The "Maximes" of Mme de
Sable and those of the Abbe Esprit--the latter contained in a
Jansenist volume called "The Falsity of Human Virtues"--were published
independently, but in the same year, 1678. Any one who has the
patience to refer to these works may satisfy himself that Mme de
Sable, as an artist, is superior to Esprit, but immeasurably inferior
to La Rochefoucauld, who is the one unapproachable master of the
maxim.[3]
[Footnote 3: A good deal of the prejudice which successive
critics, and (very mischievously) Brunetiere in particular,
have shown with regard to the character of La Rochefoucauld,
is due, in my opinion, to the influence of Victor Cousin,
who published, in 1854, a disjointed and diffuse, but in
many ways brilliantly executed volume on Mme de Sable.
Cousin, who examined, for the first time, a vast array of
MS. sources, deliberately lowered the value of La
Rochefoucauld in order to enhance the merit of the lady, of
whom the learned academician wrote like a lover. Even Esprit
was thrown into the scale to lighten the weight of the
Duke's originality.
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