"
Perhaps what the "Maximes" most resembled was the then
recently-published analysis of egotism in "Leviathan." But the cool
and atrocious periods of what Sir Leslie Stephen calls "the unblushing
egotism" of Hobbes have really little in common with the sparkling
rapier-strokes of La Rochefoucauld, except that both these moralists--
who may conceivably have met and compared impressions in Paris--
combined a resolute pessimism about the corruption of mankind with an
epicurean pursuit of happiness.
The Maxims of La Rochefoucauld were atoms of gold sifted through the
mesh of discussions at the dinner-table, around the fire in winter,
under the hawthorns and lilacs which Mme de Sevigne describes, in
endless talk between two or more trained and intelligent persons,
along the course of which thought oscillated from extreme to extreme,
until at last the company dispersed, leaving La Rochefoucauld to
capture and to fix the essential result of all that desultory
conversation. It is not impossible for us to conjecture the general
character of this brilliant and illusive talk. It had one central aim,
more or less clearly perceived, namely the desire to reach a Latin
standard of perfection.
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