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It is Necessary that Every one Flatter Himself
And now you'd think I had said all, but you shall hear yet
greater things. Will he, I pray, love anyone that hates himself? Or
ever agree with another who is not at peace with himself? Or beget
pleasure in another that is troublesome to himself? I think no one
will say it that is not more foolish than Folly. And yet, if you
should exclude me, there's no man but would be so far from enduring
another that he would stink in his own nostrils, be nauseated with his
own actions, and himself become odious to himself; forasmuch as
Nature, in too many things rather a stepdame than a parent to us,
has imprinted that evil in men, especially such as have least
judgment, that everyone repents him of his own condition and admires
that of others. Whence it comes to pass that all her gifts,
elegancy, and graces corrupt and perish.
For what benefit is beauty the greatest blessing of heaven, if it
be mixed with affectation? What youth, if corrupted with the
severity of old age? Lastly, what is that in the whole business of a
man's life he can do with any grace to himself or others- for it is
not so much a thing of art, as the very life of every action, that
it be done with a good mien- unless this my friend and companion,
Self-love, be present with it?
Nor does she without cause supply me the place of a sister, since
her whole endeavors are to act my part everywhere. For what is more
foolish than for a man to study nothing else than how to please
himself? To make himself the object of his own admiration? And yet,
what is there that is either delightful or taking, nay rather what not
the contrary, that a man does against the hair? Take away this salt of
life, and the orator may even sit still with his action, the
musician with all his division will be able to please no man, the
player be hissed off the stage, the poet and all his Muses ridiculous,
the painter with his art contemptible, and the physician with all
his slip-slops go a-begging. Lastly, you will be taken for an ugly
fellow instead of youthful, and a beast instead of a wise man, a child
instead of an eloquent, and instead of a well-bred man, a clown. So
necessary a thing it is that everyone flatter himself and commend
himself to himself before he can be commended by others.
Lastly, since it is the chief point of happiness "that a man is
willing to be what he is," you have further abridged in this my
Self-love, that no man is ashamed of his own face, no man of his own
wit, no man of his own parentage, no man of his own house, no man of
his manner of living, nor any man of his own country; so that a
Highlander has no desire to change with an Italian, a Thracian with an
Athenian, nor a Scythian for a Fortunate Islander. O the singular care
of Nature, that in so great a variety of things has made all equal!
Where she has been sometimes sparing of her gifts she has
recompensed it with the more of self-love; though here, I must
confess, I speak foolishly, it being the greatest of all other her
gifts: to say nothing that no great action was ever attempted
without my motion, or art brought to perfection without my help.
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