The cynic's breviary: Maxims and anecdotes from Nicolas de Chamfort

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THE

CYNIC'S BREVIARY MAXIMS AND ANECDOTES FROM NICOLAS DE CHAMFORT

SELECTED AND TRANSLATED BY

WILLIAM

G.

HUTCHISON

LONDON ELKIN MATHEWS VIGO STREET 1902

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft

Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/cynicsbreviarymaOCfchamiala

,

9

mrVERSITY OF CAUFOH^IA SANTA BARSAi?i\

^ D

I

-33

Preface SfBASTIEN-RoCH NiCOLAS DE ChAMFORT WaS

bom

in

1741

and died

in

1794.

Thus he

traversed almost the whole of the latter half of

the century, that in France began with the closing years of one great ruler and ended with

— the

the accession to supreme power of another

century

of

social

license

and

colloquial

philosophy, of encyclopaedists and actresses, of blue-stockings and wits.

worth knowing

He knew

—Voltaire,

every one

Madame Dubarry,

Diderot, Charlotte Corday, Helvetius, moiselle

de

L'Espinasse,

5

St.

Just,

MadeMarie

PREFACE Antoinette, and

all

the other prominent figures

Most

of that fascinating age.

was a man shone

who

of his time, a misanthrope

in society, a cynic

he

essentially

with a curious vein of

humanitarian optimism.

About

his birth

Mbge has least, that a,

A

M.

satisfaction

at

hangs much mystery.

proved, to his

own

Chamfort was the lawful offspring of

respectable grocer, but

other authorities

all

agree that he was an illegitimate child, though

they are far from being unanimous in assigning his father

and mother.

That paternity

is

a

matter of opinion, maternity a matter of fact is

an old piece of wisdom, but the latter

is

name

legally entitled

with

its

The one

doubtful.

that the only

in this case

to

point certain is

which our author was

was Nicolas.

aristocratic

even

The Chamfort

«*de" was his own

6

in-

PREFACE vention, just as Moliere

was

that of Poquelin,

Voltaire of Arouet, D'Alembert of Jean Lerond.

won Chamfort

Influence

a good education, and

and college he played the part of

at school

youthful prodigy in two ways; he carried off prizes

and

in the

end was rusticated

lampoons on the professors.

nomad

existence in

few months*

Normandy with two

scapegraces followed, and returned,

A

for writing

then

the

other

prodigal

was forgiven and became an abb6.

Lest he be accused of hypocrisy in thus taking orders, I

must hasten to say that no particular

sanctity of

life

or opinions

abb6 of that period.

"

was

essential to

The abbes,"

says

an

M«

Houssaye, "were amiable pagans living gaily

who

read a different sense

into the scriptures from

that in vogue now.

outside the Church,

They went

to the Court, to balls

7

and the Opera

PREFACE they masked and dabbled in adventure

—and

they said their prayers after supper."

Chamfort's instincts naturally drew him to literature both as a

editors

of support and as a

But, like other aspirants, he

path to society. foimd

means

and publishers unappreciative,

and he was growing weary of his

efforts

when

one day he happened on an old schoolfellow

who had fessed, pulpit.

entered the Church, but, so he con-

was always

at a loss for

words

" Listen to me," said Chamfort, and he

delivered a glowing apostrophe to his

Lost

a

in the

in admiration the priest

louis apiece for

write for him.

ill

fortune.

promptly offered

any sermons Chamfort would

The

bargain was concluded, a

sermon was composed weekly and the preacher declaimed his second-hand thunder to the faction of himself

and

his flock.

8

satis-

But Chamfort

PREFACE aimed higher than

won

and

devilling for the clergy

a reputation in competing successfully for

The Ehge

the Academic prizes then in vogue. de Moliere

is

perhaps his most accomplished

essay in this direction, though particular significance as criticism.

no

of

is

it

With

these

honours and the successful production, in 1764, of his

comedy La Jeune

Chamfort

fairly

find

launched in Parisian society,

faring sumptuously every day

houses, petted

we

Indienne,

by great

looking and had a

— in

other people's

ladies, for

he was good-

gift for flirtation,

and under

the affectionate care of the " nursing mother of the philosophers,"

Madame

forth his career seemed

Though never

rich,

Hence-

Helvetius.

shaped out

he had too

friends for penury to be again a

for

him.

many wealthy menace

or his mother, whom, to his credit be

it

to

him

said,

he

PREFACE supported loyally

was

his

It

is

if

;

own hard

living that

easy to mistake

aristocratic

century.

the in

The

opposite

the eighteenth

women who

it

as haughtily

any one of agreeable

it

To

maintain his

seems, to play the

indeed he apparently found the

tactics the

anecdotes he

nature of

manners and a pretty wit was

Chamfort had not, ;

so.

great gulf might be there

assured a safe passage across.

part of toady

it

it

by a great gulf from the

in theory, but in practice

presence, good

uncertain

real

We are apt to think of

below it.

position

was

made

French society

exclusive, divided classes

his health

tells

better.

In

one of his

us of a respectful admirer of

has to confess that, had he despised

them, he would have enjoyed the favours of more.

In like manner

it

may be that Chamfort's

professed contempt for society endeared

10

him to

PREFACE it.

The

its

charm

acidity of his reflections for a

no doubt had

world which delighted in verbal

encounters, in dialectic and philosophy, and,

while

avoiding

studiously

morality,

the

showed appreciation of

into maxims, dialogues, and

it

practice

of

by packing

it

tales.

It is,

moreover, one of the redeeming features of a corrupt and frivolous society that, as a rule,

has a sense of humour and can laugh at follies.

This

is

what your earnest

not do, and accordingly his

when Chamfort, with

aimed his sarcasms

tionaries in their turn,

upon

at

he drew down

side to

a

the revolutheir

wrath

his head.

With Chamfort's

progress in society

not space to deal adequately.

made

own

fanatic can-

power of seeing more than one

question,

its

it

influential

friends,

zi

Suffice

especially

it

I

have

that he

amongst

PREFACE women, including Marie comfortable travelled,

and,

much

upon him,

to the surprise of his friends, married

the world,

till

to his wife, a clever

death

her

his best

curious as

settled

elected to the Forty Immortals,

and was devoted

Among

pensions

little

was

Antoinette, got various

friends

may seem

it

six

woman

months

of

later.

was Mirabeau, and,

to those

who remember

the prominent part taken by the latter in the history of the time, his relation to Chamfort

that of disciple to master.

With

all

was

Mirabeau's

vigour he lacked the other's subtlety and tact,

and he came

to regard

conscience.

••

which

I

ffoncerait

cela"

Never a day passes

do not find

h

So

sourcil,

far

him as a kind of external

...

in

myself saying—" Chamfort

tu faisons pas, n'ecrivons pas

indeed did Mirabeau carry his

admiration, that he employed Chamfort, as the

PREFACE young preacher had done, for

him.

So says

to write his speeches

Rivarol, to

whom

Mirabeau

appeared " a great sponge always swollen with the ideas of others," and documentary evidence bears him out.

On

the outbreak of the revolution, Chamfort,

much

to the indignant surprise of his aristocratic

friends,

who had not perhaps

taken his advanced

views very seriously, threw in his popular party.

lot

with the

For a time he was secretary of

the Jacobin Club, and

we

discover the fine

gentleman of the salons among the stormers of the

Bastille.

The

of

sincerity

Chamfort's

revolutionary fervour has been questioned, and

brooding over the stigma of his birth assigned as

its real

that

cause.

But we may

he genuinely believed

political

and

social

allow, I think,

the overcharged

atmosphere 13

required

a

PREFACE beneficent revolutionary thunderstorm to clear it.

Had

prophets

not he, moreover, been

To him

?

matter for surprise.

was a valuable and

his biting wit

in

outburst was no

Whatever

La

won him

the

his motives, he

new associates,

in the Clubs the

Rochefoucauld Chamfort."

time he developed an unfortunate habit

of finding the

weak points

and pointing them out In his famous " tersely

final

acquisition to his

nickname of "

But

the

among

sots inon

summed up

of the ruling party

in his

pungent fashion.

frere ou jc vous

tw" he

Jacobin pretensions, and the

Jacobins not unnaturally resented this and other witticisms.

In short he was haled before the

tribunal, imprisoned, then released, but only to

be threatened with imprisonment again. harassed

Chamfort,

existence

and,

was too

rather

H

than

much

for

endure

a

This poor

new

PREFACE captivity, he attempted suicide with a pistol

a

he

Unluckily

razor.

wounding himself

some months

longer.

April 13, 1794.

succeeded

in

and lingered on

for

only

horribly,

and

His death took place on

Chamfort's

is

not altogether a

sympathetic personality, but one cannot grudge

a regret over the miserable end of a

brilliant

career. It

was

great

not,

man

one must

of

letters.

insist,

the career of a

Had Chamfort

left

nothing behind him but the mediocre literary

baggage which

fills

the greater part of the five

volumes of his works edited by M. Auguis in 1824, he would be no

one of the ease

mob

and most

posterity.

His

more than a name

of gentlemen

assuredly

do

who not

to us,

write with write

for

verses, his dloges, his comedies,

the tragedy which he wrote since everybody had

15

PREFACE to father a tragedy, have the dust of oblivion

thick upon him, dust

little like

save by the curious student.

to be disturbed It is

as a talker,

the greatest of his age, that Chamfort survives.

His

collection of anecdotes, told with inimitable

verve and terseness, forms a document of capital

importance to the social historian the

maxims and

find the

man

La

Rochefoucauld,

Chamfort emerges from credit.

If

he lack

serenity, restraint, tion,

La

it

is

little

but

loss of

Rochefoucauld's breadth,

and universality of penetra-

he surpasses the elder moralist

daring, and, one

own

in this

inevitable,

with

in

at his best.

Comparison with his great predecessor field.

it is

coinage of his

pensees,

we

incisive wit, that

but

;

may

in passion,

add, sincerity.

Chamfort

does not stand aloof from the world whose weak points he touches,

now

in pity,

i6

now

in scorn

;

PREFACE his sayings are instinct with personality

the aphorism

we

behind

;

behold the man, a latter-day

Ecclesiastes, who, nevertheless, has visions at

times of a Promised

As

Land beyond the wilderness.

regards form, Chamfort's pensSes are well

He

nigh perfect.

had of course the advantage

of writing them in the language best fitted for

the purpose, but even this allowed, they are masterpieces

of pregnant

brevity.

"Those

people," said Balzac of Chamfort and his con-

temporary Rivarol, " put whole volumes into a single bon mot, while

we

nowadays

'tis

find a bon mot in a volume."

In

extravagance of praise.

terms

John Stuart

Mill

a marvel

This

is

in

Chamfort's

the

more measured

and Schopenhauer

expressed their admiration of the genius

played

if

pensees,

those

dis-

"Jleches

acerees" to quote Sainte-Beuve, **qui arrivent

17

B

PREFACE btusquement

we have

et siffient

not

encore"

Yes,

for, after

made such wonderful

since Chamfort's day, but that

some

keen arrows of his find their mark

alU

progress of these

still.

W.

G. H.

January^ 1902.

%•

It is

perhaps a point of some interest

from a bibliographical point of view, that the

first

translation into

Chamfort's writings.

18

this is

English of any of

The Cynics Breviary Nature has not said to me: Be not poor; less: Be rich. But she cries out to me: Be independent.

still

•'

The

between you and myself,"

difference

said a friend to me, "

that

you have said

know

you,' whilst I

is

to all

have them the hope that they are deceiving me. That is why the world favours me more than you. It is a masked ball, the interest of which you have spoiled for others and the amusement the masqueraders

:

*

I

left

for yourself."

A

MAN

of wit is lost,

if

to his wit he does

you have the lantern of Diogenes, you must also have his not join energy of character.

cudgel.

«9

If

THE CYNICS BREVIARY There even

are

more

in the wise

fools

man

than wise men, and

himself there

is

more

folly

than wisdom.

The

worst wasted of

all

days

is

that during

which one has not laughed.

The

best

philosophical

towards the world

is

attitude

adopt

to

a union of the sarcasm

of gaiety with the indulgence of contempt.

We

must be

we must

just before being generous, as

possess

shirts

having

before

lace

embroideries.

Education must have two foundations rality as a support for

—mo-

virtue, prudence as a

defence for self against the vices of others.

By

letting the balance incline to the side of morality,

you only make dupes or martyrs by letting it incline to the other, you make calculating egoists. ;

The one

great social principle is to be just both

to yourself and to others.

ao

If

you must love

THE CYNICS BREVIARY your neighbour as yourself,

it is

at least as fair

to love yourself as your neighbour.

Public opinion is a jurisdiction which the man must never fully recognize, and which he must never ignore.

honest

It must be admitted that to live in the world

without from time to time acting a part possible.

What

from the knave

when

is

distinguishes the honest

is,

im-

man

that the former only does so

absolutely obliged and to escape a danger,

while the latter seeks for opportunities.

A it

MAN who

to himself to

is

not only honest but wise owes

add to the prudence that

satisfies

his conscience, the prudence that foresees

and

disarms calumny. I

CANNOT conceive of a wisdom

trust

of

:

that lacks dis-

according to the Scriptures the beginning

wisdom

is

the fear of

rather the fear of men.

31

God — I

believe

it

is

/

THE CYNICS BREVIARY

We

must needs have the power of uniting

contrarieties

love of virtue with indifference to

:

public opinion, taste for

work with

indifference

to glory, attention to health with indifference to life.

There

are few vices that prevent a

man

from having many friends so much as his too high qualities prevent him.

Vanity to

is

often the motive that forces a

summon up

added to a

all

the energy of his soul.

steel point

makes a

dart,

man

Wood

two feathers

added to the wood make an arrow.

A man

MAN

of

no principles

is

also, as a rule,

a

of no character, for had he been born with

character, he would have

felt

the need of forming

principles.

Nearly all men

are slaves for the

same reason

that the Spartans assigned for the servitude of

the Persians syllable,

No.

—lack To

of

power

to pronounce the

be able to utter that word and

THE CYNICS BREVIARY only two means to preserve

live alone, are the

one's freedom and one's character.

What I still

I

have learnt

know has come

Man

no longer know

I

to

me by

;

what

intuition.

can aspire to virtue; he cannot reason-

ably aim at finding truth.

Man

reaches

each stage in

his

life

as a

novice.

The

majority of

pass their lives in

human

it

beings in the world

so heedlessly and think so

that they do not know that world which have before their eyes every day. They they do not, M. de B. wittily remarked, for the same little,

reason that cockchafers have no acquaintance

with natural history. 'Tis not generally

man •*

known how much

wit a

requires to avoid being ridiculous.

Are you

better than

not ashamed to wish to speak

you can?" said Seneca to one of

n

THE CYNICS BREVIARY his sons

who

could not work out the exordium

of an oration he

was composing.

say the same to those

One might

who

adopt principles stronger than their character will bear. " Are

you not ashamed of wishing to be more " philosopher than you can be ? In great actions

men show themselves

of a

as they

ought to be, in small actions as they are.

Vain

is

equivalent to

empty

;

thus vanity

so miserable a thing, that one cannot give

worse name than for

what

He

own.

It

proclaims

is

a

itself

it is.

is far

who can

its

it

advanced in the study of morals

lay his finger

on

all

tinguish pride from vanity.

the points that dis-

The

calm, dignified, imperturbable,

first is lofty,

resolute;

the

second mean, inconstant, easily swayed,

rest-

less,

unsteady.

puffs

him up.

One raises a man, the other The first is source of a thousand

virtues, the second that of nearly all vices all caprices.

There

is

and

a kind of pride in which

34

THE CYNIC are comprised

all

the

S

BREVIARY

commandments

of

God, a

kind of vanity that embodies the seven deadly sins.

Celebrity those

who do

The

known

the advantage of being

:

not

know

to

you.

love of glory a virtue

A

!

strange virtue

truly, that calls to its aid the co-operation of all

stimulants in ambition,

the vices, that finds

envy, vanity, sometimes even avarice

!

Would

Titus have been Titus had he had as his ministers Sejanus, Narcissus, and Tigellinus?

In order to forgive reason for the evil

it

has

wrought on the majority of men, we must imagine for ourselves what man would be with'Tis a necessary evil.

out his reason.

Thought If at times for that

That

ill

it

consoles us for

does you

and

it

to feel

rally admitted;

ill,

will give

all,

ask it

it

and heals for the

all.

remedy

you.

makes one think is pretty genethat to think makes one feel

finds less acceptance, but is almost as true.

35

/

THE CYNICS BREVIARY The

/

intelligence is often to the heart

library of a

mansion

what the

to the person of its

is

master.

A

BAD

man

will occasionally

do a good action.

One might say that he wishes to gives as much pleasure as honest

see whether

it

folk assert.

Stupidity would not be absolute stupidity did

it

not fear intelligence.

absolute vice did

One

it

Vice would not be

not hate virtue.

suspects the idleness of a knave and the

silence of a fool.

Generosity

All

is

the pitifulness of noble hearts.

passions are exaggerated, otherwise they

would not be passions. **

The manner

in

which

I

see

you distributing

and blame," said M. de B to a friend, * would make the best man in the world anxious praise

to be defamed."

False modesty

is

the

deceptions.

26

most

decent of

all

THE CYNICS BREVIARY There

are certain failings that preserve one

from some epidemic vices, just as noted

that

in

it

may

be

time of plague fever- stricken

patients escape contagion.

The

philosopher

who would

fain extinguish

who would

his passions resembles the chemist like to let his furnace

One

go out.

of the great misfortunes of

man

is

that

even his good qualities are sometimes useless to him, and that the art of profiting by them and governing them wisely

is

often the tardy fruit of

experience alone.

Nature be born

at

in

causing reason and the passions to

one and the same time apparently

wished by the

latter gift

the evil she had done

to distract

him by the

man from

former, and

by

only permitting him to live for a few years after

show her

pity

early deliverance from a life that reduces

him

the loss of his passions seems to

by

to reason as his sole resource.

27

THE CYNICS BREVIARY Hope

is

but a charlatan that ceases not to

For myself happiness only began it. I would fain inscribe upon the gate of Paradise the line that Dante wrote upon that of Hell—" Lasciate ogni speranza, deceive us.

when

I

had

lost

voi ch'entrate."

Our

reason sometimes makes us as unhappy

as our passions, and in such a case one can say of a

man

that he is a patient poisoned

by

his

physician.

It

is

nature's will that wise

illusions as well as fools, to the

not

made

That

too unhappy by their

tree of the

their

own wisdom.

knowledge of good and

in the Bible is a fine allegory.

to signify that

men have

end that they be

when one has

Is

it

evil

not intended

penetrated to the

depths of things, the consequent loss of illusions brings about the death of the soul— that

say a complete detachment from

and

interests other

men ? 28

all

that

is

to

moves

THE CYNICS BREVIARY The physical world appears the work of a good and mighty Being who has had to abandon the execution of part of his plan to a maleficent

Being.

But the moral world seems rather the

production of a crazy fiend's caprices.

When

I

hear

it

argued that, taking everything

into account, the least

happiest,

I

sensitive folk are the

remember the

Indian

proverb:

' Better to be seated than standing, better to be lying than seated, but better than

all else to

be dead."

Living

is

a disease from the pains of which

sleep eases us every sixteen hours

a palliative, death alone

is

;

sleep is but

the cure.

Time diminishes for us the

intensity of absolute

pleasures, to use the metaphysician's term, but

apparently

it

increases relative pleasures;

suspect that this is

able to attach

objects or

is

the artifice

men

to

life

and

by which nature

after the loss of the

pleasures which most rendered

agreeable.

29

I

it

/

THE CYNICS BREVIARY Some one tismal name

described Providence as the bap-

no doubt some pious that chance is the nickname

of chance

person will retort

;

of Providence.

M.

me,

said to

propos of his constant

d,

oiFences against digestion, in

/

which he indulged

and of the pleasures

—the only obstacles

to his

regaining his health: "I should be marvellously well

if it

were not

Nature seems

for myself."

make use

to

of

men

for the

accomplishment of her designs without concerning tyrants

herself

who

about

her

instruments,

rid themselves of those

like

who have

been of service to them.

There

is

no need to regard Burrhus as an

absolutely virtuous

man

trasted with Narcissus.

are the honest

men

;

he

is

only so, con-

Seneca and Burrhus

of an age in

which there are

none.

In order to

sum up

in a single

word the

of honest folk, a friend remarked to

30

me

rarity

that in

THE CYNICS BREVIARY society the honest

man

is

a variety of the

human

species. I USED to know a misanthrope who in his good-humoured moments would say ** I should not be at all surprised if there were an honest :

man

hidden away in some corner without any

one knowing of him."

The

thrifty

man

is

the richest, the miser the

poorest of men.

An empty

headed fellow who has a passing

flash of wit astonishes

and scandalises one as

does a cab horse at a gallop. I

SHOULD advise any one who wishes to him with

obtain a favour of a minister to accost

an

air of

melancholy rather than one of gaiety.

We do not like to

see others happier than our-

selves.

He that is precisely midway between our enemy and ourselves seems to us nearer our enemy this is but an effect of optical laws, like ;

31

THE CYNICS BREVIARY that

by which the

jet of

a fountain seems less

distant from the other side of the basin than

from that where It was

we

are standing.

said of a

man who was

always con-

up gloomy chimaeras and saw only the •' He builds dungeons

juring

dark side of everything

:

in Spain."

Madame de Rochefort was

asked

were anxious to know the future. replied,

•* it

is

if

she

"No," she

too like the past."

The new friends whom we make after attaining we would fain replace those whom we have lost, are to our old friends

a certain age and by whom

what

glass eyes, false teeth

to real eyes, natural teeth

and wooden legs are and legs of flesh and

bone.

By

learning the evil elements in nature

despise death, despise

we

by learning those of society we

life.

Society would be a charming

were only interested

in

one another. 3a

afFau: if

we

THE CYNICS BREVIARY the world," remarked some one to me,

'In

" you have three kinds of

friends

:

who do

the friends

who

love you, the friends

their

heads about you, and the friends

not trouble

who

hate

you." It must be admitted that in order to live

happy in the world there are sides to the soul which we must absolutely paralyse.

Man under present social me corrupted more by his His passions

passions.

—I

characterise the primitive for

conditions seems to

reason than by his

mean

those that

man —have

society the few natural

preserved

elements

it

still

possesses.

Speaking generally, were artificial

would not produce the great

feeling

does

;

not an and genuine

society

structure, every simple

it

effect

would give pleasure without surprise, it both surprises and Our surprise is a satire on society, our

but, as a matter of fact, pleases.

it

pleasure an act of

homage 3S

to nature.

c

THE CYNICS BREVIARY Often man of virtue

he

;

lives

lives

by himself and he has need

with others and he has need

of honour.

Are you Court, of a

the friend of a gentleman about the

man

of quality, as the saying

is,

and

do you wish to inspire in him the warmest affection of which the human heart is capable? If so,

do not confine yourself to lavishing on

him the him out

tenderest cares of friendship, to helping

him

of his troubles, consoling

tion, consecrating

in afflic-

your every moment to him,

Do

saving on occasion his hfe or his honour. not waste your time on such

do better

—^work out his genealogical

There pleasing fortune. art

trifles

is is

;

do more,

tree.

a wide-spread belief that the art of a valuable means of making one's

But

to

which gives

know how

to

be bored

far better results

;

is

an

indeed talent

making a fortune like that for succeeding with women, can almost be reduced to that

for

art.

34

a

!

:

THE CYNICS BREVIARY The

great always

vanity of the

sell

their society to the

little.

A

PHILOSOPHER who had retired from the me a letter full of good advice and common sense. It concluded with these words world wrote *•

Farewell,

my

friend

interests that bind

;

maintain

you to

the feelings that cut you

Such

is

if

you can the

society, but cultivate

away from

it."

the miserable condition of men, that

they must needs seek consolation in society for the evils of nature, and in nature for the evils of

How many have

society.

in

one

or

the

other

failed to find either

distraction

from their

troubles

WAS reproached

M.

" You see," he

my own

failings

Weakness word

all

solitary

said, "

am more

accustomed to

than to those of other people."

of character or lack of ideas, in a

that can withhold us from living a

life,

man from

I

for his love of solitude.

are things that preserve

many a

misanthropy.

35

c—

!

THE CYNIC " for

Why Madame me

S

BREVIARY

de L. should be so anxious

to visit her," said a friend to

me, "

do

I

not know, for when some time has elapsed without

my

going

I

N

ASKED M.

in general.

why he had ceased to go Because," he replied, " I no

into society.

••

longer love the

women and

Society,

The same

despise her less."

I

might be said of the world

what people

I

know

call

the men."

the

world,

is

nothing more than the war of a thousand petty

opposed vanities,

interests,

an eternal

which, turn

in

strife of all

turn wounded

humiliated one by the other, intercross, into collision,

and on the morrow expiate the

triumph of the eve in the bitterness of

To

live

the

and come

alone,

to

remain

unjostled

defeat. in this

miserable struggle, where for a moment one draws the eyes of the spectators, to be crushed

—this

a moment later

is

what

is

a nonentity, having no existence.

manity 36

called being

Poor hu»

THE CYNICS BREVIARY

What

makes the success of many books

consists in the affinity there

is

between the

mediocrity of the author's ideas and those of the public.

The

majority of the books of our time give

one the impression of having been manufactured in a day out of books read the day before.

There

are well-dressed foolish ideas just as

there are well-dressed fools.

It great

is

when

their age of passions

men produce

is after

is

past that

their masterpieces, just as

volcanic eruptions that the soil

is

it

most

fertile.

The tragic drama has the great moral drawback of attaching too high an Importance to life and death. Speron-Speroni admirably explains how himself clearly, reader.

*

It is

is

it

is

own

opinion, delivers

sometimes

obscure to his

that an author who, in his

because," he says, " the author

37

;

THE CYNICS BREVIARY proceeds from the thought to the expression, the reader from the expression to the thought."

A

MAN

many

is

not clever simply because he has

ideas, just as

he

general because he has

A

is

not necessarily a good

many

soldiers.

POETASTER asked Chamfort's opinion on a

couplet.

*'

Excellent," he said, " were

not for

it

length."

its

Some one has ancients

is

said that to plagiarise from the

play

to

the

pirate

beyond the

Equator, but that to steal from the moderns

is

to pick pockets at street corners.

An

interesting

would point out the

human

work might be compiled which

all

spirit,

the noxious ideas concerning society

and morality,

to

be

found argued or implicit in the most celebrated writings and the most highly revered authors ideas which propagate

religious

evil pohtical principles,

despotism, class pride

superstition,

and popular prejudices of every kind. 38

Such a

THE CYNICS BREVIARY work would demonstrate

that nearly all books

corrupt, and that the best do almost as

harm

much

as good.

There

writers

political

human

two

are

classes

those

;

nature on

its

of

moralists

who have

and

only seen

detestable or absurd side,

and they form the greater number

:

Lucian,

Montaigne, Labruyere, Larochefoucauld, Swift, Mandeville,

only seen like

it

Helvetius, &c.

on

its finer side

;

those

and

in its perfection

Shaftesbury and some others.

know

who have The

first

nothing of the palace, the pig-sties of

which are

all

that they have seen

are enthusiasts,

who

;

the second

turn their eyes far firom

all

that offends them, but that, none the less, exists.

Est in medio

verutn.

Physical scourges and the calamities of

human

nature

rendered

society

necessary.

Society has added to natural misfortunes.

The

drawbacks of society have made government necessary, and government adds to society's 39

THE CYNICS BREVIARY misfortunes.

There

is

the history of

humaa

nature in a nutshell.

Men's

ideas are like cards and other games.

Ideas which I remember to have seen regarded as dangerous and over-bold have since become commonplace and almost trite, and have descended to men little worthy of them. So it is that some of the ideas which to-day we call audacious will be considered feeble and conventional by our descendants.

It has been observed that writers on physics, natural history, physiology, and chemistry, are,

men of mild,

as a rule,

happy;

whilst,

politics, law,

on

equable temperament and

the

and even

melancholy cast of mind. simple:

the former

on and Nothing can be more

contrary, writers

ethics, are of a sad

study nature, the latter

work of the supreme Being, the latter confine their gaze to the work of men. The respective results must society, the former contemplate the

needs be diverse.

40

THE CYNICS BREVIARY Said a witty misanthrope to the iniquities of men, " of the

me

a propos of

only the uselessness

Deluge that preserves us from being

first

visited

It is

by a second."

There

are periods

when

public opinion

is

the

worst of opinions.

The

majority of our social institutions seem

to have as object the maintenance of

man

in

a

mediocrity of ideas and emotions, which renders

him

best fitted to govern or be governed.

There

is

no

man who can be by himself alone

so contemptible as a body of men, and there

is

no body of men that can be so contemptible as the public at large.

It

may be

argued that every public idea,

every accepted convention, for

has

it

nimiber

The

not

commended

is

a piece of stupidity,

itself to

the greatest

?

public

its right to

is

governed as

it

say foolish things, as

ministers to do them.

reasons. it is

It is

that of the

THE CYNICS BREVIARY

A

CERTAIN witty advocate remarked

would risk being disgusted justice,

and one's dinner

'Tis easier to to

make them

make

if

in the

one saw

:

"

One

politics,

making."

certain things legal than

legitimate.

Experience which enlightens private persons corrupts princes and

Had any one

told

officials.

Adam, on the day following

the death of Abel, that some centuries later there would be places where, in an enclosure of

twelve square miles, seven or eight hundred

thousand people would be concentrated, piled

one upon another, do you imagine he would have believed it possible that such multitudes could ever live together

?

Would he

not have

conceived an idea of the crimes and monstrosities that

would be committed under such conditions

much more This

is

terrible

a point

than the reality has proved

we ought

?

to bear in mind, as a

consolation for the drawbacks of these extra-

ordinary assemblages of

human beings.

4a

THE CYNICS BREVIARY

Were

a historian like Tacitus to write a

history of the best of our kings, giving an exact

account of

all

the tyrannical acts and abuses of

authority, the majority of

which

lie

buried in

the profoundest obscurity, there would be few

would not

reigns which

inspire us with the

same

horror as that of Tiberius.

Often

in early

seems absurd

we

youth an opinion or custom

to us, which, with advancing years,

some justification and so apabsurd. Ought we to conclude from

discover has

pears less

this that certain

as others?

customs are not so ridiculous

One might sometimes be tempted

to think that they were established

who had

read the book of

that they are judged their intelligence,

life

by people

through, and

by those who,

have only glanced

despite

at a

few

pages.

Like animals that cannot breathe

at a certain

altitude without perishing, the slave dies in the

atmosphere of freedom.

43

THE CYNICS BREVIARY It

unfortunate for men, fortunate perhaps

is

for tyrants, that the

poor and unhappy have not

the instinct or pride of the elephant which does not reproduce

There

itself in servitude.

no history worthy attention save nations the history of nations under

is

that of free

;

the sway of despotism

is

no more than a

collec-

tion of anecdotes.

Will

it

be believed that despotism has

its

partizans on the ground of the necessity for

The brilliancy of XIV. has to an incredible extent multiplied the number of those who think thus. According to them the crowning glory of all human society is to have fine tra-

encouraging the fine arts? the reign of Louis

and other works of art. There are those who willingly forgive all the evil wrought by priests, since without the priests we should not have had the comedy of Tartuffe. gedies, fine comedies

What scarlet,

is

a cardinal ?

who receives

He

is

a priest clad in

a hundred thousand crowns

44

— THE CYNICS BREVIARY from the king, to

flout

him

in the

name

of the

pope.

Society

is

composed of two great

who have more those who have more

those

Change It

is

appetite than dinners.

in fashion is the tax

try of the poor levies

which the indus-

on the vanity of the

an incontestable

France seven million

classes

dinners than appetite, and

rich.

fact that there are in

who beg for alms, and who are too poor to give

folk

another twelve millions

them.

The

nobility,

say the nobles,

an

is

mediary between the king and the people.

inter.

.

.

hound is the intermediary between the huntsman and the hares. Precisely; just as the

France

is

a country where

it

is

often useful

to exhibit one's vices, and invariably dangerous to exhibit one's virtues.

A

FRIEND

said

to

me h

ridiculous ministerial blunders

45

propos :

•*

If

it

of

some

were not

THE CYNICS BREVIARY for the

government,

we

should have nothing

left

to laugh at in France."

In France fire to

we

the alarm

Paris

who set who sound

leave unmolested those

the house and persecute those bell.

is

a city of gaieties and pleasures, where

four fifths of the inhabitants die of grief.

When

princes condescend to emerge from

their miserable systems of etiquette

it is

never

man of merit, but of a wench or a When women forget themselves it is love of an honest man but of a rascal.

in favour of a

buffoon.

never for

In short when people break the yoke of public opinion,

it is

rarely to rise above

to descend below

it,

nearly always

it.

One must make choice between loving women and knowing them there is no middle course. ;

Naturalists

tell

us that in

all

animal species

degeneration begins in the female.

In civilised

society philosophers can apply this observation to morals.

46

THE CYNICS BREVIARY Apparently

nature,

man

giving

in

absolutely irradicable taste for

an

women, must

have foreseen that, without this precaution, the contempt inspired by the vices of their sex, vanity in particular, would be a great obstacle to the maintenance and propagation of the

human

species.

A MAN who professed to esteem women highly was asked if he had enjoyed the favours of many. " Not so many as if I had despised them," he said.

Whatever evil a man may think is no woman but thinks more.

of

women,

there

Young women have

a misfortune which they

share with kings, that of having no friends happily they feel this misfortune as

kings

:

the latter's

pomp and

little

;

but

as the

the former's vanity

spare both that emotion.

*'

Madame de Montmorin said to her son: You are going into society I have only one :

47

THE CYNICS BREVIARY piece of advice to give you, and that love with

A

all

the

WITTY woman

of the

man

in

told

me

one day what

in

may

that every

which other women regard the

esteems herself more for her

for her

is

more

than for her beauty

She who esteems

above her sex.

more

is

is

than of her own.

The woman who

soul

it

choosing a lover takes more account

way

gifts of soul or intelligence is

to be in

women."

well be the secret of her sex:

-woman

is

herself

beauty than for her intelligence or

of her sex.

But she who esteems

for her birth or

herself

rank than for her beauty

outside her sex, beneath

Madame de Talmont,

it.

seeing

M. de Richelieu

neglecting her to pay attentions to

Madame de

Brionne, a very beautiful woman, but said to be rather stupid, remarked to blind, Marshall,

A

little

deaf."

but

I

him

:

" You are not

cannot help thinking you

"

THE CYNICS BREVIARY Mademoiselle Duth6 having lost a loVetj and the affair causing some talk, a man who called to see her found her playing the harp,

and said with surprise

"Good

:

expecting to find you

heavens!

I

was

desolated with grief."

" Ah," she exclaimed in a pathetic ought to have seen me yesterday

tone, "

you

!

A WOMAN was

at a performance of the tragedy

of Merope, and did not weep: surprise pressed.

" but

I

"

I

could cry

my

was

have to go out to supper to-night."

A YOUNG man forty,

ex-

eyes out," she saidj

was advised to ask a woman with whom he had been head over ears

love, to return his letters.

'*

I

don't suppose

she has them any longer," he said.

was the

reply,

of in

"

Oh

yes,"

" about the age of thirty womeii

begin to keep their love letters."

" He who has not seen much of demi-mondaines does not understand

women

at all," gravely re-

marked to me a fond admirer who was unfaithful to him* 49

of his

own

wife,

i>

THE CYNICS BREVIARY 1

REMEMBER

to have Seen a

man

forsaking the

Society of ballet girls because, so he said, he

had

found theni as deeeitful as hbnest women.

Someone remarked

who was

of a lady

not

venal, followed her heart's promptings, and re-

mained " She

faithful

to the object

a charming

is

tuously as

possible

i^

of her choice,

woman and outside

lives as vir-

marriage

and

celibacy."

Women

only give to friendship what they

borrow from

Love

as

it

love.

exists in society is nothing

more

than the exchange of two fancies and the contact of

two epidermes.

DucLos was

speakirig one

day df the paradise

that everyone imagines for himself in his

own

" Here are the ingredients for yours, " Wine, Duclosj" said Madame de Rochefort

\vay.

;

bread, and cheese, and the

might come on the scene."

50

first

woman who

THE CYNIC S BREVIARY Apparently love does not seek

real perfec-

tions—one might say it fears them. It only loves those which it creates or supposes, and so resembles those monarchs

who

only recognise

the great things they tbeipselves have achieved.

A

MAN

seems to

in love

who

pities the reasonable mai^

me

one

who

jeers at those

like

who

reads fairy tales and

read history.

Love resembles epidemic one fears them,

tl;e

more

diseases: the

liable is

one to

more

infection.

In witnessing or experiencing the pains

in?

separable from intense feeling in love and frien^r ship,

be

it

by the death of the loved person or

by the accidents of hfe, one is tempted to believe that dissipation and frivolity are not such great follies after all, and that life is scarce worth more than what fashionable folk make of it.

Marriage

Love for the

follows on love as

smoke on

flame,

gives greater pleasure than marriage

same reason

fimusing than history.

that

romances ^rg nnor§

THE CYNICS BREVIARY One

is

woman's dupe as

Both

that she is not yours.

we

choice of that which

For

much

not so

marriage and celibacy have their respec-

drawbacks:

tive

you can have for that you are the

of the best reasons

never marrying

shall is

be wise

not irremediable.

thirty years a certain

every evening with

we make

if

man went

Mme.

When

.

to spend his wife

died his friends believed he would marry the other, said,

my I

*•

and urged him to do if I

did,

evenings

WAS

asked

me

?

where should

I

" No, no," he

have to spend

"

sitting at dinner if

so.

beside a

man who

the lady opposite him was the wife

of the gentleman at her side. that the latter

I had noticed had not exchanged a word with

his neighbour, so I replied

pot

know her

or else she

is

:

"

He

either does

his wife."

Lord Bolingbroke gave Louis XIV.

a

tl^ousand proofs of affectionate attention difring

5?

:

THE CYNICS BREVIARY a very dangerous

The king with some

illness.

astonishment remarked

:

'