wealth to further philanthropic schemes, and make himself
well-deserving of his fellowmen. But a man who does none of these
things, who does not even try to do them, who never attempts to learn
the rudiments of any branch of knowledge so that he may at least do
what he can towards promoting it--such a one, born as he is into
riches, is a mere idler and thief of time, a contemptible fellow. He
will not even be happy, because, in his case, exemption from need
delivers him up to the other extreme of human suffering, boredom,
which is such martyrdom to him, that he would have been better off if
poverty had given him something to do. And as he is bored he is apt to
be extravagant, and so lose the advantage of which he showed himself
unworthy. Countless numbers of people find themselves in want, simply
because, when they had money, they spent it only to get momentary
relief from the feeling of boredom which oppressed them.

It is quite another matter if one's object is success in political
life, where favor, friends and connections are all-important, in order
to mount by their aid step by step on the ladder of promotion, and
perhaps gain the topmost rung. In this kind of life, it is much better
to be cast upon the world without a penny; and if the aspirant is not
of noble family, but is a man of some talent, it will redound to his
advantage to be an absolute pauper. For what every one most aims at
in ordinary contact with his fellows is to prove them inferior to
himself; and how much more is this the case in politics. Now, it is
only an absolute pauper who has such a thorough conviction of his own
complete, profound and positive inferiority from every point of view,
of his own utter insignificance and worthlessness, that he can take
his place quietly in the political machine.[1] He is the only one who
can keep on bowing low enough, and even go right down upon his face if
necessary; he alone can submit to everything and laugh at it; he alone
knows the entire worthlessness of merit; he alone uses his loudest
voice and his boldest type whenever he has to speak or write of those
who are placed over his head, or occupy any position of influence;
and if they do a little scribbling, he is ready to applaud it as a
masterwork. He alone understands how to beg, and so betimes, when he
is hardly out of his boyhood, he becomes a high priest of that hidden
mystery which Goethe brings to light.

_Uber's Niedertraechtige
Niemand sich