From
how many mistakes would reason be preserved, how many vices would be
stifled in their birth, were it possible to force animal economy to
favor moral order, which it so frequently disturbs! Climates, seasons,
sounds, colors, light, darkness, the elements, aliments, noise,
silence, motion, rest, all act on the animal machine, and consequently
on the mind; all offer us a thousand means, almost certain of
directing in their origin the sentiments by which we suffer
ourselves to be governed. Such was the fundamental idea of which I had
already made a sketch upon paper, and whence I hoped for an effect the
more certain, in favor of persons well disposed, who, sincerely loving
virtue, were afraid of their own weakness, as it appeared to me easy
to make of it a book as agreeable to read as it was to compose. I
have, however, applied myself but very little to this work, the
title of which was to have been Morale Sensitive ou le Materialisme du
Sage.* Interruptions, the cause of which will soon appear, prevented
me from continuing it, and the fate of the sketch, which is more
connected with my own than it may appear to be, will hereafter be
seen.
* Sensitive Morality, or the Materialism of the Sage.
Besides this, I had for some time meditated a system of education,
of which Madam de Chenonceaux, alarmed for her son by that of her
husband, had desired me to consider. The authority of friendship
placed this object, although loss in itself to my taste, nearer to
my heart than any other.
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