BOOK III PART III
ever have been established and authorized by
custom, unless men were generally proud, and
unless that passion were generally approved,
when well-grounded.
If we pass from common life and conver-
sation to history, this reasoning acquires new
force, when we observe, that all those great ac-
tions and sentiments, which have become the
admiration of mankind, are founded on noth-
ing but pride and self-esteem. Go, says Alexan-
der the Great to his soldiers, when they refused
to follow him to the Indies, go tell your coun-
trymen, that you left Alexander corn pleating
the conquest of the world. This passage was
always particularly admired by the prince of
Conde, as we learn from St Evremond.
“Alexander,” said that prince, “abandoned by
his soldiers, among barbarians, not yet fully