o us also a certain noodle with a dull and stupid
air, but who has the keenness of a demon, and is more mischievous
than an old monkey. He is one of those figures that provoke
pleasantries and sarcasms, and that God made for the chastisement
of those who judge by appearances, and who ought to have learnt
from the mirror that it is as easy to be a wit with the air of a
fool as to hide a fool under the air of a wit. 'Tis a very common
piece of cowardice to immolate a good man to the amusement of the
others; people never fail to turn to this man; he is a snare that
we set for the new-comers, and I have scarcely known one of them
who was not caught ...

[I was sometimes amazed at the justice of my madman's observations
on men and characters, and I showed him my surprise.] That is, he
answered, because one derives good out of bad company, as one does
out of libertinism. You are recompensed for the loss of your
innocence by that of your prejudices; in the society of the bad,
where vice shows itself without a mask, you learn to understand
them. And then I have read a little.

_I._--What have you read?

_He._--I have read, and I read, and I read over and over again
Theophrastus and La Bruyere and Moliere.

_I._--Excellent works, all of them.

_He._--They are far better than people suppose; but who is there
who knows how to read them?

_I._--Everybody does, according to the measure of his intelligence.

_He._--No; hardly anybody. Could you tell me what people look for
in them?

_I._--Amusement and instruction.

_He._--But what instruction, for that is the point?

_I._--The knowledge of one's duties, the love of virtue, the hatred
of vice.

_He._--For my part, I gather from them all that one ought to do,
and all that one ought not to say. Thus, when I read the _Avare_, I
say to myself: "Be a miser if thou wilt, but beware of talking like
the miser." When I read _Tartufe_, I say: "Be a hypocrite if thou
wilt, but do not talk like a hypocrite. Keep the vices that are
useful to thee, but avoid their tone and the appearances that would
make thee laughable." To preserve thyself from such a tone and such
appearances, it is necessary to know what they are. Now these
authors have drawn excellent pictures of them. I am myself, and I