Actionless penetration and sceptical severity may sometimes clear the judgment and the thoughts, but they give no force or influence that has power over men.

"There was always a something (_je ne sais quoi_) about M.de La Rochefoucauld," writes Cardinal de Retz, who did not like him; "he was for meddling in intrigues from his childhood, and at a time when he had no notion of petty interests, which were never his foible, and when he did not understand great ones, which, on the other hand, were never his strength.

He was never capable of doing anything in public affairs, and I am sure I don't know why.

His views were not sufficiently broad, and he did not even see comprehensively all that was within his range, but his good sense,--very good, speculatively,--added to his suavity, his insinuating style, and his easy manners, which are admirable, ought to have compensated more than it did for his lack of penetration.

He always showed habitual irresolution, but I really do not know to what to attribute this irresolution; it could not, with him, have come from the fertility of his imagination, which is anything but lively.