[XXVII].—The praise bestowed upon us is at least useful in rooting us in the practice of virtue. (1665, No. 155.)
[XXVIII].—Self-love takes care to prevent him whom we flatter from being him who most flatters us. (1665, No. 157.)
[XXIX].—Men only blame vice and praise virtue from interest. (1665, No. 151.)
[XXX].—We make no difference in the kinds of anger, although there is that which is light and almost innocent, which arises from warmth of complexion, temperament, and another very criminal, which is, to speak properly, the fury of pride. (1665, No. 159.)
[XXXI].—Great souls are not those who have fewer passions and more virtues than the common, but those only who have greater designs. (1665, No. 161.)
[XXXII].—Kings do with men as with pieces of money; they make them bear what value they will, and one is forced to receive them according to their currency value, and not at their true worth. (1665, No. 165.)
[See Burns{, For A' That An A' That}— "The rank is but the guinea's stamp, {The} man's {the gowd} for a' that." Also Farquhar and other parallel passages pointed out in Familiar Words.]
[XXXIII].—Natural ferocity makes fewer people cruel than self-love. (1665, No. 174.)
[XXXIV].—One may say of all our virtues as an Italian poet says of the propriety of women, that it is often merely the art of appearing chaste. (1665, No. 176.)
[XXXV].—There are crimes which become innocent and even glorious by their brilliancy,* their number, or their excess; thus it happens that public robbery is called financial skill, and the unjust capture of provinces is called a conquest. (1665, No. 192.)