It is seen in all states of life, and in all conditions; it
lives everywhere and upon everything; it subsists on
nothing; it accommodates itself either to things or to
the want of them; it goes over to those who are at war
with it, enters into their designs, and, this is wonderful,
it, with them, hates even itself; it conspires for its own
loss, it works towards its own ruin--in fact, caring only
to exist, and providing that it may BE, it will be its own
enemy! We must therefore not be surprised if it is
sometimes united to the rudest austerity, and if it
enters so boldly into partnership to destroy her,
because when it is rooted out in one place it re-esta-
blishes itself in another. When it fancies that it
abandons its pleasure it merely changes or suspends
its enjoyment. When even it is conquered in its full
flight, we find that it triumphs in its own defeat.
Here then is the picture of self-love whereof the whole
of our life is but one long agitation. The sea is its
living image; and in the flux and reflux of its con-
tinuous waves there is a faithful expression of the
stormy succession of its thoughts and of its eternal
motion.
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