LA ROCHEFOUCAULD: 1613-1680; La Bruyere: 1646(?)-1696; Vauvenargues: 1715-1747. In La Rouchefoucauld we meet another eminent example of the author of one book. "Letters," "Memoirs," and "Maxims," indeed name productions in three kinds, productions all of them notable, and all still extant, from La Rochefoucauld's pen. But the "Maxims" are so much more famous than either the "Letters" or the "Memoirs" that their author may be said to be known only by those. If it were not for the "Maxims," the "Letters" and "Memoirs" would probably now be forgotten. We here may dismiss these from our minds and concentrate our attention exclusively upon the "Maxims." Voltaire said, "The 'Memoirs' of the Duc de La Rochefoucauld are read, but we know his 'Maxims' by heart." La Rochefoucauld's "Maxims" are detached sentences of reflection and wisdom on human character and conduct. They are about seven hundred in number, but they are all comprised in a very small volume; for they generally are each only two or three lines in length, and almost never does a single maxim occupy more than the half of a moderate-sized page. The "Maxims," detached, as we have described them, have no very marked logical sequence in the order in which they stand. They all, however, have a profound mutual relation. An unvarying monotone of sentiment, in fact, runs through them. They are so many different expressions, answering to so many different observations taken at different angles, of one and the same persisting estimate of human nature. Self-love is the mainspring and motive of every thing we do, or say, or feel, or think--that is the total result of the "Maxims" of La Rochefoucauld.