He does not take so exalted or so pitiless
an attitude as the classic seventeenth-century moralist. Pascal
scourges the mass of humanity down a steep place into the sea;
Vauvenargues takes each wanderer by the hand, and leads him along the
primrose path.
A singular charm in the French character lies in its gift for
composite action. Frenchmen prefer marching towards victory in a body
to a scattered effort of individual energy. It was part of the
constructive genius of Vauvenargues to find the aim and joy of life in
a combination of sentiment and action, in a community of rivals
amiably striving for the crown with fellowmen of like instincts and of
like experience. He was of all moralists the least solitary; he had
spent his life as a soldier among soldiers, among those who did their
best, in the midst of hardships, to live a life of pleasure without
reflection. He was no prig, but he had formed the habit of giving
fatherly counsel which was much beyond his years. He observes that
"the advice of old men is like winter sunshine that gives out light
without warmth," but that the words of a wise and genial young man may
radiate heat and glow.
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