and effects of love. The cause is a _je ne sais quoi_ (Corneille),[76]
and the effects are dreadful. This _je ne sais quoi_, so small an object
that we cannot recognise it, agitates a whole country, princes, armies,
the entire world.

Cleopatra's nose: had it been shorter, the whole aspect of the world
would have been altered.


163

_Vanity._--The cause and the effects of love: Cleopatra.


164

He who does not see the vanity of the world is himself very vain. Indeed
who do not see it but youths who are absorbed in fame, diversion, and
the thought of the future? But take away diversion, and you will see
them dried up with weariness. They feel then their nothingness without
knowing it; for it is indeed to be unhappy to be in insufferable sadness
as soon as we are reduced to thinking of self, and have no diversion.


165

_Thoughts._--_In omnibus requiem quæsivi._[77] If our condition were
truly happy, we would not need diversion from thinking of it in order to
make ourselves happy.