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Si bien que sans rien perdre, en bravant cet usage, On pourrait retrancher la moitie d'un ouvrage." "Bravo! Very good!" broke in the King, who felt the sting of the satire but could control himself. "But do you think that the Emperor will understand that at any rate as you intend it?" "If he does not understand it, then he is a blockhead...."
Le recueil de Bergeron, bon pour son temps, ne l'est plus pour le notre. Composé d'ouvrages qui contiennent beaucoup d'erreurs, nous y voudrions des notes critiques, des discussions historiques, des observations savantes; et peut-être seroit-ce aujourd'hui une entreprise utile et qui ne pourroit manquer d'être accueillie très-favorablement du public, que celle d'une édition nouvelle des voyages anciens, faite ainsi, surtout si l'on y joignoit, autant qu'il seroit possible, le texte original avec la traduction. Mais cette traduction, il faudrait qu'elle fut très-scrupuleusement fidèle. Il faudroit avant tout s'y interdire tout retranchement, ou au moins en prévenir et y présenter en extrait ce qu'on croiroit indispensable de retrancher. Ce n'est point l'agrément que s'attend de trouver dans de pareils ouvrages celui qui entreprend la lecture; c'est l'instruction. Dès le moment où vous les dénaturerez, où vous voudrez leur donner une tournure moderne et ètre lu des jeunes gens et des femmes, tout est manqué. Avez-vous des voyages, quels qu'ils soient, de tel ou tel siècle? Voil
That Madame de Sablé herself had a tolerably just idea of La Rochefoucauld’s character, as well as of his maxims, may be gathered not only from the fact that her own maxims are as full of the confidence in human goodness which La Rochefoucauld wants, as they are empty of the style which he possesses, but also from a letter in which she replies to the criticisms of Madame de Schomberg. “The author,” she says, “derived the maxim on indolence from his own disposition, for never was there so great an indolence as his, and I think that his heart, inert as it is, owes this defect as much to his idleness as his will. It has never permitted him to do the least action for others; and I think that, amid all his great desires and great hopes, he is sometimes indolent even on his own behalf.” Still she must have felt a hearty interest in the “Maxims,” as in some degree her foster-child, and she must also have had considerable affection for the author, who was lovable enough to those who observed the rule of Helvetius, and expected nothing from him. She not only assisted him, as we have seen, in getting criticisms, and carrying out the improvements suggested by them, but when the book was actually published she prepared a notice of it for the only journal then existing—the Journal des Savants. This notice was originally a brief statement of the nature of the work, and the opinions which had been formed for and against it, with a moderate eulogy, in conclusion, on its good sense, wit, and insight into human nature. But when she submitted it to La Rochefoucauld he objected to the paragraph which stated the adverse opinion, and requested her to alter it. She, however, was either unable or unwilling to modify her notice, and returned it with the following note: “Je vous envoie ce que j’ai pu tirer de ma teste pour mettre dans le Journal des Savants. J’y ai mis cet endroit qui vous est le plus sensible, afin que cela vous fasse surmonter la mauvaise honte qui vous fit mettre la préface sans y rien retrancher, et je n’ai pas craint dele mettre, parce que je suis assurée que vous ne le ferez pas imprimer, quand même le reste vous plairoit. Je vous assure aussi que je vous serai pins obligée, si vous en usez comme d’une chose qui servit
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