Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims by Bund, J. W. Willis, Friswell, J. Hain, 1825-1878, La Rochefoucauld, François duc de, 1613-1680

{Transcriber's notes: spelling variants are preserved (e.g. labour instead of labor, criticise instead of criticize, etc.); words that were italicized appear in all CAPITALS; the translators' comments are in square brackets [...] as they are in the text; footnotes are indicated by * and appear in angled brackets <...> immediately following the passage containing the note (in the text they appear at the bottom of the page); and, finally, I give corrections and addenda in curly brackets {...}.}

Rochefoucauld

"As Rochefoucauld his maxims drew From Nature--I believe them true. They argue no corrupted mind In him; the fault is in mankind."--Swift.

"Les Maximes de la Rochefoucauld sont des proverbs des gens d'esprit."--Montesquieu.

"Maxims are the condensed good sense of nations."--Sir J. Mackintosh.

"Translators should not work alone; for good ET PROPRIA VERBA do not always occur to one mind."--Luther's TABLE TALK, iii.

Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

By

Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marsillac.

Translated from the Editions of 1678 and 1827 with introduction, notes, and some account of the author and his times.

By

J. W. Willis Bund, M.A. LL.B and J. Hain Friswell

Simpson Low, Son, and Marston, 188, Fleet Street. 1871.

{Translators'} Preface.

Some apology must be made for an attempt "to translate the untranslatable." Not- withstanding there are no less than eight English translations of La Rochefoucauld, hardly any are readable, none are free from faults, and all fail more or less to convey the author's meaning. Though so often translated, there is not a complete English edition of the Maxims and Reflections. All the translations are confined exclusively to the Maxims, none include the Reflections. This may be accounted for, from the fact that most of the trans- lations are taken from the old editions of the Maxims, in which the Reflections do not appear. Until M. Suard devoted his attention to the text of Rochefoucauld, the various editions were but reprints of the preceding ones, without any regard to the alterations made by the author in the later editions published during his life-time. So much was this the case, that Maxims which had been rejected by Rochefoucauld in his last edition, were still retained in the body of the work. To give but one example, the celebrated Maxim as to the misfortunes of our friends, was omitted in the last edition of the book, published in Rochefoucauld's life-time, yet in every English edition this Maxim appears in the body of the work.

M. Aime Martin in 1827 published an edition of the Maxims and Reflections which has ever since been the standard text of Rochefoucauld in France. The Maxims are printed from the edition of 1678, the last published during the author's life, and the last which received his corrections. To this edition were added two Supplements; the first containing the Maxims which had appeared in the editions of 1665, 1666, and 1675, and which were afterwards omitted; the second, some additional Maxims found among various of the author's manuscripts in the Royal Library at Paris. And a Series of Re- flections which had been previously published in a work called "Receuil de pieces d'histoire et de litte- rature." Paris, 1731. They were first published with the Maxims in an edition by Gabriel Brotier.