"Writing grows a habit, like a woman's gallantry. There are
women who have had no intrigue, but few who have had but one
only; so there are millions of men who have never written a
book, but few who have written only one."--_Observations upon
an Article in Blackwood's Magazine_; _Byron's Works_, vol. xv.
p. 87, Moore's Edition, 17 vols duod. London, 1833.
Both the silence of the author, and the blunder of his editor, seem
to me to prove that _Les Maximes_ are not as _generally_ known and
studied as they deserve to be.