age to virtuous people. He
is doubtful also whether it is not better to be damned than to be nothing:
for it might be that the damned are fools, capable of clinging to their
state of misery owing to a certain perversity of mind which, he maintains,
makes them congratulate themselves on their false judgements in the midst
of their misery, and take pleasure in finding fault with the will of God.
For every day one sees peevish, malicious, envious people who enjoy the
thought of their ills, and seek to bring affliction upon themselves. These
ideas are not worthy of contempt, and I have sometimes had the like myself,
but I am far from passing final judgement on them. I related, in 271 of the
essays written to oppose M. Bayle, the fable of the Devil's refusal of the
pardon a hermit offers him on God's behalf. Baron Andre Taifel, an Austrian
nobleman, Knight of the Court of Ferdinand Archduke of Austria who became
the second emperor of that name, alluding to his name (which appears to
mean Devil in German) assumed as his emblem a devil or satyr, with this
Spanish motto, _Mas perdido, y menos arrepentido_, the more lost, the less
repentant, which indicates a hopeless passion from which one cannot free
oneself. This motto was afterwards repeated by the Spanish Count of
Villamediana when he was said to be in love with the Queen. Coming to the
question why evil often happens to the good and good to the wicked, [442]
our illustrious author thinks that it has been sufficiently answered, and
that hardly any doubt remains on that point. He observes nevertheless that
one may often doubt whether good people who endure affliction have not been
made good by their very misfortune, and whether the fortunate wicked have
not perhaps been spoilt by prosperity. He adds that we are often bad
judges, when it is a question of recognizing not only a virtuous man, but
also a happy man. One often honours a hypocrite, and one despises another
whose solid virtue is without pretence. We are poor judges of happiness
also, and often felicity is hidden from sight under the rags of a contented
poor man, while it is sought in vain in the palaces of certain of the
great. Finally the author observes, that the greatest felicity here on
earth lies in the hope of future happiness, and thus it may be said that to
the wicked nothing happens save what is of service for correction or
chastisement, and to the good nothing save what ministers to their greater
good. Thes