The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of
France, by Edmund Gosse

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Title: Three French Moralists and The Gallantry of France

Author: Edmund Gosse

Release Date: November 19, 2006 [EBook #19872]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THREE FRENCH
MORALISTS
AND THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE

BY

EDMUND GOSSE, C.B.

OFFICIER DE LA LEGION D'HONNEUR

LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN

TO

LORD RIBBLESDALE

_This little book, long the subject of my meditation, suddenly began
to take shape one Sunday morning when I was your guest at Gisburne. We
were actually starting for church, and the car was at the door, when I
announced to you that the spirit moved me to stay behind. "Very well,
then," you said, with your habitual good-nature, "we leave you to your
folios." My "folios" were the three volumes of one of the smallest of
books, the 18mo edition of Vauvenargues published by Plon in 1874. In
the midst of a violent thunderstorm, which was like a declaration of
war upon your golden Yorkshire summer, I wrote my first pages, and you
were so sceptical, when you came back, as to my having done anything
but watch the lightning, that I told you you would have to endure the
responsibility of being sponsor to a work thus suddenly begun in all
the agitation of the elements. So, such as time has proved it, here it
is._

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THREE FRENCH MORALISTS--

LA ROCHEFOUCAULD

LA BRUYERE

VAUVENARGUES

THE GALLANTRY OF FRANCE

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

INTRODUCTION

The object of these essays is to trace back to its source, or to some
of its sources--for the soul of France is far too complex to be
measured by one system--the spirit of gallantry which inspired