" His own disciple,
Brillon, tells us of La Bruyere that, "the author of the work which
this age has most admired was at least ten years writing it, and about
as long hesitating whether he would write it or not." The "Caracteres"
was finished in 1687; Brillon's estimate takes us back to 1667 or
earlier, and the brilliant success of the "Maximes" dates from 1665.
Every author imagines that he loses some dignity by being supposed to
follow the lead of another author, although the entire history of
literature is before him to show that the lamp of genius has always
been handed on from hand to hand. La Bruyere, in particular, was not
exempt from this amiable weakness, but his ghost needs feel no
displeasure if we insist on connecting him with the effort of La
Rochefoucauld.
It is very amusing to see how anxious La Bruyere is not to seem to owe
anything to La Rochefoucauld. He speaks of his own writings as "less
delicate" than those of the Duke, and in his own opening words he
declares that he has had no wish to write maxims, "which are laws in
morals," as he has no legislative authority. I suppose that in
describing the tone of La Rochefoucauld as "delicate" La Bruyere
really meant supercilious, and deprecated any idea that he, the
typical bourgeois, should seem to lay down the law like the architype
of intellectual aristocracy.
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