How the Inclination for Dignities and Riches Leads to Error

Dignities and riches, as well as virtue and the sciences of which we have just spoken, are the principal things that elevate us above other men, for it seems that our being expands and becomes as if independent through the possession of these advantages, so that the love we bear to ourselves spreading naturally even to dignities and riches, one can say that there is no one who does not have for them some inclination, great or small. Let us explain briefly how these inclinations prevent us from finding truth and engage us in falsehood and error.

We have shown in several places that it takes much time and effort, assiduity and mental strain to penetrate composed truths, surrounded by difficulties, and dependent on many principles: from there it is easy to judge that public persons who are in great offices, who have great goods to govern and great affairs to conduct, and who ardently desire dignities and riches, are hardly fit for the search for these truths, and that they often fall into error with regard to all things that are difficult to know when they wish to judge them.

1° Because they have very little time to employ in the search for truth.

2° Because ordinarily they take little pleasure in this search.

3° Because they are very little capable of attention, since the capacity of their mind is divided by the great number of ideas of things they desire, and to which they are occupied even despite themselves.

4° Because they imagine they know everything and have difficulty believing that people inferior to them have more reason than they; for although they readily allow them to teach them some facts, they do not willingly allow them to instruct them in solid and necessary truths; they become angry when contradicted and undeceited.

5° Because it is customary to applaud them in all their imaginings, however false and far from common sense they may be, and to mock those who are not of their opinion, even though they defend only incontestable truths. It is because of the cowardly flatteries of those who approach them that they confirm themselves in their errors and in the false esteem they have of themselves, and that they put themselves in possession of judging cavalierly of all things.

6° Because they scarcely stop at sensible notions, which are more suited for ordinary conversations and for preserving the esteem of men, than the pure and abstract ideas of the mind, which serve to discover truth.

7° Because those who aspire to some dignity try as much as they can to accommodate themselves to the capacity of others, since there is nothing that so strongly excites the envy and aversion of men as to appear to have uncommon sentiments. It is rare that those whose mind and heart are occupied with the thought and desire of making their fortune can discover hidden truths; but when they discover them, they often abandon them out of interest and because the defense of these truths does not accord with their ambition. One must often consent to injustice to become a magistrate; solid and uncommon piety often distances one from benefices, and the generous love of truth very often loses one the chairs where one should teach only truth.

All these reasons joined together make men who are much elevated above others by their dignities, their nobility and their riches, or who think only of elevating themselves and making some fortune, extremely subject to error and very little capable of truths somewhat hidden. For among the things necessary to avoid error in somewhat difficult questions, there are two principal ones that are not ordinarily found in the persons of whom we speak, namely: the attention of the mind, to penetrate well the depths of things; and restraint, not to judge of them with too much precipitation. Those very ones who are chosen to teach others, and who should have no other goal than to become skillful in instructing those entrusted to their care, ordinarily become subject to error as soon as they become public persons; either because, having very little time to themselves, they are incapable of attention and of applying themselves to things that require much of it; or because, strangely wishing to appear learned, they decide boldly of all things without any restraint, and suffer only with difficulty being resisted and instructed.