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reward, if it be cuftomary, can be no reward for virtue; and I know not, withal, whether we can ever call a thing great, when it is common. Therefore, fince thefe honorary rewards are of no other value and efteem, than in their being enjoyed only by a few, the being liberal of them is the ready way to make them none at all. Tho there fhould be more men found worthy of this order now, than in former times, nevertheless, the honour of it fhould not be debafed, by being made too common. And that more do deferve it now, than then, may eafily be the cafe, for there is no virtue that expands itfelf fo eafily as military valour. There is another true virtue, perfect and philofophical, of which I do not treat (and only use the term as it is commonly taken) much greater than this; which is a fortitude and courage of the foul, equally contemning all crofs accidents whatfoever, even, uniform, and conftant; of which ours is but a very small ray. Ufage, inftitution, example, and cuftom, are capable of doing any thing in the eftablifhment of that whereof I am treating, and with great facility render it vulgar, as by the experience of our civil war is to us very manifeft. And whoever could, at this inftant, unite us into one body, and fet all our people upon one joint enterprife, our ancient reputation in arms would flourish again. It is very certain, that in time paft the order was not barely a reward of valour, but had a farther profpect; it never was the recompence of a valiant foldier, but of fome famous general. The fcience of obedience was not reckoned worthy of fuch a mark of honour. Anciently there was a more univerfal expertnefs in arms required, which comprehended the most rare talents, and the greatest qualities of a military man; (neque enim eadem militares et imperatorie artes funt, i. e. for the arts of the common foldier and of the general are not the fame) who was, likewife, of a condition to which fuch a dignity was fuitable. But, I fay, though more men fhould be worthy of it now, than formerly, yet it ought not to be ever the more liberally diftributed; and that it were better to fall fhort, in not giving it to all to whom it is

2.

due,

due, than for ever to lofe, as we have lately done, the fruit of fo useful an invention. No man of fpirit will vouchsafe to avail himself of what is in common to many; and fuch of the present time, as have leaft deferved this reward, pretend the more to difdain it, in order by that means to rank themselves with those, to whom so much wrong has been done by the unworthy conferring and debafing of that mark of honour which was particularly due to them.

It is difficult to bring a new order of knighthood into credit.

Now to expect, by abolishing this, to create a like custom, and to bring it into credit all on a fudden, is not an undertaking proper for a feason fo licentious as the prefent is is; and the confequence will be, that the laft, from its origin, will incur the fame inconveniencies that have just ruined the other. The rules for the difpenfing of this new order ought to be extremely ftrict and fevere, in order to give it authority; whereas, in these boisterous times, fuch a fhort tight curb will not do; befides that, before this can be brought into repute, it is neceffary that the memory of the firft, and of the contempt into which it is fallen, fhould be totally loft.

Valour, the chief of the virtues among the French.

This place might naturally enough admit of fome difcourfe upon valour, and of the difference of this virtue from others; but Plutarch has mentioned this fubject so often, that it will be to no purpofe for me to repeat what he has faid of it. It is worthy of confideration, that our nation places valour in the highest class of the virtues, as its name fhews, which is derived from value; and that, according to our way of speaking when we mean a man is worth a great deal of money, or a man of fubftance, in the ftile of our court and gentry, it is only faying he is a valiant man, after the manner of the Romans; for the general appellation of virtue, with them, derives its etymology from vis, force. The proper

and effential profeffion of the nobleffe in France is that of arms. It is probable, this was the firft virtue which discovered itself amongst men, and which gave advan

tage

tage to fome over others; whereby the ftrongest and moft courageous have lorded it over the weaker, and acquired a particular rank and reputation, from whence it obtained that dignity of appellation; or else that thefe, being very warlike nations, gave the pre-eminence to the virtues which were moft familiar to them, and to which they had the beft title. Juft fo, it is owing to our paffion, and the feverish folicitude we have of the chastity of women, that a good woman, a woman of worth, and a woman of honour and virtue, fignify no more, with us, than a chafte woman; as if, to oblige them to this duty, we were indifferent to all the reft, and gave them the reins to all other faults whatever, on condition they would not be guilty of incontinence.

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CHA P. VIII.

Of the Affection of Parents to their Children.
To Madame d'ESTISSA C.

MADAM,

the strangeness and novelty of my fubject, which are wont to give a value to things, do not fave me, I fhall never come off with honour from this foolish attempt; but it is fo whimsical, and has fo uncommon an afpect, that this, perhaps, may make it pass. It was a melancholy humour, and by confequence a humour very much an enemy to my natural conftitution, engendered by the chagrin of the folitude into which I have caft myself for fome years paft, that firft put into my head this idle whim of commencing an author: and afterwards, being totally deftitute of any other fubject, I was obliged to truft to myself both for the thefis and the argument. It is the only book of its kind in the world, on a plan fo wild and extravagant; nor is there any thing worthy of remark upon this occafion, but the

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whimsicalness of it; for the best workman in the world could not have given a form to a fubject fo vain and frivolous, fit to recommend it to efteem. Now, Madam, being about to draw my own picture to the life, I fhould have forgot one feature of importance, had I not therein reprefented the veneration which I always paid to your merit: and this I chofe to mention in the beginning of the prefent chapter, by reafon that among your other excellent qualities, that of the affection which you have manifefted to your children has a place in one of the higheft claffes. Whoever hears at what age M. d'Eftiflac, your hufband, left you a widow; the great and honourable matches that have been offered to you, as many as to any lady in France of your rank; the conftancy and fteadiness with which you have, for fo many years, and in oppofition to fo many croffes and difficulties, fuftained the weight and management of their affairs, whereby you have been teazed in almoft every part of France, and the happy train you have put them into by your own prudence or good fortune; he will be ready to fay with me, that we have not, in our times, a more lively inftance of maternal affection than yours. God be praised, Madam, that it has been employed to fo good purpofe; for the great hopes that M. d'Eftiffac, the fon, gives of himself, are a fufficient warrant, that, when he comes of age, you will reap from him the obedience and gratitude of a very good fon. But as, by reafon of his tender years, he is not in a capacity to take notice of the many extraordinary kind offices which he has received from you, I am willing that, if thefe papers happen to fall into his hands fome day when I have no fpeech left to declare it, he fhould receive this true teftimony from me, which will be more fully proved to him by the good effects which, with God's permiffion, will convince him, that there is not a gentleman in France who owes more to his mother than he does; and that he cannot, for the future, give a furer teftimony of his goodness and virtue, than by acknowledging you for fo excellent a

mother.

How it happens that the affection of parents to their children

is greater than that of chil

dren to their

parents.

If there be any law truly natural, that is to fay, any inftinct that is univerfally and perpetually imprinted both on man and beaft, (which is a difputed point) I may give it as my opinion, that, next to the care which every animal has of felf-prefervation, and of avoiding every thing that is hurtful, the affection which the breeder or begetter bears to the offspring ftands in the second place; and because nature feems to have implanted it in us, for the purpose of supporting the fpecies, it is no wonder that the love of children does not go back to their parents in fo great a degree. To which we may add this other Ariftotelian notion, that he who does a benefit to any one, loves him better than he is beloved by him; and he to whom a benefit is due, loves more than he who owes it: fo every artificer is fonder of his workmanship than, if that piece of work had fenfe, it would be of him, because we love exiftence, and existence confifts in motion and action: for this reafon every one has, in fome fort, a being in his work. He who does a good office, performs an action that is brave and honeft; he who receives it only practifes the utile. Now the utile is not near fo amiable as the boneftum. The boneftum is ftable and permanent, fupplying him who has performed it with a conftant fatiffaction. The utile lofes itself, and easily flides away; nor is the memory of it either fo fresh or fragrant. Those things are dearest to us that have coft moft, and giving is more chargeable than receiving.

To what end men are created

capable of rea foning.

Since it has pleafed God to endue us with fome capacity of difcuffing things, to the end that we may not be flavishly fubject, like the brute animals, to the common laws of nature, but that we may apply ourselves to them with judgment and free-will; we ought indeed, to yield a little to the mere authority of nature, but not to fuffer ourselves to be tyrannically hurried away by her; for reafon ought to be the fole conductor of our inclinations. For my own part, I have a ftrange difguft to thofe proF 4

penfities

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