Essays, or discourses, vol. 1 (of 4)

by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo

I. Virtue and Wickedness fly with nearly the same velocity from the human eye, and are both almost equally concealed from the discernment and penetration of mankind. The first lies hid under the veil of modesty, the second behind the parapet of hypocrisy. The vicious disguises himself with the colouring of virtue, the virtuous disdains and effaces all false tints or glosses.

II. The number of hypocrites in the world is much greater than is generally imagined. There is no vice so transcendant, for all bad people are hypocrites. This may seem a paradox, and you may say to me, are there no men who make parade and ostentation of vice? I answer yes, but not of all their vices. They endeavour by their boasting to hide their confusion, and discover that part of their soul which they are unable to conceal. They place a crown on the image of vice, in order to give dignity to the figure; and although arrogant wickedness is worse than timid, the last is despised, and the first feared. An unruly passion breaks down all the fences of reserve, and the delinquent, not being able to conceal his shame and disgrace by dissimulation, endeavours by his pride and arrogance to make himself dreaded. This is practising a new hypocrisy, with which he belies and endeavours to put a trick on his own conscience. The crime appears odious in his eyes, therefore by putting on a false semblance and air of gallantry, he attempts to dazzle the eyes of other people. To protect from public insult, him, who is a notorious bad man, no other method is so effectual, as that of openly exposing his faults to the world with daring impudence.

III. But observe attentively these very people, and you will find, that although they behave with this audacity, they at the very time they are doing it, endeavour to conceal other vices they are infected with, and also to make ostentation of virtues which they do not possess. They will own they are incontinent, prodigals, ambitious, and audacious; but they blazon their gratitude to their benefactors, their steadiness in their friendships, and their fidelity to their promises. It is certain, that the vice of ingratitude is one of the most common and most vulgarised in all the world; but with all this, you will not find any man who does not take pains to justify himself on this head; and I say the same of lying, of perfidy, and of other vices. It follows then, that upon a critical enquiry, you will not find a vicious man who is not a hypocrite. We should not suppose that open and avowed profligates, or debauchees, have no other blemishes, than such as shew themselves outwardly. There is no virtue such a man would not trample upon, if it was an impediment to his pursuits, nor an opposite vice to that virtue, which he would not employ as an instrument, to gratify his ruling passion. Do you think a very lewd man, for all the boastings of his innocence in matters of justice, and in points of meum and tuum honesty, would not, if he found himself without money of his own, make use of that of another person which was confided to his keeping, to purchase the enjoyment of his favourite object? or that the ardently ambitious man, for all the vociferations of his gratitude, would not turn his back on his benefactor, whenever this baseness would be a means of recommending him to the good graces of one, who could advance him to a higher degree of preferment, than it was in the power of his old friend to procure for him?

IV. So that it is very rare to find a perverse person, who, over and above those glaring vices which manifest themselves so palpably, is not tainted with others, which he affects to hide; and in case there do not predominate in him other passions besides those, which on account of their vehemence are so very conspicuous, these of themselves are sufficient to betray him into faults, which arise from, and are the offspring of other distinct passions, when the committing those faults is indispensably necessary for attaining the objects or purposes of the ruling passion. Alexander in his natural disposition, was certainly not a cruel man, notwithstanding which, he was guilty of cruel actions; for such were the putting to death his friend Clytus, and the philosopher Calisthenes. His predominant passions were vain-glory and pride. Clytus fell a victim to the first, for having preferred the actions of Alexander’s father Philip to his; and Calisthenes fell a victim to the last, for having deterred people from idolizing Alexander as the son of Jupiter.

V. Sometimes the false appearance of a vice is put on politically, or with a view of deriving some advantage from it. A man feigns himself vindictive, when in reality he is not so, in order that the fear of his vengeance may deter people from offending. This most frequently happens, when the vice affected is meritorious in the eyes of him who rules. Sejanus would never have obtained the favour of Tiberius, by appearing a lover of justice; nor Tigilinus, nor Petronius, that of Nero, by seeming modest and continent.

VI. It is probable, that from the motive of falling in with the humour of wayward and evil-minded princes, there have been politicians who were contradictory hypocrites, and have wore the semblance of vices which their natures revolted at; and what is worse, in order to prove they were tainted with them, have put a violence on their inclinations, and although it was with reluctance, have brought themselves to commit disorders which their dispositions abhorred. When people make a merit of delinquency, instead of that hypocrisy which is properly such on account of its counteracting virtue, they study another which is the reverse of it, because it feigns vice.

VII. But these very persons will affect to appear sincere, constant, grateful, and men of veracity. There never was any man, who was not desirous of dissembling or concealing those vices, which were opposite to the virtues, which constitute what is commonly called a good man, and therefore, the hypocrites who affect the shew of these virtues are innumerable.

VIII. I do not deny, that a man’s being more under the dominion of some vices than others, depends in a great measure on his constitution, which may be compared to a soil, where some passions take deeper root, and grow more vigorous than others. This man, without attempting to restrain it, suffers himself to be carried away by incontinence, but abhors cheating: another gives himself up to gluttony and drunkenness, but looks upon perfidy with horror and indignation. Thus it is; but his enmity to these vices, lasts no longer than till he has occasion for their assistance to indulge his passion for the others. Catiline, in the early part of his life, appeared to have no other passions than those of incontinence, ostentation, and prodigality; but these vices having reduced him to poverty, and he on that account not being able to continue his pursuits of them, formed the design of tyrannizing over the republic, in order to extricate himself from indigence. In consequence of this, he became ambitious, fierce, cruel, relentless, and perfidious.

IX. I am of opinion, that nobody should put much confidence in those, who are called good sort of men, if they see them much impressed with, or under the influence of particular passions. That vice which domineers over them, is to themselves the ultimate end or object, to which they direct all their attentions; or the idol, to which, if their occasions required it, they would sacrifice all other considerations. I do not pretend that there are no exceptions to this rule; the natural abhorrence of one vice, may predominate over the inclination to commit another. But I in all cases, and at all events, would sooner place my confidence in him, who from a religious fear of God has a regard to his conscience in all his actions, than in the man, who only from his natural disposition and temperament, or from a punctilio of honour, practises those virtues, which are commonly understood to constitute the character of what the world calls a good man; temperament lets go the rein, when the ruling passion becomes impetuous, and shews an eagerness to press forward; and honour loses its influence, when it is believed the commission of the bad act will not be known. The fear of God never ceases to operate.

X. The famous Magdalen Scudery, in her book, intituled, Moral Conversations, relates a remarkable story of a man, who risqued his life for a friend in three duels; but this friend afterwards, having occasion to beg he would lend him a small sum of money which he stood in need of, he refused to comply with his request. Who would believe, that a man who on repeated occasions, had hazarded his life for his friend, would have failed him in a thing of so much less consequence? He was both covetous and intrepid, but his avarice made him consider his life as less valuable than his money. His friendship contended with his ruling passion, and the last, as the most prevalent, pressed down and stifled the finer feelings.