French Maxim

The French saying quoted by "R.V." is the 223rd of *Les Réflexions morales du Duc de la Rochefoucauld* (Pougin, Paris, 1839). I feel great pleasure in being able to answer your correspondent's query, as I hope that my reply may be the means of introducing to his notice one of the most delightful authors that has ever yet written: one who deserves far more attention than he appears to receive from general readers in this degenerate age, and from whom many of his literary successors have borrowed some of their brightest thoughts. I need not go far for an illustration: "Praise undeserved, is scan…