It is to the same principle, that men owe that noble respect for virtue, the most graceful ornament of a great soul; they owe to it also that simplicity in thinking and speaking, that happy habit of a conscience not in want of being on its guard. A man truly honest considers disguise as a detractor, and desires to appear as he really is; it is not his interest to conceal his weaknesses, for in a generous heart they are almost always united to something good; and perhaps frankness would have become the policy of his mind, if it had not been one of the qualities of his character. There is, in every virtue, a kind of beauty which charms us without reflection: our moral sense, when it is improved by education, is pleased with that social harmony which the sentiments of justice preserves. These enjoyments are unknown to men, whose selfishness renders them insensible to every kind of concord, and they appear to me to deserve our contempt in one essential point; it is, that they profit by the respect others have for order, without being willing to subject themselves to the same rules, and without declaring publicly their intention; it seems to me, that, in this view, a defect of morality is indeed a breach of the laws of hospitality. In short, talents, those faculties of the mind which belong more immediately to nature, can never be applied to great things without the aid of morality; there is no other way of uniting the interest of men, and of attaining their love and respect. Honesty resembles the ancient idioms, according to which you must know how to speak, when you wish to be understood by the generality; and a language is never well known, but by constant practice. The understanding is sometimes sufficient to acquire an ascendency in circumscribed relations; you there take men one by one; and you often engage them by proportioning yourself to their depth: but on a vast theatre, and principally in public administration, where we have need of captivating men in a body, it is necessary to search for a band which will embrace all; and it is only by a union of talents and virtue that this chain can be formed. And when I see the homage paid by a nation to virtuous characters; when I remark the almost instinctive judgment which assists in discerning them; when I see that they praise and love only what they can connect to pure virtue, and noble intention, I return to my favourite sentiment, and believe I recognize in these emotions the stamp of a hand divine. After having tried to give a feeble sketch of the various recompenses and different satisfactions which seem to appertain to regularity of principles, and propriety of conduct, you will perhaps ask, if you have not a right to conclude from these reflections, that we can attach men to morality by the mere motive of personal interest; I have already mentioned, that I intended to answer such an objection, and now is the time to do it.