Jacques Esprit

Esprit, Jacques (1611-78). Having been a novice with the Oratorians, he acquired the reputation of a witty conversationalist in the salons and became a close associate of La Rochefoucauld. He had a part in the latter's Maximes, which are close in spirit to his own Jansenist-inspired condemnation of pagan virtue, De la fausseté des vertus humaines (1677-8).

[Peter France]