you will be still more exalted in its opinion; and you will teach your equals that misplaced valour is nothing but a brutal fear; that wisdom and moderation ever attend true glory; that whatever dishonours humanity can never do honour to men; and that the gospel, which inculcates and commands forgiveness, hath made more heroes than the world itself, which preaches up revenge.
You will perhaps say that these maxims do not regard you; that you have forgotten all the subjects of complaint which you had against your brother; and that a reconciliation hath put an end to the eclat of your misunderstandings, and of your quarrel. Now, I say, that it is more especially on this point that you are grossly deceived; and, after having shown to you the injustice of our hatreds, it is my duty now to prove to you the falsity of our reconciliations.
Part II. — There is not a precept in the law which leaves less room for doubt or for mistake, than that which obliges us to love our brethren; and, nevertheless, there is none upon which more illusions and false maxims are founded. In effect, there is not almost a person who doth not say, that he hath heartily forgiven his brother, and that his conscience is perfectly tranquil on that head; and, nevertheless, nothing is more rare than sincere forgiveness, and there are few instances of a reconcilement which changes the heart, and which is not merely a false appearance of renewed amity, whether it be considered in its principle, or whether the proceedings and consequences of it be examined.
I say, in its principle; for, my brethren, in order that a reconciliation be sincere and real, it is necessary that it take its source in charity, and in a Christian love of our brother. Now, human motives engross, in general, a work which can be the work of grace alone. A reconciliation takes place, in order not to persist against the pressing entreaties of friends; in order to avoid a certain disagreeable eclat, which would necessarily follow an open hostility, and which might revert upon ourselves; in order not to exclude ourselves from certain societies, from which we would be under the necessity of banishing ourselves were we obstinately to persist in being irreconcilable to our brother. A reconciliation takes place through deference to the great, who exact of us that compliance, in order to acquire a reputation for moderation and greatness of soul, in order to avoid giving transactions to the public which would not correspond with that idea which we would wish it to have of us; in order, at once, to cut short the continual complaints and the insulting discourses of an enemy, who knows us perhaps only too well, and who has once been too deep in our confidence, not to merit some caution and deference on our part, and that, by a reconciliation, we should endeavour to silence him. What more shall I say? We are reconciled perhaps like Saul, in order more securely to ruin our enemy, and to lull his vigilance and precautions.
Such are, in general, the motives of those reconciliations which every day take place in the world, and what I say here is so
