French Maxim.—The French saying quoted by "R.V." is the 223rd of Les Réflexions morales du Duc de la Rochefoucauld (Pougin, Paris, 1839). I feel great pleasure in being able to answer your correspondent's query, as I hope that my reply may be the means of introducing to his notice one of the most delightful authors that has ever yet written: one who deserves far more attention than he appears to receive from general readers in this degenerate age, and from whom many of his literary successors have borrowed some of their brightest thoughts. I need not go far for an illustration:
"Praise undeserved, is scandal in disguise,"
is merely a condensation of,
"Louer les princes des vertus qu'ils n'ont pas, c'est leur dire impunément des injures."—La Rochefoucauld, Max. 327.
I believe that Pope marks it as a translation—a borrowed thought—not as a quotation. He has just before used the words "your Majesty;" and I think the word "scandal" is employed "consulto," and alludes to the offence known in English law as "scandalum magnatum." Your correspondent will, of course, read the work in the original; in fact, he must do so per force. A good translation of Les Maximes is still a desideratum in English literature. I have not yet seen one that could lay claim even to the meagre title of mediocrity; although I have spared neither time nor pains in the search. Should any of your readers have been more fortunate, I shall feel obliged by their referring me to it.
MELANION.
Endeavour.—I have just found the following instance of "endeavour" used as an active verb, in Dryden's translation of Maimbourg's History of the League, 1684.
"On the one side the majestique House of Bourbon,... and on the other side, that of two eminent families which endeavour'd their own advancement by its destruction; the one is already debas'd to the lowest degree, and the other almost reduc'd to nothing." —p. 3.
C. FORBES.
Temple.