ABSTRACT
It asks a troublesome effort to ensure the admiration of others: it is a still greater one to be satisfied with one's own thoughts. What the author means by living to one's-self is living in the world, as in it, not of it: it is as if no one knew there was such a person, and that person wished no one to know it. It is to be a silent spectator of the mighty scene of things, not an object of attention or curiosity in it; to take a thoughtful, anxious interest in what is passing in the world, but not to feel the slightest inclination to make or meddle with it. There is not a more meaner, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself.
