The meaning of all this is no more than that most vulgar saying,
Bene qui latuit, bene vixit, He has lived well, who has lain well
hidden. Which, if it be a truth, the world, I'll swear, is
sufficiently deceived. For my part, I think it is, and that the
pleasantest condition of life, is in incognito. What a brave
privilege is it to be free from all contentions, from all envying or
being envied, from receiving and from paying all kind of ceremonies?
It is in my mind a very delightful pastime, for two good and
agreeable friends to travel up and down together in places where
they are by nobody known, nor know anybody. It was the case of
AEneas and his Achates, when they walked invisibly about the fields
and streets of Carthage, Venus herself
A veil of thickened air around them cast,
That none might know, or see them as they passed.
The common story of Demosthenes's confession that he had taken great
pleasure in hearing of a Tanker-woman say as he passed, "This is
that Demosthenes," is wonderful ridiculous from so solid an orator.
I myself have often met with that temptation to vanity (if it were
any), but am so far from finding it any pleasure, that it only makes
me run faster from the place, till I get, as it were, out of sight
shot.
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