He scoffs at the Duke for making his
reflections "like oracles," so short are they and so concise; and he
is quite correct when he boasts of the extreme variety and versatility
of his own manner. He accuses La Rochefoucauld of browbeating his
readers into subjection to his thought; while, La Bruyere says, "for
my part I am quite willing that my reader should say sometimes that I
have not observed correctly, provided that he himself will observe
better." The reader, on the other hand, must not be taken in by all
this, which is very characteristic of La Bruyere's timid
self-confidence. His reputation loses nothing by our discovering that
he owes much to Montaigne and still more to La Rochefoucauld.
The link is clear, in spite of the foliage with which La Bruyere seeks
to conceal it. It could only be from La Rochefoucauld that the author
of "Les Caracteres" derived that sad disillusionment, lighted up by
flashes of savage wit, with which he expresses his sense of the
defects of human character. It may often be noted that when La Bruyere
speaks of egotism, of the prevalence of _amour-propre_, his pungent
phrases have the very sound of those of his precursor.
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