ridiculous, as it would be for the puny Inhabitant of an Ant-Hill, to strut about, and boast that all the Earth was made for him alone.
As Self-Love is the inborn Principle of Mankind, so Pride, its first-begotten, their general Passion. No one lives without it: even the Beggar in his Rags imagines himself of exceeding Consequence. Nor is this Passion useless, or to be blamed, but when it overstretches much beyond the Bounds of Reason: for the Mind is hereby excited to emulate and rise above its Fellows, to gain and to deserve Esteem. The Love and the Respect of Others are the just as well as the wished Reward of every good Action: but, without this Passion, they both would be disregarded, and we should want the strongest Motive to encourage Us onward in the Pursuit of Vertue.—In short, Man has a Post assign'd him in the Creation, and that no ignoble one: he is of Consequence, and ought to believe himself so: but, to fancy the Whole was design'd for him alone, is downright Madness.
I thought the readiest way to check this Folly, would be to sketch out a Plan of the Universe; that, by considering the Grandeur of the Whole, Man might be made sensible of his own Littleness and Insignificance, except in the very Place he stands. When he views theHeavens,
