which they fall through their crimes.

184.--We admit our faults to repair by our sincerity the evil we have
done in the opinion of others.

[In the edition of 1665 this maxim stands as No. 200. We never admit our
faults except through vanity.]

185.--There are both heroes of evil and heroes of good.

[Ut alios industria ita hunc ignavia protulerat ad famam, habebaturque
non ganeo et profligator sed erudito luxu. --Tacit. Ann. xvi.]

186.--We do not despise all who have vices, but we do despise all who
have not virtues.

["If individuals have no virtues their vices may be of use to
us."--Junius, 5th Oct. 1771.]

187.--The name of virtue is as useful to our interest as that of vice.

188.--The health of the mind is not less uncertain than that of the
body, and when passions seem furthest removed we are no less in danger
of infection than of falling ill when we are well.

189.--It seems that nature has at man's birth fixed the bounds of his
virtues and vices.

190.--Great men should not have great faults.

191.--We may say vices wait on us in the course of our life as the
landlords with whom we successively lodge, and if we travelled the road
twice over I doubt if our experience would make us avoid them.

192.--When our vices leave us we flatter ourselves with the idea we have
left them.

193.--There are relapses in the diseases of the mind as in those of
the body; what we call a cure is often no more than an intermission or
change of disease.

194.--The defects of the mind are like the wounds of the body. Whatever
care we take to heal them the scars ever remain, and there is always
danger of their reopening.

195.--The reason which often prevents us abandoning a single vice is
having so many.

196.--We easily forget those faults which are known only to ourselves.

[Seneca says "Innocentem quisque se dicit respiciens testem non
conscientiam."]

197.--There are men of whom we can never believe evil without having
seen it. Yet there are very few in whom we should be surprised to see
it.

198.--We exaggerate the glory of some men to detract from that of
others, and we should praise Prince Conde and Marshal Turenne much less
if we did not want to blame them both.

[The allusion to Conde and Turenne gives the date at which these maxims
were published in 1665. Conde and Turenne were after their campaign with
the Imperialists at the height of their fame. It proves the trut