side or another. We may note that the years during
which the "Maximes" were being composed were precisely those during
which Bossuet was thundering from the pulpit his anathemas against
worldly luxury and the pride of life. The period marked at one
extremity by "L'Amour des Passions" (1660) and at the other by the
"Grandeurs Humains" (1663) is precisely that in which the lapidary art
of La Rochefoucauld was most assiduous. The church was advocating
asceticism and humility with all its authority, and was leading up
towards the later phase of the fanatical despotism of Louis XIV.'s old
age, with all its attendant hypocrisy. For the moment, in the
struggle, La Rochefoucauld, though no _devot_, would seem a friend of
the church rather than a foe, and in fact he retained the intimacy of
Bossuet, in whose arms he died. We may be sure that he guarded himself
with delicate care from the charge of being what was then called a
"libertine," that is a man openly at war with the theory and practice
of the theologians.

It is said that La Rochefoucauld invented[7] the word "vraie," "true,"
to describe the character of Mme de La Fayette. His intimacy with this
illustrious lady is one of the most beautiful episodes in the history
of literature, and perhaps its purest example of true friendship
between the sexes. The phrase we have already quoted shows that in
1663 the two great writers were acquainted but not yet intimate. Marie
de la Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette, was in her thirtieth year, La
Rochefoucauld had completed his fiftieth when some cause which remains
obscure drew them together with a tie which death alone, after
seventeen wonderful years of almost unbroken association, was to
sever. There was no scandal about it, even in that scandal-mongering
age. The astute Mile de Scudery, writing to her gossip Bussy Rabutin
(December 6, 1675), says, "Nothing could be happier for her, or more
dignified for him; the fear of God on either side, and perhaps
prudence as well, have clipped the wings of love." Twelve years
before, when Menage had repeated to her some critical remarks about
her novel, "La Princesse de Montpensier," Mme de La Fayette had
replied, "I am greatly obliged to M. de la Rochefoucauld for his
expressions. They are the result of our similarity of experience, 'de
la belle sympathie qui est entre nous.'"

[Footnote 7: Mme de Sevigne seems not to have known this
when, in writing to her daughter (July 19, 167