SOURCE: Green, Maria A. “Moral Assessment in La Rochefoucauld.” Romance Notes 11, no. 2 (winter 1969): 355-61.

In the essay which follows, Green argues that La Rochefoucauld's system of ethics is concerned with moral assessment rather than moral obligation, which is why he focuses on such concepts as self-deception, pride, and self-interest.

It has often been said in one form or another that La Rochefoucauld is not to be taken in by anything within his sphere but that his sphere takes in very little. With the air of El Greco's St. Martin giving his cloak to the beggar, he strips off poor beggars' cloaks and leaves them shivering in the cold. Distrustful of man, misanthropic even, as well he might be considering the treachery and deceit in the court society he knew, he assumes all men have courtier's motives, and, having raised doubts among men open to doubt, he leaves the...