Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love.

What are riches - grandeur - health itself, to the luxury of a pure conscience, the health of the soul; - and what the sufferings of poverty, disappointment, despair - to the anguish of an afflicted one!

What is acquired without labor is seldom worth acquiring at all.

Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult.

To a generous mind few circumstances are more afflicting than a discovery of perfidy in those whom we have trusted.

O! useful may it be to have shewn, that, though the vicious can sometimes pour affliction upon the good, their power is transient and their punishment certain; and that innocence, though oppressed by injustice, shall, supported by patience, finally triumph over misfortune!And, if the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it—the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded.

But St. Aubert had too much good sense to prefer a charm to a virtue.