company is easier for them than to bear their own. Moreover, respect
is not paid in this world to that which has real merit; it is reserved
for that which has none. So retirement is at once a proof and a result
of being distinguished by the possession of meritorious qualities. It
will therefore show real wisdom on the part of any one who is worth
anything in himself, to limit his requirements as may be necessary, in
order to preserve or extend his freedom, and,--since a man must come
into some relations with his fellow-men--to admit them to his intimacy
as little as possible.

[Footnote 1: _Paradoxa Stoidorum_: II.]

I have said that people are rendered sociable by their ability to
endure solitude, that is to say, their own society. They become
sick of themselves. It is this vacuity of soul which drives them to
intercourse with others,--to travels in foreign countries. Their mind
is wanting in elasticity; it has no movement of its own, and so they
try to give it some,--by drink, for instance. How much drunkenness
is due to this cause alone! They are always looking for some form of
excitement, of the strongest kind they can bear--the excitement of
being with people of like nature with themselves; and if they fail
in this, their mind sinks by its own weight, and they fall into a
grievous lethargy.[1] Such people, it may be said, possess only a
small fraction of humanity in themselves; and it requires a great many
of them put together to make up a fair amount of it,--to attain any
degree of consciousness as men. A man, in the full sense of the
word,--a man _par excellence_--does not represent a fraction, but a
whole number: he is complete in himself.

[Footnote 1: It is a well-known fact, that we can more easily bear up