He had
the Socratic manner, and led others on to expose and expound their
views. His custom was, in the course of the endless talks about morals
and the soul, "to conceal half of his own opinion, and to show tact
with an obstinate opponent, so as to spare him the annoyance of having
to yield." There is something very like this in the "Pensees" of
Pascal. La Rochefoucauld blames himself, in his self-portrait, for
arguing too fiercely, and for being testy with an opponent, but these
faults were not perceived by other people. Doubtless he was aware of
an inward impatience, and succeeded in concealing it by means of that
extreme politeness on which he prided himself.
The "Maximes" are shocking to persons who live in a state of illusion
about themselves, and they were so from the hour of their publication.
They roll up a bitter pill for human vanity. When Mme de La Fayette,
destined to look deeper than any other mortal into the soul of La
Rochefoucauld, read them first in 1663, in company with Mme du Plessis
at the Chateau de Fresnes, she was terrified and shocked at what she
called the "corruption" which they revealed.
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