Tho’ Mr. _de la Bruyere’s_ Work is not perfect in that Kind, in which it is pretended to excel, it must nevertheless be confess’d, that it has many Beauties and Excellencies. To deny this, wou’d be an Affront to the Judgment of the Gentlemen of the _French_ Academy: But yet our Complaisance ought not, cannot go so far, as to prejudice our own Judgment. We cannot think, as [X]some of ’em did, that Mr. _de la Bruyere_ has excell’d _Theophrastus_, the great Original which he propos’d to himself. Mr. _de la Bruyere_ had a more modest Opinion of himself: He wou’d have been proud of the Title of _little Theophrastus_. And in Truth, it deserves no small Share of Praise, to come up to _Theophrastus_ in any Degree of Comparison.--If then Mr. _de la Bruyere_ has committed some Faults, ’tis nothing but what others have done, both before and since him: But if he has, as I have already allow’d him to have, some considerable Beauties; ’tis more than a great many other Authors have, tho’ of greater Bulk: And these Excellencies ought in Justice to be admitted as some Excuse for those Defects. [X: Discours de l’Abbé Fleury deja cité.] SECT. V. Theophrastus has not only prevented, but he has also out-done the Moderns in _Characteristic-Writings_. Yet Mr. _de la Rochefoucault_ had an extraordinary Genius. He seems to be the only one, amongst all the Moderns, who was equal to so great a Work. He had studied Man in himself; and, in a small Collection of moral Reflexions, he has laid open the various Forms and Folds of that Heart, which by Nature is deceitful above all Things. He has given us, as it were, the Characters of all Mankind, by discovering those secret Springs of Self Love, which are the Source of all our _Actions_.--Self Love is born with us; and this great Author has shewn, that there is no Principle in human Nature so secret, so deceitful: ’Tis so Hypocritical, that it frequently imposes on it self, by taking the Appearances of Virtue for Virtue it self. It borrows all the Disguises of Art: It appears in a thousand Forms, and in a thousand Shapes; but yet the Principle of Error is still the same. [Y] ---- _Velut Silvis ubi passim Palantes Error certo de Tramite pellit, Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum abit: unus utrique Error, sed variis illudit Partibus._ As Men that lose their Ways in Woods, divide, Some go on this, and some on t’other Side. The Error is the same, all miss the Road, Altho’ in different Quarters of the Wood. Mr. _Creech_. [Y: Horat. Lib. 2. Sat. 3. v. 48, _&c_.] ’Tis true Mr. _de la Rochefoucault_’s Design was too general, and his Piece cannot properly be reckoned among _Characteristic-Writings_. But tho’ he did not professedly write Characters, yet this Work shews that he was very able to do it; and it may be of very great Service to those, who wou’d attempt any thing in this Kind.