Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1858-07-24
JEAN PAUL'S FATIGUE OF BEING GEL
EBRATED.

An authors change of opinion as to the value
of the enjoyments of daily fame are amusingly
given in the following, from Flower, Fruit, and
Thorn Pieces
81 must tell you, the devil take fame. In a
short time ! shall disappear, ana mingle among
the people, and turn up again every week with a
new name. that the fools may not know me. Oh,
there was once n time, for a few years, when |
wished to be somothing-if not IA great author. at
least a ninth elector-if not laurelled, at least
mitred-lf not sometimes II pro-rector, frequently
at least n deacon. 1t would then have afforded
me pleasure, had | had the most terrible pains
from the stone, and consequently proportiouately
large bladder stones, in order that | might have
extrac ted stones from my bladder to build
up the altar or temple of my fame still higher
than the pyramid which Ruysch piled up in the
cabinet of natural history with the ~forty-twO blad-
der stones Of an honest woman. Sikbenkas at
that time | would have wreathed myself a thorny
philosophers beard of wasps, az Widau did Of
bees, only to become known by it. L grant |
then said, 1T is not the good fortune Of every child
of clay, and he ought not therefore to expect it,
that a town should kill him like Mr.. Romuald,
as is related by Bembo in his life, lin order to steal
his holy body as a relic but it seems to me that,
without being wanting in humility, a man may
desire that n few hairs should be ~plucked, if not
ont of his fur coat. as happened to Voltaire in
Paris, at least out of his skull, rs n Sourenier, by
those who know how to appreciate him; | refer
more especially to the reviewers Thus | then
thought; but | now think more wisely. Fame
merits no fame.
"'Besides, | cannot know what glorious heaven
ly hosts and archangels live upon other universes
and little spheres of the milky way--this pater
noster rosary of globes-serapLs, in comparison
with whom | cannot be looked upon in any other
light than 10 that of a sheep. We souls, it is
tru, rise, and advance considerably upon the
earth; the soul of the oyster rises to a frogs. the
latter to that of a stockfsh; the spirit ola stock
fish ascends into q goose, then into q sheep,
then is elevated into an ass, or even into an apo
at last (nothing higher can be conceived) into a
bush .HottentOt. But such a long peripatetic eli.
max only initiates a man until he makes the follow
ing reflection We observe, among the amin ais Of
~ class, among which, AZ among ourselves, Their,
must be geniuses, good clear heads, and thorough
Notwithstanding but the last, or, at most
extremes, No class of animals is near enough tt
our visual membrane to prevent our confoun0ins
the middle tints and degrees of their value. AnC
thus it will be with us, when a spirit, sitting il
heaven, looks upon us all. On account of his re
moteness, he will find it a difficult task "a vail
one}to distinguish n real difference between Kan
and his shaving mirrors of Kantites, between
Goethe and his im~itators; and the above mentionet
spirit will scarcely, or not at all, know how to dis
tinguish masters Of faculties from ounces, profes
sors' houses from mad houses for little steps ar
entirely lost to the vision Of one who stands upo
a high step.
"'But this d~eprives a thinker of all pleasur
and courage; and may / be hung, Sicbenkas,
in such a p.ate of affairs, | ever lay myse
out to become properly celebrated, or give myse
the trouble to pull down, or to build up, the mos
learned and acute system, or write anything long
er than a letter.
"'Thine, not mine, L.
asp. 81 would that God would grant me
second life after this, and that | could o.
cupy myself in the next world with %realitie
for this is really too hollow and too insi,
id, a wretched Nuremberg toy-only the sinkin
froth of a life-a leap through the ring of eternit
"A rotten, ashy, apple of Sodom, the taste
which | cannot get out of my mouth, spit an
s%plutter as | may. OH"