What a contrast
there is between what is fleeting and what is permanent! The short
span of a man's life, his necessitous, afflicted, unstable existence,
will seldom allow of his seeing even the beginning of his immortal
child's brilliant career; nor will the father himself be taken for
that which he really is. It may be said, indeed, that a man whose fame
comes after him is the reverse of a nobleman, who is preceded by it.
However, the only difference that it ultimately makes to a man to
receive his fame at the hands of contemporaries rather than from
posterity is that, in the former case, his admirers are separated
from him by space, and in the latter by time. For even in the case
of contemporary fame, a man does not, as a rule, see his admirers
actually before him. Reverence cannot endure close proximity; it
almost always dwells at some distance from its object; and in the
presence of the person revered it melts like butter in the sun.
Accordingly, if a man is celebrated with his contemporaries,
nine-tenths of those amongst whom he lives will let their esteem be
guided by his rank and fortune; and the remaining tenth may perhaps
have a dull consciousness of his high qualities, because they have
heard about him from remote quarters.
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