; it makes 
 men idolize themselves, and would make them 
 tyrants over others if fortune were to give 
 them the means. It never reposes out of itself, 
 and only settles on strange objects, as bees do 
 on flowers, to extract what is useful to it. 
 There is nothing so impetuous as its desires, 
 -^nothing so secret as its plans, nothing so clever 
 as its conduct. Its pliancy cannot be depicted, 
 its transformations surpass those of Ovid's 
 " Metamorphoses," its refinements those of chem- 
 istry. We cannot sound the depths, nor pene^ 
 trate the darkness of its abysses. There it is 
 concealed from the keenest eyes, it goes through 
 a thousand turns and changes. There it is 
 often invisible Jto- itself ; it conceives, nourishes . 
 and brings up, without being conscious of it, a 
 
 A 
 
2 MAXIMS AND 
 
 vast number of loves and hates. Some of these 
 'it forms so monstrous, that when brought to 
 light it is unable to recognize them, or cannot 
 resolve to own them. From this darkness 
 which conceals it, spring the ridiculous ideas it 
 has of itself; hence come its errors, its igno- 
 rances, its grossness, and its follies with respect 
 to itself. Hence it comes that it fancies its 
 sentiments dead when they are only asleep, it 
 thinks that it has no desire to arise from its re- 
 pose, and believes that it has lost the appetites 
 which it has satiated. But this thick darkness 
 which conceals it from itself does not prevent 
 its seeing perfectly every external object — in 
 this, resembling our eyes, which see every thing, 
 and are only blind to themselves ; in fact, in 
 its greatest interests and in its most important 
 affairs, where the violence of its desires call for 
 all its attention, it sees, it perceives, it under- 
 stands, it imagines, it suspects, it penetrates, it 
 divines every thing; so much so, that one is 
 tempted to believe that each of our passions has 
 a magic peculiar to itself. Nothing is so close, 
 and so firm as its attachments, which it vainly 
 endeavors to break off at the appearance of the 
 extreme evils which menace it. Sometimes, 
 however, it accomplishes in a short time, and 
 without effort, what it lial not been able to 
 
MOKAL SENTENCES* 3 
 
 effect in the course of several years with all the 
 efforts in its power ; whence we may conclude, 
 not unjustly, that its desires are excited by it- 
 self, rather than by the beauty and the merit 
 of their objects ; that its own taste is the price 
 which gives them value, and the cosmetic which 
 sets them off; that it is only itself which it 
 pursues, and that it follows its own taste when 
 it follows things after its taste. It is a com- 
 pound of contraries, it is imperious and obe- 
 dient, sincere and dissembling, compassionate 
 and cruel, timid and daring ; it has various in- 
 clinations according to the various tempera- 
 ments which affect it, and devote it, sometimes 
 to glory, sometimes to riches, and sometimes to 
 pleasure ; it changes them according to the 
 changes of our age, our fortune, and our expe- 
 rience. 1 It is indifferent to it, whether it has 
 many inclinations, or only one, because it shares 
 itself among many, or collects itself into one as 
 may be necessary or agreeable to it. It is in- 
 constant, and, besides the changes which arise 
 from external causes, there are an infinity 
 which spring from itself, and from its own re- 
 sources. It is inconstant from inconstancy, 
 from levity, from love, from novelty, from 
 weariness, from disgust. It is capricious, and 
 we sometimes see it laboring with extreme 
 
MAXIMS AND 
 
 earnestness and with incredible toil, to obtain 
 things which are by no means advantageous, 
 and even hurtful to it, but which it pursues 
 because it wills to have them. It is whimsical, 
 and often throws its whole application into the 
 most frivolous pursuits ; it finds its whole de- 
 light in the most insipid, and preserves all its 
 pride in the most contemptible. It is present 
 to all states and in all conditions of life; it 
 lives everywhere, it lives on every thing, it 
 lives on nothings It accommodates itself to ad 
 .vantages, and to the deprivation of them; it 
 even goes over to the side of those who are at 
 war with it ; it enters into their schemes, and, 
 what is wonderful, it joins them in hating it- 
 self, it conspires its own destruction, it labors 
 for its own ruin. In short, it cares for nothing 
 but its own existence, and, provided that it do 
 exist, will readily become its own enemy. LS^e 
 must not be surprised, therefore, if it unites 
 with the most rigid austerity, and enters boldly 
 into league with it to work its own destruction, 
 because, at the same time that it is overthrow- 
 ing itself in one place it is re-establishing itself 
 in another. When we suppose that it is relin- 
 quishing its pleasures, it does nothing but sus- 
 pend or vary them ; and even when defeated, 
 and supposed t» be annihilated, we find it tri- 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 5 
 
 umpiring in its own defeat. This is the picture 
 of self-love, the whole existence of which is 
 nothing but one long and mighty agitation. 
 The sea is a sensible image of it, and self-love 
 finds in the ebb and flow of the waves a faith- 
 ful representation of the turbulent succession 
 of its thoughts, and of its ceaseless movements. 
 
 What we take for virtues is often nothing 
 but an assemblage of different actions, and of 
 different interests, that fortune or our industry 
 know how to arrange ; and it is not always 
 from valor and from chastity that men are 
 valiant, and that women are chaste. 
 
 " Not always actions show the man : we find 
 Who does a kindness is not therefore kind ; 
 Perhaps prosperity becalmed his breast ; 
 Perhaps the wind just shifted from the East : 
 Not therefore humble he who seeks retreat, 
 Pride guides his steps, and bids him shun the great. 
 Who combats bravely, is not therefore brave, 
 He dreads a death-bed like the meanest slave. 
 Who reasons wisely, is not therefore wise ; 
 His pride in reasoning, not in acting, lies." 
 
 Pope, Moral Essay*, Epistle 1. 109. 
 
6 MAXIMS AND 
 
 3. 
 Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers 
 
 4. 
 
 Whatever discoveries may have been made 
 in the territory of self-love, there still remain 
 in it many unknown tracts. 
 
 5. 
 
 Self-love is more artful than the most artful 
 man in the world. 
 
 6. 
 
 The duration of our passions no more de- 
 pends on ourselves than the duration of our 
 lives. 
 
 7. 
 
 Passion often makes a madman of the clev- 
 erest man, and renders the greatest fools 
 clever. 
 
 8. 
 
 Those great and brilliant actions which daz- 
 
 3. " It hath been -well said that the arch flatterer, with 
 whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's 
 self." — Bacon, Essay 10. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 7 
 
 zle our eyes, are represented by politicians as 
 the effects of great designs, instead of which 
 they are commonly the effects of caprice and 
 of the passions. Thus the war between Au- 
 gustus and Antony, which is attributed to the 
 ambition they had of making themselves mas- 
 ters of the world, was, perhaps, nothing but a 
 result of jealousy. 
 
 The passions are the only orators that al Pays 
 persuade: they are, as it were, a natural art, 
 the rules of which are infallible ; and the sim- 
 plest man with passion, is more persuasive than 
 the most eloquent, without it. 
 
 10. 
 The passions have an injustice and an inter- 
 est of their own, which renders it dangerous to 
 obey them, and we ought to mistrust them 
 even when they appear most reasonable. 
 
 11. 
 
 There is going on in the human heart a 
 perpetual generation of passions, so that the 
 overthrow of one is almost always the estab- 
 lishment of another. 
 
MAXIMS AND 
 
 12. 
 
 The passions often engender their contra- 
 ries; avarice sometimes produces prodigality, 
 and prodigality avarice ; we are often resolute 
 from "weakness, and daring from timidity. 
 
 13. 
 
 Whatever pains -we may take to disguise 
 our passions under the appearances of piety 
 and honor, they always discover themselves 
 through these veils. 
 
 14. 
 
 Our self-love endures with greater impa- 
 tience the condemnation of our tastes, than of 
 our opinions. 
 
 15. 
 
 Men are not only prone to lose the remem- 
 brance of benefits and of injuries ; they even 
 hate those who have obliged them, and cease 
 to hate those who have grievously injured 
 them. The constant study to recompense good 
 and a venge evil appears to them a slavery, to 
 which they feel it difficult to submit. 
 
 16. 
 The clemency of princes is often only a 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 9 
 
 stroke of policy to gain the affections of their 
 people. 
 
 17. 
 
 This clemency, of which men make a vir- 
 tue, is practised sometimes from vanity, some- 
 times from indolence, often from fear, and 
 almost always from all three together. 
 
 18. 
 
 The moderation of fortunate people comes 
 from the calm which good fortune gives to 
 their tempers. 
 
 19. 
 
 Moderation is a fear of falling into envy, 
 and into the contempt which those deserve 
 who become intoxicated with their good for- 
 tune ; it is a vain ostentation of the strength 
 of our mind ; in short, the moderation of men 
 in their highest elevation is a desire of appear- 
 ing greater than their fortune. 
 
 19. Tacitus notices of Piso, on his elevation to the em- 
 pire by Galba : " Nihil in vultu habituque mutatum ; quasi 
 imperare posset magis, quam vellet." — Hist. i. 17. 
 
10 MAXIMS AITD 
 
 20. 
 
 We have all of us sufficient fortitude to 
 bear the misfortunes of others. 
 
 21. 
 The constancy of sages is nothing but the 
 art of locking up their agitation in their hearts. 
 
 22. 
 Those who are condemned to be executed 
 
 20. "Every man can master a grief, but he that has it. 
 — Much Ado about Nothing, Act iii. Scene 2. 
 
 "Men 
 Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief, 
 Which they themselves not feel, but tasting it 
 Their counsel turns to passion. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 No, no ! 'Tis all men's office to speak patience 
 To those that wring under the load of sorrow. 
 But no man's virtue nor sufficiency, 
 To be so moral, when he shall endure 
 The like himself." 
 
 Much Ado about Nothing, Act v. Scene 1. 
 Swift was not above adopting this maxim as his own. 
 " I never knew a man who could not bear the misfortunes 
 of others with the most Christian resignation." — Thoughts 
 on Various Subjects. 
 
 22. " The poor wretches that we see brought to the place 
 of execution, full of ardent devotion, and therein, as much 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 11 
 
 affect sometimes a firmness and a contempt of 
 death, which is, in fact, only the fear of look- 
 ing it in the face ; so that it may be said that 
 this firmness, and this contempt, are to their 
 minds what the bandage is to their eyes. 
 
 23. 
 Philosophy triumphs easily over past, and 
 over future evils, but present evils triumph 
 over philosophy. 
 
 24. 
 Few people know what death is. We sel- 
 dom suffer it from resolution, but from stupidity 
 
 as in them lies, employing all their senses, — their ears in 
 hearing the instructions that are given them, — their eyes 
 and hands lifted up towards heaven, — their voices in loud 
 prayers, with a vehement and continual emotion, do doubt- 
 less things very commendable and proper for such a neces- 
 sity : we ought to commend them for their devotion, but 
 not properly for their constancy ; they shun the encounter, 
 they divert their thoughts from the consideration of death, 
 as children are amused with some toy or other, when the 
 surgeon is going to give them a prick with his lancet." — 
 — Montaigne, b. iii. c. 4. (Cotton's Translation.) 
 
 23. This sentiment has been expressed in a homely, but 
 perhaps more forcible way by Goldsmith, in The Good- 
 natured Man. " This same philosophy is a good horse in a 
 stable, but an arrant jade on a journey." 
 
12 MAXIMS AND 
 
 and from habit ; and the generality of men die 
 because they cannot help dying. 
 
 25. 
 When great men suffer themselves to be 
 overcome by the length of their misfortunes, 
 they let us see that they only supported them 
 through the strength of their ambition, not 
 through that of their minds ; and that, with 
 the exception of a good deal of vanity, heroes 
 are made just like other men. 
 
 26. 
 It requires greater virtues to support good, 
 than bad fortune. 
 
 27. 
 Neither the sun nor death can be looked at 
 steadily. 
 
 " There was never yet philosopher 
 That could endure the tooth-ache patiently, 
 However they have writ the style of gods, 
 And made a push at chance and sufferance." 
 
 Much Ado about Nothing, Act v. Scene 1. 
 26. " Fortunam adhuc tantum adversam tulisti ; secun- 
 dee res acrioribus stimulis animos explorant, quia miseries 
 tolerantur, felicitate corrumpimur." — Tic. Hist. i. 15. 
 
 " Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth 
 best discover virtue." — Bacon, Essay on Adversity. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 13 
 
 28. 
 
 We often make a parade of passions, even 
 of the most criminal ; but envy is a timid and 
 shameful passion which we never dare to avow. 
 
 29. 
 Jealousy is in some sort just and reasonable, 
 since it only has for its object the preservation 
 of a good which belongs, or which we fancy 
 belongs to ourselves, while envy, on the con- 
 trary, is a madness which cannot endure the 
 good of others. 
 
 30. 
 The evil which we commit does not draw 
 
 28. " I don't believe that there is a human creature in 
 his senses, arrived to maturity, that at some time or other 
 has not been carried away by this passion, (sc. envy,) in 
 good earnest ; and yet I never met with any one who dared 
 own he was guilty of it but in jest." — Mandevtlle, Fable 
 of the Bees, Remark n. 
 
 " Many men profess to hate another, but no man owns 
 envy, as being an enmity or displeasure for no cause but 
 goodness or felicity." — Jer. Taylor, Holy Living. 
 
 30. " L'on me dit tant de mal de cet homme, et j'y en 
 vois si peu que je commence a. soupponner qu'il n'ait qu'un 
 merite importun qui eteigne celui des autres." — La Bru- 
 yerb, Be la Cour. 
 
14 MAXIMS AND 
 
 down on us so much hatred and persecution as 
 our good qualities. 
 
 31. 
 We have more power than will ; and it is 
 often by way of excuse to ourselves that we 
 fancy things are impossible. 
 
 32. 
 If we had no faults ourselves, we should not 
 take so much pleasure in remarking them in 
 others. 
 
 33. 
 
 Jealousy lives upon doubts — it becomes 
 madness, or ceases entirely, as soon as we pass 
 from doubt to certainty. 
 
 34. 
 Pride always compensates itself, and loses 
 nothing, even when it renounces vanity. 
 
 35. 
 If we had no pride ourselves, we should not 
 complain of that of others. 
 
 34. "Whoever desires the character of a proud man 
 ought to conceal his vanity." — Swift, Thoughts on Various 
 Subjects. 
 
 35. " The proud are ever most provoked by pride." 
 
 Cowpek, Conversation, 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 15 
 
 36. 
 
 Pride is equal in all men; and the only- 
 difference is in the means and manner of dis- 
 playing it. 
 
 37. 
 It seems that Nature, which has so wisely 
 disposed our bodily organs with a view to our 
 happiness, has also bestowed on us pride, to 
 spare us the pain of being aware of our imper- 
 fections. 
 
 38. 
 
 Pride has a greater share than goodness of 
 heart in the remonstrances we make to those 
 who are guilty of faults ; we reprove not so 
 much with a view to correct them as to per- 
 suade them that we are exempt from those 
 faults ourselves. 
 
 " Men are sometimes accused of pride merely because 
 their accusers would be proud themselves if they were in 
 their places." — Shenstone, Men and Manners. 
 
 37. " See some strange comfort every state attend, 
 And pride bestow'd on all, a common friend." 
 Pope, Essay on Man, Ep. 2, 271. 
 
16 MAXIMS AND 
 
 39. 
 
 We promise according to our hopes, and 
 perform according to our feara. 
 
 40. 
 
 Interest speaks all sorts of languages, and 
 plays all sorts of parts, even that of disinter- 
 estedness. 
 
 41. 
 
 Interest, which blinds some, opens the eyes 
 of others. 
 
 42. 
 
 Those who bestow too much application on 
 
 42. " Frivolous curiosity about trifles, and laborious at- 
 tention to little objects which neither require nor deserve a 
 moment's thought, lower a man, who from thence is thought 
 (and not unjustly) incapable of greater matters. Cardinal 
 de Retz very sagaciously marked out Cardinal Chigi for a 
 little mind, from the moment he told him that he had wrote 
 three years with the same pen, and that it was an excellent 
 good one still." — Lord Chesterfield. 
 
 " Never get a reputation for a small perfection, if you 
 are trying for fame in a loftier area ; the world can only 
 judge by generals, and it sees that those who pay consider- 
 able attention to minutiae, seldom have their minds occupied 
 with great things. There are, it is true, exceptions ; but 
 to exceptions the world does not attend." — Bulwer Lytton. 
 
MORAL SENTEHCES. 17 
 
 trifling things, become generally incapable of 
 great ones. 
 
 43. 
 
 We have not strength enough to follow all 
 our reason. 
 
 44. 
 
 A man often fancies that he guides himself 
 when he is guided by others; and while his 
 mind aims at one object, his heart insensibly 
 draws him on to another. 
 
 45. 
 
 Strength and weakness of mind are badly 
 named — they are, in fact, nothing more than 
 the good or bad arrangement of the organs of 
 the body. 
 
 46. 
 
 The capriciousness of our humor is often 
 more fantastical than that of fortune. 
 
 4T. 
 
 The attachment or indifference which the 
 philosophers had for life was nothing more than 
 one of the tastes of their self-love, which we 
 ought no more to dispute than the taste of the 
 palate, or the choice of colors. 
 
18 MAXIMS AND 
 
 48. 
 
 Our humor sets its price on every thing we 
 get from fortune. 
 
 49. 
 
 Happiness lies in the taste, and net in the 
 things ; and it is from having what we desire 
 that we are happy — not from having what 
 others think desirable. 
 
 50. 
 We are never so happy, or so unhappy, as 
 we imagine. 
 
 51. 
 Men who fancy they have merit, take a 
 
 49. " Every one is well or ill at ease, according as he 
 finds himself: not he whom the world believes, hut he who 
 believes himself to be so, is content, and therein alone be- 
 lief gives itself being and reality. Fortune does us neither 
 good nor hurt ; she only presents us the matter and the 
 seed, which our soul, more powerful than she, turns and 
 applies as she best pleases, being the sole cause and sover- 
 eign mistress of her own happy or unhappy condition. All 
 external accessions receive taste and color from the internal 
 constitution, as clothes warm us not with their heat but our 
 own, which they are adapted to cover and keep in." — Mon- 
 taigne, b. i. ch. 40. 
 
 51. " Persecution to persons in a high rank stands them 
 in the stead of eminent virtue." — De Retz. 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 19 
 
 pride in being unfortunate, to persuade others 
 and themselves that they are worthy to be the 
 butt of fortune. 
 
 52. 
 
 Nothing ought so much to diminish the good 
 opinion we have of ourselves as to see that we 
 disapprove at one time what we approve at 
 another. 
 
 53. 
 
 "Whatever may be the apparent difference 
 between fortunes, there is a certain compensa- 
 tion of good and evil- which renders them equal. 
 
 54. 
 
 However great the advantages which Na- 
 ture bestows on us, it is not she alone, but 
 Fortune in conjunction with her, which makes 
 heroes. 
 
 Dogberry, in the enumeration of his merits, tells us that 
 he is " a rich fellow enough, go to ; and a fellow that hath 
 had losses." — Much Ado about Nothing, Act iv. Scene 2. 
 See also Scott's Introduction to Quentin Durward, where 
 Dogberry's remark is discussed. 
 
 54. "In analyzing the character of heroes, it is hardly 
 possible to separate altogether the share of fortune from 
 their own." — Hallam. 
 
20 MAXIMS AND 
 
 55. 
 
 The contempt of riches among the philoso- 
 phers was a hidden desire to revenge their 
 merit for the injustice of Fortune, by contempt 
 of the very advantages of which she deprived 
 them. It was a secret to secure themselves 
 from the degradation of poverty : it was a by- 
 road to arrive at that consideration which they 
 could not obtain by riches. 
 
 56. 
 
 Hatred of favorites is nothing else than 
 the love of favor. The mortification of not 
 possessing it, is consoled and relieved by the 
 contempt we show of those who do possess it ; 
 and we refuse them our respect, because we 
 cannot deprive them of what attracts the re- 
 spect of all the world. 
 
 55. This will remind the reader of one of Gibbon's sneers. 
 " It is always easy, as well as agreeable, for the inferior 
 ranks of mankind to claim a merit from the contempt of 
 that pomp and pleasure which fortune has placed beyond 
 their reach. The virtue of the primitive Christians, like 
 that of the first Romans, was very frequently guarded by 
 poverty and ignorance." — Decline and Fall, cap. 15. 
 
 " Since we cannot attain to greatness, let us revenge our- 
 selves by railing at it." — Montaigne, b. iii. c. 7. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 21 
 
 57. 
 
 In order to establish themselves in the 
 world, men do all they can to appear estab- 
 lished there. 
 
 58. 
 
 Although men pride themselves on their 
 great actions, these are often the result, not of 
 any great design, but of chance. 
 
 59. 
 It would seem that our actions are regulated 
 by lucky or unlucky stars, to which they owe 
 a great part of the praise or blame bestowed 
 on them. 
 
 60. 
 
 There are no circumstances, however unfor- 
 tunate, that clever people do not extract some 
 
 57. " If a man wishes to become rich, he must appear to 
 be rich." — Goldsmith. 
 
 According to Juvenal, the Eoman lawyers had a thor- 
 ough appreciation of this truth: — • 
 
 " Respicit haec primum, qui litigat, an tibi servi 
 Octo, decern comites, an post te sella, togati 
 Ante pedes. Ideo conducta Paulus agebat 
 Sardonyche, atque ideo pluris quam Cossus agebat, 
 Quam Basilus." Sat. vii. 141. 
 
22 MAXIMS AND 
 
 advantage from ; and none, however fortunate, 
 that the imprudent cannot turn to their own 
 prejudice. 
 
 61. 
 
 Fortune turns every thing to the advantage 
 of her favorites. 
 
 62. 
 
 The happiness or unhappiness of men de- 
 pends as much on their humors as on fortune. 
 
 63. 
 
 Sincerity is an opening of the heart:' we 
 find it in very few people ; and that which we 
 generally see is nothing but a subtle dissimula- 
 tion to attract the confidence of others. 
 
 64. 
 .Aversion to lying is often an imperceptible 
 
 61. " Aderat (Cereali) fortuna etiam ubi artes defuis- 
 sent." — Tacitus, Hist. v. c. 21. 
 
 62. " Satis est orare Jovem quee donat et aufert, 
 
 Det vitam, det opes, sequum animum mi ipse parabo." 
 
 Hor. Epist. i. 18, 111. 
 
 63. " C'est toujours un mauvais moyen de lire dans le 
 cceur des autres, que d'affecter de caoher le sein." — Rous- 
 seau, Conf. 1. 2. 
 
MOBAL SENTENCES. 23 
 
 desire to render our testimony important, and 
 to give a religious aspect to our words. 
 
 65. 
 
 Truth does not do so much good in the 
 world as its appearances do evil. 
 
 66. 
 
 There is no Mnd of praise which has not 
 been bestowed on prudence; nevertheless, 
 however great it may be, it cannot assure us 
 of the least event, because its subject is man 
 — the most changeable in the world. 
 
 67. 
 
 A clever man should regulate his interests, 
 and place them in proper order. Our avidity 
 often deranges them by inducing us to under- 
 take too many things at once ; and by grasping 
 at minor objects, we lose our hold of more im- 
 portant ones. 
 
 68. 
 
 Grace is to the body what good sense is to 
 the mind. 
 
 65. This thought is inserted by Talleyrand in his Max- 
 ims for Seasoning Conversation. See his Reminiscences 
 by M. Colmache. 
 
24 MAXIMS AND 
 
 69. 
 
 It is difficult to define love. All that we 
 can say of it is, that in the soul it is a passion 
 for reigning ; in minds it is a sympathy ; and 
 in the body it is nothing hut a latent and deli- 
 cate desire to possess the loved object, after a 
 good deal of mystery. 
 
 70. 
 
 If there exists a love pure and exempt from 
 the mixture of our other passions, it is that 
 which lies hidden at the bottom of the heart, 
 and of which we are ignorant ourselves. 
 
 71. 
 
 There is no disguise which can long conceal 
 love where it does, or feign it where it does 
 not, exist. 
 
 72. 
 
 As it never depends on ourselves to love, or 
 
 70. " Genuine love, however rated as the chief passion 
 of the human heart, is but a poor dependant, a retainer 
 upon other passions, — admiration, gratitude, respect, esteem, 
 pride in the object. Divest the boasted sensation of these, 
 and it is no more than the impression of a twelvemonth, 
 by courtesy or vulgar error termed love." — Mrs. Inchbald, 
 Nature and Art, 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 25 
 
 to cease to love, a lover cannot complain with 
 justice of the inconstancy of his mistress, nor 
 she of her lover's fickleness. 
 
 73. 
 
 If we judge of love by the generality of its 
 effects, it resembles hatred rather than friend- 
 ship. 
 
 U. 
 
 It is possible to meet with women who have 
 never had an affair of gallantry ; but it is rare 
 to find any one who have had only one. 
 
 15. 
 
 There is only one sort of love, but a thou- 
 sand different copies of it. 
 
 72. " L'on n'est pas plus le maitre de toujours aimer, 
 qu'on ne l'a et6 de ne pas aimer." — La Brtjtere, du Cceur. 
 
 74. " Writing grows a habit, like a woman's gallantry : 
 there are women who have had no intrigue, but few who 
 have had but one only ; so there are millions of men who 
 have never written a book, but few who have written only 
 one." — Byron, Observations on an Article in Blackwood's 
 Magazine. And again : — 
 " Yet there are some, they say, who have had none, 
 But those who have, ne'er end with only one." 
 
 Don Juan, iii. st. 4. 
 
 a 
 
26 MAXIMS AND 
 
 16. 
 
 Love, like fire, cannot subsist without con- 
 tinual movement ; as soon as it ceases to hope 
 and fear, it ceases to exist. 
 
 11. 
 
 Love lends its name to an infinite number 
 of connections which are attributed to it, and in 
 which it has no more part than the Doge has 
 in what goes on at Venice. 
 
 76. " Like chiefs of faction, 
 Love's life is action, 
 A sordid paction, 
 
 That curbs his reign, 
 Obscures his glory. 
 Despot no more, he 
 Such territory, 
 
 Quits -with disdain. 
 
 " Still, still advancing, 
 With banners glancing, 
 His power enhancing, 
 He must move on ; 
 Repose but cloys him, 
 Retreat destroys him, 
 Lore brooks not a degraded throne." — Byron. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 27 
 
 78. 
 
 The pleasure of love is in loving. We are 
 happier in the passion we feel than in that we 
 excite. 
 
 79. 
 
 There are people who would never have 
 been in love if they had never heard of love. 
 
 §0- 
 It is with true love as with apparitions 
 Every one talks of it, but few have ever seen it. 
 
 78. " Love is sweet 
 
 Given or return'd. Common as light is love, 
 And its familiar voice wearies not ever ; 
 They who inspire it most are fortunate, 
 As I am now ; but those who feel it most 
 Are happier still." — Shelley, Prometheus Unbound. 
 " It is better to desire than to enjoy, to love than to be 
 loved." — Hazlitt, Characteristics, No. 205. And again, 
 236 : " It makes us proud when our love of a mistress is 
 returned : it ought to make us prouder still when we can 
 love her for herself alone, without the aid of any such sel- 
 fish reflection. This is the religion of love." 
 
 80. Byron was well read in La Rochefoucauld, and this 
 maxim appears to have been the germ of the following fin.e 
 stanza:^- 
 
88 MAXIMS AND 
 
 81. 
 
 Silence is the best course for any man to 
 adopt who distrusts himsel£ 
 
 82. 
 
 The reason we are so changeable in our 
 friendships is, that it is difficult to know the 
 qualities of the heart, while it is easy to know 
 those of the head. 
 
 " Love, no inhabitant of earth thou art. 
 An unseen seraph, we believe in thee — 
 A faith whose martyrs are the broken heart ; 
 But never yet hath seen, or e'er shall see, 
 The naked eye thy form, as it should be. 
 The mind hath made thee, as it peopled heaven 
 Even with its own desiring fantasy. 
 And to a thought such shape and image given 
 As haunts the unquench'd soul, parch'd, wearied, wrung, ar d 
 riven." — Childe Harold, Canto iv. 
 
 81. Has t« diraiSewos ^povt/WBraros eari crtawrSv. — Pal- 
 LAD. Alkxand. Epig. 
 
 " O my Antonio, I do know of these 
 That therefore only are reputed wise 
 For saying nothing." — Merchant of Venice. 
 
 82. " A government is inexcusable for employing fool- 
 ish ministers, for they may examine a man's head, though 
 they cannot his heart." — Sbbnstonb, Thoughts on Politics. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 29 
 
 83. 
 
 What men have given the name of friend 
 ship to is nothing but an alliance, a reciprocal 
 accommodation of interests, an exchange of 
 good offices ; in fact, it is nothing but a system 
 of traffic, in which self-love always proposes to 
 itself some advantage. 
 
 84. 
 
 Love of justice in the generality of men is 
 only the fear of suffering from injustice. 
 
 85. 
 
 Reconciliation with our enemies is only a 
 desire of bettering our condition, a weariness 
 of contest, and the fear of some disaster. 
 
 84. " An injury done to one is a threat held out to a 
 hundred." — Bacon, translated from Publius Strus : — 
 
 "Multis minatur qui uni faeit injuriam." 
 See No. 368. This thought, in the first edition, was dif- 
 ferently expressed : " Men blame injustice, not from any 
 aversion they have to it, but with reference to the harm 
 they may receive from it ;" for which the author afterwards 
 substituted the present Maxim. 
 
 85. " Aftei three obstinate and equal campaigns, John 
 of Antioch and Cyril of Alexandria condescended to explain 
 
 0* 
 
30 MAXIMS AND 
 
 86. 
 
 When we are tired of loving we are very 
 glad of some act of infidelity towards ourselves 
 to disengage us from our own fidelity. 
 
 87. 
 
 It is more disgraceful to distrust one's friends 
 than to be deceived by them. 
 
 88. 
 
 "We often persuade ourselves that we love 
 people more powerful than we are ; and yet it 
 is interest alone which produces our friend- 
 ship. We do not associate with them for any 
 good that we wish to do them, but for that 
 which we would receive from them. 
 
 89. 
 Our mistrust justifies the deceit of others. 
 
 and embrace ; but their seeming reunion must be imputed 
 rather to prudence than reason, to the mutual lassitude 
 rather than to the Christian charity of the patriarchs." — 
 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 47. 
 
 89. "Multi fallere docuerunt dum timent falli, et iliis 
 jus peccandi suspicando fecerur.t." — Seneca, Ep. 3. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 31 
 
 90. 
 
 How can we expect another to keep our 
 secret if we cannot keep it ourselves ? 
 
 91. 
 
 Self-love increases or diminishes in our eyes 
 the good qualities of our friends in proportion 
 to the satisfaction we derive from them, and 
 we judge of their merits by the kind of inter- 
 course which they keep up with us. 
 
 92. 
 
 Every one complains of his memory, and 
 no one complains of his judgment. 
 
 90. This idea has been expressed by other writers, but 
 by none more happily than by La Eochefoucauld. 
 " I have play'd the fool, the gross fool, to believe 
 The bosom of a friend would hold a secret 
 Mine own could not contain." 
 
 Masslbtger, Unnatural Combat, Act v. Sc. 2. 
 
 " Toute revelation d'un secret est la faute de celui qui 
 l'a confix." — La Bruyere, De la Socie'te'. 
 " Ham. Do not believe it. 
 Rosencr. Believe what ? 
 
 Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine 
 own." — Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 2. 
 
 92. " When I complain of my memory, they seem not 
 
32 MAXIMS AND 
 
 93. 
 
 There are no people who are so trouble- 
 some to others as the indolent: when they 
 have satisfied their indolence they wish to 
 appear diligent. 
 
 94. 
 
 The greatest ambition has not the least ap- 
 pearance of it when it finds the absolute impos- 
 sibility of reaching the height it aspires after. 
 
 95. 
 
 Great names debase, instead of elevating, 
 those who cannot sustain them. 
 
 96. 
 
 To undeceive a man persuaded of his own 
 merit, is to do him as ill a service as that ren- 
 
 to believe I am in earnest, and presently reprove me as 
 though I accused myself for a fool; not discerning the 
 difference between memory and understanding. Wherein 
 they are very wide of my intention, and do me wrong ; 
 experience rather daily showing us, on the contrary, that 
 a strong memory is commonly coupled with an infirm 
 judgment." — Montaigne, book i. ch. 9. 
 
 96. This alludes to an incident related by Mliaa (Sist. 
 Far. book iv. ch. 25) and Athenseus (book xii.), of one 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 33 
 
 dered to the Athenian madman, who fancied 
 that all the vessels entering the harbor be- 
 longed to him, 
 
 97. 
 
 Old men are fond of giving good advice, to 
 console themselves for being no longer in a po- 
 sition to give bad examples. 
 
 98. 
 The mark of an extraordinary merit, is to 
 
 Thrasyllus. Horace's account of a similar delusion is well 
 known. 
 
 " Fuit haud ignobilis Argis 
 Qui se credebat miros audire tragoedos, 
 In vacuo laetus sessor plausorque theatro. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Hie ubi cognatorum opibus curisque refectus, 
 Expulit elleboro morbum bilemque meraci, 
 Et redit ad sese : Pol, me occidistis, amici, 
 Non servAstis, ait, cui sic extorta voluptas 
 Et demptus per vim mentis gratissimus error." 
 
 JEpist. ii. 2, 127. 
 
 Pope has parodied this anecdote in his imitations of 
 Horace. Aristotle also relates a similar story, Mirab. 
 Auscult, init. 
 
 97. M La premiere chose qui arrive aux hommes apres 
 avoir renonce aux plaisirs c'est les condamner dans les 
 autres." — La Bbutkre, De VJTomme. 
 
34 MAXIMS AND 
 
 see those most envious of it constrained to 
 
 praise. 
 
 99. 
 
 It is a proof of very little friendship not to 
 notice a cooling in that of our friends. 
 
 100. 
 
 We are mistaken in supposing that intellect 
 and judgment are two different things. Judg- 
 ment is merely the greatness of the light of 
 the mind; this light penetrates into the re- 
 cesses of things ; it observes there every thing 
 remarkable, and perceives what appears to be 
 imperceptible. Thus it must be allowed that 
 it is the greatness of the light of the mind 
 which produces all the effects attributed to 
 judgment. 
 
 101. 
 
 Every one speaks well of his heart, but no 
 one dares to do so of his head. 
 
 102. 
 
 Politeness of mind consists in the conception 
 of honorable and delicate thoughts. 
 
 103. 
 
 Gallantry of mind consists in saying flatter- 
 ing tilings in an agreeable manner. 
 
MORAL SEHTENCE& 35 
 
 104. 
 
 It often happens that things present them- 
 selves to our minds in a more complete state 
 than we could by much art make them arrive at. 
 
 105. 
 The head is always the dupe of the heart. . 
 
 106. 
 
 It is not all who know their heads who 
 know their hearts. 
 
 107. 
 
 Men and things have both their proper 
 points of view. Some require to be seen near 
 to be judged well of; others are never so well 
 judged of as at a distance. 
 
 105. " Quelle mesintelligence entre l'esprit et le eoeur ! 
 Le philosophe vit mal avec tous ses preceptes, et le poli- 
 tique rempli de vues et de reflexions ne sait pas se gouver- 
 ner." — La Brutbee, Be V Homme. 
 
 "Plusieurs diroient en periode quarr6, que quelques 
 reflexions que fasse l'esprit, et quelques resolutions qu'il 
 prenne pour corriger ses travers, le premier sentiment du 
 coeur renverse tous ses projets. Mais il n'appartient qu'a 
 M. de la Rochefoucauld de dire tout en un mot que 'L'esprit 
 est toujours la dupe du cceur.' " — Bodhours, Art de Penser. 
 
 106. See No. 82. 
 
96 MAXIMS AND 
 
 108. 
 
 He is not a reasonable man who by chance 
 stumbles upon reason ; but he who derives it 
 from knowledge, from discernment, and from 
 taste. 
 
 109. 
 
 To know things perfectly, we should know 
 them in detail; but as this is almost infinite, 
 our knowledge is always superficial and imper- 
 fect. 
 
 110. 
 
 It is a species of coquetry to make a parade 
 of never practising it. 
 
 111. 
 
 The head cannot long play the part of the 
 heart. 
 
 112. 
 
 In youth the tastes are changed from heat 
 of blood ; in old age they are preserved from 
 habit. 
 
 113. 
 
 "We give away nothing so liberally as ad- 
 vice. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 37 
 
 114. 
 
 The more we love a mistress, the nearer we 
 are to hating her. 
 
 115. 
 
 The defects of the mind, like those of the 
 countenance, augment with age. 
 
 116. 
 
 There are some good marriages, but none 
 that afford many delights. 
 
 117. 
 
 We are inconsolable at being deceived by 
 our enemies, and betrayed by our friends ; and 
 yet we are often content to be so by ourselves. 
 
 114; -Probably because excess has a tendency to pro- 
 duce reaction. La Bruyere observes, "Les froideurs et 
 les relachemens dans l'amiti6 ont leurs causes; en amour 
 il n'y a guere d'autre raison de ne s'aimer plus que de s'etre 
 trop aimes." — Du Cceur. 
 
 " Love bears within its breast the very germ 
 Of change ; and how should it be otherwise ? 
 That strongest things the soonest find their term 
 Is shown by Nature's whole analogies." 
 
 Byron, Don Juan, canto xiv. st. 94. 
 P 
 
38 MAXIMS AND 
 
 118. 
 
 It is as easy to deceive oneself without per- 
 ceiving it, as it is difficult to deceive others 
 without their perceiving it. 
 
 119. 
 
 Nothing is less sincere than the method of 
 asking and giving advice. The man who asks 
 it appears to have a respectful deference for 
 the opinion of his friend, while he intends to 
 make him approve of his ,own ; and he who 
 gives the advice repays the confidence shown 
 in him by an ardent and disinterested zeal, 
 though, in the advice he gives, he has generally 
 nothing in view but his own interest or fame. 
 
 120. 
 The most subtle of all artifices is the power 
 
 120. "Solum insidiarum remedium est si non intelli- 
 gerentur." — Tao. Ann. 14, 6. 
 
 " The surest way of making a dupe is to let your victim 
 suppose that you are his." — Bulwer Lttxon. 
 
 " Vous le croyez votre dupe ; s'il feint de l'etre, qui est 
 le plus dupe, de lui ou de vous?" — La Bruyere, De la 
 Soci&tL 
 
 A curious illustration of this maxim was lately exhibited 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 39 
 
 of cleverly feigning to fall into the snares laid 
 for us ; and we are never so easily deceived as 
 when we think we are deceiving others. 
 
 121. 
 
 A determination never to deceive often ex- 
 poses us to deception. 
 
 122. 
 
 We are so much accustomed to disguise 
 ourselves to others, that at length we disguise 
 ourselves to ourselves. 
 
 in the events which led to the defeat of the King of Sar 
 dinia, in Lombardy, in July, 1848. He was beguiled by a 
 pretended plot for delivering the town of Mantua into his 
 hands, and with a view of aiding in its execution, was in- 
 duced to weaken his military position to such a degree as 
 to enable the Austrian general, Eadetzky, to attack him at 
 a disadvantage. The Italian correspondent of the Times 
 Newspaper (Aug. 2d, 1848) remarks upon this: "I per- 
 ceive that the whole affair was, to use a vulgar but expres- 
 sive phrase, ' a plant' to induce the King to impoverish the 
 left of our lines, where Radetzky saw, as events have since 
 proved, that he might strike the surest blow. * * * I 
 have often noticed that cunning men are the most easily 
 deceived, and I fear Charles Albert, who has the reputation 
 of being very rtisi, has thus been caught." 
 
40 MAXIMS AND 
 
 123. 
 
 Men are more often guilty of treachery from 
 weakness of character than from any settled 
 design to betray. 
 
 124. 
 
 We often do good, in order that we may 
 do evil with impunity. 
 
 125. 
 
 If we resist our passions it is more from 
 their weakness than from our strength. 
 
 126. 
 
 We should have very little pleasure if we 
 did not sometimes flatter ourselves. 
 
 123. This is the principle which Shakspearc appears to 
 nave in view when he makes Polonius say, — 
 
 " This above all, to thine own self be true, 
 And it must follow, as the night the day, 
 Thou canst not then be false to any man." — Hamlet. 
 
 125. Thus Montaigne says of himself: "If I had been 
 born of a more irregular complexion, I am afraid I should 
 have made scurvy work on't, for I never observed any 
 great stability in my soul to resist passions if they were 
 neve? so little vehement." — Essays, "h. ii. ch. 11. 
 
MOBAL SENTENCES. 41 
 
 127. 
 The cleverest men affect all their lives to 
 censure all artifice, in order that they may- 
 make use of it themselves on some grand occa- 
 sion, and for some great interest. 
 
 128. 
 The ordinary employment of artifice is the 
 mark of a petty mind; and it almost always 
 happens that he who uses it to cover himself 
 in one place, uncovers himself in another. 
 
 129. 
 Treacheries and acts of artifice only origi- 
 nate in the want of ability. 
 
 127. " Certainly the cleverest men that ever were have 
 all had an openness and frankness of dealing, and a name 
 of certainty and veracity, but then they were like horses 
 •well managed, for they could tell passing well when to 
 stop or turn, and at such times, when they thought the 
 case required dissimulation, if then they used it, it came to 
 pass that the former opinion spread abroad of their good 
 faith and clearness of dealing, rendered them almost invis- 
 ible." — Bacon, Essays, Simulation and Dissimulation. 
 
 128. " We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wis- 
 dom, and certainly there is a great difference between a 
 cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty, 
 but in point of ability." — Bacon, Essays, Cunning. 
 
 120. See last note. The same truth seems to be ad- 
 P* 
 
42 MAXIMS AND 
 
 130. 
 
 The true method of being deceived is to 
 think oneself more cunning than others. 
 
 131. 
 Too great refinement is false delicacj and 
 true delicacy is solid refinement. 
 
 132. 
 Coarseness is sometimes sufficient to protect 
 us from being overreached by an artful man. 
 
 133. ^ 
 
 Weakness of mind is the only fault incapa- 
 ble of correction. 
 
 134. 
 The least fault in women who have aban- 
 doned themselves to love is to love. 
 
 mitted in the saying of Lysander (Plutarch in vit.) — 
 " When the lion's skin is too short, it should be eked out 
 with the fox's." — See Sir E. B. Lytton's Richelieu, Act i. 
 
 130. "Here, my sagacious friend," said Louis, "takfe 
 this purse of gold, and with it the advice, never to be so 
 great a fool as to think yourself wiser than another."— 
 Quentin Durward. 
 
 134. " Faciunt graviora coactse 
 
 Imperio sexus, minimumque libidine peccant." 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. vi. 134. 
 
MOHAL SENTENCES. 43 
 
 135. 
 
 It is more easy to be wise for others than 
 for ourselves. 
 
 136. 
 
 The only good copies are those which ex- 
 hibit the defects of bad originals. 
 
 137. 
 
 We are never so ridiculous from the quali- 
 ties we have, as from those we affect to have. 
 
 138. 
 
 "We are sometimes as different from our- 
 selves as we are from others. 
 
 135. " Ita quasso (Dii vostram fidem !) 
 Itane comparatam esse hominum naturam omnium 
 Aliena ut melius videant et dijudicent 
 Quam sua ! An eo fit quia in re nostril aut gaudio 
 Sumus pisspediti nimio aut segritudine V — 
 
 Terence, Heaut. Act iii. Scene 1, ad fin. 
 
 138. " We are all unformed lumps, and of so various 
 a contexture that every moment every piece plays its own 
 game, and there is as much difference betwixt us and our- 
 selves as betwixt us and others. ' Magnam rem puta unum 
 hominem agere.'" — Montaigne, ii. 1, p. 155. 
 
 Rousseau ( Conf. b. ix.) tells us that he was so much 
 struck with this singularity, that he contemplated writing a 
 work on the subject : " I7on a reeoarque que la plupart deS 
 
44 MAXIMS AND 
 
 139. 
 
 Coldness in love is a sure means of being 
 
 beloved. 
 
 140. 
 
 Men talk little when vanity does not prompt 
 
 them. 
 
 141. 
 
 We would rather speak ill of ourselves than 
 not talk of ourselves at all. 
 
 hommes sont dans les cours de leur vie souvent dissembla- 
 bles a eux-memes, et semblent se transformer en des hom- 
 mes tout differens. Ce n'6toit pas pour 6tablir une chose 
 aussi connue, que je voulois faire un livre ; j'avois un objet 
 plus neuf, et meme plus important, c'etoit de chercher les 
 causes de oes variations et de m'attacher a celles qui de- 
 pendoient de nous, pour montrer comment elles pouvoient 
 etre dirigees par nousmemes, pour nous rendre meilleurs et 
 plus surs de nous." 
 
 139. Among the epigrams of John Owen (pub. 1612) 
 is the following — 
 
 " Earns amatur amans, ut amere inamabilis esto 
 Omnibus ; a nullis vis ut ameris 1 ama." 
 " The great secrets of being courted are, to shun others, 
 and seem delighted with yourself." — Bulwer Lytton. 
 " Contemnite amantes 
 Sic hodie veniet si qua negavit heri." 
 
 Propertius, Meg. 2. xiv. 19. 
 141. " Un homme vain trouve son compte a dh*e du bien 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 45 
 
 142. 
 
 One thing which makes us find so few peo- 
 ple who appear reasonable and agreeable in 
 conversation is, that there is scarcely any one 
 who does not think more of what he is about 
 to say than of answering precisely what is said 
 to him. The cleverest and most complaisant 
 people content themselves with merely showing 
 an attentive countenance, while we can see in 
 their eyes and minds a wandering from what 
 is said to them, and an impatience to return to 
 what they wish to say; instead of reflecting 
 that it is a bad method of pleasing or persua- 
 ding others, to be so studious of pleasing one- 
 self; and that listening well and answering 
 well is one of the greatest perfection? that can 
 be attained in conversation. 
 
 ou du mal de soi ; un homme modeste ne parle point de 
 soi." — La Bkotere. 
 
 " Montaigne's vanity led him to talk perpetually of him- 
 self, and, as often happens to vain men, he would rather 
 talk of his own failings than of any foreign subject." — Hal- 
 lam, Lit. of Europe, vol. ii. p. 170. Ed. 1839. 
 
 142. La Bruyere has a fine passage illustrative of this 
 sentiment : " L'esprit de la conversation consiste bien 
 moins a en montrer beaucoup qu'a. en faire trouver aux 
 
46 MAXIMS AND 
 
 143. 
 
 A man of wit would often be embarrassed 
 without the company of fools. 
 
 144. 
 
 "We often boast that we are never weary of 
 ourselves. We are such braggarts, that we do 
 not like to allow that we are bad company for 
 ourselves. 
 
 145. 
 
 As it is the characteristic of great wits to 
 convey a great deal in a few words, so, on the 
 contrary, small wits have the gift of speaking 
 much and saying nothing. 
 
 146. 
 It is rather by estimation of our own senti- 
 
 autres ; celui qui sort de votre entretien content de soi et 
 de son esprit l'est de vous parfaitement. Les hommes 
 n'aiment point a vous admirer, Us veulent plaire ; ils cher- 
 chent moins a etre instruits et meme rejouis qu'a etre 
 goutes et applaudis, et le plaisir le plus d61icat est de faire 
 celui d'autrui." — De la Societe. 
 
 143. " Wits uniformly exclaim against fools, yet fools 
 are their proper foil, and it is from them alone they can 
 learn what figure themselves make." — Shenstone, Men and 
 Manners. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 47 
 
 ments that we exaggerate the good qualities of 
 others, than by estimation of their merit ; and 
 we wish to attract praise for ourselves even 
 when we seem to be praising them. 
 
 147. 
 "We are not fond of praising, and never 
 praise any one except from interested motives. 
 Praise is a clever, concealed, and delicate flat- 
 tery, which gratifies in different ways the giver 
 and the receiver. The one takes it as a recom- 
 pense of his merit, and the other bestows it to 
 display his equity and discernment. 
 
 148. 
 We often choose envenomed praises, which, 
 by a reaction, expose faults in those we are 
 praising that we should not dare to discover in 
 any other way. 
 
 149. 
 We seldom praise but to be praised, v' 
 
 147. " L'on dit a la cour du bien de quelqu'un pour deux 
 raisons. La premiere, afin qu'il apprenne que nous disons 
 du bien de lui; la seconde, afin qu'il en dise de nous." — La 
 Brutere, De la Cour. 
 
 148. See No. 330, and note. 
 
 149. See note on 147. 
 
43 MAXIMS AND 
 
 150. 
 
 Few people are wise enough to prefer use- 
 ful reproof to treacherous praise. 
 
 151. 
 
 / 
 
 There are reproaches which praise, and 
 
 praises which convey satire. 
 
 152. 
 
 A refusal of praise is a desire to be praised 
 twice. 
 
 153. 
 
 The desire of meriting the praise we receive 
 fortifies our virtue ; and that bestowed on 
 talent, courage, and beauty, contributes to aug- 
 ment them. 
 
 154. 
 
 It is more difficult to avoid being governed 
 than it is to govern others. 
 
 155. 
 
 If we did not flatter ourselves, the flattery 
 of others would be very harmless. 
 
 155. See No. 3. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 49 
 
 156. 
 
 Nature creates merit, and fortune brings it 
 into play. 
 
 157. 
 
 Fortune corrects us of nore faults than 
 reason is able to correct. 
 
 158. 
 
 Some people are disgusting with great merit 
 — others with great faults are agreeable. 
 
 159. r 
 
 The only merit of some people consists in 
 saying and doing foolish things in a useful man- 
 ner, and they would spoil all if they changed 
 their conduct. 
 
 158. " Aveo de la vertu, de la capacity, et une bonne 
 conduite, on peut etre insupportable. Les manieres, que 
 l'on neglige comme des petites choses, sont souvent ce qui 
 fait que les hommes se decident de vous en bien ou en mal ; 
 une legere attention a, les avoir douces et polies previent 
 leurs mauvais jugemens. II ne faut presque rien pour etre 
 cru fier, incivil, meprisant, desobligeant ; il faut encore 
 moins pour etre estime tout le contraire." — La Bruyere, 
 De la Society. 
 
 159. " Tom Tweedle played a good fiddle, but nothing 
 satisfied with the inconsiderable appellation of a fiddler. 
 
 E 
 
60 MAXIMS AND 
 
 160. 
 
 Kings do with men as with pieces of money 
 — they give them what value they please, and 
 we are obliged to receive them at their current, 
 and not at their real value. 
 
 161. 
 The glory of men should always be propor- 
 
 dropped the practice, and is now no character."- 
 stone, Men and Manners. 
 
 160. This remark is probably the origin of the follow- 
 ing : " Titles of honor are like the impressions on coin, 
 which add no value to gold and silver, but only render brass 
 current." — The Koran, (a work attributed to Sterne, but of 
 questionable parentage ;) and Burns' well-known lines : — 
 
 " The king can make a belted knight, 
 
 A marquis, duke, and a' that, 
 * * * * 
 
 The rank is but the guinea stamp, 
 The man's the gowd for a' that." 
 
 In the life of Dr. South, published by Curll in 1717, and 
 prefixed to the Oxford edition of his works, 1823, this 
 maxim, with the substitution of " commonwealths" for 
 " kings," is with Maxim 235, attributed to the " character- 
 istic terseness" of that learned divine. It was omitted by 
 La Rochefoucauld in the last edition he published, on the 
 ground, says the Abb6 Brotier, that it is less a moral axiom 
 than a conversational witticism ; a dictum which would 
 however exclude many others of the maxims. 
 
MOBAL SENTENCES. 51 
 
 tioned to the means they have employed to 
 acquire it. 
 
 162. 
 
 It is not sufficient to have great qualities ; 
 we must be able to make proper use of them. 
 
 163. 
 
 However brilliant an action may be, it 
 ought not to pass for great when it is not the 
 result of a great design. 
 
 164. 
 
 There ought to be a certain proportion be- 
 tween actions and designs, if we would draw 
 from them all the results they are capable of 
 producing. 
 
 165. 
 
 The art of being able to make a good use 
 of moderate abilities wins esteem, and often 
 confers more reputation than real merit. 
 
 166. 
 
 There is an infinity of modes of conduct 
 which appear ridiculous, the secret reasons of 
 which are wise and sound. 
 
52 MAXIMS AND 
 
 167. 
 
 It is more easy to appear worthy of employ- 
 ments which we do not, than of those which 
 we do possess. 
 
 168. 
 
 Our merit gains us the esteem of the virtu- 
 ous — our star that of the public. 
 
 169. 
 
 The world more often rewards the appear- 
 ances of merit than it does merit itself. 
 
 170. 
 
 Avarice is more opposed to economy than 
 liberality is. 
 
 171. 
 
 Hope, deceitful as she is, serves at least to 
 conduct us through life by an agreeable path. 
 
 167. This is the remark of Tacitus respecting Galba, 
 "Major privato visus, duiri privatus fuit, et omnium con- 
 sensu capax imperii, nisi-rrnperasset." — Hist. i. 49. 
 
 168. "All give to dust that is a little gilt 
 
 More laud than gilt o'er dusted." 
 
 Troilus and Cressida. Act. iii. So. 3. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 53 
 
 172. 
 
 Indolence and timidity often keep us to our 
 duty, while our virtue carries off all the credit 
 of doing so. 
 
 173. 
 
 It is difficult to determine whether an open, 
 sincere, and virtuous action is the result of prob- 
 ity or artfulness. 
 
 174. 
 
 The virtues are lost in interest, as rivers are 
 lost in the sea. 
 
 175. 
 
 If we examine well the different effects of 
 ennui, we shall find that it makes us neglect 
 more duties than interest does. 
 
 176. 
 
 There are various sorts of curiosity : one is 
 from interest, which makes us desire to know 
 
 172. " Quod segnitia erat sapientia vocaretur." — Taci 
 tub, Hist. i. c. 49. 
 
 176. In the original edition this stood, " There are two 
 sorts of curiosity," &c, upon which Bishop Butler (Preface 
 to Sermons) observes, " The author of R&flexions Morales, 
 
 E 
 
54 MAXIMS AND 
 
 what may be useful to us ; another is from 
 pride, and arises from a desire of knowing 
 what others are ignorant of. 
 
 177. 
 It is better to employ our minds in support- 
 ing the misfortunes which actually happen, 
 than in anticipating those which may happen 
 to us. 
 
 178. 
 
 It is never so difficult to speak as when we 
 are ashamed of our silence. 
 
 &c, says curiosity proceeds from interest or pride, which 
 pride also would doubtless have been explained to be self- 
 love ; as if there were no such passions in mankind as de- 
 sire of esteem, or of being beloved, or of knowledge." 
 Pascal will only allow one species, " La curiosity n'est que 
 la vanit6. Le plus souvent on ne veut scavoir que pour en 
 parler ; on ne voyageroit pas sur la mer pour ne jamais en 
 rien dire et pour le seul plaisir de voir sans esp6rance de 
 s'en entretenir jamais avec personne." — Penseds, Vanite" de 
 F Homme. It is to be feared, however, that there are some 
 kinds of curiosity which have not even so good a motive as 
 vanity. 
 
 177. This is the Scriptural maxim, " Sufficient unto the 
 day is the evil thereof." — St. Matthew, chap. vi. 34. 
 
 Eousseau observes, "La prevoyance qui nous porte 
 sans cesse au-dela de nous, et souvent nous place ou nous 
 n'arriverons point, voila la veritable source de toutes nos 
 miseres."— ;&wtffe, b. ii. 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 55 
 
 179. 
 
 Constancy in love is a perpetual inconstancy, 
 which causes the heart to attach itself succes- 
 sively to all the qualities of the person we love, 
 giving the preference sometimes to one, some- 
 times to another; so that this constancy is 
 nothing but an inconstancy, limited and con- 
 fined to one object. 
 
 180. 
 There are two sorts of constancy in love — 
 one arises from continually discovering in the 
 
 178. " Our sensibilities are so acute, 
 
 The fear of being silent makes us mute." 
 
 Cowper, Conversation. 
 
 179. There appears to be an instance of this kind of in- 
 constancy in Shakspkare's Winter's Tale, Act iv. Scene 3 : 
 
 " What you do 
 Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, 
 I'd have you do it ever ; when you sing 
 I'd have you buy and sell so ; so give alms ; 
 Pray so ; and for the ordering your affairs, 
 To sing them too. When you do dance, I wish you 
 A wave of the sea, that you might, ever do 
 Nothing but that ; move still, still so, and own 
 No other function : each your doing, 
 So singular in each particular, 
 Crowns what you're doing in the present deeds, 
 That all your acts are queens.' 
 
56 MAXIMS AND 
 
 loved person new subjects for love, the other 
 arises from our making a merit of being con- 
 stant. 
 
 181. 
 There are very few people who, when their 
 love is over, are not ashamed of having been 
 in love. 
 
 182. 
 
 We can love nothing except with reference 
 to ourselves ; and we are merely following our 
 own taste and pleasure when we prefer our 
 friends to ourselves. It is, nevertheless, by 
 this preference alone that friendship can be 
 true and perfect. 
 
 183. 
 
 The first movement of joy which we expe- 
 rience at the good fortune of our friends does 
 not always arise from the goodness of our na- 
 ture, nor from the friendship we have for them. 
 It is more often the result of self-love which 
 flatters us with the hope of being fortunate in 
 our turn, or of deriving some advantage from 
 their good fortune. 
 
 184. 
 
 Men would not live long in society if they 
 were not the dupes of each other, 
 
 K 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 57 
 
 185. 
 
 Perseverance deserves neither blame nor 
 praise, inasmuch as it is merely the duration of 
 tastes and opinions, which we can neither give 
 nor take away from ourselves. 
 
 186. 
 
 We sometimes make frivolous complaints of 
 our friends to justify beforehand our own fickle- 
 ness. 
 
 18T. 
 
 Our repentance is not so much regret for 
 the evil we have done, as fear of its conse- 
 quences to us. 
 
 186. It is difficult to render in English the exact point 
 of this maxim, from there being in the original an untrans- 
 lateable play on the words " legerement" and " 16geret6." 
 
 187. " You do repent 
 
 As that the sin hath brought you to this shame, 
 Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven, 
 Showing, we'd not spare heaven as we love it, 
 But as we stand in fear." 
 
 Measure for Measure, Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 So Cassio, on recovering from his drunken fit, is not so 
 much concerned for his fault as distressed at his loss of 
 reputation: — ' deputation, reputation, reputation. Oh! I 
 
58 MAXIMS AND 
 
 188. 
 
 There is a kind of inconstancy which arises 
 from levity of mind, or from its weakness 
 causing it to receive all the opinions of others. 
 There is another kind, more excusable, which 
 comes from satiety. 
 
 189. 
 What makes us like new acquaintances is 
 not so much any weariness of our old ones, or 
 the pleasure of change, as disgust at not being 
 sufficiently admired by those who know us too 
 well, and the hope of being more so by those 
 who do not know so much of us. 
 
 190. 
 The vices enter into the composition of the 
 virtues, as poisons into that of medicines. Pru- 
 
 have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part, 
 sir, of myself, and what remains is bestial." — Othello, 
 Act ii. Scene 3. 
 
 A modern authoress has gone still deeper : " We are all 
 liable to this error, of imagining that we are grieved at a 
 fault, when we are only grieved at having done something 
 to lower ourselves in our own estimation." — Margaret 
 Percival, vol. ii. chap. 33. 
 
 190. " As our bodies are compounded of different ele- 
 ments, so are our minds of various passions. And as the 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 59 
 
 dence collects and arranges them, and uses 
 them beneficially against the ills of life. 
 
 191. 
 
 For the credit of virtue it must be admitted 
 that the greatest evils which befall mankind are 
 caused by their crimes. 
 
 192. 
 
 There are some crimes which become inno- 
 cent, and even glorious, by their renown, their 
 number, and their excess. Hence it is that 
 public robberies become proofs of talent, and 
 seizing whole provinces unjustly is called ma- 
 king conquests. 
 
 193. 
 We confess our faults, to make amends by 
 
 blending of the former creates the union of body, so is all 
 virtue produced by the balancing or commixing of the sev- 
 eral affections and propensities of the soul. As our bodies 
 are formed of clay, so are even our virtues made up of 
 meanness or vice. Add vain-glory to avarice and it rises 
 to ambition. Lust inspires the lover, and selfish wants the 
 friend. Prudence arises from fear, and courage arises from 
 madness or from pride." — Sterne, Koran. 
 
 192. " Auferre, trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus impe- 
 rium ; atque ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant." — 
 Tacitus, Apricola, c. 30, 
 
60 MAXIMS AND 
 
 our sincerity for the harm they have done ua 
 in the opinion of others. 
 
 194. 
 There are heroes in evil as well as in good. 
 
 195. 
 
 We do not despise all those who have vices, 
 but we despise all those who have not a single 
 virtue. 
 
 196. 
 
 The name of virtue is as serviceable to in- 
 terest as vice is. 
 
 19?. 
 
 The health of the soul is no more secure 
 than that of the body; and though we may 
 appear free from passions, we are in quite as 
 much danger of being carried away by them 
 as we are of falling sick when we are in health. 
 
 198. 
 
 It would seem that Nature has prescribed 
 to every one from the moment of his birth cer- 
 tain limits for virtue and vice. 
 
 199. 
 It belongs only to great men to have great 
 faults, 
 
MOKAL SENTENCES. 61 
 
 200. 
 
 It may be said that the vices await us in 
 the journey of life like hosts with whom we 
 must successively lodge ; and I doubt whether 
 experience would make us avoid them if we 
 were to travel the same road a second time. 
 
 201. 
 
 When our vices quit us we flatter ourselves 
 with the belief that it is we who quit them. 
 
 202. 
 
 There are relapses in the disorders of the 
 soul as well as in those of the body. What 
 we take to be our cure is most often nothing 
 but an intermission or a change of the disorder. 
 
 203. 
 
 The faults of the soul are like wounds in 
 the body. Whatever care we take to cure 
 them the scar always appears, and they are 
 every moment in danger of re-opening. 
 
 201. "When men grow virtuous in their old age, the^ 
 are merely making a sacrifice to God of the devil's leav- 
 ings." — Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects. 
 
 P 
 
62 MAXIMS AND 
 
 204. 
 
 What often prevents our abandoning our- 
 selves to a single vice is, our having more than 
 one. 
 
 205. 
 
 We easily forget our faults when they are 
 only known to ourselves. 
 
 206. 
 
 There are some people of whom we should 
 never have believed evil unless we had seen it, 
 but there are none at whom we ought to be 
 surprised when we do see it. 
 
 207. 
 
 We enhance the reputation of some with a 
 view of depreciating that of others ; and some- 
 times we should not praise the Prince de Conde 
 and M. de Tureime so much, if we did not wish 
 to blame them both. 
 
 208. 
 
 The desire of appearing clever often pre- 
 vents our becoming so. 
 
 205. "Innocentem quisque se dicit respiciens testem 
 non conscientiam." — Seneca. 
 
MOBAL SENTENCES. 63 
 
 209. 
 
 Virtue would not travel so far if vanity did 
 not keep her company. 
 
 210. 
 
 He who thinks he can find in himself the 
 means of doing without others is much mista- 
 ken ; but he who thinks that others cannot do 
 without him is still more mistaken. 
 
 211. 
 
 Pretenders to virtue are those who disguise 
 their faults from others as well as from them- 
 selves. The truly virtuous know their imper- 
 fections and confess them. 
 
 212. 
 
 A truly virtuous man is he who prides him- 
 self upon nothing. 
 
 213. 
 
 Severity of demeanor in women is a species 
 
 209. " Contemptu famse contemni virtutes." — Tacitus, 
 Ann. 4. c. 38. Englished by Ben Jonson, " Contempt of 
 fame begets contempt of virtue." 
 
 213. "To what use serves the artifice of this virgin 
 modesty, this grave coldness, this severe countenance, but 
 
bt MAXIMS AND 
 
 of decoration and paint which they add to 
 their beauty. 
 
 214. 
 
 The virtue of women is often love of their 
 reputation and of their quiet. 
 
 215. 
 
 It is to be a truly virtuous man to wish to 
 be always exposed to the view of virtuous peo- 
 ple. 
 
 216. 
 
 Folly pursues us in every period of life. If 
 any one appears wise, it is only because his fol- 
 lies are proportioned to his age and fortune. 
 
 217. 
 
 There are some silly people who know them- 
 selves, and make a clever use of their silliness. 
 
 to increase in us the desire to overcome, and with more 
 gluttony subject to our appetites all this ceremony and all 
 these obstacles. We should believe that their hearts trem- 
 ble with affright, that the very sound of our words offends 
 the purity of their ears, that they hate us for talking so, 
 and only yield to our importunity by a compulsive force. 
 Beauty, all powerful as it is, has not wherewithal to make 
 itself relished without the mediation of these little acts." — 
 Montaigne, b. ii. c. 15. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 65 
 
 218. 
 
 He who lives without folly is not so wise as 
 he thinks. 
 
 219. 
 
 As we grow old we become more foolish 
 and more wise. 
 
 220. 
 
 Some people resemble ballads, which are 
 only sung for a certain time. 
 
 221. 
 The generality of people only judge of men 
 by the fashion they are in, or by their fortunes. 
 
 222. 
 Love of glory, fear of shame, the design of 
 making a fortune, the desire of rendering our 
 lives easy and agreeable, and the envious wish 
 of lowering the fame of others are often the 
 causes of that valor so celebrated among men. 
 
 223. 
 Valor in common soldiers is a dangerous 
 
 223. " Men venture necks to gain a fortune, 
 The sol'dier does it every day, 
 (Eight to the week,) for sixpence pay." 
 
 Hudibras, Part ii. Canto 1, line 512. 
 
66 MAXIMS AND 
 
 trade, which they have adopted to gain their 
 livelihood. 
 
 224. 
 
 Perfect bravery and thorough cowardice are 
 two extremes which are seldom reached. The 
 space between the two is great, and compre- 
 hends all other kinds of courage, between 
 which there is as much difference as between 
 countenances and dispositions. There are some 
 men who expose themselves readily at the 
 commencement of an action, and are disheart- 
 ened and discouraged by its duration; some 
 are content as soon as they have satisfied their 
 reputation with the world, and do very little 
 beyond this. We see some who are not at all 
 times equally masters of their fears; others 
 suffer themselves to be carried away by general 
 
 224. Montaigne denies that any man can be brave who 
 is not uniformly so. " If a man were brave he would be 
 uniformly so, and upon all occasions. If it were a habit 
 of virtue and not a sally it would render a man equally 
 resolute in all accidents, the same alone as in company, the 
 same in lists as in battles, for let people say what they 
 will, there is not one valor for the street and another for 
 the field. He would bear a sickness in his bed as bravely 
 as a wound in the trenches, and no more fear death in his 
 own house than at an assault. We should not then see the 
 same man charge into a breach with a brave assurance, and 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 67 
 
 panics; others go to the charge because they 
 dare not remain in their posts. "We find some 
 in whom an acquaintance with petty dangers 
 strengthens their courage, and prepares them 
 to expose themselves to greater ones. Some 
 are brave when sword in hand, and yet dread 
 the fire of musketry ; others are steady under 
 fire, and fear the sword. All these different 
 species of courage concur in this, that night, by 
 augmenting fear and concealing good or bad 
 actions, gives the privilege of being discreet. 
 There is another species of discretion which is 
 more general, for we never see a man perform 
 as much in an encounter as he might do if he 
 were sure of coming off safe ; so that it is evi- 
 dent the fear of death subtracts something 
 from courage. 
 
 afterwards torment himself and whine like a woman for the 
 loss of a law-suit, or the death of a child. When being a 
 coward in arms he is firm under poverty, when he starts at 
 the sight of a barber's razor but rushes fearless among the 
 swords of the enemy, the action is commendable, but not 
 the man." — Book ii. chap. 1. 
 
 This passage in Montaigne appears to have suggested 
 to Eousseau the following : " Tel afironte sur la breche la 
 mort et le fer de son ennemi qui dans le secret de sa maison 
 ue peut soutenir la vue du fer salutaire d'un chirurgien." — 
 Discours sur cette Question " Quelle est la vertu la plus n&- 
 cessaire aux teros" dee. 
 
68 MAXIMS AND 
 
 225. 
 
 Perfect valor is to do unwitnessed what we 
 should he capable of doing before all the world. 
 
 226. 
 
 Intrepidity is an extraordinary strength of 
 mind, which raises it above the troubles, the 
 disorders, and the emotions, which the sight of 
 great perils is calculated to excite ; it is by this 
 strength that heroes maintain themselves in a 
 tranquil state of mind, and preserve the free 
 use of their reason under the most surprising 
 and terrible circumstances. 
 
 227. 
 
 Hypocrisy is the homage which vice renders 
 to virtue. 
 
 225. "It is said of untrue valors that some men's valors 
 are in the eyes of them that look on." — Bacon, Advance- 
 ment of Learning. 
 
 227. Massillon has adopted this celebrated thought in 
 one of his sermons. " Le vice rend hommage a la vertu 
 en s'honorant de ses apparences ;" and it probably also 
 suggested to Cowper the following passage in the Task, 
 b. iii. : — 
 
 " Hypocrisy, detest her as we may, 
 (And no man's hatred ever wrong'd her yet,) 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 69 
 
 228. 
 
 The generality of men expose themselves in 
 battle sufficiently to save their honor, but few 
 are on all occasions willing to expose them- 
 selves as much as is necessary to insure the 
 success of the enterprise for which they expose 
 themselves. 
 
 229. 
 
 Vanity, shame, and above all temperament, 
 are often the causes of courage in men, and of 
 virtue in women. 
 
 230. 
 
 We are unwilling to lose our lives, and we 
 wish to acquire glory. This is the cause of 
 brave men having more tact and ability in 
 avoiding death, than intriguing people have in 
 preserving their fortunes. 
 
 May claim this merit still — that she admits 
 The worth of what she mimics with such care, 
 And thus gives virtue indirect applause." 
 
 229. " Vanity bids all her sons be brave, and all her 
 daughters chaste and courteous. But why do we need her 
 instructions'? Ask the comedian who is taught a part 
 which he does not feel." — Sterne, Sermons, 
 
70 MAXIMS AND 
 
 231. 
 
 There are very few persons who, in the first 
 decline of life, do not let us see the points in 
 which their bodies and minds will fail. 
 
 232. 
 
 In the intercourse of our life we more often 
 please by our faults than our good qualities. 
 
 233. 
 
 A man may be ungrateful, and yet less 
 blamable for his ingratitude than him who 
 conferred the favor. 
 
 234 
 Gratitude is like the good faith of traders, 
 
 232. '"A man's errors are what render him amiable,' 
 says Goethe, in the last number of his Journal of Art, that 
 is, in his seventy-seventh year. I said one day to a girl of 
 fourteen, ' If you were but as good as your brother.' ' Well,' 
 she replied, with something of a bashful sullenness, ' I don't 
 care, you would not be so fond of me if I was.' This coinci- 
 dence between the aged poet and the child just emerging 
 from childhood — laugh not, reader — Goethe himself would 
 be delighted to be told of it — might suggest many reflec- 
 tions on the waywardness of the heart, and the perverse 
 nature of affection." — Guesses at Truth, vol. ii. p. 79. First 
 Edition, 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 71 
 
 it maintains commerce ; and we often pay, not 
 because it is just to discharge our debts, but 
 that we may more readily find people to trust 
 us. 
 
 235. 
 
 It is not all who fulfil the duties of grati- 
 tude who can on that account flatter them- 
 selves that they are grateful. 
 
 236. 
 
 What causes such a miscalculation in the 
 amount of gratitude which men expect for the 
 favors they have done, is, that the pride of the 
 giver and that of the receiver can never agree 
 as to the value of the benefit. 
 
 236. Rousseau has some excellent remarks on this sub- 
 ject. " L'ingratitude seroit plus rare si les bienfaits a. usure 
 6toient moins communes. On aime ce qui nous fait du 
 bien. C'est un sentiment si naturel ! L'ingratitude n'est 
 pas dans le cceur de l'homme, mais l'interet y est. II y a 
 moins d'obliges ingrats que de bienfaiteurs interesses. Si 
 vous me vendez vos dons, je marchanderai sur le prix, mais 
 si vous feignez de donner pour vendre ensuite a votre mot 
 vous usez de fraude. C'est d'etre gratuits qui les rend in- 
 estimables." — Emile, b. iv. An attention to these and to 
 La Rochefoucauld's remarks would prevent much miscon. 
 eeption on the subject of gratitude. 
 
72 MAXIMS AND 
 
 237. 
 
 Too great eagerness to requite an obligation 
 is a species of ingratitude. 
 
 238. 
 
 Men more easily set bounds to their grati- 
 tude than to their hopes or their desires. 
 
 239. 
 
 Pride does not like to owe, and self-love 
 does not like to pay. 
 
 240. 
 
 The good that we have received from any 
 man should make us respect the evil that he 
 does us. 
 
 241. 
 
 Nothing is so contagious as example; and 
 we never do any great good or great evil which 
 does not produce its like. We imitate good 
 actions from emulation, and bad ones from the 
 depravity of our nature, which shame would 
 keep prisoner, and example sets at liberty. 
 
 242. 
 
 It is a great folly to wish to be exclusively 
 wise, 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 73 
 
 243. 
 
 Whatever pretext we may assign for our 
 afflictions, it is often only interest or vanity 
 which causes them. 
 
 244. 
 
 There are divers sorts of hypocrisy in grief. 
 In one, under pretext of lamenting the loss of 
 a person who is dear to us, we lament ourselves, 
 we lament the diminution of our advantages, 
 
 244. The reader may like to compare Young's lines on 
 the same subject. Night Thoughts, Night 5 : — 
 
 " Our funeral tears from various causes rise, 
 Of various kinds they flow. From tender hearts 
 By soft contagion call'd some burst at once, 
 And stream obsequious to the leading eye. 
 Some ask more time by curious art distill'd. 
 Some hearts in secret hard, unapt to melt, 
 Struck by the public eye gush out amain. 
 Some weep to share the fame of the deceased, 
 So high in merit, and to them so dear ; 
 They dwell on praises which they think they share. 
 Some mourn in proof that something they could love, 
 They weep not tr relieve their grief, but show. 
 Some weep in perfect justice to the dead, 
 As conscious all their love is in arrear. 
 Some mischievously weep not unappris'd. 
 Tears sometimes help the conquest of an eye, 
 
74 MAXIMS AND 
 
 of our pleasure, of our consideration. "We re- 
 gret the good opinion that was entertained of 
 us. Thus the dead get the credit of tears 
 which are only shed for the living. I call this 
 a species of hypocrisy, because in this sort of 
 grief we deceive ourselves. There is another 
 hypocrisy which is not so innocent, inasmuch 
 as it imposes on all the world. It is the afflic- 
 tion of certain persons who aspire to the dis- 
 tinction of a striking and perpetual grief. After 
 time, which consumes all things, has put a stop 
 to the sorrow they really feel, they obstinately 
 continue their tears, their complaints, and their 
 sighs. They assume a doleful demeanor, and 
 labor to persuade others by all their actions 
 that their sorrow will only terminate with their 
 lives. This miserable and fatiguing vanity is 
 generally met with in ambitious women. As 
 their sex bars them from all the paths of glory, 
 they strive to render themselves celebrated by 
 the display of inconsolable grief. There is yet 
 another species of tears which have very petty 
 sources, which flow easily, and as easily are 
 
 As seen through crystal how their roses glow, 
 While liquid pearl runs trickling down their cheek ! 
 By kind construction some are deem'd to weep 
 Because a decent veil conceals their joy." 
 
MOKAL SENTENCES. 75 
 
 dried: we weep to acquire the reputation of 
 a tender heart ; we weep to be pitied ; we weep 
 to be wept over ; in fine, we weep to avoid the 
 shame of not weeping. 
 
 245. 
 
 In the adversity of our best friends we 
 often find something which does not displease 
 us. 
 
 245. " As Rochefoucauld his maxims drew 
 From Nature, I believe them true. 
 They argue no corrupted mind 
 In him — the fault ib in mankind. 
 
 " This maxim more than all the rest 
 Is thought too base for human breast. 
 In all distresses of our friends 
 We first consult our private ends, 
 While Nature kindly bent to ease us 
 Points out some circumstance to please us. 
 
 " If this perhaps your patience move 
 
 Let reason and experience prove. 
 * * * * 
 
 To all my foes dear Fortune send 
 Thy gifts, but never to my friend ; 
 I tamely can endure the first, 
 3ut this with envy makes me burst." 
 
 Swift, Verves on his own Death. 
 
76 MAXIMS AND 
 
 246. 
 
 We easily console ourselves for the disgrace 
 of our friends when it serves to signalize our 
 affection for them. 
 
 247. 
 It may seem that self-love is the dupe of 
 
 This well-known maxim is, as Swift has remarked, that 
 which has excited the greatest amount of ire and clamor 
 against La Eochefoucauld, who was on this account, per- 
 haps, induced to suppress it in the last edition he published. 
 Byron has despondingly alluded to it (Childe Harold, 
 canto 3) : — 
 
 " I would believe 
 That some o'er others' griefs sincerely grieve." 
 
 After all, the sentiment is not much more than is ex- 
 pressed in the well-known lines of Lucretius. 
 
 " Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis 
 E terra alterius magnum spectare laborem ; 
 Non, quia vexari quemquam est jucunda voluptas, 
 Sed, quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est." 
 
 Book ii. v. 1. 
 
 Burke [Sublime and Beautiful, part i. section 14, 15) 
 says, " I am convinced that we have a degree of delight and 
 that no small one in the real misfortunes and pains of 
 others." But he differs from Lucretius in thinking that our 
 own immunity from suffering is the tondition and not the 
 cause of our pleasure, (sect. 15.) 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 77 
 
 good-nature, and that it forgets itself when- 
 ever we are laboring for the advantage of 
 others. Nevertheless, it is taking the surest 
 road to reach our objects; it is lending on 
 usury under pretence of giving; it is in fact 
 gaining over every one by a subtle and delicate 
 method. 
 
 248. 
 
 No man deserves to be praised for his good- 
 ness unless he has strength of character to be 
 wicked. All other goodness is generally noth- 
 ing but indolence or impotence of will. 
 
 249. 
 
 It is not so dangerous to do evil to the gen- 
 erality of men as to do them too much good* 
 
 250. 
 
 Nothing flatters our pride so much as the 
 confidence of the great, because we regard it as 
 the result of our merit, without considering 
 that it most frequently arises merely from van- 
 ity or from inability to keep a secret. 
 
 251. 
 
 We may say of agreeableness, as distinct 
 from beauty, that it consists in a symmetry of 
 which we know not the rules, and a secret con- 
 
 G* 
 
78 MAXIMS AND 
 
 formity of the features to each other, and to 
 the air and complexion of the person. 
 
 252. 
 
 Coquetry is the essential characteristic, and 
 the prevalent humor of women ; but they do 
 not all practise it, because the coquetry of 
 some is restrained by fear or by reason. 
 
 253. 
 
 "We often inconvenience others, when we 
 fancy we can never possibly do so. 
 
 254. 
 
 We are very far from being acquainted with 
 the whole of our will. 
 
 255. 
 Nothing is impossible : there are ways which 
 
 252. " La femme est coquette par etat, mais sa coquet- 
 terie change de forme et d'objet selon ses vues." — Rons. 
 beau, Emile. 
 
 255. So Shelley :— 
 
 "It is our will 
 That thus enchains us to permitted ill. 
 We might be otherwise ; we might be all 
 We dream of, happy, high, majestical. 
 
MOKAL SENTENCES 79 
 
 lead to every thing ; and if we had sufficient 
 will we should always have sufficient means. 
 
 256. 
 The sovereign ability consists in knowing 
 thoroughly the value of things. 
 
 257. 
 
 It is a great ability to be able to conceal 
 one's ability. 
 
 258. 
 
 What appears to be generosity is often noth- 
 ing but a disguised ambition, which despises 
 petty interests in order to reach greater ones. 
 
 259. 
 The fidelity shown by the generality of men 
 is only an invention of self-love to attract con- 
 fidence — it is a means of raising ourselves above 
 others, and of becoming depositaries of the 
 most important affairs. 
 
 Where is the beauty, love, and truth we seek 
 But in our minds 1 and if we were not weak, 
 Should we be less in deed than in desire ? 
 
 Julian and Maddah. 
 
 257. " C'est avoir fait un grand pas dans la finesse que 
 de faire penser de soi qu'on n'est que mediocrement fin." — 
 La Bruyere, Be la Cour. 
 
80 MAXIMS AND 
 
 260. 
 
 Magnanimity despises every thing to gain 
 every thing. 
 
 261. 
 
 There is as much eloquence in the tone of 
 voice, in the eyes, and in the air of a speaker, 
 as in his choice of words. 
 
 262. 
 
 True eloquence consists in saying all that is 
 necessary, and nothing but what is necessary. 
 
 263. 
 
 There are some persons on whom their 
 faults sit well, and others who are made un- 
 graceful by their good qualities. 
 
 264. 
 
 It is as common to see a change of tastes, as 
 it is uncommon to see a change of inclinations. 
 
 265. 
 
 Interest brings into play every sort of vir- 
 tue and of vice. 
 
 260. See No. 296. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 81 
 
 266. 
 
 Humility is often only a feigned submission, 
 of which we make use to render others submis- 
 sive. It is an artifice of pride which abases in 
 order to exalt itself; and though it transforms 
 itself in a thousand different ways, it is never 
 better disguised and more capable of deceiving 
 than when it conceals itself under the garb of 
 humility. 
 
 267. 
 
 All the sentiments have a tone of voice, 
 
 266. " Un des caracteres les plus marques de l'orgueil 
 c'est cette imposture de vanite qui cherche la gloire dans 
 les humiliations memes, et qui ne parait s'avilir aux yeux 
 des hommes qu'afin que leurs applaudissemens aillent la 
 placer encore plus haut que n'etait le lieu ou elle etait 
 descendue. L'orgueil se cache pour etre decouvert ; on ne 
 fuit l'eclat qu'afin que l'eclat nous suive ; on ne renonce 
 aux honneurs que pour etre honore ; on ne souffre le mepris, 
 que lorsqu'il nous est glorieux pour etre meprises. L'or- 
 gueil a mille dedommagemens imperceptibles a nous- 
 mem es ; et rien n'est plus rave qu'une humiliation volontaire 
 qui ne conduit qu'a. l'humilite." — Massillon, Serm. Incarnat. 
 
 " He saw a cottage with a double coach-house, 
 A cottage of gentility, 
 And the devil was pleased, for his darling sin 
 Is the pride that apes humility." 
 
 Southet, DeviVz Walk. 
 
82 MAXIMS AND 
 
 gestures, and countenances, peculiar each to 
 itself; and this conformity, as it is good or bad, 
 agreeable or disagreeable, causes people to be 
 pleasing or displeasing. 
 
 268. 
 
 / In all the professions every one affects a 
 particular look and exterior, in order to appear 
 what he wishes to be thought, so that it may 
 be said the world is made up of appearances. 
 
 269. 
 
 Gravity is a mystery of the body, invented 
 to conceal the defects of the mind. 
 
 269. There is, and ever has been, a singular prejudice 
 in the world and society against any connection between 
 wisdom and levity of manners. " II n'est pas ordinaire," 
 as La Bruyere observes, "que celui qui fait rire se fasse 
 estimer." But however well founded this prejudice may 
 be, it has, no doubt, been carried to excess, and designing 
 men have readily taken advantage of it to cloak their arti- 
 fices and conceal their deficiencies, under the covering of 
 gravity and seriousness. The disguise, however, has been 
 seen through and denounced by many writers besides La 
 Kochefoucauld, whose knowledge of the world and of man- 
 kind gives them a title to be heard. Horace in his age 
 could inquire, — 
 
 " Ridentem dicere vemm 
 Quidvetat?" Sat. i. 1, 24. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 83 
 
 210. 
 
 Flattery is a false coin, which only derives 
 its currency from our vanity. 
 
 Shakspeare holds up to ridicule — 
 
 " the sort of men whose visages 
 Do cream and mantle like a standing pool, 
 And do a wilful stillness entertain, 
 With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion 
 Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit ; 
 As who should say, I am Sir Oracle, 
 And when I ope my lips let no dog bark." 
 
 Merchant of Venice. 
 
 "I have observed," says Lord Bolingbroke, "that in 
 comedies the best actor plays the droll, while some scrub 
 rogue is made the fine gentleman or hero. Thus it is in 
 the farce of life, — wise men spend their time in mirth, 'tis 
 only fools who are serious." Lord Shaftesbury also ob- 
 serves, that " Gravity is of the very essence of imposture ; 
 it does not only make us mistake other things, but is apt 
 perpetually almost to mistake itself." Sterne is still more 
 severe on gravity, " Yorick sometimes in his wild way of 
 talking would say that Gravity was an arrant scoundrel, 
 and, he would add, of the most dangerous kind too, because 
 a sly one ; and that he verily believed more honest well- 
 meaning people were bubbled out of their goods and money 
 by it in one twelvemonth than by pocket-picking and shop- 
 lifting in seven. In the naked temper which a merry heart 
 discovered, he would say, there was no danger but to itself; 
 whereas the very essence of Gravity was design, and con- 
 
84 MAXIMS AND 
 
 271. 
 
 Civility is a desire to receive it in turn, and 
 and to be accounted well bred. 
 
 272. 
 The education commonly given to the young 
 is a second self-love with which they are in- 
 spired. 
 
 273. 
 There is no passion in which self-love reigns 
 so powerfully as in love; and we are often 
 more disposed to sacrifice the peace of the 
 loved object than to lose our own. 
 
 sequently deceit ; it was a taught trick to gain credit of the 
 world for more sense and knowledge than a man was worth, 
 and that, with all its pretensions, it was no better but often 
 worse, than what a French wit had long ago defined it, viz., 
 a mysterious carriage of the body to cover the defects of the 
 mind; which definition of gravity Yorick with great im- 
 prudence would say, deserved to be wrote in letters of gold." 
 — Tristram Shandy, vol. i. chap. ii. The list may be closed 
 with a remaik of the shrewd observer Lavater, "Too much 
 guivity argues a shallow mind." 
 
 Notwithstanding these authorities, it is to be feared that 
 gravity still retains its power of imposing on the credulity 
 of the world, though it may, perhaps, be considered a less 
 dangerous, because more easily detected, mode of impos- 
 ture than that denounced by our author in Maxim 300 
 namely, affected simplicity. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 85 
 
 274. 
 
 What is called liberality is most often only 
 the vanity of giving, which we like better than 
 the thing we give. 
 
 275. 
 
 Pity is often a perception of our own mis- 
 fortunes in those of others ; it is a clever fore- 
 sight of the evils into which we may fall. "We 
 succor others in order to engage them to succor 
 us in similar circumstances ; and the services 
 
 275. This is one of the maxims which has been subject 
 to the most unfavorable comments, but the author, as will 
 appear from the following quotations, was by no means 
 singular in his views of pity. Aristotle defines pity to be 
 "a sort of a pain occasioned by an evil capable of hurting or 
 destroying, appearing to befall one who does not deserve it, 
 which one may himself expect to endure, or that some per- 
 son connected with him will ; and this when it appears 
 near ; for it evidently is necessary that a person likely to 
 feel pity should be actually such as to deem that, either in 
 his own person, or in the person of some one connected 
 with him, he may suffer some evil, and that an evil of such 
 a description as has been stated." — Bhet. book ii. ch. viii. 
 The philosopher Aristippus appears to have held a nearly 
 similar opinion, for "being asked why men gave to the 
 poor rather than to philosophers, he replied, because they 
 think themselves may sooner come to be poor than to bo 
 philosophers." — Bacon, Apophthegms. 
 
 H 
 
86 MAXIMS AND 
 
 we render them are, to speak properly, a good 
 which we do to ourselves by anticipation. 
 
 276. 
 
 Narrowness of mind is the cause of obsti- 
 nacy — we do not easily believe what is beyond 
 our sight. 
 
 277. 
 
 It is deceiving ourselves to fancy that it is 
 only the violent passions, such as ambition and 
 love, which can triumph over the others. In- 
 
 Publius Syrus is to the same effect : — 
 
 " Homo qui in homine calamitoso est misericors meminit 
 sui. 
 In adversis tutelam parat, qui in secundis oommodat." 
 
 Hobbes says, "Grief for the calamity of another is pity, 
 and ariseth from the imagination that a like calamity may 
 befall himself, and therefore is called compassion." — Levia- 
 than. 
 
 " On ne plaint jamais dans autrui que les maux dont on 
 ne se croit pas exempt soi-meme." — Rousseau, fflnile, 4. 
 
 La Bruye'*e, in a passage aimed probably at La Roche- 
 foucauld, has a stinging remark on these definitions, which, 
 indeed, it goes far towards overthrowing : — " S'il est vrai 
 que la pitie ou la compassion soit un retour vers nous- 
 memes qui nous met en la place des malheureux, pourquoi 
 tirent-ils de nous si peu de soulagement dans lem-s rnispres V 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 87 
 
 dolence, all languid as it is, nevertheless is fre- 
 quently their master; it spreads its dominion 
 over all the designs and all the actions of life, 
 and thus destroys and insensibly consumes the 
 passions and the virtues. 
 
 278. 
 
 Readiness to believe evil without sufficient 
 examination is the result of pride and indolence. 
 We wish to find people guilty, and we do not 
 wish to give ourselves the trouble of examining 
 into the crimes. 
 
 279. 
 
 We take exceptions to judges who are in 
 the least degree interested, and yet we are 
 quite willing that our reputation and our fame 
 should depend on the judgment of men who 
 are all opposed to us, either from jealousy, or 
 from prejudice, or from want of intelligence ; it 
 is only to induce them to decide in our favor 
 
 279. This thought would seem to be suggested by the 
 following passage in Montaigne, Essays, book ii. c. 16, of 
 Glory : " A dozen men must be culled out of a whole na- 
 tion to judge of an acre of land ; and the judgment of our 
 inclinations and actions, the most important thing that is, 
 we refer to the voice and determination of the rabble, the 
 mother of ignorance, prejudice, and inconstancy. Is it 
 
88 MAXIMS AND 
 
 that we peril in so many ways our repose and 
 our lives. 
 
 280. 
 
 Scarcely any man is clever enough to know 
 all the evil he does. 
 
 281. 
 
 Honor acquired is security for that which 
 should be acquired. 
 
 282. 
 
 Youth is perpetual intoxication; it is the 
 fever of reason. 
 
 283. 
 
 "We like to divine others, but we do not 
 like to be divined ourselves. 
 
 284. 
 Rome people obtain the approbation of the 
 
 reasonable that the life of a wise man should depend on 
 the judgment of fools 1" 
 
 La Bruyere has a remark to the same purport : — " Nous 
 cherchons notre bonheur hors de nous-memes et dans l'opi- 
 nion des hommes que nous connaissons flatteurs, peu sinceres, 
 sans equity, pleins d'envie, de caprices, et de preventions. 
 Quejle bjzarrerie ?" — De V Homme, 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 89 
 
 world, whose only merit consists in the vices 
 which serve to carry on the commerce of life. 
 
 285. 
 
 Preserving the health by too strict a regi- 
 men is a wearisome malady. 
 
 286. 
 Absence diminishes moderate passions and 
 increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes 
 tapers and adds fury to fire. 
 
 287. 
 Good nature, which boasts of so much sen- 
 sibility, is often stifled by the most petty in- 
 terest. 
 
 288. 
 
 Women often fancy themselves in love even 
 when they are not. The occupation of an in- 
 
 285. " People who are always taking care of their health 
 are like misers, who are hoarding up a treasure which they 
 have never spirit enough to enjoy." — Stbenb, Koran. See 
 Plato's account of Herodicus, Repub. book 3. 
 
 288. "Peut-etre dans le cours de la vie une veritable 
 passion ; surement des gouts en assez grand nombre pris 
 pour l'amour ; * * * une femme s'est fait enfin une habi- 
 tude de la faiblesse, et elle se croit perpetuellement victime 
 de la sensibilite de son coeur quand elle ne l'est que de son 
 
90 MAXIMS AND 
 
 trigue, the emotion of mind which gallantry 
 produces, the natural leaning to the pleasure 
 of being loved, and the pain of refusing, per- 
 suade them that they feel the passion of love, 
 when, in reality, they feel nothing but coquetry. 
 
 289. 
 What makes us often discontented with ne- 
 gotiators is that they almost always abandon 
 the interest of their friends for that of the suc- 
 cess of the negotiation, which becomes their 
 own, from the credit of having succeeded in 
 their undertaking. 
 
 290. 
 When we dilate upon the affection of our 
 
 manque de principes, de la moins excusable coquetterie, et 
 du dereglement de son esprit." — Crbbillon, Ah quel eonte. 
 
 " And if in fact she takes to a ' grande passion,' 
 It is a very serious thing indeed ! 
 Nine times in ten 'tis but caprice or fashion, 
 
 Coquetry, or a wish to take the lead : 
 The pride of a mere child with a new sash on, 
 
 Or wish to make a rival's bosom bleed ; 
 But the tenth instance will be a tornado, 
 For there's no saying what they will or may do." 
 Byron, Bon Juan, canto 12. 
 
 290. This observation will, perhaps, remind the reader 
 of Rousseau's account of his interview with his friend Di- 
 
MORAL SENTEXCES. 9) 
 
 Mends, it is often less from gratitude than from 
 a desire to convey an opinion of our own merit. 
 
 291. 
 The approbation bestowed on those who 
 are entering the world often arises from a se- 
 cret envy of those already established in it. 
 
 292. 
 
 Pride, which inspires us with so much envy, 
 serves also to moderate it. 
 
 293. 
 Some disguised falsehoods represent the 
 
 derot, then a prisoner at the Castle of Vincennes : — " Son 
 premier mouvement sorti de mes bras fat de se tourner 
 vers l'eeclesiastique, et de lui dire, ' Vous voyez, monsieur, 
 comment m'aiment mes amis.' Tout entier a mon emo- 
 tion je ne reflechis pas d'abord a, cette maniere d'en tirer 
 avantage, mais en y pensant quelquefois depuis ee temps-la, 
 j'ai toujours juge qu'a la place de Diderot ce n'eut pas et6 
 la premiere idee qui me serait venue." — Conf. book viiL 
 
 292. "The reason why men of true good sense envy 
 less than others, is, because they admire themselves with 
 less hesitation than fools and silly people ; for, though they 
 do not show this to others, yet the solidity of their thinking 
 gives them an assurance of their real worth, which men of 
 weak understanding never feel within, though they often 
 counterfeit it." — Mandeville, Fable of the Bees. Eemark n. 
 
92 MAXIMS AND 
 
 truth so well, that it would be bad judgment 
 not to be deceived by them. 
 
 294. 
 
 There is sometimes as much ability in know- 
 ing how to profit by good advice as in arriving 
 at a correct opinion ourselves. 
 
 295. 
 
 Some bad people would be less daugerous 
 if they had not some goodness. 
 
 296. 
 
 Magnanimity is well enough defined by its 
 name ; nevertheless, we may say that it is the 
 
 295. " In the law of the leprosy, where it is said, ' If the 
 whiteness have overspread the flesh, the patient may pass 
 abroad for clean, but if there be any whole flesh remaining 
 he is to be shut up for unclean,' one of them (the Rabbins) 
 nateth a principle of nature, that putrefaction is more dan 
 gerous before maturity than after, and another noteth » 
 position in moral philosophy, that men abandoned to vice 
 do not so much corrupt manners as those that are half good 
 and half evil." — Bacon, Advancement of Learning, b. i. 
 
 296. Compare Aristotle's elaborate delineation of the 
 character of the Magnanimous Man, (Eth. Nicom. b. 4,) 
 which, however, seems to lack the few fine but expressive 
 touches of I^a Rochefoucauld. See Maxim 260. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 93 
 
 good sense of pride, and the most noble way 
 of earning praise. 
 
 297. 
 
 It is impossible to love a second time what 
 we have once really ceased to love. 
 
 298. 
 
 It is not so much fertility of invention 
 which presents us with several expedients for 
 attaining the same object, as it is want of in- 
 telligence which causes us to hesitate at every 
 thing which presents itself to the imagination, 
 and prevents our discerning at a glance which 
 is the best. 
 
 299. 
 
 There are certain affairs and diseases, the 
 remedies of which only aggravate them at par- 
 ticular times; and great ability consists in 
 knowing when it is dangerous to apply these 
 remedies. 
 
 300. 
 
 Affected simplicity is a refined imposture. \s 
 
 301. 
 There are moie faults in the humor than in 
 the mind. 
 
94 MAXIMS AND 
 
 302. 
 
 The merit of men has its season, as fruits 
 have. 
 
 303. 
 
 It may be said of men's humors as of many 
 buildings, that they have diver's aspects — some 
 agreeable, others disagreeable. 
 
 304. 
 
 Moderation cannot have the credit of com- 
 bating and subduing ambition — they are never 
 found together. Moderation is the languor and 
 indolence of the soul, as ambition is its activity 
 and ardor. 
 
 305. 
 
 We always love those who admire us, and 
 we do not always love those whom we admire. 
 
 306. 
 
 It is difficult to love those whom we do not 
 
 esteem; but it is not less so to love those 
 whom we esteem more than ourselves. 
 
 306. " To be loved we should merit but little esteem ; 
 all superiority attracts awe and aversion." — Helvetiub. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES 95 
 
 307. 
 
 The humors of the body have a stated and 
 regular course, which impels and imperceptibly 
 guides our will. They co-operate with each 
 other, and exercise successively a secret empire 
 within us ; so that they have a considerable 
 part in all our actions, without our being able 
 to know it. 
 
 308. 
 
 Gratitude in the generality of men is only a 
 strong and secret desire of receiving greater 
 favors. 
 
 309. 
 
 Almost every one takes a pleasure in re- 
 quiting trifling obligations; many people are 
 grateful for moderate ones ; but there is 
 
 308. " Me ( Voconius) tam grate beneficia interpretatur, 
 ut dum priora accipit posteriora mereatur." — Pliny, Ep. 
 ii. 13. 
 
 309. Tacitus has furnished us with the limit beyond 
 which favors become irksome. "Beneficia eo usque laeta 
 sunt dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere 
 pro gratia odium reddit;; ." -Annals, book iv. c. 18. 
 
 " When I read P. de Comines several years ago, doubt 
 less a very good author, T there took notice of this forno 
 vulgar saying, that a man must have a care of doing his 
 
96 MAXIMS AND 
 
 scarcely any one who does not show ingrati- 
 tude for great ones. 
 
 310. 
 
 There are follies as catching as contagious 
 disorders. 
 
 811. 
 
 There are people enough who despise wealth, 
 but few who know how to bestow it. 
 
 312. 
 
 It is generally only in petty interests that 
 we run the hazard of not trusting to appear- 
 ances. 
 
 313. 
 
 In whatever respect people may praise us, 
 they never teach us any thing new. 
 
 314. 
 
 We often pardon those who weary us, but 
 we cannot pardon those whom we weary. 
 
 315. 
 \f Interest, which is accused of all our crimes, 
 
 master such great service that at last he will not know 
 how to give him his just reward." — Montaigne, Essays, 
 book iii. chap. 8. 
 
MORAL SENTEHCES. 97 
 
 often deserves to be praised for our good ac- 
 tions. 
 
 316. 
 
 We seldom find people ungrateful as long 
 as we are in a condition to render them services. 
 
 317. 
 
 It is as honorable to be boastful to our- 
 selves as it is ridiculous to be so to others. 
 
 318. 
 
 Men have made a virtue of moderation to 
 limit the ambition of the great, and to console 
 people of mediocrity for their want of fortune 
 and of merit. 
 
 319. 
 
 There are some people fated to be fools, 
 who not only commit follies from choice, but 
 are compelled to commit them by fortune. 
 
 320. 
 
 There happen sometimes accidents in life 
 from which it requires a degree of madness to 
 extricate ourselves well. 
 
 321. 
 If there are men whose weak point has 
 
98 MAXIMS AND 
 
 never appeared, it is because it has never been 
 properly sought for. 
 
 322. 
 
 The reason why lovers and their mistresses 
 are never weary of being together is, that they 
 always talk of themselves. 
 
 323. 
 
 Why must we have memory enough to re- 
 tain even the minutest details of what hf«s hap- 
 pened to us, and not enough to remember how 
 many times we have told them to the same 
 person ? 
 
 324. 
 
 The extreme pleasure we take in talking of 
 ourselves should make us fear that we give 
 very little to those who listen to us. 
 
 325. 
 
 What commonly prevents us from exhibit- 
 ing the bottom of our hearts to our friends is 
 
 323. " Montaigne also notices ' old men who yet retain 
 the memory of things past and forget how often they have 
 told them' as most tedious companions." — Essays, book i. 
 cnap. 9. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 99 
 
 not so much any distrust we have of them as 
 the distrust we have of ourselves. 
 
 326. 
 Weak persons cannot be sincere. 
 
 32f. 
 
 It is not a great misfortune to oblige un- 
 grateful people, but it is an un supportable one 
 to be under an obligation to a vulgar man. 
 
 328. 
 
 We find means to cure folly, but none to 
 reclaim a distorted mind. 
 
 329. 
 
 We cannot long preserve the sentiments we 
 should have for our friends and benefactors if 
 we often allow ourselves the liberty of speaking 
 of their faults. 
 
 330. 
 
 To praise princes for virtues they do not 
 possess is to speak evil of them with impunity. 
 
 330. " Praise undeserved is satire in disguise." 
 
 Pope, Imit. Horace, b. ii. ep. 1. 
 
 This maxim may recall to the readers of Scott's novels 
 
100 MAXIMS AND 
 
 331. 
 
 We are nearer loving those who hate us 
 than those who love us more than we like. 
 
 332. 
 
 It is only those who are despicable who fear 
 being despised. 
 
 333. 
 Our wisdom is not less at the mercy of for- 
 tune than our property. 
 
 334. 
 In jealousy there is more self-love than love. 
 
 335. 
 
 We often console ourselves through weak- 
 ness for evils in which reason is powerless to 
 console us. 
 
 the scene in Woodstock, where Alice Lee, in the presence 
 of Charles II., under the assumed name of Louis Kemeguy, 
 describes the character she supposes the king to have. 
 " Kerneguy and his supposed patron felt embarrassed, per- 
 haps from a consciousness that the real Charles fell far 
 short of his ideal character as designed in such glowing 
 colors. In some cases exaggerated or unappropriate praise 
 becomes the most severe satire." — Woodstock, vol. ii. c. 4. 
 Edition 1832. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 101 
 
 336. 
 Ridicule dishonors more than dishonor. 
 
 337. 
 
 We confess our little faults only to persuade 
 others that we have no great ones. 
 
 338. 
 Envy is more irreconcilable than hatred. 
 
 339. 
 
 We sometimes fancy that we hate flattery, 
 hut in reality we only hate the manner of flat- 
 tery. 
 
 340. 
 
 We forgive so long as we love. 
 
 341. 
 
 It is more difficult for a man to be faithful 
 to his mistress when he is favored than when 
 he is ill-treated by her. 
 
 339. " And when I tell him he hates flatterers, 
 
 He says he does, being then most flattered." 
 Shakspeare, Julius Omsar. 
 
 341. " Our aunts and grandmothers always tell us that 
 X* 
 
102 MAXIMS AND 
 
 342. 
 
 Women know not the whole of their co- 
 quetry. 
 
 343. 
 
 Women never have a complete severity of 
 demeanor except towards those whom they 
 dislike. 
 
 344. 
 
 Women can less easily surmount their co- 
 quetry than their passions. 
 
 men are a sort of animals that if ever they are constant 'tis 
 only when they are ill used. 'Twas a kind of paradox I 
 could never believe, but experience has shown me the truth 
 of it." — Lady M. W. Montague, Letters. 
 
 " Les femmes s'attachent aux hommes par les faveurs 
 qu'elles leur accordent. Les hommes guerissent par les 
 memes faveurs." — La Bruyere, Des Femmes. 
 
 " The rigors of mistresses are troublesome, but facility 
 to say truth is more so. ' Si qua volet regnare diu con- 
 temnat amantem.' (Ovid. Amor. ii. 19.)" — Montaigne, 
 b. ii. c. 15. 
 
 " Prythee tarry, 
 You men will never tarry. 
 O foolish Cressid, I might have still held off, 
 And then you would have tarried." 
 
 Troilus and Cressida, 
 
MOKAL SENTENCES. 103 
 
 345. 
 
 In love deceit almost always goes further 
 than mistrust. 
 
 346. 
 
 There is a certain kind of love the excess 
 of which prevents jealousy. 
 
 347. 
 It is with certain good qualities as with the 
 senses; those who are entirely deprived of 
 them can neither appreciate nor comprehend 
 them. 
 
 348. 
 When our hatred is too keen, it places us 
 beneath those we hate. 
 
 349. 
 We feel our good and our bad fortune solely 
 in proportion to our self-love. 
 
 350. 
 The intellect of the generality of women 
 serves more to fortify their folly than their 
 reason. 
 
 351. 
 
 The passions of youth are scarcely more op- 
 posed to safety than the lukewarmness of age. 
 
104 HAXIMS AND 
 
 j- 352. 
 
 The accent of a man's native country dwells 
 
 in his mind and in his heart as well as in his 
 
 speech. 
 
 353. 
 
 To be a great man one must know how to 
 profit by the whole of one's fortune. 
 
 354. 
 / The generality of men have, like plants, 
 latent properties, which chance brings to light. 
 
 355. 
 / Opportunities make us known to others, 
 and still more to ourselves. 
 
 356. 
 There can be no regulation in the minds 
 nor in the hearts of women, unless their tem- 
 perament is in unison with it. 
 
 357. 
 We think very few people sensible except 
 those who are of our opinion. 
 
 357. " That was excellently observed, say I, when I read 
 a passage in an author, where his opinion agrees with mine. 
 When we differ, there I pronounce him to be mistaken." — 
 Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects, 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 105 
 
 358. 
 
 In love we often doubt what we most be- 
 lieve. 
 
 359. 
 
 The greatest miracle of love is the cure of 
 coquetry. 
 
 360. 
 
 What makes us so sore against those who 
 practise artifices upon us, is that they fancy 
 themselves cleverer than us. 
 
 361. 
 
 It is very troublesome to come to a rupture 
 when we no longer love. 
 
 360. "Is it not the wound our pride sustains by being 
 deceived that makes us more averse to hypocrites than the 
 most audacious and barefaced villain 1" — Shenstone, Men 
 and Manners. 
 
 " I could pardon him all his deceit," said the Duke of 
 Burgundy to the Count de Creveccsur, "but I cannot forgive 
 his supposing me capable of the gross folly of being duped 
 by his professions." — Quentin Durward. 
 
 361 The reader may be reminded of the difficulty felt 
 by Tom Jones m breaking with Lady Bellaston, and of the 
 manner in which he effected his purpose under the advice 
 of his "privy council." — Mist, of a Foundling, \>. 15, c. 9., 
 
106 MAXIMS AND 
 
 362. 
 
 We are almost always wearied in the com- 
 pany of persons with whom we are not permit- 
 ted to be weary. 
 
 363. 
 
 A man of sense may love like a madman, 
 but never like a fool. 
 
 364. 
 
 There are certain faults which, when turned 
 to good account, gain more reputation than 
 virtue itself. 
 
 365. 
 
 There are some persons whom, when we 
 lose, we regret more than we mourn; and 
 others whom we mourn and scarcely regret. 
 
 366. 
 
 In general we only praise heartily those 
 who admire us. 
 
 367. 
 
 Little minds are too much hurt by little 
 things. Great minds perceive them all, and 
 are not touched by them. 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 107 
 
 368. 
 
 Humility is the true proof of Christian vir 
 tues ; without it we retain all our faults, and 
 they are only hidden by pride, which conceals 
 them from others, and often from ourselves. 
 
 369. 
 Justice is in general only a lively apprehen- 
 sion of being deprived of what belongs to us ; 
 hence arise our great consideration and respect 
 for all the interests of our neighbor, and our 
 scrupulous care to avoid doing him an injury. 
 This fear retains men within the limits of those 
 advantages which birth or fortune has given 
 them ; and, without it, they would be making 
 continual inroads upon others. 
 
 370. 
 Justice in moderate judges is only love of 
 their elevation. 
 
 871. 
 The most subtle folly is produced by the__ 
 most subtle wisdom. 
 
 369. See No. 84, of which this appears to be an expan- 
 sion. 
 
 371. This maxim was suppressed by the author in his 
 later editions, perhaps because he discovered that he had 
 
 / 
 
108 MAXIMS AND 
 
 372. 
 
 Moderation in good fortune is commonly 
 nothing but dread of the shame which attends 
 excessive elation, or fear of losing what we 
 possess. 
 
 373. 
 
 Moderation is like temperance; we should 
 wish to eat more, but are afraid of injuring our 
 health. 
 
 374. 
 
 Every one blames in his neighbor what the 
 world blames in himself. 
 
 375. 
 
 It is a kind of happiness to know to what 
 extent we may be unhappy. 
 
 adopted a thought of Montaigne's : — " Of what is the most 
 subtle folly composed, but of the most subtle wisdom V — 
 Essays, book ii. chap. 12. 
 
 374. " Men think, and reason, and judge quite differently 
 in any matter relating to themselves from what they do in 
 cases of others where they are not interested. Hence it is 
 one hears people exposing follies for which they themselves 
 are eminent ; and talking with great severity against par- 
 ticular vices, which, if all the world be not mistaken, they 
 themselves are notoriously guilty of." — Butler, Sermon on 
 Stff-tleceit. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 109 
 
 376. 
 
 Fortunate people never correct themselves. 
 They always fancy they are in the right as long 
 as fortune supports their ill conduct. 
 
 377. 
 
 The charm of novelty is in love what the 
 bloom is on fruits ; it gives a lustre which is 
 easily effaced, and which never returns. 
 
 378. 
 
 The generality of young people fancy that 
 they are natural, when they are only ill-bred 
 and coarse. 
 
 379. 
 
 Minds of moderate calibre ordinarily con- 
 demn every thing which is beyond their range. 
 
 380. 
 
 It is more often from pride than from want 
 of intelligence that people oppose with so much 
 obstinacy the most received opinions. They 
 
 376. Swift remarks, " The power of fortune is confessed 
 only by the miserable : for the happy impute all their suc- 
 cess to prudence and merit." — Thoughts on Various Subjects. 
 
 K 
 
110 MAXIMS AtiD 
 
 find the best places taken in the good party, 
 and do not like to put up with inferior ones. 
 
 381. 
 Good taste springs more from judgment 
 than from intellect. 
 
 382. 
 Nothing ought more to humiliate men who 
 have deserved great praise than the care which 
 they still take to derive consequence from 
 trifles. 
 
 383. 
 "We must he able to answer for our fortune 
 to be able to answer for our future conduct. 
 
 384. 
 Infidelities ought to extinguish love, and we 
 should not be jealous, even when we have reason 
 
 381. "It is for the most part in our skill in manners, 
 and in the observances of time and place and of decency in 
 general, that what is called taste, by way of distinction, 
 consists ; and which is in reality no other than a more re- 
 fined judgment. * * The cause of a wrong taste is a 
 defect of judgment." — Burke, Sublime and Beautiful. In- 
 troduction. 
 
 384. " On tire ce bien de la perfidie des femmes qu'elle 
 guerit de la jalousie." — La BRurERE, Des Femmes. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. Ill 
 
 to be so ; it is only persons who avoid causing 
 jealousy who are worth being jealous of. 
 
 385. 
 People suffer more in our opinion, from the 
 smallest infidelities committed towards our- 
 selves, than from the greatest towards others. 
 
 386. 
 Jealousy is always born with love, but it 
 does not always die with it. 
 
 387. 
 The generality of women mourn the death 
 of their lovers not so much from the love they 
 bore them as to appear more worthy of being 
 loved. 
 
 388. 
 
 The violences that others do to us are often 
 less painful than those we put on ourselves. 
 
 And again, " Celles qui ne nous menagent sur rien et ne 
 nous epargnent nulles occasions de jalousie, ne meriteraient 
 de nous aucune jalousie, si l'on se reglait plus par leurs 
 sentimens et leur conduite que par son cceur." — Du Coeur. 
 
 386. " It is said that jealousy is love, but I deny it ; for 
 though jealousy be produced by love, as ashes are by fire, 
 yet jealousy extinguishes love as ashes smother the flame." 
 — Les Cent nouvelles Nouvelles de la Heine de Navarre. 
 
112 HAXIMS AND 
 
 389. 
 "We know well enough that we ought to 
 speak very little of our wives ; but we do not 
 sufficiently know that we ought to speak still 
 less of ourselves. 
 
 390. 
 
 / There are some good qualities which degen- 
 erate into faults when they are naturak and 
 others which are never perfect when they are 
 acquired. It must be reason, for instance, that 
 should render us careful of our property and 
 our confidence ; and, on the contrary, it must 
 be nature that should bestow on us goodness 
 and courage. 
 
 391. 
 
 "Whatever distrust we may have of the sin- 
 cerity of those who converse with us, we al- 
 ways believe that they tell us more truth than 
 they do to others. 
 
 392. 
 
 There are few virtuous women who are not 
 weary of their profession. 
 
 393. 
 The generality of virtuous women are like 
 hidden treasures, only safe because they are 
 not sought for. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 113 
 
 394. 
 
 There are few cowards who know the ex- 
 tent of their fear. 
 
 395. 
 
 The violence we do ourselves to prevent 
 falling in love is often more cruel than the se- v 
 verity of the loved object. 
 
 396. 
 
 It is almost always the fault of the lover 
 not to know when he is no longer loved. 
 
 397. 
 
 We always dread the sight of the person 
 we love when we have been coquetting else- 
 where. 
 
 398. 
 
 There are certain tears which often deceive 
 ourselves, after having deceived others. 
 
 399. 
 
 If a man fancies he loves his mistress for her 
 own sake, he is much mistaken. 
 
 400. 
 
 We ought to console ourselves for our faults 
 when we have strength of mind to confess them. 
 
114 MAXIMS AND 
 
 401. 
 
 Envy is destroyed by true friendship, and 
 coquetry by true love. 
 
 402. 
 
 The greatest fault in penetration is not the 
 not reaching the mark, but overshooting it. 
 
 403. 
 
 "We give advice, but we do not inspire con- 
 duct. 
 
 404. 
 
 When our merit gives way, our taste gives 
 
 way also. 
 
 405. 
 
 Fortune displays our virtues and our vices, 
 as light makes all objects apparent. 
 
 402. " It was both pleasantly and wisely said by a nun- 
 cio of the Pope, returning from a certain nation where he 
 served as lieger, whose opinion being asked touching the 
 appointment of one to go in his place, he wished that in 
 any case they did not send one who was too wise, because 
 no very wise man would ever imagine what they in that 
 country were like to do. And certainly it is an error fre- 
 quent for men to shoot ove"r, and to suppose deeper ends 
 and more compass-reaches than are." — Bacon, Advancement 
 of Learning , book ii. 
 
Moral sentences. 115 
 
 406. 
 
 The constraint we put on ourselves to re- 
 main faithful to a person we love is scarcely 
 better than an infidelity. 
 
 407. 
 
 Our actions are like "bouts rimes," which 
 every one makes refer to whatever he pleases. 
 
 408. 
 
 The desire of talking of ourselves, and of 
 making our faults appear in the light we wish 
 them, constitute a great part of our sincerity. 
 
 409. 
 
 We ought only to be astonished that we 
 are still able to be astonished. 
 
 410. 
 
 Men are almost equally difficult to satisfy 
 when they have very much love, and when 
 they have scarcely any left. 
 
 408. " Les hommes parlent de maniere sur ce qui les 
 regarde qu'ils n'avouent d'eux-memes que de petits defauts, 
 et encore ceux qui supposent en leur personnes de beaux 
 talens ou de grandes qualites." — La Bbuyebe, De Vhomme. 
 
116 MAXIMS AND 
 
 411. 
 
 There are few people who are more often 
 in the wrong than those who cannot endure to 
 be so. 
 
 412. 
 
 A fool has not stuff enough to be good. 
 
 413. 
 
 If vanity does not entirely overthrow the 
 virtues, at least it makes them all totter. 
 
 414. 
 
 What renders the vanity of others insup- 
 portable, is that it wounds our own. 
 
 415. 
 
 Men more easily renounce their interests 
 than their tastes. 
 
 416. 
 
 Fortune never appears so blind as she does 
 to those on whom she confers no favors. 
 
 414. See No. 35. " Vanity calculates but poorly on the 
 vanity of others ; what a virtue we should distil from frail- 
 ty, what a world of pain we should save our brethren, if 
 we would suffer our own weakness to be the measure of 
 theirs." — Bulwer Lytton. 
 
 I 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 117 
 
 417. 
 
 We should manage our fortune as we do 
 our health — enjoy it when good, "be patient 
 when it is bad, and never apply violent reme- 
 dies except in an extreme necessity. 
 
 418. 
 
 Eusticity is sometimes got rid of in the 
 camp, but never at the court. 
 
 419. 
 
 A man may be more cunning than another, 
 but not more cunning than all others. 
 
 420. 
 
 We are sometimes less unhappy in being 
 deceived by those we love than in being unde- 
 ceived by them. 
 
 421. 
 
 The first lover is kept a long time — when a 
 second is not taken. 
 
 422. 
 
 We have not courage to say, as a general 
 
 419. " Singuli decipere ac decipi possunt, nemo omnes, 
 amnes neminem fefellerunt." — Pliny, Parwg. 
 
118 MAXIMS AND 
 
 proposition, that we have no faults, and our 
 enemies have no good qualities ; but, in detail, 
 we are not far from thinking so. 
 
 423. 
 
 Of all our faults, that which we most readily 
 kdmit is indolence. "We persuade ourselves 
 that it cherishes all the peaceful virtues ; and 
 that, without entirely destroying the others, it 
 merely suspends their functions. 
 
 424. 
 
 There is a kind of elevation which does not 
 
 depend on fortune. It is a certain air which 
 
 distinguishes us, and seems to destine us for 
 
 - great things ; it is a price which we impercep- 
 
 jtibly set on ourselves. By this quality we 
 
 ; usurp the deference of other men ; and it puts 
 
 us, in general, more above them than birth, 
 
 dignity, or even merit itself. 
 
 425. 
 
 / There is merit without elevation, but there 
 is no elevation without some merit. 
 
 426. 
 
 Elevation is to merit what dress is to a 
 handsome person. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 119 
 
 427. 
 
 The quality least met with in gallantry ia 
 love. 
 
 428. 
 
 Fortune sometimes makes use of our faults 
 in order to elevate us; and there are some 
 troublesome people whose merit would be 
 badly rewarded if we were not very glad to 
 purchase their absence. 
 
 429. 
 
 It seems that Nature has concealed at the 
 bottom of our minds, talents and abilities of 
 which we are not aware. The passions alone 
 have the privilege of bringing them to light; 
 and of giving us sometimes views more certain 
 and more perfect than art could possibly pro- 
 duce. 
 
 430. 
 
 We arrive complete novices at the different 
 ages of life, and we often want experience in 
 spite of the number of our years. 
 
 430. " Nunquam ita quisquam bene subduota ratione ad 
 vitam fuit, 
 Quin res, setas, usus semper iliquid apportet* 
 
 n/ 
 
120 MAXIMS AND 
 
 , 431. 
 
 Coquettes make a merit of being jealous of 
 their lovers, to conceal their being envious of 
 other women. 
 
 432. 
 Those who are over-reached by our cunning 
 are far from appearing to us as ridiculous as we 
 appear to ourselves when the cunning of others 
 has over-reached us. 
 
 433. 
 The most dangerous weakness of old people 
 fvho have been amiable is to forget that they 
 are no longer po. 
 
 434. 
 We should often be ashamed of our best 
 
 Aliquid moneat, ut ilia, quae te scire credas, nes- 
 
 cias, 
 Et quas tibi putaris prima, in experiundo ut re- 
 
 pudies." 
 Terbncb, Adelph. Act v. Pcene 4, verse 1. 
 
 " To most men experience is like the stern lights of a 
 ship which illumine only the track it has passed." — Cole- 
 ribse. 
 
 434. " Useful and honorable as his genius has been to 
 Ireland, that happy illustration of the machinery of most 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 121 
 
 actions if the world could see all the motives 
 which produced them. 
 
 435. 
 The greatest effort of friendship is not to 
 show our own faults to a friend, but to make 
 him see his own. 
 
 436. 
 We have few faults which are not more ex- 
 cusable than the means we take to conceal 
 them. 
 
 437. 
 
 Whatever disgrace we have merited, it is 
 
 human motives, ' une roue de cuivre fait tourner une aiguille 
 d'or,' may without much injustice be applied to those of 
 Swift — as English discontent was, after all, the 'roue de 
 cuivre' that put the 'aiguille d'or' of his patriotism in mo- 
 tion." — Moore, Capt. Bock, book ii. chap. 6. 
 
 "Percez jusque dans les motifs des actions les plus 
 eclatantes et des plus grands evenemens, tout en est bril- 
 lant au dehors, vous voyez le heros : entrez plus avant, 
 cherchez l'homme lui-meme ; c'est la. que vous ne trouve- 
 rez plus que de la cendre et de la boue. L'ambition, la 
 t6merit6, le hasard, la crainte souvent, et le desespoir ont 
 donn6 les plus grands spectacles, et les evenemens les plus 
 brillans a la terre. Ce sont souvent les plus vils ressorts 
 qui nous font marcher vers la gloire, et presque toujoura 
 les voies qui nous y ont conduits nous en degradent elles- 
 memes." — Massillon, Petit Careme. 
 
122 MAXIMS AND 
 
 almost always in our power to re-establish our 
 reputation. 
 
 438. 
 A man does not please long when he has 
 only one species of wit. 
 
 439. 
 Madmen and fools see only through their 
 humor. 
 
 440. 
 
 Our wit sometimes enables us to commit 
 follies with impunity. 
 
 441. 
 The vivacity which augments with years is 
 not far from folly. 
 
 442. 
 
 In love, he who is earliest cured is always 
 best cured. 
 
 438. M. Segrais says that this maxim was aimed at 
 Boileau and Eacine. 
 
 441. " How ill gray hairs become the fool and jester !" 
 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 442. " Quisque in primo obstitit, 
 Bepulitque amorem, tutus ac victor fuit, 
 Qui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum, 
 Sero recusat ferre quod subiit jugum." 
 
 Seneca, JTippolyt. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 123 
 
 443. 
 
 Young women who do not wish to appear 
 coquettes, and men of advanced age who do 
 not wish to appear ridiculous, should nevei 
 speak of love as a thing with which they cai 
 have any thing to do. 
 
 444. 
 
 "We may appear great in an employment 
 "beneath our merit, but we often appear little 
 in ones too great for us. 
 
 445. 
 
 Confidence contributes more than wit to 
 conversation. 
 
 446. 
 
 All the passions make us commit faults, 
 but love makes us commit the most ridiculous 
 ones. 
 
 447. 
 
 We often fancy that we have constancy in 
 our misfortunes, while we have nothing but 
 depression of spirit ; and we endure them with- 
 out looking them in the face, as cowards suffer 
 themselves to be killed through fear of defend- 
 ing themselves, 
 
124 MAXIMS AND 
 
 448. 
 Few people know how to be old. 
 
 449. 
 
 We often take credit for faults opposite to 
 those we have; when we are weak we boast 
 of being obstinate. 
 
 450. 
 
 Penetration has an air of divination, which 
 flatters our vanity more than all the other 
 qualities of the mind. 
 
 451. 
 
 The grace of novelty, and long habit, how- 
 ever opposite they may be, equally prevent 
 our perceiving the faults of our friends. 
 
 452. 
 
 The generality of friends disgust us with 
 friendship, and the generality of devotees dis- 
 gust us with devotion. 
 
 451. " Deux choses toutes contraires nous pr&viennent 
 Sgalement — l'habilude et la nouveaut^." — La Brutkrb, 
 J)es Jut/emens, 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 125 
 
 453. 
 "We easily pardon in our friends those faults 
 which do not concern ourselves. 
 
 454. 
 Women who love, more readily pardon 
 great indiscretions than little infidelities. 
 
 455. 
 
 In the old age of love, as in that of life, we 
 still live for its evils, but no longer for its 
 pleasures. 
 
 456. 
 
 Nothing so much prevents our being natu- 
 ral as the desire of appearing so. 
 
 457. 
 To praise good actions heartily is in some 
 sort to take part in them. 
 
 458. 
 The truest mark of being born with great 
 qualities is being born without envy. 
 
 455. Mr. Hazlitt remarks of friendship that " its youth 
 is better than its old age." — Characteristics, 229. 
 
 458. "Nemo aliense virtuti invidet qui satis confidit 
 suaa." — Cicero, in M. Anton. 
 
126 MAXIMS AND 
 
 459. 
 
 "When our friends have deceived us, we owe 
 nothing but indifference to the proofs of their 
 friendship, hut we always owe sensibility to 
 their misfortunes. 
 
 460. 
 Fortune and humor govern the world. 
 
 461. 
 
 It is more easy to become acquainted with 
 men in general, than with any man in partic- 
 ular. 
 
 462. 
 
 "We should not judge of a man's merit by 
 his good qualities, but by the use he can make 
 of them. 
 
 463. 
 
 There is a certain lively gratitude which 
 not only acquits us of the obligations we have 
 received, but by paying what we owe them 
 makes our friends indebted to us. 
 
 463. " And understood not that a grateful mind 
 By owing owes not, but is at once 
 Indebted and discharged." 
 
 Milton, Paradise Lost 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 127 
 
 464. 
 
 We should desire few things ardently if we 
 had a perfect knowledge of what we were de- 
 siring. 
 
 465. 
 
 What causes the majority of women to be 
 so little touched by friendship is, that it is in- 
 sipid when they have once tasted of love. 
 
 466. 
 
 / 
 
 /In friendship, as in love, we are often more 
 happy from the things we are ignorant of, than 
 from those we are acquainted with. / 
 
 467. 
 
 We endeavor to make a merit of faults that 
 we are unwilling to correct. 
 
 468. 
 The most violent passions leave us some 
 
 464. " Quid tam dextro pede concipis, ut te 
 Conatus non poeniteat votique peracti." 
 
 Juvenal, Sat. 10. 
 
 465. " Celui qui a eu l'experience d'un grand amour 
 neglige l'amitie ; et celui qui est epuise sur l'amitie n'a 
 encore rien fait pour l'amour." — La Bruyere, Du Cceur. 
 
128 MAXIMS AND 
 
 moments of relaxation, but vanity always agi- 
 tates us. 
 
 469. 
 
 Old fools are more foolish, than young ones. 
 
 470. 
 
 Weakness is more opposed to virtue than 
 vice is. 
 
 471. 
 
 What renders the pangs of shame and of 
 jealousy so acute is, that vanity cannot help us 
 to support them. 
 
 472. 
 
 Propriety is the least of all laws, and the 
 most obeyed. 
 
 473. 
 
 The pomp of funerals is more interesting to 
 
 469. Malvolio. "Infirmity that decays the wise doth 
 ever make the better fool." Clown. " God send you, sir, 
 a speedy infirmity, for the better increasing your folly." — 
 Shakspeare, Twelfth Night. This maxim of La Roche- 
 foucauld's seems to have passed into the proverb, " No fool 
 like an old fool." 
 
 473. " Curatio funeris, conditio sepulturee, pompa exe- 
 quiarum, magis sunt vivorum solatia quam subsidia mortu- 
 orum." — St. Augustine, de Civitate Dei, i. 12. 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 129 
 
 the vanity of the living than to the memory of 
 the dead. 
 
 474. 
 
 A well-regulated mind has less difficulty in 
 submitting to ill-regulated ones than in gov- 
 erning them. 
 
 475. 
 
 When fortune surprises us by bestowing on 
 us an important office, without having con- 
 ducted us to it by degrees, or without our 
 
 There is an amusing exemplification of this maxim in 
 the account of the funeral of Gil Bias' father. " ' Beware,' 
 said my mother, ' of making a pompous burial ; it cannot 
 be too modest for my husband, whom all the world knew 
 to be a very indigent usher.' 'Madam,' replied Scipio, 
 'had he been still more needy than he was, I would not 
 abate two farthings of the expense ; for in this I regard my 
 master only, — he has been the Duke of Lerma's favorite, 
 and his father ought to be nobly interred.' I approved of 
 my secretary's design, and even desired him to spare no 
 cost ; the remains of vanity which I still preserved broke 
 out on this occasion. I flattered myself that in being at a 
 great expense upon a father who left me no inheritance, I 
 should make the world admire my generous behavior. My 
 mother for her part, whatever modesty she affected, was 
 not ill pleased to see her husband buried in splendor. "We 
 therefore gave a carte blanche to Scipio, who without loss 
 of time took all necessary measures for a superb funeral." 
 — Book x. ch. 2. Jarvis' trans. 
 
130 MAXIMS AND 
 
 being elevated to it by our hopes, it is almost 
 impossible that we should sustain ourselves in 
 it with propriety, and appear worthy of pos- 
 sessing it. 
 
 476. 
 
 Our pride is often increased by what we 
 retrench from our other faults. 
 
 477. 
 
 There are no fools so troublesome as those 
 who have some wit. 
 
 478. 
 
 / There is no man who thinks himself in any 
 of his qualities inferior to the man he esteems 
 the most in the world. 
 
 479. 
 
 In important affairs we ought not so much 
 to apply ourselves to create opportunities, as 
 to make use of those which present themselves. 
 
 476. Thus Gibbon remarks of the early Christians, that 
 '' the loss of sensual pleasure was supplied and compensated 
 by spiritual pride." — Decline and Fall, ch, xv. 
 
 479. Bacon on the contrary says, "A wise man will 
 make more opportunities than he finds." — Essay 52. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 131 
 
 480. 
 
 It would seldom be a bad bargain for us to 
 renounce the praise, on condition of escaping 
 the censure of the world. 
 
 481. 
 Whatever disposition the world may have 
 to judge incorrectly, it more often shows favor 
 to false, than injustice to true, merit. 
 
 482. 
 "We sometimes see a fool with wit, but 
 never one with judgment. 
 
 483. 
 We should gain more by letting ourselves 
 be seen such as We are, than by attempting to 
 appear what we are not. 
 
 484. 
 
 Our enemies come nearer the truth in their 
 judgments of us, than we do in our judgments 
 of ourselves. 
 
 480. " Enfin qui que nous soyons, grand, peuple, prince, 
 sujet, la situation la plus a souhaiter pour notre vanity, c'est 
 d'ignorer ce que le monde pense de nous." — Massillon, 
 Serm. de la Toussaint. 
 
132 MAXIMS AND 
 
 485. 
 
 There are many cures for love, but none of 
 them infallible. 
 
 486. 
 
 We are very far from knowing all that our 
 passions make us do. 
 
 487. 
 
 Old age is a tyrant, which prohibits all the 
 pleasures of youth upon pain of death. 
 
 488. 
 
 The same pride which makes us censure the 
 faults from which we fancy ourselves exempt, 
 induces us to despise the good qualities which 
 we want. 
 
 489. 
 
 There is an excess of good and evil which 
 passes our sensibility. 
 
 490. 
 
 Innocence is very far from finding as much 
 protection as crime. 
 
 491. 
 
 Of all violent passions, that which sits least 
 ill on women is love. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 133 
 
 492. 
 
 Vanity makes us commit more faults against 
 our taste than reason does. 
 
 493. 
 
 There are some bad qualities which make 
 great talents. 
 
 494. 
 
 Men never wish ardently for what they 
 only wish for from reason. 
 
 495. 
 
 There is often more pride than goodness in 
 our sorrow for the misfortunes of our enemies ; 
 it is to make them feel that we are superior to 
 them that we give them marks of our compas- 
 sion. 
 
 496. 
 
 All our qualities are uncertain and doubtful, 
 as well in good as in evil, and they are almosft 
 always at the mercy of conjunctures. 
 
 497. 
 In their first passions women love the lover, 
 in the others they love love. 
 
 497. Byron has translated this maxim, Don Juan, 
 canto 3. 
 
134 MAXIMS AND 
 
 498. 
 Pride lias its oddities as well as other pas- 
 sions ; men are ashamed to avow that they are 
 jealous, and yet take a pride in having been 
 and in "being capable of becoming so. 
 
 499. 
 Rare as is true love, true friendship is still 
 rarer. 
 
 500. 
 There are few women whose merit outlives 
 their beauty. 
 
 501. 
 The desire of being pitied, or admired, often 
 makes the greatest part of our confidence. 
 
 502. 
 The same firmness which serves to resist 
 love serves also to render it violent and dura- 
 
 " In her first passion woman loves her lover, 
 In all the others what she loves, is love." 
 
 " On n'aime veritablement qu'une fois, c'est la premiere, 
 les passions qui suivent sont moins involontaires-" — La 
 Bruyere, Du Coeur. 
 
 499. " II est plus ordinaire de voir un amour extreme 
 qu'une parfaite amitieV' — La. Bruyere, Du Ccewr, 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 135 
 
 ble, and weak persons who are always agitated 
 by passions are scarcely ever really taken up 
 with it. 
 
 503. 
 
 Imagination cannot invent so many different 
 contrarieties as naturally exist in the heart of 
 every individual. 
 
 504. 
 
 Our envy always outlives the happiness of 
 those we envy. 
 
 505. 
 
 It is only persons of firmness that can have 
 real gentleness; those who appear gentle are 
 in general only of a weak character, which 
 easily changes into asperity. 
 
 506. 
 
 Timidity is a fault for which it is dangerous 
 to reprove persons whom we wish to correct 
 of it. 
 
 507. 
 
 Nothing is so rare as real goodness of heart ; 
 even those who fancy they are possessed of it, 
 have in general only complaisance or weakness 
 of character. 
 
136 MAXIMS AND 
 
 508. 
 
 Men are more satirical from vanity than 
 from malice. 
 
 509. 
 
 The mind attaches itself from indolence and 
 from constancy to whatever is easy and agree- 
 able to it. This habit always sets limits to our 
 knowledge, and no one ever took the trouble 
 to enlarge and guide his mind to the extent of 
 its capacities. 
 
 510. 
 
 When the heart is still agitated by the re- 
 mains of a passion, we are more ready to 
 receive a new one than when we are entirely 
 cured. 
 
 511. 
 
 Those who have had great passions find 
 themselves during the whole of their lives both 
 happy and unhappy at being cured of them. 
 
 508. " It is often observed of wits that they will lose 
 their best friends for the sake of a joke. Candor may dis- 
 cern that it is their greater degree of the love of fame, 
 not the less degree of their benevolence, which is the 
 cause," — Shenstone, Men and Manners, 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 137 
 
 512. 
 
 There are even more people without in- 
 terest than without envy. 
 
 513. 
 
 We have more indolence in the mind than 
 in the body. 
 
 514. 
 
 Of all our passions, that which is most un- 
 known to ourselves is indolence. Although 
 the injuries it causes are very imperceptible, no 
 other passion is more ardent or more malig- 
 nant. If we consider attentively its influence 
 we shall see that on every occasion it renders 
 itself master of our sentiments, our interests, 
 and our pleasures ; it is the remora which ar- 
 rests the course of the largest vessels, a calm 
 more dangerous to the most important affairs 
 than rocks or tempests. The repose of indo- 
 lence is a secret spell of the mind which sus- 
 pends our most ardent pursuits and our firmest 
 resolves. 
 
 512. See note to No. 28. for Mandeville's opinion as to 
 the universality of envy. " There is but one man who can 
 believe himself free from envy, and it is he who has never 
 examined his own heart." — Hblvetitjs. 
 
 M* 
 
138 MAXIMS AND 
 
 515. 
 
 The calm or agitation of our temper does 
 not depend so much on the important events 
 of life, as on an agreeable or disagreeable ad- 
 justment of little things which happen every 
 day. 
 
 516. 
 
 However wicked men may be, they dare 
 not appear to be enemies of virtue ; and when 
 they wish to persecute it, they pretend to be- 
 lieve that it is false, or suppose it capable of 
 crimes. 
 
 517. 
 
 Men often proceed from love to ambition, 
 but they seldom return from ambition to love. 
 
 518. 
 
 Extreme avarice almost always mistakes 
 itself; there is no passion which more often 
 
 517. " Les hommes commenoent par l'amour, finisseat 
 par l'ambition, et ne se trouvent dans une assiette plus 
 tranquille, que lorsqu'ils meurent." — La Bruyerb, Du 
 Cceur. 
 
 " He -who admits ambition to the companionship of love, 
 admits a giant that outstrides the gentler footsteps of its 
 comrade." — Sir E. B. Lytton, Harold. 
 
MOEAL SENTENCES. 139 
 
 deprives itself of its object, nor on which the 
 present exercises so much power to the preju- 
 dice of the future. 
 
 519. 
 
 Avarice often produces opposite effects; 
 there is an infinite number of people who sac- 
 rifice all their property to doubtful and distant 
 expectations ; others despise great future ad- 
 vantages to obtain present interests of a trifling 
 nature. 
 
 520. 
 
 It would seem that men do not find enough 
 defects in themselves ; they augment the num- 
 ber by certain singular qualities which they 
 affect to put on, and these they cultivate with 
 so much assiduity, that they become at length 
 natural defects which are no longer capable of 
 correction. 
 
 521. 
 
 One fact which lets us see that men are 
 better acquainted with their faults than is gen- 
 erally thought, is, that they are never wrong 
 when they speak of their own conduct; the 
 same self-love which generally blinds, on such 
 occasion's enlightens them, and gives them 
 views so just as to make them suppress or dis- 
 
140 MAXIMS AND 
 
 guise the least things which might be con- 
 demned. 
 
 522 
 
 Young people on entering the world should 
 be either timid or giddy ; a composed and set- 
 tled demeanor generally changes into imperti- 
 nence. 
 
 523. 
 
 Quarrels would not last long, if the fault 
 was only on one side. 
 
 524. 
 
 It is of no advantage to a woman to be 
 young without being pretty, or to be pretty 
 without being young. 
 
 525. 
 
 There are some persons so fickle and frivo- 
 lous, that they are as far from having real 
 faults as solid qualities. 
 
 526. 
 
 A woman's first gallantry is not generally 
 reckoned until she has had a second. 
 
 527. 
 
 There are some people so full of themselves, 
 that when they are in love, they find means to 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 141 
 
 be occupied with their passion, without being 
 so with the person they love. 
 
 528. 
 
 Love, all agreeable as it is, is more pleasing 
 from the manner in which it displays itself than 
 from its own nature. 
 
 529. 
 
 A small degree of wit accompanied by good 
 sense is less tiresome in the long run than a 
 great amount of wit without it. 
 
 530. 
 
 Jealousy is the greatest of all evils, and the 
 least pitied by those who cause it. 
 
 531. 
 
 Great souls are not those which have less 
 passion and more virtue than common souls, 
 but those only which have greater designs. 
 
 529. "You know, Mr. Spectator, that a man of wit 
 may extremely affect one for the present, but if he has not 
 discretion his merit soon vanishes away : while a wise man 
 that has not so great a stock of wit, shall nevertheless give 
 you a far greater and more lasting satisfaction." — Spectator, 
 No. 344. 
 
142 MAXIMS AND 
 
 532. 
 
 Natural ferocity makes fewer cruel people 
 than self-love. 
 
 533. 
 
 To be always good others must believe that 
 they can never appear wicked to us with im- 
 punity. 
 
 534. 
 
 When we cannot find contentment in our- 
 selves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere. 
 
 535. 
 Those who are incapable of committing 
 
 534. " Navibus atque 
 
 Quadrigis petimus bene vivere ; quod petis, hie est, 
 Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit asquus." 
 
 Horace, Ep. i. 11, 28. 
 
 See also Od. ii. 16, 19 :— 
 
 " Patriae quis exul 
 Se quoque fugit ?" 
 
 Which Byron apparently had in view in his song to Inez, 
 Childe Harold, canto i. 
 
 " What exile from himself can flee 1 
 
 To zones though more and more remote, 
 Still, still pursues, where'er I be, 
 
 The blight of life— the demon Thought." 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 143 
 
 great crimes do not easily suspect others of 
 them. 
 
 536. 
 
 To be confident of pleasing is often an infal- 
 lible means of displeasing. 
 
 537. 
 
 In mankind is not found any great excess 
 either of good or evil. 
 
 538. 
 
 There is a kind of revolution of so general 
 a character that it changes the mental tastes 
 as well as the fortunes of the world. 
 
 539. 
 
 We do not always regret the loss of friends 
 m consideration of their merit, but in consid- 
 eration of our wants, and of the good opinion 
 they entertained of us. 
 
 535. " Whose nature is so far from doing harm, 
 That he suspects none." — King Lear. 
 
 Montaigne remarks, that " Confidence in another man's 
 virtue is no slight evidence of a man's own ;" and he adds, 
 " God is pleased to favor such confidence." 
 
 536. M. Brotier, in his edition, reads " Moyen infaillible 
 de plaire. 
 
144 MAXIMS AND 
 
 540. 
 
 The generality of women yield through 
 weakness rather than through passion. Hence 
 it is that enterprising men succeed generally 
 "better than others, although they may not be 
 the most amiable. 
 
 541. 
 
 After having spoken of the falsity of so 
 many apparent virtues it is reasonable to say 
 something of the falsity of the contempt of 
 death; I mean that contempt of death which 
 the Pagans boast of deriving from their own 
 strength, without the hope of a better life. 
 There is a difference between enduring death 
 with firmness, and despising it. The first is 
 
 540. " Brisk confidence still best with woman copes, 
 
 Pique her and soothe in turn, soon passion 
 crowns thy hopes. 
 
 Byron, Childe Harold, canto ii. 34. 
 La Bruyere also has a severe, but graphic, description 
 of the class of men who succeed best with women , "Ann 
 homme vain, indiscret, qui est grand parleur et mauvais 
 plaisant ; qui parle de soi avec confiance et des autres avec 
 mepris; impetueux, altier, entreprenant ; sans mceurs ni pro- 
 bitg ; de nul jugement et d'une imagination tres libre ; il 
 ne lui manque plus, pour 6tre ador6 de bien des femmes 
 que de beaux traits 3t la faille belle." — Des Femmes. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 145 
 
 common enough, but the other in my opinion 
 is never sincere. Every thing however has 
 been written which could by possibility per- 
 suade us that death is not an evil, and the 
 weakest men as well as heroes have given a 
 thousand celebrated examples to support this 
 opinion. Nevertheless, I doubt whether any 
 man of good sense ever believed it, and the 
 pains men take to persuade others and them- 
 selves of it let us see that the task is by no 
 means easy. We may have many causes of 
 disgust with life, but we never have any reason 
 for despising death. Even those who destroy 
 their own lives do not reckon it as such a little 
 matter, and are as much alarmed at and recoil 
 as much from it as others, when it comes upon 
 them in a different way from the one they have 
 chosen. The inequality remarkable in the 
 courage of a vast number of brave men arises 
 from the fact of death presenting itself in dif- 
 ferent shapes to their imagination, and appear- 
 ing more instant at one time than at another. 
 Thus it results that after having despised what 
 they knew nothing of they end by fearing what 
 they do know. If we would not believe that 
 it is the greatest of all evils, we must avoid 
 looking it and all its circumstances in the face. 
 The cleverest and bravest are those who take 
 
 N 
 
146 MAXIMS AND 
 
 the most respectable pretexts to prevent them- 
 selves from reflecting on it ; "but any man who 
 is able to view it in its reality finds it a horri- 
 ble thing. /The necessity of dying constituted 
 all the firmness of the philosophers. They 
 conceived they should go through with a good 
 grace what they could not avoid, and as they 
 were unable to make their lives eternal, they 
 had nothing left for it but to make their rep- 
 utations eternaly^nd preserve all that could be 
 secured from the shipwreck. To put a good 
 face on the matter, let us content ourselves 
 with not discovering to ourselves all that we 
 think of it, and let us hope more from our con- 
 stitutions than from those feeble reasonings 
 which would make us believe that we can ap- 
 proach death with indifference. The credit of 
 dying with firmness ; the hope of being regret- 
 ted ; the desire of leaving a fair reputation ; 
 the certainty of being freed from the miseries 
 of life, and of no longer depending on the ca- 
 prices of fortune, are remedies which we should 
 not reject. But at the same time we should 
 not believe that they are infallible./ They do 
 as much to assure us as a simple hedge in war 
 does to assure those who have to approach a 
 place to the fire of which they are exposed. 
 At a distance it appears capable of affording a 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 147 
 
 shelter, "but when near it is found to be a feeble 
 defence. It is flattering ourselves to believe 
 that death appears to us when near, what we 
 fancied it at a distance, and that our senti- 
 ments, which are weakness itself, are of a tem- 
 per so strong as not to suffer from the attack 
 of the harshest of trials. It is also hut a poor 
 acquaintance with the effects of self-love, to 
 think that it can aid us in treating lightly what 
 must necessarily destroy itself, and reason, in 
 which we think to find so many resources, is 
 too weak in this encounter to persuade us of 
 what we wish. On the contrary, it is reason 
 which most frequently betrays us, and instead 
 of inspiring us with the contempt of death 
 serves to reveal to us all that it has dreadful 
 and terrible. All that reason can do for us is 
 to advise us to turn away our eyes from death, 
 to fix them on other objects. Cato and Brutus 
 chose illustrious ones. A lackey a short time 
 ago amused himself with dancing on the scaf- 
 fold on which he was about to he executed. 
 Thus, though motives may differ, they often 
 produce the same effects. So that it is true 
 that whatever disproportion there may be be- 
 tween great men and common people, both the 
 one and the other have been a thousand times 
 seen to meet death with the same countenance 
 
148 MAXIMS, ETC. 
 
 but it has been with this difference, that in the 
 contempt which great men show for death it is 
 the love of glory which hides it from their 
 view ; and in common people, it is an effect of 
 their want of intelligence which prevents their 
 being acquainted with the greatness of their 
 loss, and leaves them at liberty to think of 
 other things. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 MAXIMS AND REFLECTIONS. 
 
 STANISLAUS, 
 
 KING OF POLAND. 
 
 THE LIFE OF STANISLAUS. 
 
 Stanislaus was born at Leopold, October 20, 1677. 
 His family name was Seczinski, and his father held the im- 
 portant post of grand treasurer to the Crown. He very 
 early displayed indication of an amiable and estimable 
 character, and at the age of twenty-two was intrusted with 
 an embassy to the Ottoman court. In 1704, being then 
 palatine of Posnania, and general of Great Poland, he was 
 deputed, by the Assembly of the States at Warsaw, to wait 
 upon Charles XII. of Sweden, who had invaded the king- 
 dom, with a view of dethroning Augustus of Saxony. In a 
 conference with the Swedish monarch, he so rapidly ac- 
 
150 THE LIFE OF STANISLAUS. 
 
 quired his esteem, that Charles immediately resolved to 
 raise him to the throne of Poland, which he effected at an 
 election, held in the presence of the Swedish generals, on 
 the 27th of July, 1704, Stanislaus being then in his twenty- 
 seventh year. He was, however, soon after driven from 
 Warsaw, by his rival, Augustus; but another change 
 brought him back to that capital, where he was crowned, 
 with his wife, in October, 1705, and the next year, Augus- 
 tus was compelled solemnly to abdicate. The fatal defeat 
 of his patron, Charles XII. at Pultowa, in 1709, again 
 obliged him to retreat into Sweden, where he endeavored 
 to join Charles XII. at Bender, in disguise, but being de- 
 tected, he was held captive in that town until 1714. Being 
 then suffered to depart, he repaired to Deux Ponts, where 
 he was joined by his family, and remained until the dealh 
 of Charles XII. in 1719, when the court of France afforded 
 him a retreat at Weissembourgh, in Alsace. 
 
 He remained in obscurity until 1725, when his daughter, 
 the princess Mary, was unexpectedly selected as a wife, by 
 Louis XV., king of France. On the death of Augustus in 
 1733, an attempt was made by the French court, to re- 
 place Stanislaus on the throne of Poland ; but although he 
 had a party who supported him and proclaimed him king, 
 his competitor, the electoral prince of Saxony, being aided 
 by the emperors of Germany and Russia, he was obliged 
 to retire. He endured this like every other reverse of for- 
 tune, with great resignation, and at the peace of 1736, for- 
 mally abdicated his claim to the kingdom of Poland,* on 
 condition of retaining the title of king, and being put in 
 
 * The following are copies of the letters to the Polish Lords and 
 the City of Dantzic, on his resignation of the sovereign power of 
 Poland : — 
 
THE LIFE OF STANISLAUS. 151 
 
 possession for life of the duchies of Lorraine and Bar. 
 Thenceforward he lived as the sovereign of a small country, 
 which he rendered happy by the exercise of virtues which 
 acquired him the appellation of Stanislaus the Beneficent. 
 He not only relieved his people from the excessive imposts, 
 bat by strict economy was enabled to found many useful 
 charitable establishments, and to patronize the arts and 
 
 " To my dear Primate, and the Polish Lords. 
 
 " My grief in separating from you, my dear and true friend- 
 speaks sufficiently to give you a sense of all I feel in this cruel mi 
 ment. The forced resolution I take is only founded on the inutility 01 
 my sacrifice, as you have so judged yourselves. I embrace you all 
 very tenderly, beginning by my Lord the Primate ; and I beseech you 
 by yourselves, and consequently by what is dearest to me, to unite 
 more than ever for supporting, as much as possible, the interests of 
 my dear country, which has no support but in you only. 
 
 "The tears that spread upon the words I write oblige me to 
 leave off. May you at least read in the bottom of my heart the 
 sentiments which your love for me has placed and graved in it for 
 ever. 
 
 " I am, from my heart and soul, 
 
 "STANISLAUS, King." 
 
 "Advice to my good City of Dantzic. 
 
 " I depart when I can no longer remain with you, nor enjoy 
 longer the testimonies of so unexampled a love and fidelity. I take 
 along with me, with the regret for your sufferings, the grateful ac- 
 knowledgments which I owe you, and of which I shall acquit myself 
 at all times by all the means that may convince you of them. I wish 
 you all the happiness you deserve ; it will be my consolation amidst 
 the distress that forces me from you. 
 
 " I am, and shall always be, and everywhere, your most affec- 
 tionate, 
 
 " STANISLAUS, King." 
 
152 THE LIFE OF STANISLAUS. 
 
 sciences. He was himself attached to literature, and wrote 
 various treatises on philosophy, morals, and politics, which 
 were published under the title of " GEuvres du Philosophe 
 Bienfaisant," 4 vols. 8vo., 1765. He died, much lamented, 
 February 23, 1766, in consequence of the injury which he 
 sustained from his night-gown being accidentally set on fire. 
 
MAXIMS AND MORAL SENTENCES. 
 
 The word of (rod proves the truth of re- 
 ligion; the corruption of man, its necessity; 
 government, its advantages. 
 
 2. 
 
 Where religion speaks, reason has only a 
 right to hear. 
 
 Nothing but religion is capable of changing 
 pains into pleasures. 
 
 To make good use of life, one should have 
 in youth the experience of advanced years, and 
 in old age the vigor of youth. / 
 
154 MAXIMS AND 
 
 If we had a fore-feeling of the trouble of 
 correcting ourselves, we should have none in 
 keeping ourselves free from faults. 
 
 6. 
 
 In order to be applauded for what we do, 
 we must not too much applaud ourselves. 
 
 7. 
 
 Hope makes time very long, and enjoyment 
 very short. 
 
 8. 
 
 Long ailments wear out pain, and long 
 hopes joy. 
 
 9. 
 
 Those who ought to be secure from calum- 
 ny, are generally those who avoid it least. 
 
 10. 
 
 We wish no evil to those we despise ; but 
 those who have a right to despise us. 
 
 11. 
 
 "We ought to be more offended at extrava- 
 gant praise than injuries. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 155 
 
 12. 
 
 It is more honorable to acknowledge our 
 faults than boast of our merits. 
 
 13. 
 
 How can we love a life which leads to death, 
 and byways always beset with thorns ? 
 
 14. 
 
 Good-humor is the health of the soul, sad 
 ness its poison. 
 
 15. 
 
 / Reason shows us our duty; he who can 
 make us love our duty is more powerful than 
 reason itself / 
 
 16. 
 
 An implacable hatred is a greater burden 
 than we usually think it is. 
 
 11. 
 
 It is as natural to fear as to hope, when one 
 is unfortunate. 
 
 18. 
 
 It is rare that an unfortunate person has 
 friends, and still more rare that he has relations. 
 
156 MAXIMS AND 
 
 19. 
 
 I believe, indeed, that it is more laudable 
 to suffer great misfortunes than to do great 
 things. 
 
 20. 
 
 Fortune sells herself at a dear rate to those 
 who seek after her; but often courts to her 
 those who seem less solicitous about her favors. 
 
 21. 
 
 Modesty ought to be the virtue of those 
 who are deficient in other virtues. 
 
 22. 
 Praises are satire when insincere. 
 
 23. 
 
 Almost always the most indigent are the 
 most generous. 
 
 24. 
 
 The idea of happiness is often more flatter- 
 ing than the happiness itself. 
 
 25. 
 
 The ties of friendship are at present so 
 slight, that they break of themselves; they 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 157 
 
 only draw hearts near each other, but do not 
 unite them. 
 
 26. 
 
 A hard and polished piece of marble reflects 
 the objects that are presented before it. The 
 same may be said of most men. The troubles 
 of another skim over the surface of their soul, 
 but go no farther. 
 
 27. 
 
 A man greater than his misfortunes shows 
 he was not deserving of them. 
 
 28. 
 
 The courage which emulation inspires for 
 an enterprise soon finds the means of succeed- 
 ing. 
 
 29. 
 
 To cease hearing a babbler is the surest way 
 to make him hold his tongue. 
 
 30. 
 
 The desire of pleasing is not laudable, but 
 so far as we endeavor at the same time to 
 make ourselves esteemed. 
 
 81. 
 
 To live in quiet, we should undertake noth- 
 o 
 
158 MAXIMS AND 
 
 ing difficult ; but presumption makes all things 
 
 to be thought easy. 
 
 32. 
 
 If there be inevitable dangers, there are 
 many we give into by imprudence, and still 
 more which we may avoid by a little precau- 
 tion. 
 
 33. 
 
 The instability of our tastes is the occasion 
 of the irregularity of our lives. 
 
 34. 
 
 No other princes commonly, but those who 
 are deserving of immortality, love to encourage 
 the talents that give a right to it. 
 
 35. 
 
 It is not possible to impose silence on the 
 interior voice that upbraids us with our faults. 
 It is the voice of nature herself. 
 
 36. 
 
 Religion has nothing more to fear than not 
 being sufficiently understood. 
 
 37. 
 
 Must one cease to be virtuous to escape 
 being exposed to the darts of envy ? What a 
 
MOKAL SENTENCES. 159 
 
 calamity would it be if the sun ceased shining, 
 that weak eyes might not be offended ! 
 
 38. 
 
 The older love grows the weaker it is. 
 Friendship is stronger in becoming old. 
 
 39. 
 
 Nature cries aloud to the most powerful, as 
 well as the most abject of men, that they are 
 all members of the same body. 
 
 40. 
 
 If we perceive at present little genius, it is 
 because the arts have few inventors in an age 
 where they are so many models. 
 
 41. 
 
 The most infallible mark of ignorance is su- 
 perstition. 
 
 42. 
 
 Who of us would take notice of time if it 
 did not pass away ? But great is our mishap 
 not to think of it till the moment it flies away 
 and escapes us. 
 
 43. 
 
 Science, when well digested, is nothing but 
 good sense and reason. 
 
160 MAXIMS AND 
 
 44. 
 
 Why should we despise those who have no 
 wit ? it is not a voluntary evil in them. 
 
 45. 
 
 There are few persons of greater worth than 
 their reputation; but how many are there 
 whose worth is far short of their reputation. 
 
 46. 
 
 A great soul ought to be more sensible of 
 benefits than affronts. 
 
 47. 
 
 However great a happiness is, there is still 
 one greater, which is that of being esteemed 
 worthy of the happiness that is enjoyed. 
 
 48. 
 
 We ought to reckon time by our good ac- 
 tions, and place the rest to the account of our 
 not having lived. 
 
 49. 
 
 Though hope often deceives us we have still 
 the same confidence, and our life passes away 
 in hoping. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 1«1 
 
 50. 
 
 It scarce ever happens, that in falling from 
 a high elevation, we find in ourselves so much 
 strength to rise again, as we had weakness in 
 falling. 
 
 51. 
 
 All nature acts for growing, and all growth 
 for its destruction. 
 
 52. 
 
 The virtue that excites envy has, at least, 
 the advantage of confounding, sooner or later, 
 the envious. 
 
 53. 
 ' Modesty is always inseparable from true 
 meriV 
 
 54 
 
 It is one of the great effects of Providence, 
 that every nation, however miserable it may 
 be, fancies that happiness cannot be found else- 
 where. 
 
 55. 
 
 The best way for some to console themselves 
 
 for their ignorance is, to believe useless all that 
 
 they do not know. 
 
 o* 
 
Ifi2 MAXIMS AND 
 
 56. 
 
 Can princes born in palaces be sensible of 
 the misery of those who dwell in cottages ? 
 
 57. 
 
 Patriotism is nothing more than the senti- 
 ment of our welfare, and the dread of seeing 
 it disturbed. 
 
 58. 
 
 Every thing, even piety, is dangerous m a 
 man without judgment. 
 
 59. 
 
 Reason has an occasion for experience ; but 
 experience is useless without reason. 
 
 60. 
 
 Conscience admonishes as a friend, before 
 punishing us as a judge. 
 
 61. 
 
 To believe with certainty we must begin 
 with doubting. 
 
 62. 
 
 1 cannot comprehend how deceit is so cried 
 down, and, at the same time, so common. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 103 
 
 There is no man but is afraid of being de- 
 ceived, and yet, on the least opportunity, en- 
 deavors to deceive others. 
 
 63. 
 
 I would be glad that there was a less dis- 
 tance between the people and the great. The 
 people then, not believing the great to be 
 greater than they are, would fear them less ; 
 and the great, not imagining the people more 
 insignificant and miserable than they are, would 
 fear them more. 
 
 64. 
 
 If beauty knew all the advantages of the 
 modesty that heightens its charms, it would 
 not constantly expose it to so many dangers. 
 
 65. 
 Why fly from the unhappy? Their state 
 makes us more sensible of the value of the 
 happiness we possess. 
 
 66. 
 To suppose courage in a coward, is to in- 
 spire him with courage in effect. 
 
 67. 
 To make the principle of our conduct con- 
 sist in the necessity of duty, is to make it very 
 
164 MAXIMS AND 
 
 hard and painful, and to expose ourselves con- 
 stantly to the desire of breaking through it. 
 
 68. 
 
 How many people make every thing their 
 business, because they know not how to occupy 
 themselves in any thing. 
 
 69. 
 
 Experience, acquired by faults, is a very 
 costly master. 
 
 / V . 
 
 ' We are fond of conversing with those we 
 love, why therefore cannot man, who loves 
 himself so well, remain a moment with himself. / 
 
 71. 
 
 Is it not astonishing that the love of repose 
 keeps us in continual agitation ? 
 
 72. 
 
 In all sorts of government man is made to 
 believe himself free, and to be in chains. 
 
 73. 
 
 / The less we require from others the more 
 we obtain. To exercise authority too much is 
 the way to lose it. / 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 165 
 
 74. 
 
 He who possesses a great deal is not the 
 most happy; it is he who desires little, and 
 knows how to enjoy it. 
 
 75. 
 
 The advice given to princes is usually of 
 service to those only who give it. 
 
 76. 
 
 Nothing is of so great consequence to us as 
 to preserve our reputation; once lost, it is 
 never recovered. 
 
 77. 
 
 Men and women, in marrying, make a vow ^ 
 of loving one another. Would it not be better 
 for their happiness if they made a vow of 
 pleasing one another % «*^ 
 
 78. 
 
 As soon as in conversation we have per- 
 ceived the result of the mind of those with 
 whom we speak, we should stop there. All 
 that is said further, being no longer compre- 
 hended, might pass for ridiculous. 
 
166 MAXIMS AND 
 
 79. 
 
 The people are always attentive to seize 
 upon the weak side of a great reputation. 
 
 80. 
 
 What makes so many persons go astray in 
 their arguments, is that they would fain think 
 beyond the extent of their intellects. 
 
 / . . 81 ' . 
 
 The desire of doing well is debased by the 
 desire of appearing to have done well. / 
 
 82. 
 
 It is rare that coxcombs have not at first 
 the ascendant in every assembly. It is mud 
 that rises on the surface of the water, till, the 
 agitation ceasing, it precipitates itself. 
 
 83. 
 
 There is nowhere so much occasion for good 
 humor as in courts, and yet there we find the 
 least of it. 
 
 84. 
 
 It is hardly possible to suspect another, 
 without having in one's self the seeds of base- 
 ness the party is accused of. 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 16V 
 
 85. 
 
 Esteem lias more engaging charms than 
 friendship, and even love. It captivates hearts 
 better, and never makes ingrates. 
 
 88. 
 Vanity is less insupportable than affected 
 modesty. 
 
 87. 
 I esteem an honest man who is sensible in 
 regard to glory. I esteem him no longer when 
 he is captivated with vanity. 
 
 88. 
 There are few friends but admit of advice, 
 but scarce any who can abide censure. 
 
 89. 
 By showing too much dread of being de- 
 ceived, we often discover the manner whereby 
 we may be deceived. 
 
 90. 
 We usually take a confidant to have an ap- 
 prover. 
 
 91. 
 The earnest desire of succeeding is almost 
 always a prognostic of success. 
 
1R8 MAXIMS AttD 
 
 92. 
 
 Whoever places importance in little things 
 is subject to treat slightly the most essential. 
 
 93. 
 Many misers prefer, to the shame of appear- 
 ing such, the punishment of being profuse. 
 
 94. 
 
 A covetous person is seldom cured for the 
 passion of gaming. Besides the hopes of gain, 
 he finds in it the advantage of hiding his ava- 
 rice under an air of disinterestedness. 
 
 95. 
 
 We are usually mistaken in esteeming men 
 too much ; rarely in esteeming them too little. 
 
 96. 
 
 A man in place has no more friends when 
 he loses his post. It was not, therefore, him, 
 but his place that had friends. 
 
 97. 
 
 When truth offends no one, it ought to pass 
 out of the mouth as naturally as the air we 
 breathe. 
 
Moral sentences. 169 
 
 98. 
 If, with the pains we endure here below we 
 were immortal, we should he the most miserable 
 of all beings. It is sweet and pleasing to hope 
 that we shall not live always. 
 
 99. 
 It seems that all we do is but a rough draught, 
 and that always something remains to be done to 
 make the work complete. 
 
 100. 
 Power is not always proportionate to the will. 
 One should be consulted before the other; but the 
 majority of men begin by willing, and act after- 
 ward as they can. 
 
 101. 
 
 Affectation discovers sooner what one is, than it 
 makes known what one would fain appear to be. 
 
 102. 
 Laziness is a premature death. To be in no 
 action, is not to live/'' 
 
 A 
 
 103. 
 
 Great wants proceed from great wealth, and 
 make riches almost equal to poverty. 
 
 p 
 
170 MAXIMS AND 
 
 A 
 
 104. 
 We feel death but once. He who fears death 
 dies every time lie thinks of it. / 
 105. 
 A miser of sixty years old refuses himself 
 necessaries that he msiy not want them when he 
 is a hundred. Almost all of us make ourselves 
 unhappy by too much forecast. 
 
 106. 
 Nature does not accustom us to suffer from our 
 infancy, but in order to teach us to suffer. 
 
 107. 
 It is happy for human nature that there are 
 desires which cannot be satisfied. Otherwise, 
 the most sorry man would make himself master 
 of the world. 
 
 108. 
 
 He that keeps his promise only to his own 
 advantage, is scarce more bound than if he had 
 promised nothing. Every promise of interest 
 vanishes as soon as the interest ceases. 
 109. 
 
 I esteem greatly the ignorance of a man, 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. Itl 
 
 who believes and confesses Lis knowledge to be 
 confined to what he knows. 
 
 110. 
 None are rash, when they are not seen by 
 any body. 
 
 111. 
 Man is only weak by the disproportion there is 
 between what he can, and what he is willing to 
 do. The only way he has to increase his strength, 
 is to retrench many of his desires. 
 
 112. 
 
 Interested benefits are so common, that we 
 need not be astonished if ingratitude is so rare. 
 
 113. 
 We only hate the wicked through interest. If 
 they did us no injury we should look upon them 
 with indifference. 
 
 114. 
 The people most attached to life are almost 
 always those who know least how to enjoy it. 
 
 115. 
 The misfortune of the most learned is not 
 
172 MAXIMS AND 
 
 to know that they are ignorant of what they 
 cannot know. 
 
 116. 
 Too much devotion leads to fanaticism; too 
 much philosophy to irreligion. 
 
 117. 
 The care we take not to suffer, causes more 
 torment than we should find in supporting what 
 we suffer. 
 
 118. 
 
 We meet with great difficulty in conquering 
 pride by resisting it: how potent, then, must 
 it be, when flattered ? 
 
 119. 
 
 As we cannot hinder young people from being 
 inconsiderate, we should remember that they have 
 but a short time to be so. 
 120. 
 The generality of misers are very good people; 
 they do not cease to amass wealth for others 
 that wish their death. 
 
 121. 
 Life is enjoyed only by bits and scraps: every 
 
MORAL SENTENCES 173 
 
 instant terminates its extent: when it exists, the 
 past is no more, and the instant that follows is 
 not yet. In this manner we die without ever 
 having been able to enjoy one instant. 
 
 122. 
 
 The hypocrite who would fain imitate virtue, 
 can only copy it in water-colors. 
 
 123. 
 
 It is having in some measure a sort of wit, to 
 know how to use the wit of others. 
 
 124. 
 
 The indolence of the generality of the great, 
 borders somewhat upon a lethargic state. 
 
 125. 
 I doubt whether a wise and sensible man 
 would become young again, on the same condi- 
 tions he once was so. 
 
 126. 
 
 The prejudices of youth pass away with it. 
 Those of old age last only, because there is no 
 other age to be hoped for. 
 
174 MAXIMS AND 
 
 127. 
 
 The reason why some people speak so much is, 
 that they speak only by memory. 
 128. 
 
 The poor, condemned to the sweat of the brow 
 and to fatigue, upbraid nature with the sloth of 
 the rich; and the rich, tormented by passions, or 
 devoured by disgust and irksomeness, envy the 
 innocent pleasure of the poor. None here below 
 find themselves happy but in the place of others. 
 
 129. 
 
 "We wish no evil to those we despise, but to 
 those who have a right to despise us. 
 
 130. 
 
 How many prodigals are there, who, by dying, 
 pay only nature what they owe her ! 
 
 131. 
 We -mount to fortune by several steps, but 
 require only one step to come down. 
 
 132. 
 There are -authors who take so much pains 
 
MORAL SENTENCES. 
 
 with, and polish so much their writings, that all 
 they give to the public are nothing but mere dust 
 and filings. 
 
 133. 
 
 The first faults alarm innocence: those that 
 follow cease to fright her. Happy that innocence 
 which has not learned to fear, or has held to her 
 first fears. 
 
 134. 
 
 I know no real worth but that tranquil firmness 
 which seeks dangers by duty, and braves them 
 
 without rashness. 
 
 135. 
 I pity less an ignorant person who knows 
 nothing, than one who knows but indifferently 
 what he has learned. It is much better to know 
 thoroughly than to know a great deal. 
 
 136. 
 
 The man of understanding reasons only accord- 
 ing to what he has learned; but the man of 
 genius according to himself. 
 137. 
 
 It does not suit all persons to be modest; none 
 but great men ought to be so. 
 
176 MAXIMS, EX 0. 
 
 138. 
 The merit of great men is not understood, but 
 by those who are formed to be such themselves: 
 genius speaks only to genius. 
 
 139. 
 Great men are in vain criticised; their illustri- 
 ous qualities are sufficient to procure them 
 revenge. 
 
 140. 
 Great speakers resemble those musicians, who, 
 in their airs, prefer noise to harmony. 
 141. 
 We may recover out of the darkness of igno- 
 rance, but never out of that of presumption. 
 
 142. 
 We have known how to make the elements 
 obsequious to our ingenuity, but we know not how 
 to master our passions. 
 
 143. 
 True valor braves danger without neglecting 
 
 resources. 
 
 144. 
 Two sorts of men do not reflect, the terrified 
 and the rash man. 
 
MAXIMS TO LIVE BY. 
 
 Avoid, if possible, laying yourself under 1 an 
 obligation to a purse-proud man, whose wealth is 
 his only distinction, and who, thanks to some lucky 
 star, has risen from a menial station in society to 
 one of comparative opulence and importance. If 
 your miserable fate dooms you to receive the 
 slightest pecuniary favor from such a person, he 
 is almost sure to treat you with insolence and 
 contumely, and to profit by the opportunity to 
 take liberties with you, which, under other 
 circumstances, he would not dare to attempt. 
 
 2. 
 
 We lose* our friends at the flood-tide of our 
 prosperity, not less frequently than at its ebb; 
 the two extremes are equally fatal. In the 
 former case they grow distant and reserved, in 
 
178 MAXIMS AND 
 
 order to shield themselves from the coldness they 
 have reason to anticipate from us; and in the 
 latter, they desert us because we have ceased to 
 have it in our Dower to be useful to them. 
 
 3. 
 Politeness has been defined to be artificial 
 good nature; but we may affirm, with much 
 greater propriety, that good nature is natural 
 politeness. 
 
 4. 
 Success affords us the means of securing 
 additional success; as the possession of capital 
 enables us to increase our pecuniary gains. 
 
 5. 
 It is after the hey-day of passion has subsided, 
 that our most deservedly celebrated writers have 
 produced their chef d'oeuvres; as it is after the 
 eruption of a volcano that the land in its vicinity 
 is usually the most fertile. 
 
 6. 
 
 Before you purchase any superfluity upon 
 
 credit, ask yourself this very simple question: 
 
 Should I be disposed to pay the cost of this 
 
 article, at the present moment, supposing I 
 
/ » v MOEAL SENTENCES 179 
 
 could obtain it on no other terms? If you decide 
 in the negative, by all means forego its possession; 
 for tliis test ought to have satisfied you that you 
 are about to buy that of which, in reality, you 
 have no need. 
 
 7. 
 Avoid, if possible, receiving an obligation which 
 you have reason to believe you will never have it 
 in your power to repay. 
 
 8. 
 You must not expect that conviction will 
 follow, immediately, the detection of error, any 
 more than that the waves of the sea will cease to 
 heave the instant the storm has subsided. 
 
 9. 
 There are few defects in our nature so glaring 
 as not to be veiled from observation by politeness 
 and good breeding. 
 
 10. 
 It is a fallacy to suppose that an author must 
 appear frequently before the public in order to 
 retain the station to which his writings may have 
 elevated him. The silence of the man of genius is 
 far more respected by the public than the feverish 
 
180 MAXIMS AND 
 
 t 
 
 > » 
 
 loquacity of the most industrious dealer in com- 
 moiiplaces. 
 
 11. 
 What is fame ? The advantage of being known 
 by people of whom you yourself know nothing, 
 and for whom you care as little. 
 12. 
 A man may be possessed of a tolerable number 
 of ideas without being a wit; as an officer may 
 have a large body of soldiers under his command 
 without being a good general. In either case it 
 is equally difficult to know how to discipline and 
 employ one's forces. 
 
 13. 
 Women of lofty imagination are placed in a 
 very awkward predicament as regards the adapta- 
 tion of their literary powers. Considering their 
 opportunities, the marvel is less that women have 
 not oftener surpassed the coarser sex in their 
 productions, but that they have ever excelled 
 them at all. 
 
 14. 
 Forgive the premeditated insult of a plebeian 
 who pleads his ignorance in extenuation of hie 
 
MOEAL SENtfEflrtifc S. 181 
 
 brutality; but do not so forget it as to allow the 
 offender to come into personal contact With you 
 again. Keep him, for eve? afterwards* at an 
 ineiorable distance. 
 
 15. 
 
 A well-read fool is the most pestilent of block- 
 heads: his learning is a flail which he knows not 
 how to handle, and with which he breaks his 
 neighbor's shins as well as his own. Keep a 
 fellow of this description at arm's length, as you 
 value the integrity of your bones. 
 
 16. 
 
 I think it is Pope who has somewhere remarked, 
 that to purchase books indiscriminately, because 
 they may happen to have the name of an eminent 
 publisher attached to them, is just as absurd as it 
 would be to buy clothes which do not fit you, 
 because they happen to have been made by a 
 fashionable tailor. 
 
 17. 
 
 To lie under obligations to our friends for 
 benefits really conferred is not always pleasant; 
 but to have our thanks extorted, by anticipation, 
 by promises of civility which are doomed never to 
 
 Q 
 
182 Maxims, fitd. 
 
 be performed, is one of the most disagreeable 
 penalties that can be inflicted upon man. The 
 only way to avoid being bamboozled out of your 
 thanks, by promises of prospective kindness, is to 
 return your acknowledgments provisionally. 
 
TEAMS OF MORAL COURAGE W 
 EVERY-DAY LIFE. 
 
 HATE the courage to discharge a debt, while 
 you have got the money in your pocket. 
 
 Have the courage to do without that which 
 you do not need, however much you may admire 
 it. 
 
 Have the courage to speak your miud when 
 it is necessary that you should do so, and to hold 
 your tongue when it is better that you should be 
 silent. 
 
 Have the courage to speak to a friend in a 
 " seedy " coat, even in the street, and when a 
 rich one is nigh; the effort is less than many 
 people take it to be, and the act is worthy a 
 king. 
 
 Have the courage to set down every penny you 
 spend, and add it up weekly. 
 
 Have the courage to pass your host's lackey 
 at the door, without giving him a shilling, when 
 
184 MAXIMS AND 
 
 you know you cannot afford it, and, what is more, 
 that the man has not earned it. 
 
 •' Have the courage to own that you are poor, 
 and, you disarm poverty of its sharpest sting. 
 
 Have the courage to laugh at your personal 
 defects, and the world will he deprived of that 
 pleasure, by being reminded of their own. 
 
 Have the courage to admit that you have been 
 in the wrong, aud you will remove the fact from 
 the mind of others, putting a desirable impression 
 in the place of an unfavorable one. 
 
 Have the courage to adhere to a first resolu- 
 tion, when you cannot change it for a better, and 
 to abandonit at the eleventh hour, upon conviction. 
 
 Have the courage to acknowledge your age to 
 a day, and to compare it with the average life of 
 man. Have the courage to make a will, and, what 
 is more, a just one. 
 
 Have the courage to face a difficulty, lest it 
 kick yon harder than you bargain for: difficulties, 
 like thieves, often disappear at a glance. 
 
 Have the courage to avoid accommodation 
 bills., however badly you want money; and to 
 
MORAL SEtflENCES 185 
 
 decline pecuniary assistance from your dearest 
 friend. 
 
 Have the courage to shut your eyes at the 
 prospect of large profits, and to be content with 
 small ones. 
 
 Have the courage to tell a man why you will 
 not lend him your money; he will respect you 
 more than if you tell him you can't. 
 
 Have. the courage to " cut " the most agreeable 
 acquaintance you possess, when be convinces you 
 that he lacks principle: "a friend should bear 
 with a friend's infirmities" — not his vices. 
 
 /Have the courage to show your preference for 
 honesty, in whatever guise it appears; and your 
 contempt for vice, surrounded by attractions.. 
 
 Have the courage to give, occasionally, that 
 which you can ill afford to spare ; giving what you 
 do not want nor value, neither brings nor deserves 
 thanks in return; who is grateful for a drink of 
 water from another's overflowing well, however 
 delicious the draught? 
 
 Have the courage to wear your old gar- 
 meats till you can pay for new ones. 
 
 Have the courage to obey your Maker, at the 
 risk of being ridiculed by man. 
 
186 MAXIMS, ETC 
 
 I 
 
 Have the courage to wear thick boots In 
 winter, and to insist upon your wife and daughters 
 doing the like. 
 
 Have the courage to acknowledge ignorance of 
 any kind; every body will immediataly doubt you, 
 and give you more credit than any false preten- 
 sions could secure. 
 
 Have the courage to prefer propriety to 
 fashion — one is but the abuse of the other.. 
 
 Have the courage to listen to your wife, when 
 you should do so, and not to listen when you 
 should not. [This applies to husbands.] 
 
 Have the courage to provide a frugal dinner 
 for a friend whom you " delight to honor; " 
 when you cannot afford wine, offer him porter; 
 the importance of most things is that which we 
 ourselves attach to them. 
 
 Have the courage to ask a visitor to excuse 
 you when his presence interferes with your 
 convenience. 
 
 Have the courage to throw your snuff-box into 
 the fire or the melting-pot; to pass a tobacconist's 
 shop; and to decline the use of a friend's box, or 
 even one piuch. 
 
 x Have the courage to be independent if you can, 
 and act independently when you may. 
 
Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 
 
 Ai 
 
 tBRAHAM LINCOLN: The True Story of a Great Life 
 Illustrated. By W. H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik. 2 vols .. Cloth, $3.00 
 
 Abraham Lincoln: Was he a Christian? By John e. 
 
 Remsburg. 350 pp., izmo Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 AbOUt the Holy Bible. By Robert G. Ingersoll. A new Lecture 
 recently delivered. A large and handsome pamphlet 25 cts. 
 
 A F eW „ DayS M? A tne P^ B y Frances Wright. New Edition. Every- 
 body who knows the value of this book will read it. One of the master- 
 pieces of Freethought * C l oth| n cts 
 
 Age Of ReaSOn. Being an investigation of True and Fabulous Theol- 
 ogy. A new and unabridged edition. For nearly one hundred years the 
 clergy have been vainly trying to answer this book Paper a S c. ; cloth 50c. 
 
 Allen (Ethan.) Reason, the Only Oracle of Man Cloth, 50 cts 
 
 Ancient Man in America. ByF. Larkin. illustrated $i. so ' 
 
 Analysis Of ReligiC Belief. An examination of the Creeds. 
 
 Rites, and Sacred Writings of the World. By Viscount Amberley, son o f 
 the late Lord John Russell, twice Premier of England. Complete from the 
 
 London edition. 745 pages, 8vo Cloth, $3.00 ; leather, $4.00 ; morocco 
 
 gilt edges. . . .: $ 4 so 
 
 ApOCryphal New Testament. Being all the Gospels, Epistles 
 and other pieces now extant, attributed in the first four centuries to Jesus 
 Christ, his . Apostles, and their companions, and not included in the New 
 Testament by its compilers Cloth, $1.50 
 
 AstrO-TheOlOgical Lectures. Allegorical Meaning of the Bible 
 Belief not the Safe Side ; The Resurrection of Lazarus ; The Unjust Stew- 
 ard ; The Devil ; The Rich Man and Lazarus : The Day of Temptation in the 
 Wilderness ; Ahab, or the Lying Spirit ; The Fall of Man ; Noah ; Abraham ; 
 Sarah ; Melchisedec ; The Lord ; Moses, The Twelve Patriarchs ; Who is the' 
 Lord? Exodus; Aaron; Miriam. By Rev. Robt. Taylor Cloth, $1.50 
 
 Atkinson (H. G.), and Martineau (Harriet.) Laws of 
 
 Man's Nature and Development Cloth, full gilt, $1.50 
 
 Autobiography of Harriet Martineau, with Memorials, 
 
 Portraits, Illustrations. 2 vols., 8vo $6.00 
 
 B 
 
 ACON'S Christian Paradoxes, or the characters of a 
 
 Believing Christian in Paradoxes and Seeming Contradictions. With Por- 
 trait. Preface by Peter Eckler Paper. 10 cts. 
 
 Bacon's Works. 53° pp- crown 8vo cioth, $i. so 
 
 Library edition Cloth gilt, $2.00 
 
 Bastian.— Works of Charlton Bastian, F. R. S. 
 
 The Beginnings of Life, withiiius. zvois $ 7 . so 
 
 Evolution and the Origin of Life $2:00 
 
 Baring-Gould (S.) Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets. ...$1.50 
 
 Beall (E. C.) Brain and the Bible— Conflict of $ t ,oo 
 
 Bible Analyzed. By Col. J. R. Kelso. "For Sledge-Hammer Logic 
 Unsurpassed." 8vo. "32 pag es Silk cloth, $3.00 
 
2 Catalogue of Liberal Classics. 
 
 Bible Balanced. Comparing the Bible's Best Teachings and Sayings 
 with those of Philosophers who Lived Previous to Bible Authors. By G. 
 C. Darling *. Paper, 50 cts. 
 
 Bible Of Humanity. By Jules Michelet. 8vo $300 
 
 Bible of Rational Mind and Religion. By t. j. vaiden. 
 
 8vo, 1,021 pages $ 2 - 2 S 
 
 Bible Of To-day. By J. W. Chadwick. Condensed result of the scien- 
 tific criticisms of the Bible $1-50 
 
 Bible Myths and their Parallels in other Religions. 
 
 Being a comparison of the Old and New Testament Myths and Miracles with 
 
 those of Heathen Nations of Antiquity. Large 8vo, 614 pp Cloth $2.50, 
 
 half moroccu ft $5.00 
 
 Prof; Max Muller says— •' All truth is safe, and nothing else is safe; and he who keeps back 
 the truth, or withholds it from men, from motives of expediency, is either a coward or a 
 criminal, or both. He who knows onlv one religion, knows none." 
 Rev. M. J. Savage, (Boston.) says—" To me, the volume is worth twenty times its cost" 
 " The author of ' Bible Myths ' has succeeded in showing that our bible is not the great 
 central fire, giving light to the world, but a collection of candles and tapeis and sparks bor- 
 rowed by the • chosen people ' from those whom Jehovah, according to the Scriptures, had 
 left in the darkness of nature." — B. G. Incjeksoll. 
 
 Bible and Evolution. By Arthur B. Moss. With Preface by H. J. 
 Hardwicke, M.D., K.K.C.b Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Bible Fabrications Refuted and its Errors Exposed 
 
 O. B. Whitford, M. D. 50 pp. 121110 Paper, 15 cts. 
 
 Bible in India: Hindoo Origin of Hebrew and 
 
 CHRISTIAN REVELATION. Translated from " La Bible dans L'Inde," 
 by Louis Jacolliot. The author of this truly scholarly book finds in India 
 the fountain-head of all the poetic and religious traditions of ancient and 
 modern peoples — the worship of Zoroaster, the symbols of Egypt, the myste- 
 ries of Eleusis, and the priestesses of Vesta, etc Cloth, $2.00 
 
 Bible Inquirer, or a Key to Bible Investigation; containing 148 propo- 
 sitions, with References to the most Plain and Striking Self-Contradictions 
 of the so-called Inspired Scriptures. Including questions answered affirma- 
 tively and negatively by quotations from the Bible. Also other Bible Refer- 
 ences of Importance. By A. Jacobson. Fourth edition, revised and en- 
 larged Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 Bible of BibleS ; or Twenty-seven " Divine Revelations," containing a 
 description of Twenty-seven Bibles, and an Exposition of Two Thousand 
 Biblical Errors in Science, History, Morals, Religion, and General Events. 
 Also a Delineation of the Characters of the Principal Personages of the 
 Christian Bible and an Examination of their doctrines. By Kersey Graves. 
 Large i2mo, 440 pp Cloth, $1.75 
 
 Bible Of Nature ; or. the Principles of Secularism. A Contribution to 
 the Religion of the Future. By Felix L. Oswald. Under the head of 
 " Physical Maxims," Professor Oswald treats of Health. Strength. Chastity, 
 Temperance, Skill. Under " Mental Maxims ;" Knowledge, Independence, 
 Prudence, Perseverance, Freethought. "Moral Maxims;" Justice, Truth, 
 Humanity, Friendship, Education. " Objective Maxims :" Forest Culture, 
 Recreation, Domestic Reform, Legislative Reform, The Priesthood of Secu- 
 larism. The Religion of the Future, of which this work is an outline, will, 
 preach the gospel of redemption by reason, by science. Its teachings will 
 reconcile instinct and precept, and make nature the ally of education. Dr. 
 Oswald is as epigrammatic as Emerson, as spicy as Montaigne, as caustic as 
 Heine, and one of the most uncompromising Freethinkers in the country 
 240 pp., iamo Cloth, $i.co 
 
 Bible— Whence and What. By Richard b. Westhrnnt n n 
 
 L.L.B. Printed from 
 

 
 (-3 
 
 to 
 
 tel 
 
 i — 
 
 to 
 
 o 
 s 
 
 CO 
 
 h3 
 
 > 
 
 HMfc 
 
4 Peter Eckler, Publisher^ New York. 
 
 Biography Of Satan. Historical Exposition of the Devil and his 
 Fiery Domains. By Kersey Graves 35 cts - 
 
 BradlaUgll (ChaS.) Few words about the Devil, and other Biogra- 
 phies and Essays. Portrait and Autobiography $1.35 
 
 Freethinkers' Text-Book. Parti. Man and Religion... $i 
 
 Besant (Annie.) Freethinkers' Text-Book. Part II. Evidences, Origin, 
 Morality, History of Christianity $i-«5 
 
 Theological Essays and Debates $1-35 
 
 Biichner's Force and Matter, or principles of the natu- 
 ral ORDER OF THE UHIVER8E. With a system of Morality based thereon. 
 A scientific work of great ability and merit Post 8vo, 414 pp., with Portrait, 
 Cloth $1.00 
 
 Man in the Past, Present, and Future, it de- 
 scribes Man as " a being not put upon the earth accidentally by an arbi- 
 trary act, but produced in harmony with the earth's nature, and belonging 
 to it as do the Sowers and fruits to the tree which bears them. "....Cloth, ii.oo 
 
 Buckle's History of Civilization in England. , vols., 
 
 cloth • $4.00. 
 
 Buddha : His Life, his Doctrine, his Order. By Dr. Hermann Oldenberg. 
 London. 8vo .' Cloth, $7.00 
 
 Bulwer's History of a False Religion & Brougham's 
 
 ORIGIN OF EVIL. Preface by Peter Eckler Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 V-/ANDLE from under the Bushel (The). By wiiiiam 
 
 Hart. Thirteen Hundred and Six Questions to the Clergy, and for the Con- 
 sideration of Others. Mr. Hart, the author, while a sincere church-member, 
 obeyed the injunction to search the scriptures, which led to the propounding 
 of these queries, which no clergyman can answer rationally and remain a 
 Christian. 300 pp. ramo Paper, 40 cts. 
 
 Canon Of the Bible : Its Formation, History, and Fluctuations. 
 By Samuel Davidson, D. D., London ..Cloth, $2.00 
 
 Career Of ReligiOUS Ideas. Their ultimate the Religion of Science. 
 By Hudson Tuttle. A criticism of the Christian theology and an attempt to 
 make " Science heard in the discussion of man's relations here and immortal 
 relations hereafter." 150 pp. iamo Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 Carlyle's History of the French Revolution. ..cioth 75c. 
 
 ,Hatt calf $1.75 
 
 Carpenter (W. B.) Mesmerism, Spiritualism, eta, scientifically con- 
 sidered. $<.25 
 
 Chadwick (J. W.) Bible of To-day $!.So 
 
 Chainey (GeO.) Foundation Stones. (Deistical.) 73 cts. 
 
 New Version. Lectures on the Bible $1.00 
 
 Child. Progress of Religious Ideas Through Successive Ages. 3 vols. ...$7.50 
 
 Chips from a German Workshop. By Max Muiier. vol. 
 
 I., Essays on the Science of Religion. Vol. II., Essays on Mythology, Tra- 
 ditions and Customs. Vol. III., Essays on Literature, Biographies and 
 Antiquities. Vol. IV., Comparative Philology, Mythology, &c... Cloth, $8.00 
 
 Christ of Paul ; or, The Enigmas of Christianity. 
 
 Frauds of the Churchmen of the Second Century Exposed. By George 
 Reber. iamo, 400 pp fa.oo 
 
Catalogue of Liberal Classics. j 
 
 Christian Absurdities. John Peck. Pointing: out the things which 
 tne world calls absurd, but which the church once made Christian dogmas, 
 and which some Christians still believe. One of the sharpest criticisms of 
 current theology in print. 80 pp. i2mo Paper, 20 cts. 
 
 Christianity a Fiction. By Dr. J. H. Mendenhall. The Astro- 
 nomical and Astrological Origin of all Religions. Explanatory notes com- 
 piled and arranged by the late Jonathan M. Roberts 50 cts. 
 
 Christianity and Evolution. By Arthur b. moss, with 
 
 Preface by J. M. Wheeler. I.— The Pagan Roots of Christianity, . II.— The 
 Borrowings of Christianity. III.— The Evolution of the Christian Trinity. 
 IV.— Original Sin and the Atonement. V.— A Medley of Gospels. VI.— 
 Wanted, Contemporary Evidence. VII.— Paley's Evidences of Christianity 
 Examined. VIII.— The Testimony of Paul. IX.— Did Jesus Rise from the 
 Dead and Ascend to Heaven? X.— The First Four Christian Centuries. 
 XI.— A Thousand Dark Years. XII.— The Dawn of Science. XIII.— Chris- 
 tianity on the Wane , Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Christianity and Materialism. By B. F. Underwood. A com- 
 parison of the teachings of the two, the methods of reasoning of the two 
 schools of thought, and the conclusions arrived at. 50 pp. ramo.. Paper, 15 cts. 
 
 Christianity and the Bible. By chas. watts...* $1.00 
 
 Christianity and the Slave Trade. BySaiadin 35 cts. 
 
 Chronicles Of Simon ChristianUS. His Manifold and Won- 
 drous Adventures in the Land of Cosmos. From an Antique Manuscript 
 (evidently inspired) discovered by I. N. Fidel in conjunction with A. Hook, 
 Esq. From the London edition, revised by seventy scribes. A satire upon 
 Tischendorf and other "discoverers" of ancient manuscripts which "up- 
 hold " Christian theology. Written in the style of the Chronicles of the 
 scriptures, full of wit and sharp points and hits, no pp. iamo 25 cts. 
 
 Civil Rights Speech. By R. G. Ingersoll and Hon. Frederick 
 Douglass 10 cts. 
 
 Clergy a Source of Danger, w. f. jamieson $1.00 
 
 Cobbett's, (Wm.) English Grammar. Edited by Robert 
 
 Waters. 1 vol. , izrao Cloth, $1.00 
 
 " Of all the books on English grammar that I have met with, Oobbett's seems to me the 
 best, and. Indeed, the only one to be need with advantage in teaching English. His style Is a 
 model of correctness, of clearness, and of strength. He wrote English with unconscious 
 ease.'*— Richard Grant White. 
 
 "The best English grammar extant for self-Instruction."— School Board Chronicle. 
 
 " As interesting as a story-book."— HaeUU. 
 
 " The only amusing grammar In the world."— Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer. 
 
 " Written with vigor, energy, and courage, joined to a force of understanding, a degree of 
 logical power, and force of expression which has rarely been equalled."— Saturday Review. 
 
 Common Sense. A Revolutionary pamphlet addressed to the Inhab- 
 itants of America in 1776, with an explanatory notice by an English author. 
 Paine's first and most important political work .Paper, 15 cts. 
 
 Clifford (Vtf. K.) Supernatural Religion: an Inquiry into the Reality of 
 Divine Revelation. One of the most thorough and exhaustive works on the 
 
 claims of supernaturalism ever written. 1115 pp. 8vo Cloth, $4.50 
 
 Leather, $5.00 , . ..Morocco, gilt edges, $5.00 
 
6 Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 
 
 Comte < Auguste), The Positive Philosophy of. : Tnmj- 
 
 lated by Harriet Martineau. With portrait and fac-simile of Autograph. 
 One volume, royal 8vo, 838 pp. tilt top and side stamp Cloth. $4 °o 
 
 "A fork of profound science, and conspicuous for the highest attributes of intellectual 
 power."— Sir David Brewster. 
 
 " Comte is the Bacon of the nineteenth "century. Like Bacon he fully sees the cause of our 
 intellectual anarchy, and also sees the cure. We have no hesitation m re °°' d ™8 B °.™ °°?" 
 Tlctlon that the Positive Philosophy is the greatest work of our century."— Lewet's Biograph- 
 ical History of Philosophy. 
 
 "A work which T hold to he far the greatest yet produced in the Philosophy of the 
 Sciences."- Mill's System of Logic. 
 
 Conflict Between Religion and Science. John w. 
 
 Draper Cloth, $1.75 
 
 Conventional Lies of our Civilization. Religious, Mon- 
 archical and Aristocratic, Political, Economic, Matrimonial and Miscella- 
 neous Lies. By Max Nordau. Cheap edition 50 cts. 
 
 Conway (M. D») Idols and. Ideals. Essays ... 41.50 
 
 Cosmic PhilOSOphy. By John Fiske. Based on the Doctrines of 
 Evolution, with Criticisms on the Positive Philosophy. Two volumes, 
 8vo ;.'..:; .-...Cloth, $6.00 
 
 CosmOS! or, Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe. By Hum- 
 boldt. 2 vols Cloth, $3.00 
 
 Creed Of Christendom. By W. R. Greg. Its Foundation con-' 
 trasted with its Superstructure. Complete in 1 vol.,' isrno, 300 pp $i.»5 
 
 " No Candid reader of the ' Creed of Christendom ' can close the book with- 
 out-the secret acknowledgment that it is a model of honest investigation and 
 clear exposition; that it is conceived in the true spirit of serious and faithful 
 research ; and that whatever the author wants of being an ecclesiastical Chris- 
 tian, is plainly not essential to the noble guidance of life, and the devout ear- 
 nestness of the affections." — Westminster Review. 
 
 Cremation Of the Dead. From an Esthetic, Sanitary* Religious, 
 Historical, Medico-Legal and Economical Standpoint. By H. Erichson, 
 M. D $2.00 
 
 Crimes and Cruelties of Christianity, underwood.. wc. 
 
 Crisis. l6 numbers. Written during the darkest hours of the American 
 Revolution "in the the times that tried men's souls." By Thomas" Paine. 
 Paper, 25 cts .'. cloth 50 cts. 
 
 Cruden's Complete Concordance to the Old and 
 
 ■ New Testaments; or a Dictionary and Alphabetical Index to the Bible and 
 Apocrypha. Royal Octavo. " Without exception the best Cruden extant." 
 Cloth ...:$i.5o 
 
 Father Tom and the Pope; or.aNiglit at the Vatican. 
 
 By John Fisher Murray. From Blackwood's Edingburgh Magazine. This 
 is a humorous account of a rolicksome visit to the Pope of Rome by Father 
 Tom, an Irish-priest, armed with a super-abundance of Irish wit, two impe- 
 rial quart bottles of Irish " putteen" and an Irish recipe " for conwhound- 
 ing the same, secundum mortem." " What's that ?" saysthe 'Pope. " Put 
 in the sperits first," says his Riv'rence ; "and then put in the sugar ; and 
 remember, every dhrop of wather you put in after that, spoils the punch." 
 " Glory be to God ! " says the Pope, not minding a word Father Tom. was 
 saying. " Glory be to God I" says he, smacking his lips. " I never knewn 
 what dhrink was afore," says he. " It bates the Lachymalchrystal out ov 
 the face I " says he — " it's Necthar itself, it is, so it is ! " says he, wiping his 
 epistolical mouth wid the cuff ov his coat Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, so cts. 
 
D 
 
 Catalogue oj Liberal Classics. 7 
 
 ARWIN (CHARLES.) WORKS: 
 
 — Origin of Species $1.00 
 
 The Same. Large print. 2 vols 4.00 
 
 — The Descent of Man i.oo 
 
 — Journal of Researches 2.00 
 
 — Emotional Expressions 35° 
 
 — Animals and Plants under Domestication. 
 
 2 vols 5.00 
 
 — Insectivorus Plants ».oo 
 
 — Climbing Plants 1.25 
 
 — Orchids Fertilized by Insects "-75 
 
 — Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom-.. 200 
 
 — Forms of Flowers *-5° 
 
 — Power of Movement in Plants »°° 
 
 — Vegetable Mould, Etc 1.5° 
 
 — Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs 
 
 121U0. . . 2.00 
 
 — Geological Observations on the Volcanic 
 
 ISLANDS AND PARTS OF SOUTH AMERICA Visited During 
 
 the Voyage of H.M.S. "Beagle." i2mo ■. Cloth, 2.50 
 
 A Naturalist's Voyage Around the World. 
 
 Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the 
 Countries visited during the Voyage round the World of H. M. S. 
 "Beagle." New illustrated edition, ivol 5.00 
 
 The same. Popular Edition-cioth, 75c; half calf, $1.75 
 
 Darwin (FranciS.) Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. Within 
 Autobiographic Character. 2 vols. , illustrated. i2mo Cloth, $4.50 
 
 Charles Darwin's Life. Edited by Ms son. i vol., i2mo, 
 
 Cloth $1.50 
 
 Darwin ''ErasmUS.) By Ernst Krause. Translated from the Ger- 
 man by W. S. Dallas. With a Preliminary Notice by Charles Darwin. 
 With Portrait and Woodcuts. i2mo Cloth, $1.25 
 
 Darwiniana. By Huxiey $1.25 
 
 Darwinism Stated by Himself. Selected and arranged by 
 Prof. N. Sheppard. i2mo $1.50 
 
 Data Of EthiCS. By Herbert Spencer $1.25 
 
 D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation *i.s« 
 
 D'Holbach (Baron.) Good Sense. Natural vs. Supernatural. ..$1.00 
 
 Letters to Eugenia against Religious Preju- 
 
 DICE '. Cloth, $1.00 
 
 The SvStem Of Nature: or. Laws of the Moral and Physica 
 
 World. By Baron D'Holbach. " One of the greatest books ever written. 
 It never was and never will be answered."— R, (?, Ingersoll,...,..,,..,.„.,....$j,Q9 
 
8 Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 
 
 Deity Analyzed. By coi. John r. Keiso cioth, $1.00 
 
 Descent Of Man (The.) By Charles Darwin Cloth, gilt top, $1.00 
 
 On its appearance it aroused at once a storm of mingled wrath, wonder and admiration. 
 In elegance of style, charm of manner and deep knowledge of natural history, it stands 
 almost without a rival among scientific works. 
 
 DenslOW (V. B., L.L.D.) Modern Thinkers. What they Think and 
 Why. (Social Science.) 8 Portraits $1.50 
 
 Pyramid of Gizeh 25 cts 
 
 Devil's Pulpit (The.) Astro-Theological Sermons. With a sketch o* 
 the Author's life, containing sermons on the following subjects : The Star o 
 Bethlehem, John the Baptist. Raising the Devil, The Unjust Judge, Virgo 
 Paritura, St. Peter, Judas Iscariot Vindicated, St. Thomas, St. James, and 
 St. John, the Sons of Thunder, the Crucifixion of Christ, the Cup of Salva- 
 tion, Lectures on Free Masonry, the Holy Ghost, St. Philip, St. Matthew, The 
 Redeemer. By Rev. Robt. Taylor Cloth, $1.50 
 
 Dickens' Sunday Under Three Heads, as it is; as sab- 
 bath bills would make it ; and as it might be made. By Charles Dickens. 
 Illustrated by Phiz. Portrait. Preface by Peter Eckler. ..Paper 25 c. ; cloth, 50c. 
 
 DiegesiS (The.) Being a Discovery of the Origin, Evidences, and early 
 History of Christianity, never yet before or elsewhere so fully and faithfully 
 set forth. By Rev. Robert Taylor. This work was written by Mr. Taylor 
 while serving a term in Oakham jail, England ; where he was imprisoned 
 for blasphemy. It contains 440 pages, octavo, and is considered unanswera- 
 ble as to arguments or facts. By Rev. Robt. Taylor..... Cloth, $2.00 
 
 Doctrine Of Inspiration. Inquiry as to the Infallibility and Au- 
 thority of Holy Writ. By Rev. J. Macnaught, M.A $1.25 
 
 Draper (Prof. John W.) History of the Conflict Between Re- 
 ligion and Science. i2mo Cloth, $1.75 
 
 The Intellectual Development of Europe.— 
 
 2 vols Cloth, $3.00 
 
 Dudley (Dean.) History of the Council of Nice (A.D., 325), with Life 
 of Constantine • Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 DUpUiS (C. F.) Origin of all Religious Worship. (Synopsis of the 
 Great Work), with Zodiac of Denderah. 8vo,443pp $2.00 
 
 Dynamic Theory of Life and Mind. An attempt to show 
 
 that all Organic Beings are both Constructed and Operated by the Dynamic 
 Agencies of their respective Environments. By James B.Alexander. Over 
 400 illustrations, 87 chapters, 1,067 pages, and a 3-coJumn index of n pages. 
 This work endeavors to embrace the field covered by thousands of books,such 
 as those of the " Humboldt Library of Science," the " International Scientific 
 Series," etc., by bringing together, in simple and direct fprm, with proper 
 correspondence between them, all of the known factors contributing toward 
 the origin and evolution of organic beings. Do you wish to be well in- 
 formed ? Then read a chapter or verse daily from this Bible of Science 1 
 It is entertaining as well as enlightening Cloth, $2.75 
 
 LlNSTEIN (Morris). Origin of Religious Beliefs $1.00 
 
 English Conferences of Ernest Renan 75 cts. 
 
 Essence Of Christianity. By Ludwig Feurbach. London....cloth, $3 
 Essence Of Religion. By L. Feuerbach S o cts. 
 
 Essays and Treatises. Autobiog. and Dialogues on Natural 
 Religion. By David Hume $1.50. 
 
Catalogue of Liberal Classics. p 
 
 English Grammar. Cobbett's, (Wm.)' Edited by Robert Waters, 
 i vol., ^mo.-.j Cloth, $1.00 
 
 "Of aU the books on English grammar that I have met with, Cobbett's Beems to me the 
 best, and, indeed, the only one to be used with advantage in teaching English. His style is a 
 model of correctness, of clearness, and of strength. He wrote English with unconscious 
 ease."— Richard Grant White. 
 
 " The best English grammar extant for Belf-instruction. "School Board Chronicle. 
 
 "As interesting as a story-book."— Hazlitt. 
 
 " The only amusing grammar in the world."— Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer. 
 
 " Written with vigor, energy and courage, joined to a force of understanding, a degree of 
 logical power, and force of expression which has rarely been equalled."— Saturday Review. 
 
 Ethical Problem- Bv Dr - Paul Carus. Ethics a Science; The 
 Data of Ethics ; The Theory of Ethics 50 cts. 
 
 Evolution and Christianity, a study. By j. c. f. Grumbine. 
 
 Square iSmo, 75 pp 30 cts. 
 
 " Mr. Grumbine's statements are sound and well put. His book is the fruit of wide read- 
 ing and investigation. It is a helpful one, is thoroughly interesting reading, and its pre- 
 sentation of the relation between evolution and Christianity includes much valuable 
 thought."— Buffalo Extpreaa. 
 
 Evolution Of the Devil. By Henry Frank, the independent preach- 
 er of New York city. The most learned, accurate, scientific and philosophi- 
 cal analysis of His Satanic Majesty ever published. The book contains 66 
 pages, is beautifully bound, with likeness of author on title page 25 cts. 
 
 F 
 
 AITH and Reason. Account of the Christian and all Prominent 
 Religions Before and Since Christ. Ext. from Sacred Books of the East. 
 H. R. Stevens $i-5° 
 
 Fawcett's Agnosticism, and other essays, with a Pro- 
 logue by Robert G. Ingersoll. One volume, i2mo, 277 pp Cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 Figures of Hell ; or, the Temples of Bacchus. By 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Thompson $1.00 
 
 Force and Matter; or, principles of the natural 
 
 ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE, with a System of Morality based thereon. 
 By Prof. Ludwig Buchner, M.D. A scientific and rationalistic work of great 
 merit and ability. Translated from the 15th German Edition, revised and 
 enlarged by the author, and reprinted from the fourth English edition. One 
 volume, post 8vo, 414 pp., with portrait Vellum cloth, $1.00 ; half calf, $2 
 
 Four Hundred Years of Freethought. BySamueip. 
 
 Putnam. The Most Magnificent Work Ever Published by the Freethought 
 Press. The object of this work is to present • the Course of Freethought 
 throughout the Civilized World for the last Four Centuries, from the time 
 of Columbus and Bruno to the time of Ingersoll. It is a radical Historic 
 Record of the Greatest Developments of the Human Race. It reveals Free- 
 thought as an Intellectual, Moral, Literary, Social, Industrial and Political 
 Movement. It shows what Freethought is in itself and how mamfoldare its 
 influences, and with what hope and promise we can hail its future triumph. 
 Four Hundred Years of Freethought embraces the most Illustrious Pages 
 of Human History, adorned with the brightest Genius, radiant with the most 
 splendid Poetry, rich with the greatest Inventions and Discoveries, and en- 
 nobled with Freedom's most shining advance. Nothing can be more inter- 
 esting, more inspiring to the Pioneer Workers of to-day - to those who are 
 still in the van for Human Rights and Progress The struggle is not ended 
 and what is already won must be carf fully guarded. Eternal vgilance is he 
 price of liberty ; and from the Past we must ever learn Great Lessons for the 
 Future. Only one style of binding— the best $5-°° 
 
io Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 
 
 Freethought: Is It Destructive or Constructive? 
 
 A Symposium by Col. R. G. Ingersoll. Capt. R. C. Adams, Saladin (W. 
 Stewart Ross), H. O. Pentecost, Susan H. Wixon, Samuel P. Putnam, Lucy. 
 N. Colman, Mrs. Mattie P. Krekel, Charles Watts, W. F. Jamieson, R. B. 
 Westbrook, E B. Foote, Jr., L. K. Washburn, George E. Macdonald, E. C. 
 Walker, F. M. Holland, Parker Pillsbury, C. B. Reynolds, J. H. Burnham, 
 Thaddeus B. Wakeman. Subjects of Papers : Is there an Affirmative, Posi- 
 tive, Constructive side to Freethought? If not, the reason why? If there 
 be, in what, in your opinion, does it consist, and in what, should it consist ? 
 Paper 25 cts. 
 
 FrOthingham (O. B.), and Adler (Felix). Radical Pulpit. Dis- 
 courses of Advanced Thought $1.00 
 
 GARDENER (HELEN H.) Men, Women, and 
 
 GODS Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $i.oo 
 
 GastineaU (M.) Voltaire in Exile Paper, 75 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 General Survey of the History of the Canon of 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT. By Brooke Foss Wesctcott, D.D., London 
 Cloth $3.00 
 
 Genesis I., II.: Bible Narrative of Creation. By a. r 
 
 Grote, A.M Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts 
 
 GhOStS and Other Lectures: Liberty of Man, Woman and 
 Child ; Declaration of Independence ; Farming in Illinois ; Grant Banquet ! 
 Rev. Alex. Clark; etc. By R. G. Ingersoll Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.25 
 
 Ghosts, Devils, Angels and Sun Gods, a series of essays 
 
 against Superstition. By E. C. Kenney Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 Gibbon's History of Christianity, with Preface, Life of 
 
 Gibbon, and Notes by Peter Eckler ; also variorum Notes by Guizot, Wenck, 
 Millman, etc. Portrait of Gibbon and many engravings of mythological 
 divinities. Crown 8vo, 864 pp Cloth, $2.00; half calf, $4.00 
 
 Gladstone (Hon. W. E.), Huxley (Prof.), Muller 
 
 (PROF. MAX), M. Reville, Mrs. E. Lynn Linton. Order of Crertion. 
 The Conflict Between Genesis and Geology. A Controversy. i2mo, 178 pp. 
 Paper, 50 cts Cloth, 75cts. 
 
 Gods and Other Lectures: Humboldt; Thomas Paine; Indi- 
 viduality ; " Heretics and Heresies." By R. G. Ingersoll Paper, 50 cts. 
 
 Cloth ^loo 
 
 GOOdlOe'S Birth Of the Republic. Compiled from the Na- 
 tional and Colonial Histories and Historical Collections, from the American 
 Archives, from Memoirs and from the Journals and Proceedings of the 
 British Parliament. Containing the Resolutions, Declarations and Ad- 
 dresses adopted by the Continental congress, the Provincial Congresses, 
 Conventions and Assemblies, of the County and Town Meetings, and the 
 Committees of Safety, in all the Colonies, from the year 1765 to 1776, to 
 which is added the Articles of Confederation, a history of the formation and 
 adoption of the Constitution, the election of President Washington, his In- 
 auguration. April 30, 1789, a copy of the Constitution, and Washington's 
 Inaugural Speech, izmo, 400 pp Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Great IngerSOll Controversy. Containing an eloquent Christ- 
 mas Sermon by Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, and various protests by eminent 
 Christian divines. 213 pp Paper, 25 cts. 
 
H 
 
 Catalogue of Liberal Classics. it 
 
 AECKEL (ERNST.) WORKS: 
 ——The History of Creation; or, the development 
 
 of the Earth and its Inhabitants by the Action of Natural Causes. A Popu- 
 lar Exposition of the Doctrine of Evolution in general, and of that of Dar- 
 win, Goethe and Lamarck in particular. The translation revised by Prof. E. 
 Ray Lankester. Illustrated with Lithographic Plates. In 2 vols., i2mo. 
 Revised 1892 Cloth, $5.00 
 
 The Evolution Of Man. A Popular Exposition of the 
 
 Principal Points of Human Ontogeny and Phylogeny. 2 vols. i2mo. Cloth $5 
 
 — Freedom in Science and Teaching. From the Ger- 
 man. With a Prefatory Note by T. H. Huxley. i2mo Cloth, $1.75 
 
 ViSlt tO Ceylon. With Portrait, and Map of India and Ceylon. 
 
 " These letters constitute one of the most charming books of travel ever 
 published, quite worthy of being placed by the side of Darwin's ' Voyage of 
 the Beagle. ' Post 8vo, 348 pp ; Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Half Hours with some Celebrated Freethinkers. 
 
 Thomas Hobbs, Lord Bolinbroke, Condorcet, Spinoza, Anthony Collins, 
 Des Cartes, M. de Voltaire, John Toland, Comte de Volney, Charles Blount, 
 Percy Bysshe Shelley, H-elvetius, Frances Wright, Zeno, Epicurus, Matthew 
 Tindal, David Hume, Dr. Thomas Burnet, Thomas Paine, Baptiste de 
 Mirabaud, Baron de Holbach, Robert Taylor, Joseph Barker. By " Icono- 
 clast," Collins, and Watts Cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 Hallam's Europe during the Middle Ages. 7=0 pp $'-s° 
 
 Church and State. 4°°pp $*-s° 
 
 Handbook Of FreethOUght. By W. S. Bell, containing in con- 
 densed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the 
 superstitious doctrines of Christianity ; selected from the writings of dis- 
 tinguished authors.... ..„ Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 Hebrew Mythology (Science of the Bible). Showing that the Bible 
 treats of Natural Phenomena (Astronomical) Only. By Milton Woolley, 
 .M.D. 8vo -' Cloth, $2.50 
 
 HelmholtZ (H.) Popular Lectures on Scientific Subjects. Translated by 
 E. Atkinson. With an Introduction by Prof. Tyndall. 12010.. Cloth, $2.00 
 Second Series. i2mo Cloth, 1.50 
 
 HelvetiUS. True Meaning of System of Nature Cloth, 20 cts. 
 
 Heroines Of FreethOUght. By Mrs. Sara A. Underwood. Con- 
 taining Biographical Sketches of Freethought female writers Cloth, $1.75 
 
 HigginS' Horae Sabbaticae ; Or an Attempt to Correct Cer- 
 tain Superstitious and Vulgar Errors Respecting the Sabbath. Preface by 
 Peter Eckler. Post 8vo Paper 25 cts. ; Cloth 50 cts 
 
 Higher Criticism in Theology and Religion Con- 
 
 TRASTED with Ancient Myths and Miracles as Factors in Human Evolu- 
 tion. By Thomas Ellwood Longshore. 500 pp.. Paper, 50 cts. ; Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Historical Jesus of Nazareth. By m. scheiesinger, Ph. d., 
 
 Rabbi of the Congregation Anshe Emeth, Albany, N. Y. i2mo, 68 pp. 
 Extra cloth 75 cts. 
 
 History of a False Religion (Bulwer), & Origin of 
 
 EVIL (BROUGHAM). Preface by Peter Eckler. . .Paper, 25c; cloth, 50 c. 
 
 History Of Charles XII. With a Life of Voltaire. By Lord 
 Brougham, and Critical Notes by Lord Macaulay and Thomas Carlyle. 
 Edited by O. W. Wright, A.M. tamo Cloth, $2.25 
 
12 Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 
 
 History Of Christianity. Comprising all that relates to the Christian 
 religion in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and, 
 also, a Vindication (never before published in this country) of " some pas- ' 
 sages in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters," by Edward Gibbon, Esq. 
 With a Preface, Life of the Author, and Notes by Peter Eckler; also, 
 Variorum Notes by Guizot, Wenck, Millman, "An English Churchman," 
 and other scholars. "This important work contains Gibbon's complete 
 Theological writings, separate from his historical and miscellaneous works, 
 showing when, where and how Christianity originated ; who were its founders ; 
 and what were the sentiments, character, manners, numbers and condition of 
 the primitive Christians." i vol., post 8vo, 864 pages, with Portrait of Gibbon 
 and numerous Engravings of mythological divinities. 864 pp., crown 8vo. 
 Ex. vellum cloth, $2.00 Half calf, $3.00 
 
 History Of England, in the Eighteenth Century. Leckey. 2 vols., 
 small 8vo Cloth, $5.00 ; half calf, $10.00 
 
 History Of European Morals, from Augustus to Charlemagne. 
 Leckey. 2 vols., i2mo Cloth, $3.00 ; half calf, extra, $7.00 
 
 History, of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe. 
 Leckey. 2 vols., small 8vo Cloth, $4.00 ; half calf, extra, $8.00 
 
 History Of Materialism. By F. A. Lange. In 3 volumes. 
 Cloth, each $3.50 Set, $10.50 
 
 History of the Christian Religion. By judge c. b. waite. 
 
 A very learned and valuable historical acquisition to the Liberal literature of 
 the day, containing 45o*Iarge octavo pages Cloth, $2.25 
 
 History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 
 
 PIRE. Gibbon. Six vols Cloth, $4.00 
 
 History of the Egyptian Religion. By Dr. c p. Tieie, of 
 
 Lieden. Translated from the Dutch, with the assistance of the author, by 
 J. Ballingal Cloth, $3.00 
 
 History of the First Council of Nice: a world's christian 
 
 Convention, A, D., 325, with a life of Constantine. By Dean Dudley. 
 Price ■ Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. 
 
 By Henry C. Lea. 3 vols., large 8vo $9.00 
 
 HomiHeS Of Science. By Paul Carus. Short ethical exhortations 
 and sermon-like discussions of religious, moral, social and political topics 
 made from a standpoint which may be briefly characterized as The Religion 
 of Science. " It is always a pleasure," says Public Opinion, "to read the 
 utterances of the author of this book when religion and morality are under 
 consideration." He is frank as to his own views and free from harshness 
 toward others. 310 pp Cloth, gilt top, $1.50 
 
 Horae Sabbaticae ; Or an Attempt to Correct Certain Superstitious 
 and Vulgar Errors Respecting the Sabbath. By Godfrey Higgins. Author 
 of Celtic Druids ; Apology for Mahomet the Illustrious ; Anacalypsis, or an 
 Inquiry into the Origin of Languages, Nations, and Religions. In Horn 
 Sabbaticce the Christian Sabbath, or the Sunday is shown, in the words of 
 our learned author, " to be a human, not a divine institution — a festival, not 
 a day of humiliation — to be kept by all consistent Christians with joy and 
 gladness, like Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, and not like Ash Wednes- 
 day and Good Friday." Preface by Peter Eckler. Post 8vo., 81 pages. 
 Paper, 25 cts Extra vellum cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 HugO'S Oration On Voltaire. Delivered at Paris, May 30, 1878, 
 the one hundredth anniversary of Voltaire's Death. Translated by James 
 Parton, author of the Life of Voltaire Paper, 10 cts, 
 
Catalogue of Liberal Classics. fj 
 
 tlUltie S EsSayS. Including the Liberty of the Press; The Natural 
 History of Religion ; Of Miracles ; Of a Particular Providence ; Of a Future 
 State j Of Superstition and Enthusiasm, etc., 589 pp., with index Cloth. $1.50 
 
 Humanity: In Its Origin and Early Growth. By E. Colbert, M.A. 
 409 pages Cloth, $1.50 
 
 Huxley (Thomas H.) Works : 
 
 Man's Place in Nature $i. 2S 
 
 On the Origin of Species IOO 
 
 More Criticisms on Darwin, and Admin- 
 
 TRATIVE NIHILISM ', . so cts 
 
 A Manual of the Anatomy of Vertebrated 
 
 ANIMALS. Illustrated 2 . so 
 
 A Manual of the Anatomy of Inverte- 
 
 BRATED ANIMALS. Illustrated z . S o 
 
 Lay Sermons, Addresses, and Reviews 1.75 
 
 Critiques and Addresses 1.50 
 
 American Addresses i. 2S 
 
 Physiography 2 . 5 o 
 
 The Crayfish i. 7S 
 
 Science and Culture 1.50 
 
 The Advance of Science Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 Essays Upon Some Controverted Ques- 
 
 TIONS „„ .„._„T„..^ : oo 
 
 [NGERSOLL (ROBERT G.) Works: — J 
 
 GodS & Other Lectures. Comprising the Gods, Humboldt, 
 
 Thomas Paine, Individuality, Heretics and Heresies Paper 50c; cloth, $1.00 
 
 GhOStS and Other Lectures.. Including The Ghosts, Lib- 
 erty of Man, Woman, and Child ; The Declaration of Independence, About 
 Farming in Illinois, Speech nominating James G. Blaine for Presidency in 
 1876, The Grant Banquet, A Tribute to Rev. Alex. Clark, The Past Rises before 
 Me Like a Dream, and A Tribute to Ebon C. Ingersoll.... Paper, 50c; cloth, $1.00 
 
 Some Mistakes of Moses, wopp paper, soc; cioth, $1.00 
 
 Interviews On TalmagC Being Six Interviews with the 
 
 Famous Orator on Six Sermons by the Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage of Brooklyn, 
 to which is added a Talmag ian Catechi sm ■ Pa per, 50c ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 Blasphemy. Argument by R. G. Ingersoll in the Trial of C. B- 
 
 Reynolds, aVMorristown, N. J Paper, 25c; cloth, 50c 
 
 What Must We dO tO be Saved? Analyzes the , so- 
 called gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and devotes a chapter each 
 to the Catholics, Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Evangelical Alli- 
 ance, and answers the question of the Christians as to what he proposes in- 
 stead of Christianity— the religion of sword and flame Paper, 25 cents. 
 
 out. A 
 
 Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child. Just 
 
 Lecture Paper, 25 cts. 
 
14. Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 
 
 ROBERT G. INGERSOLL'S WORKS.— {Continued. 
 
 Prose-Poems and Selections. Fifth edition, enlarged 
 
 and revised. A handsome quarto, containing 383 pages. This is, beyond ques- 
 tion, the cheapest and most elegant volume in Liberal literature. Its mechan- 
 ical finish is worthy of its intrinsic excellence. No expense has been spared to 
 make it the thing of beauty it is. The type is large and clear, the paper heavy, 
 highly calendered, and richly tinted, the presswork faultless, and the binding 
 as perfect as the best materials and skill can make it. 
 
 As to the contents, it is enough to say that they include all of the choicest utterances 
 of the greatest writer on the topics treated that has ever lived. 
 
 Thoi ; who have not the good fortune to own all of Mr. Ingersoll's published works, : 
 will have in this book of selections many bright samples of his loftj; thought, his 
 matchless eloquence, his wonderful imagery, and his epigrammatic and poetic 
 power. The collection includes all of the " Tributes " that have become famous 
 in literature— notably those to his brother E. C. Ingersoll, Lincoln, Grant, 
 Beecher, ConHin, Courtlandt M. Palmer, Mary Fiske, Elizur Wright: his peer- 
 less monographs on " The Vision of War,'' Love. Liberty, Art and Morality, 
 Science, Nature, The Imagination, Decoration Day Oration, What is Poetry. 
 Music of Wagner, Origin and Destiny, " Leaves of Grass," and on the great 
 heroes of intellectual Liberty. Besides these there are innumerable gems taken 
 here and there from the orations, speeches, arguments, toasts, lectures, letters, 
 interviews, and day by day conversations of the author. 
 
 The book is designed for, and will he accepted by, admiring friends as a rare per- 
 sonal souvenir. To help it serve "this purpose, a fine Steel portrait, with auto- 
 graph fac-simile, has been prepared especially for it. In the more elegant styles 
 of binding it is eminently suited for presentation purposes, for any season or 
 occasion. . 
 
 Pbiobs.— In cloth, beveled boards, gilt edges, $2.50 ; in half morocco, gilt edges, $5 
 in half calf, mottled edges, library style, $4.60 ; in full Turkey morocco, gilt 
 exquisitely fine, $7.60 ; in full tree calf, highest possible finish, f 9. 
 
 Cheaper edition from same plates $1 .50 
 
 Ingersoll's Lectures in one vol. contents: The Gods; 
 
 Humboldt; Individuality; Thomas Paine ; Heretics and Heresies ; The Ghosts ; 
 The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child; The Centennial Oration, or Declara- 
 tion of Independence. Julv 4, 1876; What I Know About Farming in Illinois* 
 Speech at Cincinnati in 1876, nominating James G.Blaine for the Presidency* 
 The Past Rises Before Me, or Vision of War, an extract from a Speech made at, 
 the Soldiers' and Sailors' Reunion at Indianapolis, Ind., Sept. 21, 1876; A Tribute 
 to Ebon C. Ingersoll; The Grant Banquet; Crimes Against Criminals; Tribute 
 to the Rev. Alexander Clarke; Some Mistakes of Moses; What Must We Do to 
 be Saved ? Six Interviews with Robert G. Ingersoll on Six Sermons by the Rev. 
 T. De Witt Talmage, D. D ; to which is added a Talmagian Catechism, and 
 Pour Prefaces, which contain some of Mr. Ingersoll's wittiest and brightest say- 
 ings. 
 This volume has the greatest popularity, is beautifully bound in half calf or half 
 morocco, mottled edges, 1,357 pages, good paper, large type, post 8vo. Price, 
 postpaid, $5.00. 
 
 Liberty in Literature. Testimonial to Walt Whitman. 
 
 " f.et us put wreaths on the brows of the living." An address delivered in 
 Philadelphia, Oct. ai, 1890, with Portrait of Whitman Also contains the 
 funeral oration Paper, ascents; cloth, 50 cents. 
 
 Thomas Paine's Vindication, a Reply to theNew York 
 
 Observer's Attack upon the Author-hero of the Revolution, by R. G. Ingersoll. 
 Paper 15cts. 
 
 — Limitations Of Toleration. A Discussion between Col. 
 
 R->bert G. Ingersoll, Hon. Frederick R. Coudert, and Ex-Governor Stewart L 
 Woodford Paper, 10 cents' 
 
 Orthodoxy. A Lecture Paper, 10 cents" 
 
 Civil Rights Speech. With Speech of Hon. Fred'k Douglass. 
 
 Pa P er 10 cents. 
 
 ' Crimes Against Criminals. Delivered before the New 
 
 York State Bar Association, at Albany, N. Y., Jan. 21, 1890. Paper, 10 cts 
 
Catalogue of Liberal Classics. jj 
 
 ROBERT G. INGERSOLL'S WORKS. -(Continued.) 
 
 ~~Lithograph of R. G. Ingersoll. 22x28 inch., heavy 
 
 JL/^ 60 cts. 
 
 ~T^7 JL h ?, to ^r a P!? s of Co1 - Ingersoll. i8x24,t 5 .oo. impe- 
 
 iT™ J^&S.V 50 - Cab,net - *> c* 3 - Ingersoll and granddaughter Eva IK , (a 
 nome picture,) 85 da. 
 
 «. O b ° U ,J the Holy Bible. Just out. A new Lecture Abou 
 
 __^!fu y , Paper, 25 cents 
 
 Shakespeare. Ingersoll's Great Lecture on ShaKespeare, with a 
 
 rare and handsome half-tone picture of the Kesselstadt Death Mask..Paper, 25o 
 
 Lecture on Abraham Lincoln, just out. with a 
 
 handsome, new portrait Paperi ffi cents 
 
 Voltaire: A Lecture. By Robert G. Ingersoll, with a Portrait of 
 
 the great French Philosopher and Poet, never before published. .Paper, 35 c. 
 
 The Great Ingersoll Controversy, containing the 
 
 Famous Christmas Sermon, by Colonel B. G. Ingersoll. the indignant protests 
 thereby evoked from ministers of various denominations, and Col. Ingersoll's 
 replies to the same. A work of tremendous interest to every thinking man and 
 woman Paper. 25 da. 
 
 Is Suicide a Sin? "Somathing Brand New!" Ingersoll's 
 
 startling, brilliant and thrlllingly eloquent letters, which created such a sen- 
 sation when pablishsi in the New York World, together with the replies of 
 famous clergymen and writers, a verdict from a jury of eminent men of New 
 York, Curious Facts About Suicides, oslebrated essays and opinions of noted 
 men an:l an astonishing and original chapter, limit Suicide* of History ! 
 Paper 25 cts. 
 
 An Open Letter to Indianapolis Clergymen. 
 
 By Col. R. G. Ingersoll. To which is added " The Genesis of Life," by W. B> 
 Lamaster Paper, 25 cents. 
 
 Image Breaker. By JohnE. Remsburg. Contents; The Decline of 
 Faith; Protestant Intolerance; Washington an Unbeliever; Jefferson an 
 Unbeliever ; Paine and Wesley ; The Christian Sabbath Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 Intellectual Development of Europe. By John w. Draper. 
 
 2 vols $300 
 
 Infidel Death Beds.. By G. W. Foote. Being true accounts of the 
 passing away of the following persons, thus refuting the many Christian 
 slanders upon them and others : Lord Amberley. John Baskerville, Pierre 
 Bayle, Jeremy Bentham, Paul Rert, Lord Bolinebroke, Francois Broussais, 
 Giordano Bruno, Henry Thomas Buckle. Lord Bvron, Richard Carlisle, 
 William Kingdon Clifford, Anacharsis Clootz, Anthony Collins, Auguste 
 Comte.-Condorcet, Robert Cooper, D'Alembert, Danton. Charles Darwin, 
 
 , Erasmus Darwin, Delambre, Denis Diderot, Etienne Dolet. George Eliot, 
 Frederick the Great, Gambetta, Garibaldi, Isaac "Gendre, Gibbon. Godwin, 
 Goethe. Grote, Helvetius, Henry Hetherington. Hobbes. Austin Holyoake, 
 Victor Hugo, Hume, Littre, Harriet Martineau. Jean Meslier, James Mill, 
 John Stuart Mill, Mirabeau. Robert Owen. Thomas Paine, Courtlandt 
 Palmer, Rabelais, Winwood Reade, Madame Roland. George Sand. Schiller, 
 Shelley, -pinoza. Strauss, John Toland, Vanini, Volney, Voltaire, James 
 Watson, John Watts, Thomas Woolston Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 Inman (Thomas.) Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient names. Illus 
 trated, 2 vols $20.00 
 
 Ancient Faiths and Modern $500 
 
 Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Sym- 
 
 BOLISM. 200 illustrations. A digest of (the above two works, all that the 
 student will need.) $3.00 
 
 Isaure and other Poems. By saiadin cioth, 75 cts 
 
i6 Peter Eckler, Publisher., New York- 
 
 J 
 
 ACOLLIOT (L.) Bible in India. Hindoo Origin of Chris- 
 tianity ■ $2.00 
 
 JOSephllS. The Complete Works $1.50 
 
 Junius' Letters. From Woodfall's London Edition $1.25 
 
 JUtliUS Unmasked. Paine the author of Letters of Junius and Decla- 
 ration of Independence. By W. H. Burr $i-5° 
 
 K. 
 
 L.EELER (B. G.) Short History of the Bible Paper, 50 cts. 
 
 Cloth 75 cts. 
 
 Kelso (Col. J. R.) Works : 
 
 Bible Analyzed. "For Sledge-Hammer Logic Uusurpassed." 
 
 8vo, 833 pp .- Silk Cloth, $3.00 
 
 Deity Analyzed and the Devil's Defense- ...$1.50 
 
 Real Blasphemers Paper, socis. 
 
 Kneeland's Review of the Evidences of Christian- 
 
 ITY ; being a Series of Lectures delivered in Broadway Hall, New York, in 
 August, 1829. To which is prefixed an extract from Wyttenbach's Opuscule 
 on the Ancient Notions of the Jewish Nation previous to the time of 
 Alexander the Great. With a portrait of Abner Kneeland $1.00 
 
 Koran, The Or, Alkoran of Mahomet. "The Bible of the East." 
 Translated into English from the original Arabic, with Notes and a Prelim- 
 inary Discourse by George Sale. With Maps and Plans. Demy, 8vo, gilt top.. $2 
 Library Style, 75 cts Roxburgh Style, $1.00 
 
 LAST TENET; Imposed upon the Khan of Tomathoz. By Hudor 
 Genone, author of Inquirendo Island. Copiously illustrated with original 
 drawings by Louis M. Glackens. i2mo, 165 pp.. Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.25 
 
 Lays of Romance. BySaiadin .cioth, 75 cts. 
 
 Leaves Of GraSS. Poems. By Walt Whitman. 382 pp $2.00 
 
 Lecture On Lincoln. By R. G. Ingersoll. With Century portrait 
 of the martyr President. In fine pamphlet form :2s cts. 
 
 Lecture On Shakespeare. By R. G. Ingersoll. The Lecture so 
 much admired by all lovers of Shapespeare. Handsome pamphlet 25 cts. 
 
 Lessons from the World of Matter and the World 
 
 of Man. By 1 heodore Parker. Selected from notes of unpublished sermons 
 by Rufus Leighton. 121110, 430 pp Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.25 
 
 Liberty in Literature. Testimonial to Walt Whitman; by Col. 
 Robert G. Ingersoll. Address delivered in Philadelphia October 21, 1890. 
 Also, Address by Col. Ingersoll at the Funeral of Walt Whitman, Camden, 
 N. J., March 30, 1892 Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 Liberty of Man, Woman and Child, with a beautiful 
 
 half-tone picture o£ Colonel Ingersoll and his two grandchildren Eva and 
 Robert; also his famous Tribute to his Brother Paper 25 cts. 
 
 Limitations Of Toleration. A Discussion between Col. Robert 
 G. Ingersoll, Hon. Frederic R. Coudert and ex-Gov. Stewart L Woodford 
 Before the Ninete^--"--^-"^— ^" u -" f - "»~ v~-v V«"-haij™ «,J1_: i„ 
 The Truth Seeker 
 
Catalogue of Liberal Classics. ij 
 
 Life Of JeSUS: By Ernest Renan Cloth, $i. 7s 
 
 ^'fnd°XtX!? i r l aS ^ P, a ' n S,' By the editor of the National, with Preface 
 and Notes by Peter Bckler. Illustrated with views of the Old Paine Home- 
 stead and Paine Monument at New Rochelle ; also, portraits of the most 
 prominent of Paine's friends in Europe and America. As "a man is known 
 by the company he keeps," these portraits o£ Paine's associates are in them- 
 selves a sufficient refutation of the wicked libels against Paine that have so 
 long disgraced sectarian literature. Crown 8vo... Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 Lubbock (Sir John Bart.) Origin of Civilization, 
 
 AND THE PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF MAN. i2mo Cloth, $5.00 
 
 Pre-hlStOric Times, as Illustrated by Ancient Remains, and 
 
 the Manners and Customs of Modern Savages. New edition. Illustrated 
 8v0 Cloth, $5.00 
 
 — — A Contribution to our Knowledge of Seed- 
 
 , LINGS. 684 Illustrations. 2vols.,8vo Cloth, $10.00 
 
 AntS, BeeS, and WaSpS. A Record of Observations on 
 
 the Habits of the Social Hymenoptera. (No. 42, International Scientific 
 Series.) 12010 Cloth, $2.00 
 
 On the Senses, Instinct, and Intelligence of 
 
 ANIMALS, with Special Reference to Insects. (No. 64, International Sci- 
 entific Series.) i2mo Cloth, $1.75 
 
 The Pleasures Of Life. iamo.. Paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 M. 
 
 AN IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FU- 
 
 I 2 TURE. By Prof. Ludwig Buchner. It describes Man as " a being not put 
 
 upon the earth accidentally by an arbitrary act, but produced in harmony 
 
 IS' with the earth's nature, and belonging to it as do the flowers and fruits to 
 
 §j the tree which bears them." Cloth, $i oo 
 
 Mahomet: His Birth, Character and Doctrine, 
 
 BY EDWARD GIBBON, Esq. Gibbon's account of the Arabian legislator 
 and prophet, is conceded to be historically correct in every particular, and 
 so grand and perfect in every detail as to be practically beyond the reach of 
 adverse criticism. Post 8vo. paper, 25 cts.; cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 Mahomet, The Illustrious, by Godfrey higgins, Esq. 
 
 Perhaps no author has appeared who was better qualified for writing an 
 honest Life of Mukomet — the Illustrious — than Godfrey Higgins, Esq., the 
 author of the present work. His knowledge of the Oriental languages, 
 his careful and methodical examination of all known authorities — his evident 
 desire to state the exact truth, joined to the judicial character of his mind, 
 eminently fitted him for the task, and he has produced a work that will 
 prove of interest to both Mahometans and Christians. Preface by Peter 
 Eckler. Post 8vo. paper, 25 cts. ; cloth 50 cts. 
 
 Mitchell (Richard M.) The Safe Side: a Theistic Refu- 
 tation of the Divinity of Christ. 475 pages Cloth, $1.50 
 
 * * * " xhe Safe Side " is written from what may be described as the most 
 agnostic position possible within the range of Unitarian views. It presents 
 a great number of "nuts to crack," by those students of the scriptures and 
 the history of the church who have gone over the ground for themselves, and 
 are credited with the ability to pass judgment upon the arguments for and against 
 " the faith as once delivered to the saints." — Chicago " Tribune." 
 
 MalthUS On Population. A new edition. With full Analysis and 
 — •••--■-• ■ - — — ■■ " • Demy 8vo $2.00 
 
18 Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 
 
 Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. The wort contains 
 
 Horaiius, a Lay made about the year of the city CCCLX ; The Battle of the 
 Lake Regillus, a Lay sung at the Feast of Castor and Pollux on the Ides of 
 Quintilis, in the year of the city ccccli ; Virginia ; fragments of a Lay sung 
 in the Forum on the day whereon Lucius Lextius Sextinus Lateranus and 
 Caius Licinius Calvus Stolo were elected Tribunes of the Commons the fifth 
 time, in the year of the city ccClxxxii ; The Prophecy of Capys ; a Lay 
 sung at the Banquet in the Capitol, on the day whereon Manius Curius 
 Dentatus, a second time Consul, triumphed over King Pyrrhus and the 
 Tarentines, in the year of the city cccclxxix ; Ivry, a Song of the Hugue- 
 nots ; The Armada, a fragment. A beautiful gilt book, with portrait and 
 115 exquisite outline illustrations, (original and from the antique), drawn on 
 wood by George Scharf, Jr. 4to .Cloth, extra gilt, $2.50 
 
 Man: Whence and Whither? By Richard b. westbrook, 
 
 D.D., LL. B. The author has here presented in his peculiarly pungent style 
 about all that can be said for the existence of God and the future life of man, 
 while he practically disposes of many collateral questions. His assaults upon 
 Atheism and Orthodox Theology are equally robust. 226 pp.. . .Cloth, $1.00 
 
 MartineaU ( Harriet.) Autobiography of, with Memorials, Portraits 
 and Illustrations. 2 vols., 8 vo , $6.00 
 
 Laws of Man's Nature and Development. (By 
 
 Atkinson and Mart ineau.) $1.50 
 
 Letter Of, as tO Her Religion. An Epitome of Posi- 
 tive Philosophy and .Religion 25 cts. 
 
 Martyrdom Of Man (The.) By Winwood Reade. This book is a 
 very interestingly pictured synopsis of universal history, showing what the 
 race has undergone— its martyrdom — in its rise to its present plane. ,It 
 shows how war and religion have been oppressive factors m the struggle for - 
 liberty, and the last chapter, of some 150 pages, describes his intellectual 
 struggle from the animal period of the earth to the present, adding an out- 
 line of what the author conceives would be a religion of reason and love. 
 Cloth $1.00 
 
 Manners and Customs of Modern Egyptians. By 
 
 Edward William Lane Cloth, 75 cts. ; half calf, $1.75 
 
 Meslier's Superstition in All Ages, jean Mesiier was a 
 
 Roman Catholic Priest who, after a pastoral service of thirty years in 
 France, wholly abjured religious dogmas, and left this work as his last Will 
 and Testament to his parishioners and to the world. Preface by Peter 
 
 Eckler. 339 pp., portrait. Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1 00 halt caif, $3.00 
 
 ffW" The same work in German Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 Modem Thinkers. What They Think, and Why. (Social Science, 
 etc.) By V. B. Denslow. LL.D. With Introduction by R. G. Ingersoll. 
 Portraits of Comte. Swedenborg, Adam Smith, Bentham, Paine, Fourier, 
 Spencer and Haeckel $1.50 
 
 Modem Thinker (No. 2.) The Most Advanced Speculations in 
 Philosophy, Science, Sociology and Religion. 8vo, 160 pp Paper, 75 cts. 
 
 N 
 
 EW Light from the Great Pyramid. The Astro 
 
 nomico-Geographical System of the Ancients recovered and applied to the 
 Elucidation of History, Ceremony, Symbolism and Religion, with an Expo- 
 sition of the Evolution from the Prehistoric. Objective, Scientific Religion of 
 Adam Kadmon the Macrocosm, of the Historic, Subjective, Spiritual Religion 
 of Christ Jesus the Microcosm. By Albert Ross Parsons. The work con- 
 tains a map both of the surface of the globe and of the constellations in the 
 heavens, with numerous rare and significant illustrations of great value, and 
 is copiously illustrated, handsomely printed, and bound in a substantial man- 
 ner, and is a most important addition to the literature of, the day... $4.00 
 
Catalogue oj Liberal Classics. zp 
 
 New Researches in Ancient History; showing the origin 
 
 of the Mosaic Legends concerning the Creation, Fall of Man, Flood, and 
 Confusion of Languages. By C. F. Volney $i.' 5 o 
 
 NO Beginning:" Or The Fundamental Fallacy. An exposure of the 
 error of logic underlying the popular belief in a " Creation" or "first cause," 
 and showing how the infallibility of the Pope and other church dogmas have 
 been deduced therefrom. By William H. Maple. i6mo, 166 pp. .. Cloth, $1.00 
 
 OCCASIONAL Thoughts of Horace Seaver. Com- 
 
 piled by L. K. Washburn. This volume comprises the ablest and best edi- 
 torials written by Mr. Seaver during the past fifty years. It is neatly printed 
 on cream-white paper, handsomely bound, contains 230 pages and a fine 
 likeness of the late venerable Editor of the Investigator $1.00 
 
 Old Faith and the New. A Confession. By David Friedrich. 
 Strauss. The most celebrated of all Strauss's works Cloth, $1. 50 
 
 Oracle Of Reason. By Col. Ethan Allen Cloth, 75cts. 
 
 Origin of All Religious Worship. The origin of an Relig- 
 ious Worship, translated from the French of Dupuis, containing a descrip- 
 tion of the Zodiac of Uenderah Cloth, $2.00 
 
 Origin Of Species, by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation 
 of a Favored Race in the Struggle for Life. By Charles Darwin. Gilt top. 
 
 Cloth $1.00 
 
 . This book is the grandest achievement of modern scientific thought and research. It has 
 passed through many editions in English, has been translated into almost all the languages 
 ot Europe, and has been the subject of more reviews, pamphlets and separate books tban 
 any other volume of the age. Most of the great scientists of the age fully support his posi- 
 tion. The thought of this book has become a part of the common inheritance of the 1 ace. 
 
 Outline of the French Revolution: its Causes and Results. 
 
 A very useful book with which to answer those ignorant Christians who 
 accuse Infidelity with being the cause of the horrors of the French Revolution. 
 By W. S. Bell Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 Outcast. A Freethought Story. By Winwood Reade 30cts. 
 
 P 
 
 ARTON CJAMES). Life of Voltaire, with two 
 
 Portraits. The most complete-, and the best Life of Voltaire ever written. 
 Mr. Parton was a Freethinker, and fully appreciated this most extraordinary 
 of Frenchmen, and one of the most extraordinary of human beings. The 
 volumes also contain a list of the works relating to Voltaire, and also a cata- 
 logue of Voltaire's own works — some two hundred and sixty. The Voltaire 
 of these volumes is the nearest to the true one that Mr. Parton could gather 
 and construct. The man is to be found in. these pages delineated by himself. 
 The horrible tales told of him by the priests are exposed, and the truth -is 
 told. No Freethinker should be without this Life of VoItaire7n his library. 
 2vols., gilt top Cloth, $6.00 
 
 Paine the Apostle of Political and Religious Lib- 
 
 ERTY. (Life.) By J. E. Remsburg. Portrait.. Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 ParadOXeS. By Max Nordau. "Excellent language, great clearness of 
 argument, by one of the frankest philosophical writers of the present day." — 
 Chicago Tribune. 377 pp Paper, $1.00 ; cloth, $1.50 
 
 Pedigree Of the Devil. By Frederick T. Hall. With, curious Il- 
 lustrations. London. 8vo Cloth, $3.00 
 
 Philosophy of Disenchantment. By e. e. saiius. 233 pages. 
 
 Cloth ,..,,.., , 75 cts. 
 
tmmsffimm 
 
 %*M 
 
 m 
 
 Mm*, 
 
 
 r:v/. Si . THOMAS PAINE. 
 
 FrTnTPaine's Religious and Theological Works, Boiler's Edition. 
 
Works of Thomas Paine. 
 
 9S2tI\f?9Jr** n § e * A Revolutionary pamphlet addressed to the inhab- 
 pSS™?! i ca '«» 1776, with an explanatory notice by an English author. 
 Fames first and most important political work. Paper 15 cts. 
 
 The Crisis, 16 numbers. Written during the darkest hours of the American 
 Revolution "in the the times that tried men's souls." Paper, 30c; cloth 50c. 
 
 m® t'J? .^- Plan. Being an answer to Burke's attack upon the 
 French Revolution. A work almost without a peer. Paper, 30c; cloth, 50c. 
 
 ' *i£ '*Se Of HeaSOn. Being an investigation of True and Fabulous 
 Theology. A new and unabridged edition. For nearly one hundred years 
 the clergy have been vainly trying to answer this book. Paper 35c. ; cloth 50c. 
 
 Paine's Religious and Theological Works complete. 
 
 Comprising the Age of Reason — An Investigation of True and Fabulous 
 Theology ; „An Examination of the Prophecies of the coming of Jesus 
 Christ; The Books of Mark, Luke and John; Contrary Doctrines in the 
 New Testament between Matthew and Mark; An Essay on Dreams- 
 Private Thoughts on a Future State ; A Letter to the Hon. Thomas 
 Erskine j Religious Year of the Theophilanthropists ; Precise History 
 of the Theophilanthropists; A Discourse Delivered to the Society of 
 Theophilanthropists at Paris ; A Letter to Camille Jordan ; Origin of Free- 
 masonry; The Names in the Book of Genesis; Extract from a Reply 
 to the Bishop of Llandaff ; The Book of Job; Sabbath or Sunday; Future 
 State ; Miracles ; An Answer to a Friend on the Publication of the Age 
 of Reason: Letters to Samuel Adams and Andrew A. Dean; Remarks 
 on Robert Hall's Sermons; The word Religion; Cain and Abel; The 
 Tower of Babel ; To Members of the Society styling itself the Missionary 
 Society ; Religion of Deism ; The Sabbath Day of Connecticut ; Ancient 
 History ; Bishop Moore ; John Mason ; Books of the New Testament • Deism 
 and the Writings of Thomas Paine, etc. The work has also a fine Portrait of 
 Paine, as Deputy to the National Convention in France, and portraits of 
 Samuel Adams, Thomas Erskine, Camille Jordan, Richard Watson, and 
 other illustrations. One vol., post Svo., 432 pages, paper 50 cts., cloth $1.00. 
 
 Paine's Principal Political Works, containing common 
 
 Sense ; The Crisis, (16 numbers) , Letter to the Abbe Raynal ; Letter from 
 Thomas Paine to General Washington ; Letter from General Washington to 
 Thomas Paine; Rights of Man, parts land II.; Letter to the Abbe Sieves. . 
 With portrait and illustrations. In one volume, 655 pages, price, cloth $1.00. 
 
 Paine's Political Works complete, in two vols., cdntaining 
 
 over 500 „pp. each, post 8 vo, cloth, with portrait and illustrations. $1 00 per vol. 
 
 Volume 1. contains : Common Sense and the Epistle to the Quakers ; The 
 Crisis, (the 16 Numbers Complete) ; A Letter to the Abbe Raynal ; Letter 
 from Paine to Washington ; Letter from Washington to Paine ; Dissertation 
 on Government, the Affairs of the Bank and Paper Money ; Prospects on the 
 Rubicon; or, an Investigation into the Causes and Consequences of the Poli- 
 tics to be agitated at the next Meeting of Parliament ; Public Good, being an 
 Examination into the claim of Virginia to the Western Territory, etc. 
 
 Volume II. contains : Rights of Man in two Parts, (Part I. being an Answer 
 to Burke's Attack on the French Revolution ; Part II. contains Principle and 
 Practice) ; Letter to Abbe Sieves ; To the Authors of the Republican ; Letter 
 Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation ; Letters to Lord 
 Onslow; Dissertation on First Principles of Government; Letters to Mr. 
 Secretary Dundas; Speech in the French National Convention; Reasons 
 for Sparing the Life or Louis Capet ; Letter to the People of France ; On the 
 Propriety of Bringing Louis XVI. to Trial ; Speech in the National Conven- 
 tion on the Question, " Shall or shall not a Respite of the Sentence of Louis 
 XVI. take place ?" To the People of France and the French Armies ; Decline 
 and Fall of the English System of Finance ; Agrarian Justice, etc. • 
 
 Life Of ThomaS Paine. By the editor of the National, with Preface 
 and Notes by Peter Eckler. Illustrated with views of the Old Paine Home- 
 stead and Paine Monument at New Rochelle ; also, portraits of the most 
 prominent of Paine's friends in Europe and America. As "a man is known 
 by the company he keeps," these portraits of Paine's associates are in them- 
 selves a sufficient refutation of the wicked libels against Paine that have so 
 long disgraced sectarian literature. Post 8vo, paper 50 cts.; cloth 75 cts. 
 
 Paine'S Vindication. A Reply to the New York Observer's attack 
 upon the Auth,or-b e ro of the Revolution, by R. Q. Ingersoll. Paper, 15 cts. 
 
22 Catalogue of Liberal Classics. 
 
 Philosophical Dictionary of Voltaire. Tenth American 
 
 Edition. Two volumes in one. Containing 876 large octavo pages, with 
 two elegant steel engravings. This is the largest and most correct edition in 
 the English language, having, besides the whole of the London Editions, 
 several articles from a manuscript translated several years since by a friend of 
 Voltaire's, and others translated immediately from the French Edition^ The 
 London Edition sells at from $jo to $16, and does not contain as much- as 
 this American Edition .$5.00 
 
 Photographs Of Col. IngerSOll, new, taken by the celebrated 
 Sarony, of New York. Cabinet size 25 cts. 
 
 Political Works of Thomas Paine Complete, in two 
 
 vols., containing over 500 pp. each, post 8vo, with portrait and illustrations. 
 Cloth $1.00 per voL 
 
 Vol. I. contains: Common Sense and the Epistle to the Quakers; The 
 Crisis, (the 16 Numbers Complete); A Letter to the Abbe" Raynal; Letter 
 from Paine to Washington ; Letter from Washington to Paine ; Dissertation 
 on Government, the Affairs of the Bank and Paper Money ; Prospects on the 
 Rubicon ; or, an Investigation into the Causes and Consequences of the Poli- 
 tics to be agitated at the next Meeting; of Parliament ; Piiblic Good, being an 
 Examination into the claim of Virginia to the Western Territory, etc. 
 
 Vol. II. contains: Rights of Man in two Parts, (Part I. being an Answer 
 to Burke's Attack on the French Revolution ; Part II. contains Principle and 
 Practice) ; Letter to Abbe Sieves ; To the Authors of the Republican ; Letter 
 Addressed to the Addressers on the Late Proclamation; Letters to Lord 
 Onslow; Dissertation on First Principles of Government; Letters to Mr. 
 Secretary' Dundas; Speech in the French National Convention; Reasons 
 for Spanng'the Life of Louis Capet ; Letter to the People of France ; On the 
 Propriety of Bringing Louis XVI. to Trial ; Speech in the National Conven- 
 tion on the Question, " Shall or shall not a Respite of the Sentence of Louis 
 XVI. take place ?'* To the People of France and the French Armies ; Decline 
 and Fall of the English Sysiem of Finance • Agrarian Justice, etc. 
 
 Pocket Theology. By Voltaire. Brief, witty and sarcastic defini- 
 tions of theological terms Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 Proctor (R. A.) Works: 
 
 Other Worlds than Ours: the Plurality of Worlds, 
 
 studied under the Light of Recent Scientific Researches. With Illustrations, 
 some colored. i2mo Cloth, $1.75 
 
 Light Science for Leisure Hours, a series of 
 
 Familiar Essays on Scientific Subjects, Natural Phenomena, etc. ismo. 
 Cloth $1.75 
 
 The MoOn : Her Motions, Aspects, Scenery and Physical Condi- 
 tions. With Three Lunar Photographs, and many Plates, Charts, etc. New 
 edition. 121110 Cloth, $2.00 
 
 The Expanse Of Heaven. A Series of Essays on the 
 
 Wonders of the Firmament. i2mo Cloth, $2.00 
 
 Our Place Among Infinities. A Series of Essays con- 
 trasting our Little Abode in Space and Time with the Infinities around us. 
 To which are added Essays on the Jewish Sabbath and Astrology. i2mo. 
 Cloth $t.75 
 
 Primer Of Philosophy. By Dr. Paul Cams, Ph. D. A popular 
 systematic exposition of the fundamental notions and principles of philosophy. 
 24° PP > Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Principal Political Works (Paine's.) containing common 
 
 Sense; The Crisis. (16 numbers), Letter to the Abbe Ravnal; Letter from 
 Thomas Paine to General Washington ; Letter from General Washington to 
 Thomas Paine; Rights of Man, parts land II.; Letter to the Abbe Sieves. 
 With portrait and illustrations. In one volume, 655 pp Cloth, $1.00 
 
Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 2 j 
 
 Pr iroS 1 l . P .^ S .. 0f . Po,iti ^I Economy. John Stuart Mi„. 2V o„ 
 t>t- n ~~m r- -^ c '. : "' ?4.oo 
 
 Profession of Faith of the" Vica r of Savov^R^ "!" 
 
 Rousseau. Also, A SEARCH FOR TRUTH h»ni™ti'' B £ J- J- 
 by Peter Bckler.' Post g v ^3 IS^^^^S^^^-^^^ 
 
 Pr « r °l S f ° f E.VOlUtjOn. By Nelson C. Parshall. Those who are de- 
 
 «i^-^ raSP ' ngthe , th , e0ryofevo,utionin the ^siest manner and Tn th* 
 
 » / v hk Cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 Psychic Life Of jyiicrO-OrganiStnS. A Study in Experimental 
 Psychology By Alfred Binet. Translation from the French with the 
 sanction of the author. Treating of the following subjects : 1. The Psychol- 
 ogy of the Cell— Introductory. 2. The Structural and Psychological Char- 
 acter of Proto-Orgamsms ; Motory and Sensory Organs. 3. The Psychology 
 of Nutrition : Holophytic, Saprophytic and Animal Nutrition ; Predatory 
 Habits of Certain Animalcula. 4. Colonies of Unicellular Organisms 
 S. Fecundation of Proto-Organisms. 6. Fecundation of Higher Animals 
 and Plants. 7. The Physiological Function of the Nucleus. 8. Corre- 
 spondence between Alfred Binet and Ch. Richet (professor of physiology in 
 the faculty of Medicine at Paris) respecting cellular psychology. i6mo, 
 135 pp Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts! 
 
 Psychology Of Attention. By Th. Ribot, professor of Compara- 
 tive and Experimental Psychology at the College of France, and editor of 
 the Revue Philosophique. Authorized translation. Treating of the following 
 topics: 1. Spontaneous, or Natural, Attention.— «, Emotional states • b 
 Physical Manifestations; c, Surprise. 2. Voluntary, or Artificial Attention 
 a, Its mechanism ; t, Inhibition ; c, The feeling of effort. 3. The Morbid 
 States of Attention.— a, Distraction; 6, Hypochondria; c, Fixed Ideas and 
 Ecstasy ; d, Idiocy ; e, Attention in sleep and hypnosis Cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 Pyramid Of Gizeh. The Relation of Ancient Egyptian Civilization to 
 the Hebrew Narratives in Genesis and Exodus, and the Relative Claims of 
 Moses and the Pyramid to Inspiration Considered. By Van Buren Denslow, 
 LL. D Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 r\ELIGFOUS and Theological Works of Paine 
 
 Complete. One vol., post 8vo., 432 pp Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 Radical Plllpit. Discourses of Advanced Thought. By O. B. Froth- 
 ingham and Felix Adler.. ■ $1.00 
 
 Researches in Oriental History, Embracing the Origin of 
 
 the Jews, the Rise and Development of Zoroastrianism, and the Derivation 
 of Christianity ; to which is aHded, Whence our Aryan Ancestors ? By 
 George W. Brown, M.D. Parti. Researches in Jewish History; ten chap- 
 ters. Part II. Researches in Zoroastrianism ; thirteen chapters. Part III. 
 Derivation of Christianity ; twenty chapters. Part IV. Whence came the 
 Aryans ? five chapters. Price, elegantly bound Cloth, $1.50 
 
24 Catalogue of Liberal Classics. 
 
 Religion and the Bible. By F. D. Cummings. A series of six- 
 teen Freethought Essays. Subjects : Introduction. I. The God and Man 
 of the Bible. II. God and the Devil. III. Is the Bible Contradictory. IV. 
 Jesus — Was He the Fulfillment of Hebrew Prophecy and Expectancy ? V. 
 Jesus the Teacher of Righteousness ? VI. Did the Disciples Look for an 
 Immediate Resurrection ? VII. What does the Bible Teach Regarding the 
 Second Coming of Christ ? VIII. The Christ Spirit Outside the Bible. IX. 
 What is the Bible ? X. How Man Advances. XI. Why do Men Cling to 
 the Bible? XII. Belief, Unbelief, Faith, Reason, -and Prayer. XIJI. Is 
 There a God ? XIV. Reward and Punishment. XV. Immortality. XVI. 
 Conclusion. A book that should be in the hands of all who seek the light. 
 Price '.Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 Reign Of the StOiCS. Their History, Religion, Philosophy, Maxims 
 of Self-Control, Self-Culture, Benevolence, and Justice. By F. M. Holland. 
 Price $1.25 
 
 RochefoUCaUld'S Moral Maxims. Containing 541 Maxims 
 and Moral Sentences, by Francis, Duke of Rochefoucald ; together with 144 
 Maxims and Reflections by Stanislaus, King of Poland. Also Maxims to live 
 by, and Traits of Moral Courage in every-day life. i2mo, 186 pages, 
 Cloth 75 cts. 
 
 " As Rochefoucald his maxims drew 
 From Nature, — I believe them true. 
 They argue no corrupted mind 
 In him — the fault is in mankind !" — Swift. 
 
 Romances, by M. de Voltaire. A new edition, profusely illus- 
 trated. One volume, post 8vo, 480 pages, with Portrait and 82 Illustrations. 
 Paper $1.00 ; extra vellum cloth, $1.50; half calf, $4.00 
 
 " I choose that a story should be founded on probability, and not always re- 
 semble a dream. I desire to find nothing in it trivial or extravagant ; and I 
 desire above all, that under the appearance of fable, there may appear some 
 latent truth, obvious to the discerning eye, though it escape the observation 
 of the vulgar." — Voltaire. 
 
 Voltaire's satire was as keen and fine pointed as a rapier. — Magazine of Amer- 
 ican History. 
 
 A delightful reproduction, unique and refreshing.— Boston Commonwealth. 
 
 ROUSSeaU (Jean Jacques.) The Social Contract, or Principles of 
 Political Law. Also, A Project for a Perpetual Peace. One vol., post 8vo, 
 238 pages, with portrait Paper, 50 cts, ; extra vellum cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 The writings of Rousseau, says Thomas Paine, in his Rights of Man, contain 
 " a loveliness of sentiment in favor of Liberty that excites respect and ele- 
 vates the human faculties." 
 
 " He -was the most directly revolutionary of all the speculative precursors. His 
 writings produced that glow of enthusiastic feeling in France, which led to 
 the all-important assistance rendered by that country to the American colo- 
 nists in a struggle so momentous for mankind. It was from his writings 
 that the Americans took the ideas and the phrases of. their great Charter. 
 It ■was his work more than that of any other one man, that France arose 
 from the deadly decay which laid hold of her whole social and political sys- 
 tem, and found that irresistible energy which warded off dissolution within, 
 and partition from without." — John morley. 
 
 " He could be cooped up in garrets, laughed at as a maniac, left to starve like a 
 wild beast in a cage,— but he could not be hindered from setting the world 
 on fire."— THOMAS CARLYLE. 
 
 Profession of Faith of the Vicar of Savoy. 
 
 By Jean Jacques Rousseau. Also, A Search for Truth, by Olive Schreiner 
 Preface by Peter Eckler. Post 8vo, 128 pp., with portrait. . . .Paper, 25 cts' 
 Vellum cloth 50 c t s " 
 
Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 2$ 
 
 Rights Of Man. Parts I and II. Being an answer to Burke's attack 
 upon the French Revolution. A work almost without a peer. Post 8vo, 279 
 pages Paper, 25c; cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 Renan (Ernest) The Life of jesus cioth,$i.7s 
 
 English Conferences 7s<=ts. 
 
 Roses and Rue. BySaiadin cioth,$i.so 
 
 Ruins of Empires and the Law of Nature. By c. f. 
 
 Volney. With Portrait of Volney, Illustrations, and Map of the Astrolog- 
 ical Heaven of theAncients. Also, Volney's Answer to Dr. Priestly, a Bio- 
 graphical Notice by Count Daru, and an Explanation of the Zodiacal Signs 
 
 and Constellations by Peter Eckler. 248 pp Cloth, 75 cts.; paper, 50 cts.; 
 
 half calf $2.00 
 
 OALTUS' Anatomy Of Negation. Intended to convey a 
 tableau of anti-Theism from Kapila to Leconte de Lisle. 121110, 218 pp. 
 Cloth t 75 cts. 
 
 Sabbath-Breaking. By Jo-hn E. Remsburg. Origin of the Sabbatic 
 Idea — The Jewish Sabbath — The Christian Scriptures and the Sabbath — 
 Examination of Sunday Arguments — Origin of the Christian Sabbath — 
 Testimony of the Christian Fathers — The Sabbath during the Middle Ages 
 — The Puritan Sabbath — Testimony of Christian Reformers, Scholars and 
 Divines — Abrogation of Sunday Laws. 25 cts. 
 
 Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church. 
 
 (History of.) By Henry C. Lea Cloth, $4.50 
 
 Safest Creed. And Other Discourses of Reason. By O. B. Frothing- 
 ham. 238 pp fi.oo 
 
 Saladin (W. Stewart Ross.) God and His Book.... cioth, $2.50 
 
 Schopenhauer (A.) A Fourfold Root of Principle of Sufficient Rea- 
 son, and on Will in Nature $2.50 
 
 The World as Will and Idea $ 2 5<> 
 
 Scientific Works. By Darwin, Haeckel, Huxley, Maudsley, Spencer, 
 Tyndall, and others. International Scientific Series, etc. 
 
 Science and Theology. Ancient and Modern. By James Anthony 
 Froude Paper, 25 cts. 
 
 Seaver (Horace). Memorial. Containing Col. Ingersoll's Eulogy- 
 Cloth ? IO ° 
 
 Secret Of the East. By Prof. Felix L. Oswald Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Shelley's "Queen Mab." A new edition of this beautiful little 
 poem from Percy Bysshe Shelley's writings has met with favorable notice by 
 Liberals, and by the superstitious bigots of the Established Church it has 
 been greatly condemned. In order to give every one an opportunity to read 
 it who wishes to, it is now published in neat form and handsome binding at 
 this low price ^ 
 
 Short HiStOry Of the Bible. Being a popular account of the 
 Formation and Development of the Canon. By Bronson C. Keeler Con- 
 tent™- The Hebrew Canon; The New Testament ; The Early Controver- 
 sies- The Books at first not Considered Inspired ; Were the Fathers 
 Competent; The Fathers quoted as Scripture Books which are now called 
 Apocryphal; The Heretics; The Christian Canon. Paper, 5 octs.; cloth, 75 cts. 
 
2,6 Catalogue of Liberal Classics. 
 
 Sixteen Crucified Saviors: or, Christianity Before Christ. Con- 
 taining New, Startling and Extraordinary Revelations in Religious History 
 which Disclose the Oriental Origin of all the Doctrines, Principles, Precepts 
 and Miracles of the Christian New Testament, and Furnishes a Key for Un- 
 locking Many of its Sacred Mysteries, besides Comprising the History of 
 Sixteen Oriental Crucified Gods, etc. By Kersey Graves Cloth, $1.50 
 
 Smith (Adam), Wealth of Nations. 78* pp $1.50 
 
 Spencer (Herbert.) Works, "mo. 
 
 First Principles ^...$2.00 
 
 Principles of Biology, avois 4.00 
 
 Principles of Psychology. 2 vols 4.00 
 
 Principles of Sociology, avois 4.00 
 
 Principles of Ethics. 2 vols 4.00 
 
 - Essays-: Scientific, Political, and Speculative. 
 
 3 vols. Universal Progress and Discussions now in the Essays $6.00 
 
 Social StatiCS. (Revised edition.) 2.00 
 
 Study Of Sociology. (International Scientific Series.)... 1.50 
 
 Education Paper.socts.; cloth, 1.25 
 
 The above ts vols., i2mo, cloth, $28.00; extra cloth, gilt top, paper titles, 
 $32.00 ; half calf, $55.00. 
 
 Data Of Ethics. Part I of the " Principles of Ethics.'.. .Paper 50c. 
 
 Cloth ?I2S 
 
 The Induction Of EthicS. The Ethics of Individual Life- 
 
 Parts II and III of " Principles of Ethics " in one vol. i2mo $1.25 
 
 Justice. Part IV of the " Principles of Ethics " 1.25 
 
 Negative Beneficence and Positive Benefi- 
 
 CENCE. Parts V and VI of " Principles of Ethics." i2mo .Cloth, $1.25 
 
 The Factors of Organic Evolution, "mo, cio. .75 
 
 Social Contract ; o r principles of political law. ai«o, 
 
 A Project for a Perpetual Peace. Bv J. J. Rousseau, i vol., post Rvo, with 
 Portrait. Preface by Peter Fckler. Paper.socts.; extra vellum cloth, 75 cts 
 
 Some Mistakes of Moses. Free Schools. The Fall, Dampness, 
 Bacchus and Babel, Faith in Filth. Plagues, Inspired Slavery, Marriage, 
 War, Religious Liberty. By R. G. Ingersoll Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.25 
 
 SoUl Of Man. An Investigation of the Facts of Physiological and Ex- 
 perimental Psychology. The subject-matter of the work is divided into the 
 following sections : 1. The Philosophical Problem of Mind. 2. The Rise of 
 Organic Life. % Physiological Facts of Brain-Activity. 4. The Immortality 
 of the Race and the Data of Propagation. 5. The Investigations of Experi- 
 mental Psychology. 6. The Ethical and Religious Aspects of Soul-Life. 
 Bv Dr. Paul Cams. With 152 Illustrative Cuts and Diagrams. 480 pp. 
 Printed on extra fine paper, handsomely bound in cloth %i.oo 
 
 Study of Primitive Christianity. By Lewis g. janes. 
 
 Octavo, gilt top. uncut edees. 3TQ pp Cloth, $1.25 
 
 "Dr. Janes is evidently a thorough scholar, and one cnni>ot fail to be imoressril "»'' ">« 
 ea ^'K?? e ^r e,t I' "TUW 11 ."^ the , ««"»rtlaitty. the love of trith ^ooMeTvatto 
 exhibited throughout this admirable volume."— Popular Science Monthly, oom "> r van5m 
 
Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 27 
 
 Sunday Under Three Heads. As n is ; as sabbath wiis would 
 
 mike it ; and as it might be made. By Charles Dickens. Illustrated by 
 Phiz. Portrait. Preface by Peter Eckler Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 Superstition in All Ages. By Jean Meslier. Jean Meslier was a 
 Roman Catholic Priest who, after a pastoral service of thirty years in France, 
 wholly abjured religious dogmas, and left this work as his last Will and 
 Testament to his parishioners and to the world. Preface by Peter Eckler. 
 
 339 PP- Portrait. Paper, 50 cts Cloth, $1.00 
 
 The same work in German Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 Supernatural Religion. An Inquiry into the Reality of Divine 
 Revelation. This remarkable work was published anonymously in England 
 and excited more attention and drew more theological criticism from theolo- 
 gians than any similar work during this Century. Cloth, $4.00 ; leather, 
 $5.00 Morocco, gilt edges, $5.50 
 
 Sully (James). Pessimism. A history and criticism $7-°° 
 
 oyntaglTia (The.) Being a vindication of the Manifesto of the Chris- 
 tian Evidence Society, against the assaults of the Christian Instruction 
 Society. By the Rev. Robert Taylor Cloth, $1.00 
 
 I ALE Of a Halo. By Morgan A. Robertson. Illustrated. A story 
 in verse of trouble in heaven, incidentally illustrating how much more pow- 
 erful the Pope is, in the opinion of the Romish church, than the Almighty 
 himself Paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00 
 
 Talleyrand's Letter to Pope Pius VII. with a Memoir 
 
 and Portrait of the Author, his Famous Maxims, and also an account of his 
 Celebrated Visit to Voltaire. 136 pp Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 50 cts. 
 
 Talmud (The.) h. Poiano $1.00 
 
 Taxation of Church Property, jas. Parton sets. 
 
 TherapeUtae and EsSeneS. Origin of Christian Doctrine and 
 Scripture. By Geo. Reber Cloth, $i.oc 
 
 Theological and Religious Works of Thos. Paine 
 
 COMPLETE. Comprising- the A/re of Reason — an Investigation of True 
 and Fabulous Theologv; An Examination of the Prophecies of the coming of 
 Jesus Christ ; The Books of Mark, Luke and John ; Contrary Doctrines in the 
 New Testament between Matthew and Mark; An Essay on Dreams; 
 Private Thoughts on a Future State ; A Letter to the Hon. Thomas 
 Erskine; Religious Year of the Theophilanthropists ; Precise History 
 of the Theophilanthropists; A Discourse Delivered to the Society of 
 Theophilanthropists at Paris; A Letter to Camille Jordan ; Origin of Kree- 
 masonrv ; The Names in the Book of Genesis ; Extract from a Reply 
 to the Bishop of Llandaff : The Book of Job; Sabbath or Sunday; Future 
 State; Miracles; An Answer to a Friend on the Publication of the Age 
 of Reason; Letters to Samuel Adams and Andrew A. Dean; Remarks 
 on Robert Hall's Sermons; The word Religion; Cain and Abel; The 
 Tower of Babel ; To Members of the Society styling itself the Missionary 
 Society; Religion of Deism; The Sabbath Day of Connecticut; Ancient 
 History ; Bishop Moore ; John Mason ; Books of the New Testament ; Deism 
 'and the Writings of Thomas Paine, etc. The work has also a fine Portrait of 
 Paine, as Deputy to the National Convention in France, and portraits of 
 Samuel Adams, Thomas Erskine, Camille Jordan. Richard Watson, and 
 other illustrations. One vol., post 8vo., 432 pages... Paper, 50 cts.; cloth. $1.00 
 
 The ReaSOnS for Unbelief, by Louis Viardot. Translated from 
 the French. This little book is an analysis, an abstract, an epiton.e of the 
 reasons given by the greatest writers of all ages, for disbelief in supernat- 
 ural religions. The arguments are clear, concise, convincing and conclusive. 
 They are founded on reas >n and science, and they rise to the dignity of 
 demonstrations. The book will prove a priceless treasure to all enquiring 
 mji»ds. , , , ....,.,,.,,..,, Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 50 cts. 
 
28 Catalogue oj Liberal Classics. 
 
 Three Introductory Lectures on the Science of 
 
 THOUGHT. By F. Max Muller. i. The Simplicity of Language. 2. The 
 Identity of Language and Thought. 3. The Simplicity of Thought. With 
 an Appendix which contains a correspondence on "Thought Without 
 Words," between F. Max Muller and Francis Galton, the Duke of Argyll, 
 George J. Romanes, and others. Neatly bound jn cloth 75 cts. 
 
 Travels in Faith. By Capt. Robert C. Adams. Being the story of his 
 mental journey from Orthodoxy to Rationalism.. .Paper, 25 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 Trial Of Theism. Accused of Obstructing Secular Life. By G. J. 
 Holyoake Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Tyndall (Prof. John.) Works : 
 
 Heat as a Mode of Motion $2.50 
 
 On Sound.. .00 
 
 Fragments of Science. » ™>is 4.00 
 
 New Fragments 2.00 
 
 Light and Electricity 1.2s 
 
 Lessons in Electricity 1.00 
 
 Hours of Exercise in the Alps 2.00 
 
 Faraday as a Discoverer ' 1.00 
 
 On Forms of Water i. so 
 
 Radiant Heat. 8vo s .oo 
 
 Six Lectures on Light i. S o 
 
 Essays on the Floating Matter of the Air, 
 
 in Relation to Putrefaction and Infection. i:mo Cloth, $1.50 
 
 Researches on Diamagnetism & Magne- 
 
 CRYSTALLIC ACTION, including the Question of Diainagnetic 
 Polarity Cloth, $1.50 
 
 V, 
 
 AUGHN (NATHANIEL.) Priest and Man. By Frederick 
 Macdonald. One of the most interesting novels ever written. . . .Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Vindication of the Rights of Woman, with strictures on 
 
 Political and Moral Subjects. By Mary Wollstonecraft. New Edition, with 
 an Introduction by Mrs. Henry Fawcett Cloth, $1.00 
 
 Vindication of Thomas Paine, a Reply to the New York 
 
 Observer's attack upon the Author-hero of the Revolution, by R. G. Ingersoll. 
 Paper 15 cts. 
 
 Visit to Ceylon. By Ernst Haeckel, professor in the University of 
 Jena. Author of The History of Creation, History of the Evolution of Man, 
 etc. With Portrait, and Map of India and Ceylon. Translated by Clara 
 Bell. 1 vol., post 8vo., 348 pp Extra vellum cloth, $1.00 
 
 Volney's Ruins of Empires and the Law of Na- 
 
 TURE. With Illustrations, Portrait of Volney, and Map of the Astrological 
 Heaven of the Ancients. Also, Volney's Answer to Dr. Priestley; a Biograph- 
 ical Notice by Count Daru, and an Explanation of the Zodiacal Signs and 
 
 Constellations by Peter Eckler. 248 pp Paper, 50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. 
 
 Half calf $3.00 
 
 New Researches in Ancient History ; showing the 
 
 origin of the Mosaic Legends concerning the Creation, Fall of Man, Flood, 
 and Confusion of Languages ...,., $1.50 
 
Peter Eckler, Publisher, New York. 29 
 
 Voltaire (M. de). Works. 
 
 —Voltaire's Romances. A New Edition, Profusely Illustrated. 
 
 Contents : The White Bull ; a Satirical Romance. Zadig, or Fate ; an Oriental 
 History. The Sage and the Atheist. The Princess of Babylon. The Man 
 of Forty Crowns. The Huron ; or Pupil of Nature. Micromegas ; a Satire 
 on Mankind. The World as it Goes. The Black and the White. Memnon 
 the Philosopher. Andre Des Touches at Siam. Bababec. The Study of 
 Nature. A Conversation with a Chinese. Plato's Dream. A Pleasure in 
 Having no Pleasure. An Adventure in India. Jeannot and Colin. Travels 
 of Scarmentado. The Good Bramin. The Two Comforters. Ancient 
 Faith and Fable, i vol., post 8vo, 480 pp., with Portrait and 82 Illustrations. 
 Paper, $1.00 Extra vellum cloth, $1.50 Half calf , $3.00 
 
 — Voltaire : A Lecture. By Robert G. Ingersoll, with a portrait of 
 
 the great French Philosopher and Poet, never before published. ...Paper, 25 c. 
 
 Huso's (Victor) Oration on Voltaire- French and 
 
 English translation on opposite pages. With the Three Great Poems of 
 Goethe, George Eliot and Longfellow 10 cts. 
 
 Philosophical Dictionary. Fifteenth American Edition. 
 
 Two volumes in one. 876 large octavo pages, two elegant steel engravings. 
 Sheep $5.00 
 
 Life Of. By James Parton. Portraits and other Illustrations, a 
 
 vols., 800 pp $6.00 
 
 Pocket Theology. Witty and Sarcastic Definitions of Theo- 
 logical Terms 25 cts. 
 
 In Exile. Memoirs. By B. Gastineau. An Unpublished Corre- 
 spondence with Mme. du Chatelet Paper, 75 cts. ; cloth, $1.00 
 
 w, 
 
 ARFARE Of Science. By Prof. Andrew D. White, of Cor- 
 nell University Paper, 50 cts.; cloth, $1.00 
 
 WaS Christ a God ? Conclusions Drawn from Apostolic Writings. 
 By F. Mensinga $1.50 
 
 What would follow the Effacement of Christianity 
 
 By George Jacob Holyoake. This is a most valuble contribution to Free- 
 thought Literature. Bound in paper with good likeness of author 10 cts. 
 
 What Must We Do to be Saved ? By r. g. ingersoii. 
 
 Analyzes the so-called Gospels ; devotes much space to the Christian Sects ; 
 answers the question as to what he proposes instead of Christianity. . ..35 cts. 
 
 Wixon (Susan H.) 
 
 AH in a Lifetime. Liberal Romance $1.50 
 
 Apples Of Gold. Children's Stories $1.25 
 
 StOry Hour. For Children and Youth. " Without Superstition. " 
 
 66 full-page and 25 smaller illustrations, large type, heavy toned paper, 
 broad margins, illuminated covers. Bds., 4to, 224 pp $1.00 
 
 WHght (Frances.) A Few Days in Athens 75 cts 
 
 ■ 1*1 ■ ■ 
 
 In science, read, by preference, the newest works ; in literature, the oldest. 
 Tie classic literature is always modern. New books revive and redecorate old 
 ideas ; old books suggest and invigorate new ideas. — Bvluier Lytttn. 
 
Popular editions of. the Spanish. Romances. 
 Asmodeus; or, the Devil upon Two Sticks. 
 
 By A. R. Le Sage. With designs by Tony Johannot. Translated 
 from the French. With fourteen Illustrations. Post 8vo, 332 pp., 
 paper, socts., cloth $1.00. 
 
 A new illustrated edition of one of the masterpieces of the world of fiction. 
 
 The Bachelor Of Salamanca. By Le Sage. Trans- 
 lated from the French by James Townsend, with five illustrations 
 by R. de Los Rios. 400 pp., paper, 50 cts., cloth $1.00. 
 
 Adventures related in an amusing manner. The writer exhibits remark- 
 able boldness, force, and originality while charming us by his surprising 
 flights of imagination and his profound knowledge or Spanish character. 
 
 Vanillo Gonzales, or the Merry Bachelor. By 
 
 Le Sage. Translated from the French. With five illustrations by 
 R. de Los Rios. 455 pages, paper 50 cts., cloth $1.00. 
 Audacious, witty, and entertaining in the highest degree. 
 
 The Adventures of Gil Bias of Santillane. 
 
 Translated from the French of Le Sage by Tobias Smollett. With 
 biographical and critical notice of Le Sage by George Saintsbury. 
 New edition, carefully revised. With twelve illustrations by R. de 
 Los Rios. 3 vols., post 8vo, 1,200 pp., cloth J3.00. 
 A classic in the realm of entertaining literature. 
 
 Napoleon. Memoirs of the Life, Exile, and Conversations of the 
 Emperor Napoleon, by the Count de Las Cases. With eight steel 
 portraits, maps and illustrations. Four vols., post 8vo, each 400 
 pp., cloth, $5.00, half calf extra, f 10.00. 
 
 With his Son the Count devoted himself at St. Helena to the care of the Em- 
 peror, and passed his evenings in recording his remarks. 
 
 Napoleon in Exile; or A Voice from St. Helena. 
 
 Opinions and Reflections of Napoleon on the Most Important Events 
 in his Life and Government, in his own words. By Barry E. 
 O'Meara, his late Surgeon. Portrait of Napoleon, after Delaroche, 
 and a view of St. Helena, both on steel. 2 vols., post 8vo, 662 pp., 
 cloth $2.50, in half calf extra, $5.00. 
 
 Mr. O'Meara's work contains a body of the most interesting and valuable 
 information— information the accuracy of which stands unimpeached by any 
 attacks made against its author. The details in Las Cases' work and those of 
 Mr. O'Meara mutually support each other. 
 
 Shakespeare Portrayed by Himself. AReveia* 
 
 tion of the Poet in the Career and Character of one of his own Dra- 
 matic Heroes. By Robert Waters. 1 vol., i2mo., cloth extra, $1.25. 
 In this able and interesting work on Shakespeare, the author" shows con. 
 clusively how our great poet revealed himself, his life, and his character. H 
 is written in good and clear language, exceedingly picturesque, and is alto, 
 gether the best popular life of Shakespeare that has yet appeared. 
 
 Cobbett's, (Wm.) English Grammar. Edited b, 
 
 Robert Waters. 1 vol., i2mo., cloth $1. 00. 
 
 ~ ''Of all the books on English grammar that I have met with, Cobbett'i 
 seems to me the best, and, indeed, the only one to be used with advantage i« 
 teaching English. His style is a model of correctness, of clearness, and of 
 strength. He wrote English with unconscious ease."—/ttchard Grant White. 
 
 "The best English grammar extant for self -instruction."— School Hoard 
 Chronicle. " As interesting as a story-book."— Hazlitt. 
 
 " The only amusing grammar in the world."— Sir Henry Lytlon Bulwer. 
 
 "Written with .vigor, energy, and courage, joined to a force of understand- 
 ing, a degree ot logical power, and force of expression which has rarely been 
 equalled. '- Saturday Review.