The running Title which Mr. de la Bruyere has given to his Book does, by no Means, square with the several Parts of it. With Relation to my present Purpose I observe, that, strictly speaking, this Performance is, but in Part, of the Characteristic-Kind. The Characters, which are interspers’d in it, being reducible to a very narrow Compass, and the main Body of it consisting of miscellaneous Reflexions. And these are not confin’d, as is pretended, only to the present Age, but extend themselves both to past and present Times. So that if Mr. de la Bruyere had, with his View, chosen another Title for his Book, tho’ it wou’d not have been so uncommon, yet wou’d it have been more proper than the present Title; and the Performance it self wou’d then, in some Measure, have less deserv’d Censure.
Tho’ Mr. de la Bruyere’s Work is not perfect in that Kind, in which it is pretended to excel, it must nevertheless be confess’d, that it has many Beauties and Excellencies. To deny this, wou’d be an Affront to the Judgment of the Gentlemen of the French Academy: But yet our Complaisance ought not, cannot go so far, as to prejudice our own Judgment. We cannot think, as [X]some of ’em did, that Mr. de la Bruyere has excell’d Theophrastus, the great Original which he propos’d to himself. Mr. de la Bruyere had a more modest Opinion of himself: He wou’d have been proud of the Title of little Theophrastus. And in Truth, it deserves no small Share of Praise, to come up to Theophrastus in any Degree of Comparison.—If then Mr. de la Bruyere has committed some Faults, ’tis nothing but what others have done, both before and since him: But if he has, as I have already allow’d him to have, some considerable Beauties; ’tis more than a great many other Authors have, tho’ of greater Bulk: And these Excellencies ought in Justice to be admitted as some Excuse for those Defects.
[SECT. V.]
THEOPHRASTUS has not only prevented, but he has also out-done the Moderns in Characteristic-Writings. Yet Mr. de la Rochefoucault had an extraordinary Genius. He seems to be the only one, amongst all the Moderns, who was equal to so great a Work. He had studied Man in himself; and, in a small Collection of moral Reflexions, he has laid open the various Forms and Folds of that Heart, which by Nature is deceitful above all Things. He has given us, as it were, the Characters of all Mankind, by discovering those secret Springs of Self Love, which are the Source of all our Actions.—Self Love is born with us; and this great Author has shewn, that there is no Principle in human Nature so secret, so deceitful: ’Tis so Hypocritical, that it frequently imposes on it self, by taking the Appearances of Virtue for Virtue it self. It borrows all the Disguises of Art: It appears in a thousand Forms, and in a thousand Shapes; but yet the Principle of Error is still the same.
——[Y]Velut Silvis ubi passim
Palantes Error certo de Tramite pellit,
Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit: unus utrique
Error, sed variis illudit Partibus.
As Men that lose their Ways in Woods, divide,
Some go on this, and some on t’other Side.
The Error is the same, all miss the Road,
Altho’ in different Quarters of the Wood.
Mr. Creech.
’Tis true Mr. de la Rochefoucault’s Design was too general, and his Piece cannot properly be reckoned among Characteristic-Writings. But tho’ he did not professedly write Characters, yet this Work shews that he was very able to do it; and it may be of very great Service to those, who wou’d attempt any thing in this Kind.
I have often wonder’d that no English Writer has ever professedly attempted a Performance in the Characteristic-Way. I mean, such a profess’d Performance, as wou’d extend it self to the different Conditions of Men, and describe the various Ends which they propose to themselves in Life; as wou’d take in the chief Branches of Morality and Behaviour, and, in some Measure, make a compleat Work: For as to loose Attempts and Sketches in this Kind, there are many Years since we had some; the most considerable of which, I mean of those that bear the Title of Characters, are printed together with Sir Thomas Overbury’s Wife. These are said to have been written, partly by that unfortunate Knight, and partly by some of his Friends. And if the Editor had not taken Care to give us this Notice, yet still that great Disparity which appears but too visibly in them, wou’d manifestly prove that they were compos’d by very different Hands.— There are, I confess, many good Things to be met with in these Characters, but they are very far from making a compleat Work: And really this was not intended. Besides, nothing can possibly be more contrary to the Nature of Characteristic-Writings, than the corrupted Taste which prevail’d in the Age. A continued Affectation of far-fetch’d and quaint Simile’s, which runs thro’ almost all these Characters, makes ’em appear like so many Pieces of mere Grotesque; and the Reader must not expect to find Persons describ’d as they really are, but rather according to what they are thought to be like.
This Censure may be thought hard; but yet it leaves Room for some Exceptions: And that I may do Justice to Merit, where it is really due, I shall here set down one of those Characters, which seem’d to me to be exquisite in its Kind. And this I shall the rather do, because the Book it self is not in every body’s Hands. The Image is taken from low Life; ’tis a beautiful Description of Nature in its greatest Simplicity, and ’tis the more beautiful because ’tis natural.