conscience. By the word conscience, I mean the inward sense of a nice honour, which assures you that you have nothing to reproach yourself with. Again, how happy is it to know how to live with one's self, to renew your acquaintance there with pleasure, and quit yourself for a time with regret! The world then indeed is less necessary to you: but take care it does not make you out of humour with it; one must not entertain an aversion for men; they will desert you when you desert them: you have still occasion for them, you are not either of an age or profession to do without them; but when one knows how to live with one's self as well as with the world, they are two pleasures that support one another.

A passion for glory may contribute greatly to your advancement and happiness; but it may likewise make you unhappy and despicable, if you know not how to govern it: it is the most active and lasting of all your inclinations. The love of glory is the last passion that quits us; but we must not confound it with vanity. Vanity aims at the approbation of other people; true glory, at the secret testimony of the conscience. Endeavour to gratify the passion that you have for glory; make sure of this inward testimony: your tribunal is seated in your own breast, why then should you seek it elsewhere? You can always be a judge of your own worth. Let men dispute your good qualities, if they please; as they do not know you, you can easily console yourself. It is not of so much consequence to be thought an honest inan, as to be one. Such as do not mind the approbation of other people, but only aim at deserving it, take the surest way to obtain both. What affinity is there between

the greatness of man, and the littleness of the things which make the subject of his glorying; there is nothing so ill suited as his dignity, and the vanity that he derives from an infinite number of trifling things: a glory so ill grounded shows a great want of merit. Persons that are truly great are not subject to the infatuations of vain-glory.

One must, if it be possible, my son, be content with one's condition in the world: there is nothing more rare and valuable, than to find persons that are satisfied with it. It is our own fault. There is no condition of life so bad, but it has one good side. Every situation has its point of view; we should place it in that favourable light, and shall find, that it is not the fault of our situations, but purely our own. We have much more reason to complain of our own temper than of fortune. We lay all the blame upon events, when all the faul lies upon our discontent; the evil is within us, let us not seek for it any where else. By qualifying ou, temper, we often change our fortune. It is much easier for us to adjust ourselves to things, than to adjust things to ourselves. A great application to find out a remedy frequently irritates the disease, and the imagination conspires with the pain to increase and fortify it. A dwelling upon misfortunes renews them, by making them present to the mind. An useless struggling to get out of our circumstances makes us slower in contracting an acquaintance with them, which would make them sit easy One must always give way to misfortunes, and have recourse to patience: it is the only way to alleviate them.

on us.

If you would do yourself justice, you will be content with your situation. I dare say, that after the

loss we have suffered, if you had had another mother, you would be still fuller of complaints. Reflect on the advantages of your condition, and you will be less seusible of the difficulties of it. A wise man, in the same circumstances with others, has more advantages, and feels fewer inconveniences, than they.

You may depend upon it, that there is no condition but has its troubles; it is the situation of human life; there is nothing pure and unblended in it. It is to pretend to exempt one's self from the common law of our nature to expect a constant happiThe very persons, whom you think the happiest, would hardly appear so to you, if you knew

ness.

the exact situation of their fortune or their heart. Those that are raised the highest are frequently the most unhappy. With great employments and vulgar maxims, one is always restless and uneasy: it is not places, but reason, that removes anxiety from the mind. if you are wise, fortune can neither increase nor diminish your happiness.

Judge by yourself, and not by the opinions of others. Misfortunes and disorders arise from false judgments; false judgments from our passions; and passions from our conversation with mankind. you always come from them more perfect than you were before. To weaken the impressions that they make upon you, and to moderate your desires and inquietudes, consider that time is continually running away with your pains as well as your pleasures; that every moment, young as you are, carries off a part of yourself; that all things are perpetually sinking into the abyss of past time, thence never to return agam.

All that you see greatest on earth meets with the

very same treatment as yourself. The honours, the dignities, the precedences settled among men, are mere shows and ceremonies, without any reality; do not imagine that they are qualities inseparable from their being. Thus ought you to consider such as are above you; but take in your view likewise an infinite number of miserable wretches that are below you: the difference between you and them is owing only to chance; but pride, and the great opinion we have of ourselves, make us think that the good condition we are in is no more than our due, and consider every thing that we do not enjoy as a robbery of what should belong to us: you cannot but see plainly that nothing is more unreasonable than such an imagination. Enjoy, my son, the advantages of your circumstances: but suffer patiently the inconveniences that attend them. Consider, that wherever there are men there are unhappy creatures. Enlarge your mind, if possible, so far as to foresee and know all the accidents that can befall you. In a word, remember that a man's happiness depends on his manners and conduct; but the highest felicity is to seek for it in the paths of innocence, and there one never fails to find it.

MAXIMS

AND

MORAL REFLECTIONS,

BY THE

DUKE DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT.

Rend in the morning some of La Rochefoucault's Maxims; consider them, examine them well, and compare them with the real characters you meet in the evening. Till you come to know mankind by your own experience, I know no thing, nor no man, that can, in tlie mean time, bring you so well acquainted with them as Le Duc de la Rochefoucault. His little Book of Maxims, which I would advise you to look into, for some nioments at least, every day of your life, is, I fear, too like and too exact a picture of human nature. I own, it seems to degrade it: but yet my experience does not convince me that it degrades it unjustly.'t

THE desire of appearing to be persons of ability often prevents our being so.

No accidents are so unlucky, but that the pru dent may draw some advantage from them: nor are there any so lucky, but what the imprudent may turn to their prejudice.

Great actions, the lustre of which dazzles us, are re

See Chesterfield's Letters: Letter 225.

etter 273.