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he expected it? Nay how often is he mortified with the very praises he receives, if they do not refer so high as he thinks they ought, which they seldom do unless increased by flattery, since few men have so good an opinion of us as we have of ourselves? But if the ambitious man can be so much grieved even with praise itself, how will he be able to bear up under scandal and defamation? For the same temper of mind which makes him desire Fame, makes him hate Reproach. If he can be transported with the extraordinary praises of men, he will be as much dejected by their censures. How little therefore is the pleasure of an ambitious man, who gives every one a dominion over it, who thus subjects himself to the good or ill speeches of others, and puts it in the power of every malicious tongue to throw him into a fit of melancholy, and distroy his natural rest and repose of mind? Especially when we consider that the world is more apt to censure than applaud, and himself fuller of imperfections than virtues. We may farther observe, that such a man will be more grieved for the loss of Fame, than he could have been pleased with the enjoy ment of it. For though the presence of this imaginary good cannot make us happy, the absence of it may make us miserable: Because in the enjoyment of an object we only find that share of pleasure which it is capable of giving us, but in the loss of it we do not proportion our grief to the real virtue it bears, but to the value of our fancies and imagination set upon it.
