true. But
their conclusions are false, because the opposite principles are also true.
395. Instinct, reason.--We have an incapacity of proof, insurmountable by
all dogmatism. We have an idea of truth, invincible to all scepticism.
396. Two things instruct man about his whole nature; instinct and
experience.
397. The greatness of man is great in that he 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.63
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 oa