their own day, Cureau de la Chambre, Coeffeteau and Senault were
considered the first of moral philosophers, but there must be few who
turn over the pages of the "Usages des Passions" now, whereas the
"Caracteres" enjoys a perpetual popularity.

The writers whom I have just named are dead, at least I presume so,
for I must not profess to have done more than touch their
winding-sheets in the course of my private reading. But there are two
moralists of the period who remain alive, and one of whom burns with
an incomparable vivacity of life. If I am asked why Pascal and Nicole
have not been chosen among my types, I can only answer that Pascal,
unlike my select three, has been studied so abundantly in England that
by nothing short of an exhaustive monograph can an English critic now
hope to add much to public apprehension of his qualities. The case of
Nicole is different. Excessively read in France, particularly during
the eighteenth century, and active always in influencing the national
conscience--since the actual circulation of the "Essais de Morale" is
said to have far exceeded that of the "Pensees" of Pascal--Nicole has
never, in the accepted phrase, "contrived to cross the Channel," and
he is scarcely known in England. Books and their writers have these
fates. Mme de Sevigne was so much in love with the works of Nicole,
that she expressed a wish to make "a soup of them and swallow it"; but
I leave her to the enjoyment of the dainty dish. As theologians, too,
both Pascal and Nicole stand somewhat outside my circle.

The three whom I have chosen stand out among the other moralists of
France by their adoption of the maxim as their mode of instruction.
When La Bruyere, distracted with misgivings about his "Caracteres,"
had made up his mind to get an introduction to Boileau, and to ask the
advice of that mighty censor, Boileau wrote to Racine (May 19, 1687),
"Maximilian has been out to Auteuil to see me and has read me parts of
his Theophrastus." Nicknames were the order of the day, and the critic
called his new friend "Maximilian," although his real name was Jean,
because he wrote "Maximes." There is no other country than France
where the maker of maxims has stamped a deep and permanent impression
upon the conscience and the moral habits of the nation. But this has
been done by La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyere, Vauvenargues, whom, did it
not sound frivolous, we might style the three great Maximilians.

The three portraits