It is marvellous how every man’s individuality (that is to say, the union of a definite character with a definite intellect) accurately determines all his actions and thoughts down to the most unimportant details, as though it were a dye which pervaded them; and how, in consequence, one man’s whole course of life, in other words, his inner and outer history, turns out so absolutely different from another’s.  As a botanist knows a plant in its entirety from a single leaf; as Cuvier from a single bone constructed the whole animal, so an accurate knowledge of a man’s whole character may be attained from a single characteristic act; that is to say, he himself may to some extent be constructed from it, even though the act in question is of very trifling consequence.  Nay, that is the most perfect test of all, for in a matter of importance people are on their guard; in trifles they follow their natural bent without much reflection.  That is why Seneca’s remark, that even the smallest things may be taken as evidence of character, is so true:  argumenta morum ex minimis quoque licet capere.[1] If a man shows by his absolutely unscrupulous and selfish behaviour in small things that a sentiment of justice is foreign to his disposition, he should not be trusted with a penny unless on due security.  For who will believe that the man who every day shows that he is unjust in all matters other than those which concern property, and whose boundless selfishness everywhere protrudes through the small affairs of ordinary life which are subject to no scrutiny, like a dirty shirt through the holes of a ragged jacket—­who, I ask, will believe that such a man will act honourably in matters of meum and tuum without any other incentive but that of justice?  The man who has no conscience in small things will be a scoundrel in big things.  If we neglect small traits of character, we have only ourselves to blame if we afterwards learn to our disadvantage what this character is in the great affairs of life.  On the same principle, we ought to break with so-called friends even in matters of trifling moment, if they show a character that is malicious or bad or vulgar, so that we may avoid the bad turn which only waits for an opportunity of being done us.  The same thing applies to servants.  Let it always be our maxim:  Better alone than amongst traitors.

[Footnote 1:  Ep., 52.]

Of a truth the first and foremost step in all knowledge of mankind is the conviction that a man’s conduct, taken as a whole, and in all its essential particulars, is not governed by his reason or by any of the resolutions which he may make in virtue of it.  No man becomes this or that by wishing to be it, however earnestly.  His acts proceed from his innate and unalterable character, and they are more immediately and particularly determined by motives.  A man’s conduct, therefore, is the necessary product of both character and motive.  It may be illustrated by the course of a planet, which