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Updated: July 15, 2025
What cosmetics are to the face wit is to the temper; and, after all, there is no wisdom like that which teaches us to forget." "Come then," said Bolingbroke, rising, "we will lock up these papers, and take a melancholy drive, in order that we may enjoy mirth the better by and by." BOULAINVILLIERS! Comte de St. Saire! What will our great-grandchildren think of that name? Fame is indeed a riddle!
"Come," cried Anthony Hamilton, "this will never do: compliments are the dullest things imaginable. For Heaven's sake, let us leave panegyric to blockheads, and say something bitter to one another, or we shall die of /ennui/." "Right," said Boulainvilliers; "let us pick out some poor devil to begin with. Absent or present? Decide which."
Let us vow, therefore, never to keep company with asses!" "Bravo, Count," said Boulainvilliers, "you have put the true moral on the story. Let us swear by the ghost of Philemon that we will never laugh at an ass's jokes, practical or verbal." "Then we must always be serious, except when we are with each other," cried Chaulieu.
Into this mould he has poured some of his finest materials; and in such pieces as Le Dîner du Comte de Boulainvilliers and Frère Rigolet et l'Empereur de la Chine one finds the concentrated essence of his whole work. Equally effective and equally characteristic is the Dictionnaire Philosophique, which contains a great number of very short miscellaneous articles arranged in alphabetical order.
"Who would have thought one could have found so much morality in a plate of asparagus! Taste this salsifis." "Pray, Hamilton," said Huet, "what jeu de mot was that you made yesterday at Madame d'Epernonville's which gained you such applause?" "Ah, repeat it, Count," cried Boulainvilliers; "'t was the most classical thing I have heard for a long time."
"It is the first time," answered Bolingbroke, "that I ever heard so accomplished a courtier as Count Hamilton repine, with sincerity, that he could not bare his bosom to inspection." "Ah!" cried Boulainvilliers, "but vanity makes a man show much that discretion would conceal." "/Au diable/ with your discretion!" said Hamilton, "'tis a vulgar virtue.
"It is true," said Hamilton; "and your remark, which affects to be so deep, is but a natural corollary from the hackneyed maxim that from experience comes wisdom." "But, for my part," said Boulainvilliers, "I think Tacitus is not so invariably the analyzer of vice as you would make him. Look at the 'Agricola' and the 'Germania."
At the time I refer to, wit, learning, grace all things that charm and enlighten were supposed to centre in one word,/Boulainvilliers/! The good Count had many rivals, it is true, but he had that exquisite tact peculiar to his countrymen, of making the very reputations of those rivals contribute to his own.
"My language is my own; my sentiments are those of all men," answered Hamilton: "but are we not, by the by, to have young Arouet here to-night? What a charming person he is!" "Yes," said Boulainvilliers. "He said he should be late; and I expect Fontenelle, too, but he will not come before supper. I found Fontenelle this morning conversing with my cook on the best manner of dressing asparagus.
Nevertheless they were not discouraged, nor neglected among us; almost all princes continued to consult them. I have not the honour of being a prince; but the celebrated Count of Boulainvilliers and an Italian, named Colonne, who had much prestige in Paris, both foretold that I should die infallibly at the age of thirty-two.
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