of the trunk.

103. The example of Alexander's chastity has not made so many continent as
that of his drunkenness has made intemperate. It is not shameful not to be
as virtuous as he, and it seems excusable to be no more vicious. We do not
believe ourselves to be exactly sharing in the vices of the vulgar when we
see that we are sharing in those of great men; and yet we do not observe
that in these matters they are ordinary men. We hold on to them by the same
end by which they hold on to the rabble; for, however exalted they are, they
are still united at some point to the lowest of men. They are not suspended
in the air, quite removed from our society. No, no; if they are greater than
we, it is because their heads are higher; but their feet are as low as ours.
They are all on the same level, and rest on the same earth; and by that
extremity they are as low as we are, as the meanest folk, as infants, and as
the beasts.

104. When our passion leads us to do something, we forget our duty; for
example, we like a book and read it, when we ought to be doing something
else. Now, to remind ourselves of our duty, we must set ourselves a task we
dislike; we then plead that we have something else to do and by this means
remember our duty.

105. How difficult i

they wrap themselves like furry cats, the courts in which they
administer justice, the fleurs-de-lis, and all such august apparel were
necessary; if the physicians had not their cassocks and their mules, if the
doctors had not their square caps and their robes four times too wide, they
would never have duped the world, which cannot resist so original an
appearance. If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true
art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of
these sciences would of itself be venerable enough. But having only
imaginary knowledge, they must employ those silly tools that strike the
imagination with which they have to deal; and thereby, in fact, they inspire
respect. Soldiers alone are not disguised in this manner, because indeed
their part is the most essential; they establish themselves by force, the
others by show.

Therefore our kings seek out no disguises. They do not mask themselves in
extraordinary costumes to appear such; but they are ac