If he is angry and sardonic, it is because he
sees, or thinks he sees, falsehood everywhere masquerading as virtue.
His foremost duty was to pluck the mask from the false virtues which
strutted everywhere through the society and literature of France.
Voltaire recognized nothing else in La Rochefoucauld but this sardonic
misanthropy, this determination to prove that man is guided solely by
self-interest. This Voltaire thought was the _seule verite_ contained
in the "Maximes," and in a measure he was right. The moralist saw
_amour-propre_ as an Apollyon straddling right across the pathway of
mankind; he saw lies flourish everywhere, and proclaim themselves to
be the truth. The conscience of mankind was seduced or browbeaten by
the impudency of self-love. Thus--
"We have not the courage to say broadly that we ourselves have no
defects, and that our enemies have no good qualities; but as a matter
of fact that is not far from being what we think."
He believed not at all, or very faintly, in altruism. He had to sweep
away affected and therefore erroneous suppositions with regard to
morality, and particularly with regard to social motives.
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