requires nothing more. However full of sadness a man may be, he is
happy for the time, if you can prevail upon him to enter into some
amusement; and however happy a man may be, he will soon be
discontented and wretched, if he be not diverted and occupied by
some passion or pursuit which prevents weariness from overcoming
him. Without amusement there is no joy; with amusement there is no
sadness. And this also constitutes the happiness of persons in high
position, that they have a number of people to amuse them and have the
power to keep themselves in this state.

    Consider this. What is it to be superintendent, chancellor,
first president, but to be in a condition wherein from early morning a
large number of people come from all quarters to see them, so as not
to leave them an hour in the day in which they can think of
themselves? And when they are in disgrace and sent back to their
country houses, where they lack neither wealth nor servants to help
them on occasion, they do not fail to be wretched and desolate,
because no one prevents them from thinking of themselves.

    140. How does it happen that this man, so distressed at the
death of his wife and his only son, or who has some great lawsuit
which annoys him, is not at this moment sad, and that he seems so free
from all painful and disquieting thoughts? We need not wonder; for a
ball has been served him, and he must return it to his companion. He
is occupied in catching it in its fall from the roof, to win a game.
How can he think of his own affairs, pray, when he has this other
matter in hand? Here is a care worthy of occupying this great soul and
taking away from him every other thought of the mind. This man, born
to know the universe, to judge all causes, to govern a whole state, is
altogether occupied and taken up with the business of catching a hare.
And if he does not lower himself to this and wants always to be on the
strain, he will be more foolish still, because he would raise
himself above humanity; and after all, he is only a man, that is to
say capable of little and of much, of all and of nothing; he is
neither angel nor brute, but man.

    141. Men spend their time in following a ball or a hare; it is the
pleasure even of kings.

    142. Diversion- Is not the royal dignity sufficiently great in
itself to make its possessor happy by the mere contemplation of what
he is? Must he be diverted from this thought like ordinary folk? I see
well that a man is made happy by diverting him from the view of his
domestic sorrows so as to occupy all his thoughts with the care of
dancing well. But will it be the same with a king, and will he be
happier in the pursuit of these idle amusements than in the
contemplation of his greatness? And what more satisfactory object
could be presented to his mind? Would it not be a deprivation of his
delight for him to occupy his soul with the thought of how to adjust
his steps to the cadence of an air, or of how to throw a ball
skilfully, instead of leaving it to enjoy quietly the contemplation of
the majestic glory which encompasses him? Let us make the trial; let
us leave a king all alone to reflect on himself quite at leisure,
without any gratification of the senses, without any care in his mind,
without society; and we will see that a king without diversion is a
man full of wretchedness. So this is carefully avoided, and near the
persons of kings there never fail to be a great number of people who
see to it that amusement follows business, and who watch all the
time of their leisure to supply them with delights and games, so
that there is no blank in it. In fact, kings are surrounded with
persons who are wonderfully attentive in taking care that the king
be not alone and in a state to think of himself, knowing well that
he will be miserable, king though he be, if he meditate on self.

    In all this I am not talking of Christian kings as Christians, but
only as kings.

    143. Diversion.- Men are entrusted from infancy with the care of
their honour, their property, their friends, and even with the
property and the honour of their friends. They are overwhelmed with
business, with the study of languages, and with physical exercise; and
they are made to understand that they cannot be happy unless their
health, their honour, their fortune and that of their friends be in
good condition, and that a single thing wanting will make them
unhappy. Thus they are given cares and business which make them bustle
about from break of day. It is, you will exclaim, a strange way to
make them happy! What more could be done to make them miserable?-
Indeed! what could be done? We should only have to relieve them from
all these cares; for then they would see themselves: they would
reflect on what they are, whence they came, whither they go, and
thus we cannot employ and divert them too much. And this is why, after
having given them so much business, we advise them, if they have
some time for relaxation, to employ it in amusement, in play, and to
be always fully occupied.

    How hollow and full of ribaldry is the heart of man!

    144. I spent a long time in the study of the abstract sciences,
and was disheartened by the small number of fellow-students in them.
When I commenced the study of man, I saw that these abstract
sciences are not suited to man and that I was wandering farther from
my own state in examining them than others in not knowing them. I
pardoned their little knowledge; but I thought at least to find many
companions in the study of man and that it was the true study which is
suited to him. I have been deceived; still fewer study it than
geometry. It is only from the want of knowing how to study this that
we seek the other studies. But is it not that even here is not the
knowledge which man should have and that for the purpose of
happiness it is better for him not to know himself.?