Though dejection is the emotion contrary to pride, yet is the dejected
man very near akin to the proud man. For, inasmuch as his pain arises
from a comparison between his own infirmity and other men's power or
virtue, it will be removed, or, in other words, he will feel pleasure, if
his imagination be occupied in contemplating other men's faults; whence
arises the proverb, "The unhappy are comforted by finding fellow-sufferers."
Contrariwise, he will be the more pained in proportion as he thinks
himself inferior to others; hence none are so prone to envy as the
dejected, they are specially keen in observing men's actions, with a
view to fault-finding rather than correction, in order to reserve their
praises for dejection, and to glory therein, though all the time with a
dejected air. These effects follow as necessarily from the said emotion,
as it follows from the nature of a triangle, that the three angles are
equal to two right angles. I have already said that I call these and
similar emotions bad, solely in respect to what is useful to man. The
laws of nature have regard to nature's general order, whereof man is but
a part. I mention this, in passing, lest any should think that I have
wished to set forth the faults and irrational deeds of men rather than
the nature and properties of things. For, as I said in the preface to the
third Part, I regard human emotions and their properties as on the same
footing with other natural phenomena. Assuredly human emotions indicate
the power and ingenuity, of nature, if not of human nature, quite as fully,
as other things which we admire, and which we delight to contemplate.
But I pass on to note those qualities in the emotions, which bring
advantage to man, or inflict injury upon him.
Prop. LVIII. Honour (gloria) is not repugnant
to reason, but may arise therefrom.
Proof.-This is evident from Def. of the Emotions:xxx., and also from the
definition of an honourable man (IV:xxxvii.Note.i.).
Note.- Empty honour, as it is styled, is self- approval, fostered only by
the good opinion of the populace; when this good opinion ceases there
ceases also the self-approval, in other words, the highest object of each
man's love (IV:lii.Note); consequently, he whose honour is rooted in
popular approval must, day by day, anxiously strive, act, and scheme in
order to retain his reputation. For the populace is variable and
inconstant, so that, if a reputation be not kept up, it quickly withers
away. Everyone wishes to catch popular applause for himself, and readily
represses the fame of others. The object of the strife being estimated as
the greatest of all goods, each combatant is seized with a fierce desire
to put down his rivals in every possible way, till he who at last comes
out victorious is more proud of having done harm to others than of having
done good to himself. This sort of honour, then, is really empty, being
nothing.