XIII. But the principal mischiefs that are produced by lies, which are
called jocose and officious, do not only happen by accident, but such
lies have in their own nature, a tendency to bring on those mischiefs.
Of this sort are all flattering lies. Of the many apophthegms we meet
with, that have been severe upon liars, there is no one seems to me
to be better pointed, than that of Bion one of the seven wise men
of Greece. He being one day asked, what animal he esteemed the most
pernicious? answered, that to the world at large it was a tyrant, and
in private life, a flatterer. For so it is, that flattery always, or
nearly always, is pernicious to the person to whom it is addressed.
The same man, who if the incense of unmerited applause was not offered
to him, would be gentle, prudent, and modest, would by the application
of it, be corrupted to such a degree, as to become proud, fierce,
intolerable, and ridiculous. It is not one man only, that a flattering
lie may be the undoing of, but it is also capable of ruining a whole
kingdom; and this is a fatality that has often happened. Many princes,
who have had a portion of the taint of ambition in their compositions,
if there had not been those about them, who fomented this evil tendency
of their minds, would have led happy and peaceable lives, but upon
being persuaded by a flatterer, that their greatest glory consisted in
adding new dominions to their crown, have become bloody scourges, both
to their own subjects, and those of their neighbours.
XIV. The great Louis the Fourteenth, was without doubt, endued with
excellent qualities; and was blessed with a sufficient understanding,
to distinguish in what the most solid glory of a king consisted, and
to be convinced, that it consisted in making his subjects happy.
Notwithstanding which, through the whole of his dominions, the bulk of
his people were oppressed, and groaned under the intolerable weight of
the taxes, he found it necessary to load on them, in order to support
the vast expences of the many wars he engaged in; to which grievance,
might be added the lamentation and grief that was produced, by the loss
of the infinite quantity of French blood that had deluged the fields in
his quarrels. From whence did all this mischief proceed? Why from the
venomous influence of poisonous flatterers, who persuaded him, that his
greatest glory consisted in extending his dominions by his arms, and in
making himself dreaded by all the neighbouring powers. They not only
persuaded him to this, but even intimated to him, that these were the
most effectual means, to render his own kingdom happy and flourishing.
A flattering poet carried his servile complaisance so far, as to sing
in his ear, that by pursuing this conduct, he would not only make his
own people happy, but would make those so likewise, whom he conquered;
and that they would hug the chains, with which he bound the little
liberty they ever possessed; and what was beyond all the rest, this
fulsome poet, went so far as to assert, that his desire of making them
happy, was his only motive for bringing them under his yoke.
_Il regne par amour dans les Villes conquises,_
_Et ne fait des sujets que pour les rendre heureux._
In the idea of this poet, desolating his own country by excessive
contributions, carrying fire and sword into the territories of his
neighbours, and sacrificing men by tens of thousands on the altars of
Mars, is the most effectual way to make people happy; and that it is
the great glory of a monarch, to be the pest of his own dominions, and
those of all his neighbours. To these extravagant lengths has flattery
been carried, and such are the unhappy effects it has produced.
XV. A flattering lie in private life, is not capable of doing so much
mischief, if we consider it as standing by itself; but the mischief
is infinitely extensive, that results from many of those lies put
together; as the use of them is so general, that their numbers are
nearly infinite. A learned modern French author, says, that the
practice of the world, is made up of people’s occupying themselves
continually in circulating false complaisance. Mankind depend
reciprocally upon each other; and the poor man not only flatters the
rich one, but the rich one flatters the poor one in his turn. The poor
man courts the rich one, because he has need of his contributions;
and the rich one endeavours to conciliate himself with the poor man,
because he cannot subsist without the aid of his labour. The money they
all go to market with, to gain and purchase the hearts of each other,
is coined from the bullion of flattery; which is the falsest money that
can be circulated, because in consequence of trafficking with it in
this vile commerce, all sides are cheated.