thing like martyrdom—climbing thus to the height of his conceit. People of this kind were to be found in the entourage of Napoleon, nay, perhaps it is really he who instilled into the soul of our century the romantic prostration before "genius" and "hero," so foreign to the spirit of enlightenment; about whom a man like Byron was not ashamed of saying that he was "a worm compared with such a being." (The formula of this prostration have been discovered by that old, arrogant, busybody and grumbler, Thomas Carlyle, who spent a long life in trying to romanticize the sound commonsense of his Englishmen; but in vain !)
299
Semblance of heroism.—Throwing ourselves into the thick of our enemies may be a sign of cowardice.
300
Condescending to the flatterer.— It is the final prudence of the representatives of craving ambition to hide from others their contempt of mankind, caused by the sight of the flatterers: and to appear condescending to them, like unto a god who cannot be other than condescending.
301
"Strength of character.”—"What I have said once, that I will do, this mode of thinking is considered to
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