LA ROCHEFOUCAULD, la Francois, Duc DE, PRINCE DE MARCILLAC, French courtier and moralist: b. Paris, 1613; d. there, 17 March 1680. He entered on a military career and was engaged as an officer at the age of 16 at the siege of Casale. In the wars and intrigues of the Fronde he served the party of the Parliament, took part in the defense of Bordeaux (1650), less from conviction than to please the Duc de Longueville, and he was wounded at the battle of Faubourg, Saint An toine (1652). At the end of the civil war he abandoned the pursuits of ambition for a life of repose and reflection. He frequented the salon of Madame de Sable, and his house be came a resort of the most distinguished wits and people of culture of the time, Boileau, Racine, Moliere, Madame de Sevigne and Madame de La Fayette. The first fruits of his literary activity were his sur la Regence d'Anne d'Autriche,) a spirited repre sentation of that time, published surreptitiously in 1662 without the author's knowledge, and by him repudiated; but his denial of the authorship was not generally credited. It is now believed that only about a third of this work is his. In 1665 appeared anonymously the work that has made his name immortal, 'Reflexions, ou Sentences et Maximes Nordles,' which passed through five editions in the course of the author's life, was subjected to careful revision by him and have frequently been republished.
There are about 700 maxims, varying from two or three lines to half a page in length. No one prior to his day or since has given so much point, brevity replete with fullness, and cut ting edge to his thoughts. The prevailing thought in the book is that self-love is the dominating spring of human action: virtue has its recompense, but in being virtuous it is only our desire to gain the recompense. This view is presented with so much piquancy and variety of aspect that the reader is much enamored of the author's skill in presenting his point of view that he forgets to condemn this libeller of the human race. An English version by G. H. Powell appeared in 1903. Consult 'Lewes,' his correspondence published 1818; Bourdeau, 'La Rochefoucauld) (1885) ; Hemou,
Rochefoucauld' (1896); Rahlstede,