concealing the agitation of their hearts.

[Thus wisdom is only hypocrisy, says a commentator.
This definition of constancy is a result of maxim 18.]

21.--Those who are condemned to death affect some-
times a constancy and contempt for death which is
only the fear of facing it; so that one may say that
this constancy and contempt are to their mind what
the bandage is to their eyes.

[See this thought elaborated in maxim 504.]

22.--Philosophy triumphs easily over past evils and
future evils; but present evils triumph over it.

23.--Few people know death, we only endure it,
usually from determination, and even from stupidity
and custom; and most men only die because they
know not how to prevent dying.

24.--When great men permit themselves to be cast
down by the continuance of misfortune, they show
us that they were only sustained by ambition, and not
by their mind; so that PLUS a great vanity, heroes
are made like other men.

[Both these maxims have been rewritten and made
conciser by the author; the variations are not worth
quoting.]