New at IWP Books: The Reflections and Maxims of Vauvenargues, Translated by F. G. Stevens, 1940. Maxim 281: “It is a misfortune that men cannot ordinarily possess a talent without some desire to disparage all others. If they have subtlety, they decry force; if they are geometrists or physicians, they attack poetry and rhetoric. And the mass of mankind, who forget that those who have won distinction in one field may be bad judges of a different kind of talent, allow themselves to be prejudiced by their verdicts. So, when metaphysics or algebra are the fashion, it is metaphysicians or algebrists who make the reputation of poets and musicians, and vice versa; the dominating mind compels others to submit to its own jurisdiction, and generally to its errors.”

C. H. Sisson on Vauvenargues.