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.