st of an elder brother and the affection of a devoted
friend. We can trace the progress of the sentiment, in which are fully
revealed for the first time the peculiar qualities of our author's
mind. He does not conceal from himself the weaknesses of the character
of De Seyres, he blames him for his lack of suppleness, of simplicity
of manner, of self-confidence. He found in him a proud and delicate
spirit which exaggerated its own frailties and shrank morbidly from
their consequences. He was anxious that the spirit of the young man
should not be debased by low associations; he did not think the
slightly older officers who surrounded De Seyres to be wholesome
companions for him. The lad displayed a lack of moral force; he hoped
to succeed less by his own exertions than by the favour of others; he
was in despair over his own faults without having the energy to
correct them. It is in writing about De Seyres that Vauvenargues first
defines his central axiom, that the only sources of success are
virtue, genius and patience. He observed the lack of them all in De
Seyres, and his incapacity for expansion made his case the more
difficult to handle. "Son coeur est toujours serre," Vauvenargues
exclaims. But he nourished a deep and ever-deepening affection for
this sensitive lad, and became desirous, almost passionately desirous,
to lead him up to better things from out of the mediocrity of his
present associations.

It appears certain to me that it was the study expended on the
character of Hippolyte de Seyres and the shock received by his
dreadful death which gave the earliest expansion to the genius of
Vauvenargues and left their definite mark on his writings. I do not
know why this all-important episode seems to have attracted so little
of the attention of those who have written about him. The "Conseils a
un Jeune Homme," which was evidently finished in 1743, is the earliest
complete work of Vauvenargues which we possess; it contains in embryo
the whole of his teaching as a moralist, and it was written for the
guidance of young De Seyres. On the other hand, I think that Gilbert
and other editors are mistaken in attributing the "Discours sur la
Gloire" to the same date and occasion; it seems to me much later in
style, and addressed to a very different person. The note of the
address to De Seyres is accurately given in the exquisite essay
entitled "Love of the Noble Passions." But it appears that the edifice
built up by the ten