When we say that the blood circulates, that the air is weighty, that the
rays of the sun are a bundle of seven refrangible rays, it follows not
that we are of the sect of Harvey, of Torricelli, or of Newton; we
simply acquiesce in the truths which they demonstrate, and the whole
universe will be of the same opinion.
Such is the character of truth, which belongs to all time and to all
men. It is only to be produced to be acknowledged, and admits of no
opposition. A long dispute signifies that both parties are in error.
SELF-LOVE.
Nicole, in his "Moral Essays," written after two or three thousand
volumes on morals (Treatise on Charity, chap, ii.), says, that "by means
of the gibbets and tortures which are established in common, the
tyrannical designs of the self-love of each individual are repressed."
I will not examine whether we have gibbets in common, as we have fields
and woods in common, and a common purse, or if thoughts are repressed by
wheels; but it seems to me very strange that Nicole has taken highway
robbery and murder for self-love. The distinctions must be a little
more examined. He who should say that Nero killed his mother from
self-love, that Cartouche had much self-love, would not express himself
very correctly. Self-love is not a wickedness; it is a sentiment natural
to all men; it is much more the neighbor of vanity than of crime.
A beggar of the suburbs of Madrid boldly asked alms; a passenger said to
him: Are you not ashamed to carry on this infamous trade, when you can
work? Sir, replied the mendicant, I ask you for money, and not for
advice; and turned his back on him with Castilian dignity. This
gentleman was a haughty beggar; his vanity was wounded by very little:
he asked alms for love of himself, and would not suffer the reprimand
from a still greater love of himself.
A missionary, travelling in India, met a fakir loaded with chains, naked
as an ape, lying on his stomach, and lashing himself for the sins of his
countrymen, the Indians, who gave him some coins of the country. What a
renouncement of himself! said one of the spectators. Renouncement of
myself! said the fakir, learn that I only lash myself in this world to
serve you the same in the next, when you will be the horses and I the
rider.
Those who said that love of ourselves is the basis of all our sentiments
and actions were right; and as it has not been written to prove to men
that they have a face, there is no occasion to prove to them that they
possess self-love. This self-love is the instrument of our
preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind;
it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must
conceal it.
SENSATION.