flattering to his
vanity. If you stroke a cat, it will purr; and, as inevitably, if you
praise a man, a sweet expression of delight will appear on his face;
and even though the praise is a palpable lie, it will be welcome, if
the matter is one on which he prides himself. If only other people
will applaud him, a man may console himself for downright misfortune
or for the pittance he gets from the two sources of human happiness
already discussed: and conversely, it is astonishing how infallibly
a man will be annoyed, and in some cases deeply pained, by any wrong
done to his feeling of self-importance, whatever be the nature,
degree, or circumstances of the injury, or by any depreciation,
slight, or disregard.

If the feeling of honor rests upon this peculiarity of human nature,
it may have a very salutary effect upon the welfare of a great many
people, as a substitute for morality; but upon their happiness, more
especially upon that peace of mind and independence which are so
essential to happiness, its effect will be disturbing and prejudicial
rather than salutary. Therefore it is advisable, from our point of
view, to set limits to this weakness, and duly to consider and rightly
to estimate the relative value of advantages, and thus temper, as far
as possible, this great susceptibility to other people's opinion,
whether the opinion be one flattering to our vanity, or whether it
causes us pain; for in either case it is the same feeling which is
touched. Otherwise, a man is the slave of what other people are
pleased to think,--and how little it requires to disconcert or soothe
the mind that is greedy of praise:

_Sic leve, sic parvum est, animum quod laudis avarum
Subruit ac reficit_.[1]

[Footnote 1: Horace, Epist: II., 1, 180.]

Therefore it will very much conduce to our happiness if we duly
compare the value of what a man is in and for himself with what he is
in the eyes of others. Under the former conies everything that fills
up the span of our existence and makes it what it is, in short, all
the advantages already considered and summed up under the heads of
personality and property; and the sphere in which all this takes place
is the man's own consciousness. On the other hand, the sphere of what
we are for other people is their consciousness, not ours; it is the
kind of figure we make in their eyes, together with the thoughts
which this arouses.[1] But this is something which has no direct and
immediate exi