Certainly the gifts and endowments of the Muses should be
privileged from such mean considerations.

If indeed some have made fame and reputation one of the ends of
their studies, they used it only as an instrument to get friends;
since we find by common observation that men only praise those whom
they love. If they sought its own praise, they were as much
mistaken as Ixion when he embraced a cloud instead of Juno;
for there is nothing so fleeting, so changeable, and so inconstant
as popular applause; it is but a pompous shadow, and hath no manner
of solidity and duration in it. But a wise man, if he design to
engage in business and matters of state, will so far aim at fame
and popularity as that he may be better enabled to benefit others;
for it is a difficult and very unpleasant task to do good to those
who are disaffected to our persons. It is the good opinion men
have of us which disposes men to give credit to our doctrine.
As light is a greater good to those who see others by it than to
those who only are seen, so is honor of a greater benefit to those
who are sensible of it than to those whose glory is admired.
But even one who withdraws himself from the noise of the world, who
loves privacy and indulges his own thoughts, will show that
respect to the good word of the people which Hippolytus did to
Venus,--though he abstain from her mysteries, he will pay his
devotions at a distance; (Euripides, "Hippolytus," 102.) but he
will not be so cynical and sullen as not to hear with gladness the
commendations of virtuous men like himself; he will neither engage
himself in a restless pursuit of wealth, interest, or honor, nor
will he on the other hand be so rustic and insensible as to refuse
them in a moderate degree, when they fairly come in his way;
in like manner he will not court and follow handsome and beautiful