subjection.... Let us rend
the melancholy veil which hides from our eyes the eternal chain of the
world and the glory of the Creator.... External objects form ideas in
the mind, these ideas form sentiments, these sentiments volitions, these
volitions actions in ourselves and outside of ourselves. So noble a
dependence in all the parts of this vast universe must conduct our
reflections to the unity of its principle; this subordination makes the
true greatness of the beings subordinated. The excellence of man is in
his dependence; his subjection displays two marvellous images--the
infinite power of God, and the dignity of our own soul.... Man
independent would be an object of contempt; the feeling of his own
imperfection would be his eternal torture. But the same feeling, when we
admit his dependence, is the foundation of his sweetest hope; it reveals
to him the nothingness of finite good, and leads him back to his
principle, which insists on joining itself to him, and which alone can
satisfy his desires in the possession of himself.'[47]

Vauvenargues showed his genuine healthiness not more by a plenary
rejection of the doctrine of the incurable vileness and frenzy of man,
than by his freedom from the boisterous and stupid transcendental
optimism which has too many votaries in our time. He would not have men
told that they are miserable earth-gnomes, the slaves of a black
destiny, but he still placed them a good deal lower than the angels. For
instance: 'We are too inattentive or too much occupied with ourselves,
to get to the bottom of one another's characters; _whoever has watched
masks at a ball dancing together in a friendly manner, and joining hands
without knowing who the others are, and then parting the moment
afterwards never to meet again nor ever to regret, or be regretted, can
form some idea of the world_.'[48] But then, as he said elsewhere: 'We
can be perfectly aware of our imperfection, without being humiliated by
the sight. _One of the noblest qualities of our nature is that we are
able so easily to dispense with greater perfection._'[49] In all this we
mark the large and rational humaneness of the new time, a tolerant and
kindly and elevating estimate of men.

The faith in the natural and simple operation of virtue, without the aid
of all sorts of valetudinarian restrictions, comes out on every
occasion. The Trappist theory of the conditions of virtue found no
quarter with him. Mirabeau for instance com