{"id": "card_n_58600e0fe93d", "kind": "note", "title": "La Rochefoucauld §laroch_257: Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to conceal the want of ...", "body": "Gravity is a mysterious carriage of the body invented to conceal the want of mind. [\"Gravity is the very essence of imposture.\"--Shaftesbury, Characteristics, p. 11, vol. I. \"The very essence of gravity is design, and consequently deceit; a taught trick to gain credit with the world for more sense and knowledge than a man was worth, and that with all its pretensions it was no better, but often worse, than what a French wit had long ago defined it--a mysterious carriage of the body to cover the defects of the mind.\"--Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vol. I., chap. ii.]", "source": {"label": "François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims (1665)", "url": "/canon.html?ref=larochefoucauld_laroch_257", "ref": "laroch_257", "authority_tier": "external_aligned"}, "shelf": "classics", "box": "larochefoucauld_maxims", "bands": ["larochefoucauld", "maxims", "moralist", "post_christian"], "connections": [{"to_card_id": "card_n_58646bf965cb", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}, {"to_card_id": "card_n_576a24430f03", "relationship": "same_section", "origin": "nesting_2026_06_12"}], "author": "engine", "created_at": "2026-05-19T13:20:58.964885+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-05-19T13:20:58.964895+00:00", "visibility": "public", "lifecycle_stage": "public", "volatility": "permanent", "metrics": {"paperclips_count": 0, "helpful_count": 0, "not_helpful_count": 0, "cite_count": 0, "walks_through_count": 0, "flagged_count": 0}, "source_hash": "2292e383f7c3cf0163e13e6bc127636c9e9e4c105b89d72f03eda6ec4655bedf", "witnesses": [{"class": "manuscript_tradition", "label": "First edition, Paris 1665 — Barbin imprint", "ref": "LR-1665"}, {"class": "critical_edition", "label": "Pleiade edition — Truchet (Gallimard, 1964)", "ref": "Pleiade-LR"}, {"class": "translation", "label": "Tancock translation (Penguin Classics, 1959)", "ref": "Tancock-1959"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Project Gutenberg — Maxims", "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9105", "ref": "PG-9105"}, {"class": "republication", "label": "Internet Archive — multiple editions", "url": "https://archive.org/search?query=la+rochefoucauld+maxims", "ref": "IA-LR"}], "witness_status": "passed", "witness_status_reason": "5 witnesses across 4 independence classes: ['critical_edition', 'manuscript_tradition', 'republication', 'translation']", "surface": "secular"}