VI INTRODUCTION

an îndîvidual. Of course sparingly. It would not hâve been prudent, under Louis XIV, to attack the existing order of things. Yet we find that in one passage La Bruyère expresses indignation at the precedence of birth over brains (Des Grands^ No. 3, page 63) ; in another he cries out against a govemment which sacrifices the many to the few {Des Biens de Fortune^ No. 26, page 42), while a glimpse of the privations which were to culminate in the f erocity of the French Révolution is afforded by his well-known picture of the peasants of France {De PHomme^ No. 128, pages 85-86). In such outspoken lines as thèse there is no direct appeal to altruistic sentiments. La Bruyère does not even suggest that the social fabric is faulty. He merely emphasizes certain hardships which its construction and continuance involve. But his words are sufficient to show that another standpoint of looking at man has been reached. To call attention to the sufîerings which anse from certain conditions is to lead to the suggestion that those sufferings may be remedied by changing the conditions. The study of man as conceived by the eighteenth century will be directed to this end. Les Caractères mark the place where the old merges into the new. And the new is mainly concemed with man's happiness on earth.

The style of Les Caractères testifies to the présence of thèse new ideas. Their sentences are of a différent construction from the sentences of Descartes or Pascal. They of ten lack that easy progression from subject to predicate. They object to syntactical simplicity. The artifice of the builder is quite f requentiy évident in them. He tries every method, for the pmpose of var3dng his expression. Inversion, apostrophe, exclamation, interrogation are called upon. Oratorical and conversational styles are employed. The words are unexpectedly juxtaposed, surprising comparisons are made, while the periods frequentiy end with a paradox or witticism. This manner is the rule, but instances of the harmonious classical phrase are not wanting.