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 but orthodox, may have rendered him agreeable; but to Ninon, his handsome person, easy manners, and fascinating conversation, which he knew how to enliven with a thousand interesting anecdotes, must have proved by far his greatest recommendation. By St. Evremont he was called "the handsome philosopher;" and in a letter to Ninon, this same writer observes, "Speaking of the mortification of the senses one day, to M. Bernier, he replied, 'I will tell you a secret which I would not willingly reveal to Madame de la Sabliere or to Ninon, though it contains an important truth; it is this—the abstaining from pleasure is itself a crime.' I was surprised," adds St. Evremont, "by the novelty of the system." Upon this M. Walkenaer shrewdly observes, that this system could have possessed but very little novelty for Mademoiselle de l'Enclos; and he might have added that the surprise of the writer of the letter must either have been affected, or else betrayed a very slight acquaintance with the history of philosophy. The other works of Bernier, which have been suffered to sink into much greater neglect than they perhaps deserve, are,—1. "An Abridgment of the Philosophy of Gassendi:" in which, according to Buhl, the acute and learned historian of Modern Philosophy, he not only exhibited the talents of an able and intelligent abbreviator, but, moreover, afforded numerous proofs of a capacity to philosophize for himself. On several important points he differed from his friend, with whom, previous to his travels, he had lived during many years on terms of the strictest intimacy, and who died shortly after his departure from France. 2. "A Memoir upon the Quietism of India," which appeared in the "Histoire des Ouvrages des Savans," for September, 1668. 3. "Extract of various Pieces sent as Presents to Madame de la Sabliere." 4. "Eloge of Chapelle." 5. "Decree of the Grand Council of Parnassus for the Support of the Philosophy of Aristotle." 6. "Illus