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 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 is 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 es