Part 18

XIII. Add to this, the apprehension of their deceit being detected; for they look upon all the eyes that surround them as so many spies of their enemies; and they are very well aware, with all their caution, of the difficulty of always preserving their souls impenetrable to foreign inspection; for let them be never so careful in shutting up their windows, there will ever remain, by imperceptible omissions, innumerable crevices; and although they may succeed in deceiving the multitude, there are never wanting transcendent spirits, who can discern and distinguish, whereever they meet with it, the natural from the artificial. Let affection strive to imitate reality never so industriously; one or another will make his remarks, which, although they cannot be explained, may be conceived, and may be compared to the character of a language, which, notwithstanding you comprehend it, you can’t pronounce. The very means that are taken to conceal the soul, manifest and disclose it, because the reserve or caution that is used for this purpose is visible, and it is also visible and well known, that innocent people have no need of this disguise. Every man who uses great circumspection, makes himself suspected. He who is confirmed that he possesses a good conscience, acts and speaks with openness; nor would it avail a hypocrite, to endeavour at imitating that native frankness; for he never could hit upon the true criterion of the character. Those of experience and penetration, would always be able to distinguish the copy from the original; therefore I believe, that to this day, there never was a hypocrite who succeeded in deceiving all the world.

XIV. O how much less toilsome would it be, for hypocrites to tread the path of true virtue, than to pursue that of false! The first affords intervals of ease and tranquillity to the mind, and also administers to it many comforts; but the fiction of virtue, demands a constant labour of thought, and a continual stretch of invention to save appearances. It is like a fabric built in the air, which would fall to the ground, if you neglect to keep it propped up a minute.

XV. I may be told, that with time and practice, fiction would become habitual, and then a man would find no difficulty in dissembling. Truly I doubt whether habit has power to effect so much. When art fights against the whole bent or force of nature, I don’t think the case ever happened, of the first obtaining a complete triumph; but judge rather, that the last always remains with a residue of strength, sufficient to renew the combat. It sometimes falls out with a consummate hypocrite, as it happened to the cat converted to a fine lady in the fable of Æsop. She continued to sit with much studied composure at the table, till a rat entered the room; but instantly upon the animal’s appearing, hurried away by that native impulse which supersedes all caution, she with all her might threw herself on her beloved prey, and exposed her nature to the bye-standers.

XVI. But admitting, that, by long practice in deceit, a man could overcome all difficulties; this does not obviate the mistake of the hypocrites; for with a great deal less labour, and in a much less time, he could have made virtue more familiar to him than dissimulation. The first is most conformable to the inclination of man as a rational creature, and he only acts in contradiction to this principle as a sensitive one; the last is a violence on his nature, both as a rational and as a sensitive one. In a land of virtue, the soul may be said to live at home; in that of deceit, she resides as a total stranger. She certainly then must find more fatigue and trouble in familiarizing herself to deceit, and more difficulty in making dissimulation seem natural to her than virtue.

SECT. III.

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.

SECT. IV.

XXXIV. It would affect me much, if, because I proceed to take off the mufflings and coverings of vice, the world should think me one of those suspicious geniuses, who will not give any person credit for acting from good motives, and who am always endeavouring to put sinister interpretations on the causes of other peoples conduct. Those who are intimate with me, well know, that my spirit is not diseased with that truly malignant malady; and some have remarked in me a contrary defect, to wit, that of too benevolent and charitable a criticism on the behaviour of other men. Perhaps the experience of the deceits and impositions that have been put upon me, from my easiness in crediting the appearances of virtue, have made these few reflections more obvious to me; which nevertheless, shall always rest with me in mere theory; for I am persuaded that in the practice, my natural genius, and disposition would ever prevail over them, as also my remembrance, that in the moral, it is better to err through compassion, than to do right from motives of spite and envy. I would wish to conduct my pen so delicately, that it should wound hypocrisy, without offending charity; and I would expose the artifices of hypocrites in such a way, as should not alarm or disturb the quiet of the innocent and simple.

XXXV. I will also acknowledge, that as time has helped me to discover in some people many vices, which I could not have believed; it has also assisted me to discern many virtues in others, which I had no conception of. Thus the judgment of a good-intentioned man being poised in equilibrio between reason and experience, it is easy to imagine, that his genius and disposition will incline the balance to the charitable side.

XXXVI. I have taken notice of a thing which is a little remarkable, and that is, that great virtues are less perceptible than small ones. This is derived from the exercise of them not being so frequent, and the value of them, not being generally understood. The going regularly to church, exterior modest deportment, taciturnity and fasting, are virtues, which strike the eyes of every one, because they are daily practised, and every body knows them. There are other virtues, that are more substantial, and which spring from more noble roots, that the vulgar are unacquainted with, because they are carried about by those who are masters of them, like ladies who go abroad _incog._ without the ostentatious parade and show of equipage. There are men (would to God there were more of them!) who with an open carriage, and the free correspondence and intercourse of an ordinary life, and who do not seem the least sensible or affected with mysterious niceties, that nourish within their breasts, a robust virtue and solid piety, impenetrable to the most furious batteries of the three enemies of the soul. Let Sir Thomas More, that just, wise, and prudent Englishman, whom I have always regarded with profound respect, and a tenderness approaching to devotion; I say let this man serve as an example to all men, and stand as a pattern to future ages, of all the virtues and excellencies I have been describing.