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 Rochefoucauld's seems to have passed into the proverb, "No fool like an old fool."

473. "Curatio funeris, conditio sepulturæ, pompa exequiarum, magis sunt vivorum solatia quam subsidia mortuorum."-ST. AUGUSTINE, de Civitate Dei, i. 12.

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 governing them.

475.

When fortune surprises us by bestowing on us an important office, without having conducted us to it by degrees, or without our

There is an amusing exemplification of this maxim in the account of the funeral of Gil Blas' father. 66 6 '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.

being elevated to it by our hopes, it is almost impossible that we should sustain ourselves in it with propriety, and appear worthy of possessing 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.

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 à souhaiter pour notre vanité, c'est d'ignorer ce que le monde pense de nous."-MASSILLON, Serm. de la Toussaint.

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.