Why is this? Because his example exhibits to me a law
that humbles my self-conceit when I compare it with my conduct: a law,
the practicability of obedience to which I see proved by fact before
my eyes. Now, I may even be conscious of a like degree of uprightness,
and yet the respect remains. For since in man all good is defective,
the law made visible by an example still humbles my pride, my standard
being furnished by a man whose imperfections, whatever they may be,
are not known to me as my own are, and who therefore appears to me
in a more favourable light. Respect is a tribute which we cannot
refuse to merit, whether we will or not; we may indeed outwardly
withhold it, but we cannot help feeling it inwardly.
Respect is so far from being a feeling of pleasure that we only
reluctantly give way to it as regards a man. We try to find out
something that may lighten the burden of it, some fault to
compensate us for the humiliation which such which such an example
causes. Even the dead are not always secure from this criticism,
especially if their example appears inimitable.
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