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  ----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Transcriberʼs note:

  Due to the error in the numbering of the chapters in the original
  (no chapter number II and no chapter number for chapter “OF FASHION”),
  chapters have been renumbered as follows:

  I->I, III->II, IV->III, V->IV, VI->V, VII->VI, VIII->VII, IX-VIII,
  X->IX, XI->X, XII->XI, XIII->XII, (OF FASHION)->XIII, XV->XIV, XVI->XV,
  XVII->XVI.
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  THE “CHARACTERS”

  OF

  JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE


  _PUBLISHERʼS NOTE._


  _Three hundred copies of this book printed for England, and two
  hundred, with an American imprint, for sale in that country. No more
  will be printed._

  _No. 13_

[Illustration: JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE]


  _LA BRUYÈRE_

  THE “CHARACTERS”

  OF

  JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

  _NEWLY RENDERED INTO ENGLISH_

  BY HENRI VAN LAUN

  With an Introduction, a Biographical Memoir
  and Notes

  _ILLUSTRATED WITH TWENTY-FOUR ETCHINGS_

  BY B. DAMMAN AND V. FOULQUIER

  LONDON

  JOHN C. NIMMO

  14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND, W.C.

  1885


[Illustration]

[Illustration]




CONTENTS.

                                     PAGE

  INTRODUCTION                        _11_

  BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR                 _26_

  PREFACE                               i

  OF WORKS OF THE MIND                  7

  OF PERSONAL MERIT                    39

  OF WOMEN                             58

  OF THE AFFECTIONS                    86

  OF SOCIETY AND OF CONVERSATION      100

  OF THE GIFTS OF FORTUNE             132

  OF THE TOWN                         164

  OF THE COURT                        183

  OF THE GREAT                        221

  OF THE SOVEREIGN AND THE STATE      245

  OF MANKIND                          271

  OF OPINIONS                         328

  OF FASHION                          377

  OF CERTAIN CUSTOMS                  403

  OF THE PULPIT                       442

  OF FREETHINKERS                     459


  [Illustration]




  LIST OF EMBELLISHMENTS.


  Etchings—Portraits.

                                     PAGE

  JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE       _Frontispiece_

  MONTAIGNE                            23

  DESCARTES                           151

  LE BRUN                             236

  LOUIS XIV.                          270

  WILLIAM III.                        374

  BOSSUET                             453


  Etchings—Vignettes.


  THE AUTHOR                            i

  STUDY                                 7

  TIRED OUT                            39

  THE TOILETTE                         58

  AFFECTION                            86

  SOCIETY                             100

  RUSTIC COURTSHIP                    132

  THE TUILERIES                       164

  THE COURT                           183

  THE GREAT                           221

  THE PRICE OF GLORY                  245

  THE CONSULTATION                    271

  DIFFERENT OPINIONS                  328

  THE BIRD-FANCIER                    377

  NOBLE AND CITIZEN                   403

  MONK PREACHING                      442

  BELIEF                              459


[Illustration]




INTRODUCTION.


It is a common practice for translators to state to the public that the
author they are going to introduce, and whom they sometimes traduce,
is one of the greatest men of the age, and that already for a long
time a general desire has been felt to make the acquaintance of such a
master-mind. It would be an insult to French scholars to speak thus of
La Bruyère, for the merits of his “Characters” are known; but, for the
benefit of those who are not so well acquainted with our author, I may
state that he is neither so terse, epigrammatic, sublime, nor profound
as either Pascal or La Rochefoucauld are, but that he is infinitely
more readable, as he is always trying to please his readers, and now
and then sacrifices even a certain depth of thought to attain his
object.

La Bruyère takes good care to tell us that he has not imitated any
one; Pascal “makes metaphysics subservient to religion, explains the
nature of the soul, its passions and vices; treats of the great and
serious motives which lead to virtue, and endeavours to make a man a
Christian;” La Rochefoucauldʼs “mind, instructed by his knowledge
of society, and with a delicacy equal to his penetration, observed
that self-love in man was the cause of all his errors, and attacked
it without intermission, wherever it was found; and this one thought,
multiplied as it were in a thousand different ways by a choice of words
and a variety of expression, has always the charm of novelty.”[1] Our
author, on the contrary, openly declares: “I did not wish to write any
maxims, for they are like moral laws, and I acknowledge that I possess
neither sufficient authority nor genius for a legislator.”[2]

What is the plan and idea of the book of “Characters?” Let La Bruyère
himself answer this: “Of the sixteen chapters which compose it, there
are fifteen wholly employed in detecting the fallacy and ridicule
to be found in the objects of human passions and inclinations, and
in demolishing such obstacles as at first weaken, and afterwards
extinguish, any knowledge of God in mankind; therefore, these chapters
are merely preparatory to the sixteenth and last, wherein atheism is
attacked, and perhaps routed, wherein the proofs of a God, such at
least as weak man is capable of receiving, are produced; wherein the
providence of God is defended against the insults and complaints of
freethinkers.”[3]

La Bruyère is not a speculative moralist, but an observer of the
manners of men, or, as he likes to call himself a philosopher, and
above all a Christian philosopher, such as a friend of Bossuet ought
to be. He was the first to make morality attractive, and to paint
characters in a literary and delicate manner; he does not dogmatise,
and above all shows neither personal hatred nor venom; in other words,
to use his own expressions, he “gives back to the public what it
lent”[4] him.

Underneath the literary man people often look for the man, with all
his passion, his likes and dislikes; hence the many “Keys” of the
“Characters,” published during the authorʼs lifetime and after his
death, in which all kinds of allusions were attempted, and all sorts of
hypothetical explanations ventured on.

Of the concocters of the “Keys” La Bruyère speaks as follows:

“They make it their business, if possible, to discover to which of
their friends or enemies these portraits can apply; they neglect
everything that seems like a sound remark or a serious reflection,
though almost the whole book consists of them; they dwell upon nothing
but the portraits or characters, and after having explained them
in their own way, and after they imagine they have found out the
originals, they publish to the world long lists, or, as they call them,
‘Keys,’ but which are indeed ‘false keys,’ and as useless to them as
they are injurious to the persons whose names are deciphered, and to
the writer who is the cause of it, though an involuntary one.”[5]

And yet some of these “Keys” have been of great use to modern
commentators, and served to elucidate several traits in the
“Characters” which otherwise would not have been discovered.

It would be ridiculous to deny that La Bruyère never had any particular
personage in view in delineating a certain character, but, as he
himself says: “