La fama, ch'invaghisce a un dolce suono Gli superbi mortali, et par si bella, E un eco, un sogno, anzi d'un sogno un'ombra, Ch'ad ogni vento si dilegua a sgombra." ["Fame, which with alluring sound charms proud mortals, and appears so fair, is but an echo, a dream, nay, the shadow of a dream, which at every breath vanishes and dissolves." --Tasso, Gerus., xiv. 63.] And of all the irrational humours of men, it should seem that the philosophers themselves are among the last and the most reluctant to disengage themselves from this: 'tis the most restive and obstinate of all: "Quia etiam bene proficientes animos tentare non cessat." ["Because it ceases not to assail even well-directed minds" --St. Augustin, De Civit. Dei, v. 14.] There is not any one of which reason so clearly accuses the vanity; but it is so deeply rooted in us that I dare not determine whether any one ever clearly discharged himself from it or no. After you have said all and believed all has been said to its prejudice, it produces so intestine an inclination in opposition to your best arguments that you have little power to resist it; for, as Cicero says, even those who most controvert it, would yet that the books they write about it should visit the light under their own names, and seek to derive glory from seeming to despise it. All other things are communicable and fall into commerce: we lend our goods and stake our lives for the necessity and service of our friends; but to communicate a man's honour, and to robe another with a man's own glory, is very rarely seen.