knows himself to be miserable.
A tree does not know itself to be miserable. It is then being miserable
to know oneself to be miserable; but it is also being great to know that
one is miserable.

398

All these same miseries prove man's greatness. They are the miseries of
a great lord, of a deposed king.

399

We are not miserable without feeling it. A ruined house is not
miserable. Man only is miserable. _Ego vir videns._[154]

400

_The greatness of man._--We have so great an idea of the soul of man
that we cannot endure being despised, or not being esteemed by any soul;
and all the happiness of men consists in this esteem.

401

_Glory._--The brutes do not admire each other. A horse does not admire
his companion. Not that there is no rivalry between them in a race, but
that is of no consequence; for, when in the stable, the heaviest and
most ill-formed does not give up his oats to another, as men would have
others do to them. Their virtue is satisfied with itself.

402

The greatness of man even in his lust, to have known how to extract from
it a wonderful code, and to have drawn from it a picture of benevolence.

403

_Greatness._--The reasons of effects indicate the greatness of man, in
having extracted so fair an order from lust.

404

The greatest baseness of man is the pursuit of glory. But it is also the
greatest mark of his excellence; for whatever possessions he may have on
earth, whatever health and essential comfort, he is not satisfied if he
has not the esteem of men. He values human reason so highly that,
whatever advantages he may have on earth, he is not content if he is not
also ranked highly in the judgment of man. This is the finest position
in the world. Nothing can turn him from that desire, which is the most
indelible quality of man's heart.

And those who most despise men, and put them on a level with the brutes,
yet wish to be admired and believed by men, and contradict themselves by
their own feelings; their nature, which is stronger than all, convincing
them of the greatness of man more forcibly than reason convinces them of
their baseness.

405

_Contradiction._--Pride counterbalancing all miseries. Man either hides
his miseries, or, if he disclose them, glories in knowing them.

406

Pride counterbalances and takes away all miseries. Here is a strange
monster, and a very plain aberration. He is fallen from his place, and
is anxiously seeking it. T