Jealousy
is in a manner just and reasonable, as
it tends to preserve a good which belongs, or which we believe belongs to us,
on the other hand envy is a fury which cannot endure the happiness of others.
Pride has a larger part than goodness in our remonstrances with those who commit faults, and we reprove them not so much to correct as to persuade them that we ourselves are free from faults.
[1] François, Duc de La Rochefoucauld was born in 1613
into one of the leading aristocratic families in France. He studied Latin,
mathematics, fencing, dancing, heraldry and etiquette. He entered military
service as the commander of a regiment at the age of 15. He seemed destined for
influential roles in the affairs of his time. But, through bad fortune or flaws
of character, La Rochefoucauld became entangled in a series of ill-fated
enterprises. In 1636 he involved himself in an abortive political intrigue. He
was detected and imprisoned in the Bastille. After his release he was banished
to his family estate in the country. Back in Paris in 1646, he intrigued his
way into more doomed political and sexual escapades. In 1652 he was temporarily
blinded by a musketball during a moment of violent political turmoil. In the
meantime, one of his country estates had been razed, ruining him financially.
Life, up to this point, had taught La Rochefoucauld that friendship, loyalty,
altruism, and even love itself were nothing more than elaborate façades built
to protect and disguise the that self-centered, neversleeping core of every
personality that La Rochefoucauld identified as Amour-Propre (love of self).
After yet another term of banishment to his remaining
country estate, he returned to Paris in 1659, this time to lead a quieter life
in the salon of his friend, Madame de Sablé. The participants in this salon
played a kind of intellectual game called “sentences.” The procedure was for
one person to toss out an idea for discussion -- any idea from any area of life
except for religion and politics, those topics being deemed too emotionally
charged and politically dangerous to allow for civilized discourse. The group
would then discuss the idea, refining and expanding on the notion and its
implications. La Rochefoucauld found this exercise very stimulating. Back in
his apartments, he would spend hours polishing the ideas—his own and others put
forth by members of the salon—into maxims: concise, elegantly phrased
statements that most perfectly captured the observation. These ideas were not
meant to be simply opinions: they represented, for la Rochefoucauld the laws of
human nature, counterparts to the laws that governed inanimate objects in
physics and chemistry.
La Rochefoucauld’s maxims
achieved popularity first within his circle -- then beyond. He was surprised,
and annoyed, to discover in 1663 that a Dutch printer had printed a version of
the maxims without his consent. To set the record straight, and to include only
those maxims which he has composed, he issued his own version in 1665. Several
editions were printed; they have remained in print ever since. The success of
the maxims was one of the last joys that la Rochefoucauld would ever know. In
1670 his wife died, and in 1672, his mother. Also in 1672, his two sons died in
the French invasion of Holland. In 1680, worn out with disappointments,
sorrow, and physical pain, La Rochefoucauld accepted the last sacraments from
Bishop Bossuet. (Source: The Master of Eloquent Melancholy -
charon.sfsu.edu)
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