I need not insist upon the importance of the other two kinds of blessings which make up the happiness of human life; now-a-days the value of possessing them is too well known to require advertisement.  The third class, it is true, may seem, compared with the second, of a very ethereal character, as it consists only of other people’s opinions.  Still every one has to strive for reputation, that is to say, a good name.  Rank, on the other hand, should be aspired to only by those who serve the state, and fame by very few indeed.  In any case, reputation is looked upon as a priceless treasure, and fame as the most precious of all the blessings a man can attain,—­the Golden Fleece, as it were, of the elect:  whilst only fools will prefer rank to property.  The second and third classes, moreover, are reciprocally cause and effect; so far, that is, as Petronius’ maxim, habes habeberis, is true; and conversely, the favor of others, in all its forms, often puts us in the way of getting what we want.

CHAPTER II.

PERSONALITY, OR WHAT A MAN IS.

We have already seen, in general, that what a man is contributes much more to his happiness than what he has, or how he is regarded by others.  What a man is, and so what he has in his own person, is always the chief thing to consider; for his individuality accompanies him always and everywhere, and gives its color to all his experiences.  In every kind of enjoyment, for instance, the pleasure depends principally upon the man himself.  Every one admits this in regard to physical, and how much truer it is of intellectual, pleasure.  When we use that English expression, “to enjoy one’s self,” we are employing a very striking and appropriate phrase; for observe—­one says, not “he enjoys Paris,” but “he enjoys himself in Paris.”  To a man possessed of an ill-conditioned individuality, all pleasure is like delicate wine in a mouth made bitter with gall.  Therefore, in the blessings as well as in the ills of life, less depends upon what befalls us than upon the way in which it is met, that is, upon the kind and degree of our general susceptibility.  What a man is and has in himself,—­in a word personality, with all it entails, is the only immediate and direct factor in his happiness and welfare.  All else is mediate and indirect, and its influence can be neutralized and frustrated; but the influence of personality never.  This is why the envy which personal qualities excite is the most implacable of all,—­as it is also the most carefully dissembled.

Further, the constitution of our consciousness is the ever present and lasting element in all we do or suffer; our individuality is persistently at work, more or less, at every moment of our life:  all other influences are temporal, incidental, fleeting, and subject to every kind of chance and change.  This is why Aristotle says:  It is not wealth but character that lasts.[1]