…and if we suppose that our planet is one of the least good, we have no reason for believing that all

goes rightly in the others, nor that fortunate is he who is born under the rays of Altair, Betelgeux, or the
fiery Sirius, when we know what a grievous affair it is to open our eyes on earth to the light of our old
Sun. It is not that I find mine an unhappy fate, when compared with that of other men. I am not troubled
with either wife or child. Love and sickness have left me unscathed. I am not very rich, and I do not go
into society. I am thus to be remembered with the happy ones. Little joy, however, falls to their lot.
What, then, can be the fate of the others? Men are really to be pitied. I impute no blame to nature for
this; to hold a conversation with her is an impossibility; she is not intelligent. Nor will I lay the blame on
society. There is no sense in opposing society to nature. It is as absurd to oppose the nature of men, as
to oppose the nature of ants, or the nature of herrings to the society of herrings. Animal societies are
the necessary outcome of animal nature. The earth is the planet where one eats; ‘tis the planet of
hunger. The animals peopling it are naturally gluttonous and ferocious. Man, the most intelligent of
them all, is alone avaricious. Avarice has so far been the fundamental virtue of human societies, and the
moral masterpiece of nature. Were I a writer, I should indite the praise of avarice. It is true that my book
would not reveal anything strikingly new. The subject has been dealt with a hundred times over by
moralists and economists. Human societies have avarice and cruelty as their august basis.