PRESUMPTION AS THE LAST CONSOLATION.--When we so interpret a misfortune, an intellectual defect, or a disease that we see therein our predestined fate, our trial, or the mysterious punishment of our former misdeeds, we thereby make our nature interesting and exalt ourselves in imagination above our fellows. The proud sinner is a well-known figure in all religious sects. 591. THE VEGETATION OF HAPPINESS.--Close beside the world's woe, and often upon its volcanic soil, man has laid out his little garden of happiness. Whether one regard life with the eyes of him who only seeks knowledge therefrom, or of him who submits and is resigned, or of him who rejoices over surmounted difficulties--everywhere one will find some happiness springing up beside the evil--and in fact always the more happiness the more volcanic the soil has been,--only it would be absurd to say that suffering itself is justified by this happiness. 592. THE PATH OF OUR ANCESTORS.--It is sensible when a person develops still further in himself the _talent_ upon which his father or grandfather spent much trouble, and does not shift to something entirely new; otherwise he deprives himself of the possibility of attaining perfection in any one craft. That is why the proverb says, "Which road shouldst thou ride?--That of thine ancestors." 593. VANITY AND AMBITION AS EDUCATORS.--As long as a person has not become an instrument of general utility, ambition may torment him; if, however, that point has been reached, if he necessarily works like a machine for the good of all, then vanity may result; it will humanise him in small matters and make him more sociable, endurable, and considerate, when ambition has completed the coarser work of making him useful. 594. PHILOSOPHICAL NOVICES.--Immediately we have comprehended the wisdom of a philosopher, we go through the streets with a feeling as if we had been re-created and had become great men; for we encounter only those who are ignorant of this wisdom, and have therefore to deliver new and unknown verdicts concerning everything. Because we now recognise a law-book we think we must also comport ourselves as judges. 595.