The Sequel to the Count of Gabalis

it is doing nothing to merely correct
individual faults, to oppose
only in detail the abuses that creep
into Morality; one must go to the
source, undermine the foundations of all
disorders, know the principle
of general corruption and de-
stroy it. I hope that God has reserved
this glory for me; I have known the evil, and
I have the remedy for it. Ah! Sir,
I said to him, let me share in
this glory, let me know this
evil, and allow me to help you
cure it. I see nothing in you,
he replied to me, that obliges me to
refuse you what you ask of me.
This zeal so worthy of praise, which
you show me for good Mo-
rality, is the effect and the sign
of how little attachment you
have for Aristotle: that is the great
point; whoever loves Aristotle
cannot have upright Morality.
As for Descartes, he is a melan-
cholic Melancholic: in the theory of the four humors, a temperament associated with black bile, often linked to introspection, gloom, or obsessive focus, full of high opinion
for his own daydreams Daydreams: original "rêveries," used here dismissively to describe Descartes' philosophical theories as mere fantasies,
who wanted to go further than I wished, and who