s found in
this passing phrase, so unexpected in a soldier of that time and place.

An anecdote, preserved like a spark of light in the darkness of those
early garrison years, takes us a step further. The sentiment of
compassion was scarcely known to the early eighteenth century in
France; it was certainly never extended to those unfortunate women
who, as Vauvenargues puts it, "watch for young men as evening begins
to darken." He was himself accosted on one occasion by a girl, whom he
allowed to walk by his side while he gently questioned her. She easily
told him of the wretched poverty which had driven her to vice, and
Vauvenargues, after trying to revive in her some sentiment of modesty,
left her with the gift of a little money. His fellow-officers of the
regiment greeted the incident with shouts of mirth: such behaviour was
unheard of. Vauvenargues replied: "My friends, you laugh too easily. I
am sorry for these poor creatures, obliged to ply such a profession to
earn their bread. The world is full of sorrows which wring my heart;
if we are to be kind only to those who deserve it, we may never be
called upon at all. We must be indulgent to the weak who have more
need of support than the virtuous; and we must remember that the
errors of the unfortunate are always caused by the harshness of the
rich." M. Paleologue, in a very interesting passage, has remarked that
we have to wait a hundred years before there is a repetition in French
literature of this peculiar mansuetude.

Bearing in mind this capacity for indulgence, for pity, and
remembering how little it was conceived in the age he lived in, we may
look forward a moment to recognize that in his whole teaching
Vauvenargues differs from other moralists, but particularly from his
great predecessors in France, in that he has a constructive object. He
wishes exceedingly to help the unfortunate to live happily, easily and
profitably, and he regards almost the whole human race as more or less
unhappy. His desire, therefore, is not, as that of the
seventeenth-century moralists had been, to put human egotism in the
pillory and to pelt it with rotten eggs, but so far as possible to
encourage and affirm a decent, self-respecting egotism. Vauvenargues
finds the lock of life to be rusty; he touches it with the oiled
feather of his advice, so that the key may turn without resistance,
and without noise. He does not profess to strive after perfection in
conduct, but after improv