Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/354



POVERTY in human affairs has the same effect as the inverted lenses in optical tubes: it diminishes and confuses the objects. To what may be denominated its inherent qualities, opinion, which tyrannizes over the conceptions, has added others still more sensible. The poor man is, necessarily as it were, obscure, uncivil, dejected, and deficient; and, to crown his misfortunes, he becomes ridiculous. It suffices not to him to be virtuous, to merit the esteem of his fellow-creatures: it is necessary that he should be a prodigy;—that he should work miracles. This consideration, which is so mortifying to all those whom fortune has wronged in the unequal distribution of her favours, is to the philosopher a source of flattering and consolatory meditations. Aware that honour, riches, and, occasionally, posthumous fame even, depend on certain accidents, the combination and government of which are not within his reach, he ceases to disquiet himself about obtaining them, or to afflict himself at their privation.