Preface

Summary

Diogenes once saw the citizens of Corinth busy with enormous war preparations and, in order not to be the only indolent soul in the city, he rolled his peaceful barrel up and down the streets. Since history does not report that this action caused the cynic's earthen house to fall apart, Menage quite cleverly shows in how many ways the great tenant of the barrel could have avoided this misfortune. – I find myself in circumstances similar to Diogenes', with the difference that he, out of cynical stubbornness, did not want to serve the state, while I cannot. He rolled an earthen barrel with great care while I am letting little philosophical compositions be reissued.

The letters “On sentiments” and the “Dialogues,” which together make up the first part of the following writings, were published separately at another time, and the second, third, and fourth essays of the second part have appeared in various periodicals. Still, the reader to whom it is important will notice some alterations and additions that are not trivial. The first essay of the second part has never appeared publicly, however, and contains assorted remarks about various philosophical matters which I did not know how else to name but as “Rhapsody or additions to the Letters on sentiments.”