Volume I Part 2 (1/2)
The sanguine temperament rendered me very sensible to the attractions of voluptuousness: I was always cheerful and ever ready to pass from one enjoyment to another, and I was at the sa new pleasures Thence, I suppose, my natural disposition to make fresh acquaintances, and to break with theood reason, and never through mere fickleness The errors caused by temperament are not to be corrected, because our teth: it is not the case with our character Heart and head are the constituent parts of character; te to do with it, and, therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible of being corrected and iood or evil tendencies of my character, but such as it is it shi+nes upon my countenance, and there it can easily be detected by any physiognomist It is only on the fact that character can be read; there it lies exposed to the view It is worthy of remark that men who have no peculiar cast of countenance, and there are a great many such men, are likewise totally deficient in peculiar characteristics, and we nomy are equal to the differences in character I ahout my life my actions have received their i than froe that my conduct has been dependent upon enerally at war, and in the midst of their continual collisions I have never found in th in h of this, for there is truth in the old saying: 'Si brevis esse volo, obscurus fio', and I believe that, without offending againstwords of il:
'Nec sum adeo informis: nuper me in littore vidi cum placidum ventis staret mare'
The chief business of e reater importance I felt myself born for the fair sex, I have ever loved it dearly, and I have been loved by it as often and as reat weakness for good living, and I ever felt passionately fond of every object which excited my curiosity
I have had friends who have acted kindly towards ood fortune to have it in ratitude I have had also bitter enemies who have persecuted me, and whom I have not crushed siiven them, had I not lost the memory of all the injuries they had heaped upon ive, he only loses the reiveness is the offspring of a feeling of heroisetfulness is only the result of a weak memory, or of an easy carelessness, and still oftener of a natural desire for calm and quietness Hatred, in the course of ti it in his bosoainst , for all the fierceness of lect any of my duties For the saht not to have been brought against Houitur vini vinosus Hohly-seasoned, rich dishes, such as macaroni prepared by a skilful Neapolitan cook, the olla-podrida of the Spaniards, the glutinous codfish fro flavour, and cheese the perfect state of which is attained when the tiny anins of life As for women, I have always found the odour ofpleasant
What depraved tastes! some people will exclaim Are you not asha! Dear critics, you h heartily Thanks to my coarse tastes, I believe myself happier than other men, because I am convinced that they enhance my enjoyment
Happy are those who kno to obtain pleasures without injury to anyone; insane are those who fancy that the Als, the pains, the fasts and abstinences which they offer to Hiranted only to those who tax themselves so foolishly God can only demand from His creatures the practice of virtues the seed of which He has sown in their soul, and all He has given unto us has been intended for our happiness; self-love, thirst for praise, e can deprive us--the power of self-destruction, if, after due calculation, whether false or just, we unfortunately reckon death to be advantageous This is the strongest proof of our moral freedom so much attacked by sophists Yet this power of self-destruction is repugnant to nature, and has been rightly opposed by every religion
A so-called free-thinker told me at one time that I could not consider myself a philosopher if I placed any faith in revelation But e accept it readily in physics, why should we reject it in religious matters? The form alone is the point in question The spirit speaks to the spirit, and not to the ears The principles of everything we are acquainted with must necessarily have been revealed to those froreat, supre its hive, the s building its nest, the ant constructing its cave, and the spider warping its ould never have done anything but for a previous and everlasting revelation We must either believe that it is so, or adht But as we dare not pay such a coreat philosopher, who having deeply studied nature, thought he had found the truth because he acknowledged nature as God, died too soon
Had he lived a little while longer, he would have gone much farther, and yet his journey would have been but a short one, for finding himself in his Author, he could not have denied Hi He would have found Him inscrutable, and thus would have ended his journey
God, great principle of all minor principles, God, who is Himself without a principle, could not conceive Himself, if, in order to do it, He required to know His own principle
Oh, blissful ignorance! Spinosa, the virtuous Spinosa, died before he could possess it He would have died a learned ht to the reward his virtue deserved, if he had only supposed his soul to be immortal!
It is not true that a wish for reward is unworthy of real virtue, and throws a blemish upon its purity Such a pretension, on the contrary, helps to sustain virtue,hiratification I hold as a ood In fact, I do not believe there is an honest man alive without some pretension, and here is mine
I pretend to the friendshi+p, to the esteeratitude, if ive the ood qualities in me than faults, and I claim their friendshi+p as soon as they deeood faith hich I abandon uise and exactly as I am in reality They will find that I have always had such sincere love for truth, that I have often begun by telling stories for the purpose of getting truth to enter the heads of those who could not appreciate its char opinion ofthe purse of my friends to satisfy my fancies, for those friends entertained idle sche them the hope of success I trusted to disappointment to cure them I would deceive theuilty, for I applied to my own enjoyment sums of money which would have been lost in the vain pursuit of possessions denied by nature; therefore I was not actuated by any avaricious rapacity I uilty if I were rich now, but I have nothing I have squandered everything; it is my comfort and ant follies, and by applying it to my own frolics I did not turn it into a very different, channel
If I were deceived in ret it, but not sufficiently so to repent having written iven me pleasure Oh, cruel ennui!
It must be by mistake that those who have invented the torotten to ascribe thee the first place areat fear of hisses; it is too natural a fear forinsensible to them, and I cannot find any solace in the idea that, when these Memoirs are published, I shall be noany obligation towards death: I hate death; for, happy orwhich man possesses, and those who do not love it are unworthy of it If we prefer honour to life, it is because life is blighted by infamy; and if, in the alternative, man sometimes throay his life, philosophy must remain silent
Oh, death, cruel death! Fatal lahich nature necessarily rejects because thy very office is to destroy nature! Cicero says that death frees us froreat philosopher books all the expense without taking the receipts into account I do not recollect if, when he wrote his 'Tusculan Disputations', his own Tullia was dead Death is a reat theatre an attentive hearer before the end of the play which deeply interests hih to hate it
All my adventures are not to be found in these Meht have offended the persons who have played a sorry part therein In spite of this reserve, my readers will perhaps often think me indiscreet, and I aive up the ghost, I ht burn every one of these sheets, but now I have not courage enough to do it
It may be that certain love scenes will be considered too explicit, but let no one blaht not to be scolded because, in e, I can find no other enjoyment but that which recollections of the past afford to me After all, virtuous and prudish readers are at liberty to skip over any offensive pictures, and I think it ive them this piece of advice; so much the worse for those who may not read my preface; it is no fault of ht to know that a preface is to a book what the play-bill is to a comedy; bothpersons who, in order to avoid false steps and slippery roads, ought to spend their youth in blissful ignorance, but for those who, having thorough experience of life, are no longer exposed to teh the fire, are like salamanders, and can be scorched by it no more