Charles de Saint-Évremond

“ I confess there is a certain time when the wisest action we can do, is to quit the World : but as fully persuaded as I am of this truth, I should infinitely sooner be directed by Nature to retirement, than by my Reason. ’Tis by the impulse of the former, that in the midst of the World, I live now after such a fashion, as if I were retir’d out of it. ”

“ And indeed, we have ills enough to suffer, and sins to commit, without creating new torments, and new crimes, by new Institutions. ’Tis a piece of folly, to seek far from Court, a Retreat where a man will live with more hardship, and damn himself with more ease, than in the conversation of men.
I hate the austerity of those, who, to enlarge duty, leave no room for good-will : they make all center in the necessity of obeying, without any other reason, than constantly to exercise our obedience; and, because they still delight in enjoying their power. ”

“ There’s nothing more common with old Men, than to desire a Retirement, and nothing so rare with them as not to repent it, when they are once retir’d. Their souls, that are in too great a subjection to their humours, are disgusted with the world for their own tiresomness ”

“ When our Reason, which qualified us for the world, is, if I may use the expression, worn out with long using, a wise man forms another out of it to serve him in his Retreat, which of ridiculous fools, as we were growing in conversation, makes us truly wise in respect of our selves.
Of all the Retreats that a man can chuse when he is Old, I should infinitely prefer that of a Convent to all the rest, if their Rules were less severe. ’Tis certain that old age shuns a crowd, out of a nice and retired humour, that cannot endure to be either importun’d or tired ”

“ Besides, ’tis to be consider’d, that if we change, we do it amongst people that change as well as our selves : men of equal infirmities, or at least subject to the very same. Therefore I shall not be at all asham’d to search in their presence some relief against the weakness of Age; nor shall I be afraid to supply by art, what begins to fail me by nature. A nicer precaution against the injury of time, a more careful management of a health that daily becomes more feeble, cannot scandalize any man of sense, and we ought not to trouble our selves with those that are not so. ”

“ The only remaining relief against all this, is the Conversation of a virtuous Society : now, what Society can better agree with it than a religious one, where one would think, all manner of human helps should be afforded, with more charity than elsewhere, and where their vows should be united to demand those succours from heaven, which cannot reasonably be expected from men.
It is as natural for old people to take up with Devotion, as it is ordinary with young men to abandon themselves to Pleasures. ”

“ We sacrifice to this fortune, our estates, our repose, our years, perhaps unprofitably; and if we arrive to possess its favours, we purchase the short-liv’d enjoyment, sometimes at the expence of our liberty, and sometimes of our lives. But, suppose all our greatness should continue as long as we liv’d, yet it would at least expire with our selves. And what use of their Grandeur have those great Favourites made, who never beheld the course of their fortune interrupted? ”

“ As for my self, were I in such a place, I would freely make shift without delights, at an age when a man’s relish of pleasures is, as it were, extinguish’d; but then I would have all conveniences, at a time when we more sensibly feel whatever offends us, as in proportion we become less nice in the pursuit of what pleases us, or are less tender in relation to what affects us. ”

“ I confess, we meet sometimes with some religious persons of an inestimable merit; such as knew the Vanities of the world which they have quitted; and the grimace of that kind of life which they have embrac’d. ”

“ Every day I steal away from acquaintances that weary, and conversations that tire me. Every day I entertain my self in a sweet Commerce with my Friends, and find the most sensible pleasure in their company. ”

“ They live not only exempt from the perturbation of passions, but enjoy a most admirable serenity of mind; and are more happy in desiring nothing, than the greatest Monarchs in possessing all. Such examples are indeed very rare : and the virtue of those religious persons is more to be admir’d, than their condition to be embraced. ”

“ We should easily forgive them every thing that relates to themselves, if they had but the same consideration for others. But the Authority they affirm, is full of injustice and indiscretion; for they preposterously thwart the inclinations even of those that bear the most with their infirmities. Their long course of life, it seems, has untaught them how to converse with mankind; for they shew nothing but a spirit of Moroseness, Austerity, and Contradiction, to those very persons from whom they exact affability, docility, and obedience. All that they themselves do, they imagine to be virtuous ”

“ As for my self, I am fully resolved to live in a Convent, or a Desart, rather than to give my friends an occasion to pity me, or to furnish those that are not so, with a subject for their malicious mirth and raillery. But the mischief is, that a man is not sensible when he becomes either weak or ridiculous. It is not enough to know that we are gone for good and all ”

“ Not that every alteration that age brings along with it, ought to inspire us with the resolution of retiring. I own, we lose a great deal by growing old; but amongst the losses we sustain, some of them are recompens’d by considerable advantages. ”

“ Don’t they seem to have acquir’d this mighty stock of glory, and to have heap’d these prodigious riches for no other end, than to make themselves more sensible of the torment of being neither able to quit nor keep them? ”

“ Thus the same spirit that leads to Society in our wants, conducts us to God in our languishings; and if Convents were instituted as they ought to be, we should find in the same place both the support of Heaven, and the assistance of Men : but after the manner they are settled, instead of an alleviation of our miseries, we find there the hardship of a blind obedience, either in the performance of unprofitable things, or in the forbearance of innocent ones. We find there an ordinary sacrifice of Reason; Laws more difficult to be observ’d than the divine and political ”

“ It is not reasonable, that the small remainder of liberty, which Nature preserves from the laws of Politicks and Religion, should be wholly lost in the Institutions of these new Legislators; and that persons who enter a Monastery, thro’ the notion of ease and repose, should find nothing there but slavery and pain. ”

“ In the latter, Nature full charg’d, throws out of her self her superfluity of vigour, hunting after voluptuousness in external Objects : in the others, languishing Nature seeks in God what she has lost, and adheres more closely to him, to provide for her self a kind of resource in her decay. ”

“ If he does, which happens very rarely, he does not enjoy it long; and the best caution one can use against entering into a Monastery, is to consider that the generality of those religious persons continue there with regret, and get out from thence, when they can, with joy. ”

“ For my part, I would never advise a Gentleman to engage in such obligations, wherein all the rights of one’s will are generally lost and swallow’d up. The pains which a man would willingly undergo, is made necessary ”

“ They take up an aversion to Pleasure, believing that they are justly opposing the current of Vice. A serious air passes with them for judgment; phlegm for wisdom : and hence proceeds that supercilious authority they allow them selves to censure every thing : Spleen supplying the place of indignation against sin ”