one of the chief motives to disclose it; for however absurd it may be
thought to boast an honour, by an act that shews that it was conferred
without merit, yet most men seem rather inclined to confess the want of
virtue than of importance, and more willingly shew their influence and
their power, though at the expence of their probity, than glide through
life with no other pleasure than the private consciousness of fidelity:
which, while it is preserved, must be without praise, except from the
single person who tries and knows it.

7. There are many ways of telling a secret, by which a man exempts
himself from the reproaches of his conscience, and gratifies his pride
without suffering himself to believe that he impairs his virtue. He
tells the private affairs of his patron or his friend, only to those
from whom he would not conceal his own; he tells them to those who have
no temptation to betray their trust, or with the denunciation of a
certain forfeiture of his friendship, if he discovers that they become
public.

8. Secrets are very frequently told in the first ardour of kindness, or
of love, for the sake of proving by so important a sacrifice, the
sincerity of professions, or the warmth of tenderness; but with this
motive, though it be sometimes strong in itself, vanity generally
concurs, since every man naturally desires to be most esteemed by those
whom he loves, or whom he converses, with whom he passes his hours of
pleasure, and to whom he retires from business and from care.

9. When the discovery of secrets is under consideration, there is always
a distinction carefully to be made between our own and those of another,
those of which we are fully masters as they affect only our own
interest, and those which are deposited with us in trust, and involve