XVII. There are notwithstanding, a certain species of hypocrites, who
live without fatigue, and deceive with little trouble; because the
appearances they wear of virtue, are partly owing to study, and partly
to temperament or constitution. They want some vices, and conceal
others; or the few virtues they possess, serve as a cloak or covering
to hide greater vices. Thus it may be said, that the hypocrites of whom
we spoke before, are always labouring against wind and tide, and never
get on, but by the force of hard rowing. Those of whom we are about to
speak now, are frequently assisted with a gale in their favour.
XVIII. Truly the pains the public take, to inform themselves of
the virtues of mankind, are very slight and trivial; he who stands
unimpeached in some determined particulars, may easily dispense with
a great number of virtues. Emilius, for example, is regular and
moderate in his diet, and is also modest in his conversation. He goes
frequently to, and behaves devoutly at church, and abstains from all
illicit commerce with the other sex. He needs nothing more, to make his
virtue conspicuous and reverenced by the whole town; notwithstanding
this, I know that this same Emilius, vexes his neighbours with unjust
and litigious prosecutions, and I also see him anxious after, and
solicitous to acquire honours and riches by all sorts of means.
Whatever little injury he receives, is stamped on his memory in
indelible characters; and although there is great plenty in his house,
no poor are ever seen at his door. He assists with great pleasure in
all murmurs and cabals, and especially if they are against some man
of conspicuous merit, who is likely to rival him in the estimation of
the public. He favours the unjust pretensions of his associates and
dependants; and, when applauding or condemning the actions of others
is the subject of conversation, his tongue is always guided by his
prejudices or partialities. He sets no value on the virtues of others;
and if he finds they are in any shape inconvenient or incommodious to
himself, he depreciates them. I observe his fawnings on, and cringings
to the great, and his slights and contempt of the poor. In fine, I
don’t see a movement in this man, that does not point directly or
indirectly to his own particular interest, which he seems determined to
pursue, although in the road that lends to it, he should trample under
foot, the rights and properties of other people.
XIX. With all this, the vulgar esteem him, as a just, religious, and
devout man. Those few virtues are a skreen or shelter to a great number
of vices. Ambition, avarice, envy, malice, and hatred, have built their
nests in his breast; but all this is overlooked. The false brilliancy
which glitters on the surface of his continence, and his temperance,
dazzle the eyes of the public. This seems, as if the world thought all
sin consisted in the criminal indulgence of corporeal inclinations, and
that all wickedness, was confined to the operation or exercise of two
or three senses. The devil is neither lascivious, nor a glutton, nor is
he capable of perpetrating either of those vices, because the execution
of them depends on the exertion of material powers; but he does not on
this account cease in a moral sense, to be the worst of all creatures.
XX. The injustice of this opinion, and the evils arising from it, are
most visible in the other sex. A woman by being chaste, thinks she has
complied with, and fulfilled all the duties appertaining to virtue,
and that, in consequence of her possessing this single good quality,
she may without impeachment of her conduct, be allowed to commit
every other vice with impunity. Thus having established the proofs of
her chastity, she concludes she has a right to be arrogant, envious,
passionate, and proud; and there even are women, whom the confirmation
of their fame in point of chastity has made savage and insufferable.
What plagues are such to their poor husbands, for they sell them that
fidelity at an exorbitant price, which they owe to them as a just
debt. Some authors have assigned this, as the motive of Paulus Æmilius
having procured himself to be divorced from his first wife, the noble,
chaste, beautiful, and prolific Papiria. Plutarch tells us of a Roman,
who, when his friends blamed him for having got himself divorced from a
chaste woman of great endowments, both of body and mind, pulled off one
of his shoes, and shewing it to them, said, _You see this shoe is new,
handsome, and well made; but perhaps that is the very reason why it
wrings and pinches my foot_. By which he meant to insinuate, that the
accomplishments of his wife made her proud and insufferable.
XXI. I must confess, that I have no patience with the distinction
the world makes between vices appertaining to the same species, only
because of the different methods which are used in the execution of
them. He is not only esteemed a thief, but a most vile and base man,
who clandestinely enters another’s house, and robs it of money and
goods; and why does not he deserve to be stigmatized with the same
epithets, who by making an unjust demand, or by using frauds, usurps
another’s property. The trader, for instance, who takes more than a
fair profit on his goods, or deceives with regard to the quality of
what he sells; or the man in office, who demands or receives more than
his due, or than his trouble deserves; and, above all, the judge who
suffers himself to be bribed; I say, what difference is there between
this first and last class of people? They are all cheats and robbers;
and God will punish them all in the same manner, not regarding the
means they used to impose on, but in proportion to the injury they
did their neighbours. Notwithstanding all this, vast numbers of these
people pass for very good christians; and not only so, but if they pray
much, and count over many rosaries, hear mass every day, and have the
insolence to frequent the sacraments, they are venerated as illustrious
patterns of virtue.
XXII. But for all these may appear an heterogeneous or monstrous
compound of virtue and vice, there is nothing belonging to them, which
may not be supposed conformable to nature. Virtues and vices have
the same root or origin, that is, the temperament or constitutions
of mankind. Thus as there is no soil so inhospitable as to produce
nothing but poisonous plants, neither is there any disposition so
vitiated as to nourish nothing but perverse inclinations. In no
individual is nature such an enemy to reason, as to oppose it in every
thing. This man is urged by gluttony, but not incited by incontinence.
Another burns with impatience to be rich, and knows no other happiness
than that of possessing vast treasure. A third is swayed by pride and
vain-glory; and provided he receives the homage he expects, no other
passion disturbs him.
XXIII. To this we may add, that vice being very ugly and deformed,
every one abhors those vices, that do not correspond, or fall in with
his own inclinations, and is consequently led to admire those virtues
with which they are contrasted. From hence it is common for men to be
reciprocally offended and scandalized with the actions of each other.
We see the faults of others in their proper shape and colours, and
our own in the delusive form in which our appetites represent them to
us. In the first we view the horrible, in the second the delectable.
The picture which passion draws of vice, resembles that which was
painted by Apelles of Antigonus. That monarch had but one eye, and
the ingenious painter, to hide the blemish, drew him in profile, and
exhibited only that part of his face in which there was no defect.
Thus passion exposes to our view the flattering side only of our own
vices; and conceals the deformed, but takes a quite opposite method in
inspecting those of other people.
XXIV. I contemplate sometimes, but not without emotions of laughter,
how the covetous man appears disgusted with, and to nauseate the
incontinent one; and how the incontinent man, looks with horror and
abomination on the avaricious one. All this happens, by the first not
being stimulated by carnal desires; and the second not being diseased
with the dropsical thirst of gold. Every man has his strong and his
weak side, or may be said to be made of brass in one part, and glass
in another; but every man, by excusing himself on the pretext of hiss
own fragility, is not aware, that all others have the same right to
disculpate themselves in the same manner; and if we were to make
the proper reflection on this matter, we should not be such severe
critics on the actions of our neighbours. Envy would be converted to
compassion, and that which at present inflames hatred, would beget
charity.
XXV. It is a common error, to apply to determined or particular
species of sins only, the excuse of the frailty of human nature. This
frailty as transcendent in all the passions, intervenes in all kinds
of slips. There is no vice, which has not its natural fermentation in
the complexion of the individual. The disorders which are the most
distant from, or opposite to the reasonable faculties, find their
patronage in the sensible ones. I confess I cannot comprehend, how in
our nature, there can be contained geniuses so perverse, that they
should take pleasure in doing mischief to other people, when by the
act, no sensible good can result to themselves. With all this, it is
certain that there are such people, and it is also certain, they behave
in this manner, because they are under the dominion of this villainous
disposition. But observe of what this frailty is compounded. If their
malignant conduct did not afford them some considerable delight, they
would not for the sake of indulging it run the hazard of incurring the
public hatred.
XXVI. But it is proper to remark, that these men of whom we have
been speaking, and who are compounded of virtue and vice, are not
what they seem to be by their outside appearance. I mean, that even
the virtues they are supposed to possess, will upon enquiry be found
not so properly to deserve the name of virtues, as that of the mere
want or absence of vices. Observe Chrysantus: he abstains from
all commerce with the other sex; and you may be led to think, this
abstinence proceeds from virtue; but you would mistake, for it is
the effect of insensibility; he has no stimulus which incites him to
desire women, and therefore we may conclude, there is no more merit
in his continence, than may be imputed to the trunk of a tree. If
his abstinence had been the effect of his fear of God, he would not
have been so inattentive to his conscience in other respects. Observe
Aurelius: he is very sparing and moderate in his diet, both with regard
to eating and drinking. You may conclude this proceeds from temperance;
no such thing: Aurelius wants an appetite; the case of him, in this
respect, is like that of a man in a fever, who forbears to eat, because
he is not able; but you see, he is capable of swallowing all the goods
and money he can lay his hands on; from whence we may suppose, that
if his stomach was as voracious as his heart, he would be another
Heliogabalus.
XXVII. These are hypocrites by constitution; and temperament compleats
in them, what study does in other people; theirs is not virtue, but
only the semblance or image of it, although it is an image which is not
formed by art, but nature.
XXVIII. I have heard it said, that in the court of Rome, when they
deliberate about the canonization of a saint, the point they examine
with, the greatest caution and nicety, is that of disinterestedness,
but when the proof of this excellence is once established, they are
not so prolix in their other enquiries; but abstracted from whether
this is, or is not their mode of proceeding, it appears to me a very
rational one on two accounts; the first is, that disinterestedness
does not depend, or depends very little and remotely, on constitution;
and therefore we should conclude, this good quality is more an
acquisition of virtue, than a gift of nature. The second is, because
this excellence may be supposed to imply or contain in it many others.
The reason is, money being the means with which men gratify all their
passions, it may be said to serve as an auxiliary and assistant to
every kind of vice; and a man’s not being greedy of money, is a token
that he is of greatly under the dominion of vice. Avarice is under the
controul of, and made the hackney implement of all other vices. The
incontinent man seeks money to indulge his carnal desires; the glutton
to satiate his intemperate and beastly appetite; the ambitious man to
attain promotion; and the vindictive one to revenge himself of, and
destroy his enemy. The same may be said of all other things. He then
who is not anxious for money, we may conclude, is not tainted with
those vices; or we may at least take disinterestedness, to be the best
and most certain indication of virtue.
XXIX. Those who are idolizers of applause, are not good, but great
spirits. Enamoured with the beauty of human glory, they either are not
diseased or infected with the other passions, or disdain to subject
themselves to their controul. In the republic of vices also, there are
distinctions of classes, and some usurp to themselves, without any just
pretension to it, the rank of nobility. This presumption produces the
utility, of their disdaining to mix with others of inferior order. As
one of this last sort we may reckon avarice, and thus the vain-glorious
man will always be upon his guard to avoid falling into this meanness.
XXX. I am persuaded, that if we were to investigate nicely, the cause
or origin, of all the heroic actions that are to be met with in the
profane annals, we should find many more children of vice, than of
virtue among them. The anxious hope of reward, has been the occasion
of winning more battles, than the love we bear to our country. How
many triumphs have been owing to emulation and envy! Alexander was
stimulated by the glory of Achilles, Cæsar by that of Alexander; and
Pompey, when he gave battle, had his attention more fixed on the
victories of Cæsar, than the troops of the enemy. Many have done
great things, from much more criminal incitements; for they have made
their obsequies a ladder, wherewith to ascend to tyranny. How many
have served a state, with a view of making the state subservient to
themselves, and have first made it victorious, in order afterwards to
enslave it! This was frequent and common among the most celebrated men
of Greece. For this reason, eminent services to the republic became
so suspicious in Athens, that they devised the law of ostracism to
punish them as crimes; and they condemned to banishment, those who
distinguished themselves by their great and conspicuous actions.
XXXI. You see the same thing happen with regard to services done to
private people, that you do in those rendered to a state, which is,
that we frequently attribute to motives of fidelity and affection, what
the person employed, executed only with an eye to his own interest;
but when the dependence ceases, the real or true motive immediately
displays itself.
XXXII. So that upon making it just estimate of things, we shall find,
that the world is full of hypocrites; some who wear the deceitful
appearance of particular virtues, and others who are dissemblers with
respect to all of them. The emperor Frederic the third said, as we are
told by Æneas Silvius, that there was not any man whatever, who had not
a spice of the hypocrite in his composition.
XXXIII. We should not approve, or adopt so severe a judgment; but it
would be necessary in my opinion, that all princes should partake of
the doubt or distrust of Frederic; for they are those who are most
abused by, and the least aware of hypocrites. There is scarce any one,
who lays himself quite open when he is before them. The same who are
free and unreserved among their equals, are hypocrites in the presence
of their superiors; and there is hardly a man, who, prior to his
appearing before the person who commands him, does not daub his soul
all over with washes, and give false colourings to his spirit, in the
same manner, that a strumpet paints her face before the goes abroad,
and exhibits herself to public view. Momus wished there was a window
in the breast of man, whereby to discover the secrets of the bosom;
but I should be contented with a door, of which the owner should keep
one key, and his superior the other. These however are all flights of
fancy. What reason dictates is, that the works of God are perfect.