your fearfulness, (says the prefect) surprises me. tell me, i pray, what idea hast thou of what is called grandeur, dignities, and high rank in a state?
i am in this world (answered i) like a traveller, who goes on his way curiously observing the objects, but desiring none, because he is but a passenger. moreover, if things are estimated according to the happiness they procure, i do not think that the highest places should be much valued; for, i see, they make no man happy, and are a misfortune to many.
254what of riches? added the prefect.
pleasure (said i) is like a very rare commodity, which, however, every one would fain purchase. among those that succeed, the rich buy it very dear, it comes cheap to the rest: one may as well be among the last as the first. of the few pleasures that exist, the lower class enjoy as large a share as the highest.
what of wit, genius, talents? says the prefect.
one half of the world, replied i, study to amuse the other. the first class is formed of men of talents; whose brains are wound up by nature higher than ordinary. they are incessantly striving to please: if they fail, 255they waste away with grief; if they succeed, it is never fully, and a single censure creates them more pain than all the encomiums together give them pleasure. it is, therefore, better to be of the second class, i mean among those who are amused by the others.
as far as i see, said the prefect, the aspect of the great and their pomp, of the scholar and his extensive genius, of the rich and his vast possessions, makes little or no impression on thy mind.
i confess, replied i, that no man was ever less dazzled with all this than myself. wrapt in a certain coolness of sense, i am guarded against all strong impressions. i behold with the same eye the ignorant who know nothing, and the learned who know all, except 256truth; the protector who plans, though he knows his weakness, and the protected who cringes, though he perceives his superiority; the peasant that is disgusted with the simplicity of his diet, and the rich sensual, who with thirty niceties, can hardly make a dinner; the duchess, loaded with diamonds, and the shepherdess decked with flowers; vanity, which dwells in the cottage as well as in the palace, and upholds the low as well as the high; care, which sits on the throne by the king, or follows the philosopher in his retirement. all the parts on the stage of this world, seem to me one no better than another: but i do not desire to act any. i would observe all and be taken up with nothing. hence it is, that i dreaded the neighbourhood of these restless flies....
257and hence it is precisely, interrupted the prefect, that thou hadst nothing to fear from them. thou admirest nothing; it is sufficient: the flies can take no hold of thee. the first impression they must make, is the impression of surprise and admiration; if they make not that, they miss their aim. but the moment admiration is admitted, a crowd of passions quickly follow. for, in the object of wonder, great hurt or great good is expected. hence love or aversion, and all their attendants; restless desire which never sleeps; joy, which embraces and devours its objects; melancholy, which, at a distance, and with weeping eyes, contemplates and calls for what it dreads: confidence, which walks with head erect, and often meets a fall; despair, which is preceded 258by fear and followed by madness, and a thousand others. if thou wilt rest secure from their attacks, cherish thy coolness of sense, and never lose sight of the grand principle,
nil admirari.
