Zibaldone by Leopardi Giacomo

Author:Leopardi, Giacomo [Leopardi, Giacomo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 2013-07-16T04:00:00+00:00

This consequence derives from the principle assumed. But since the principle is false, so too the consequence is not true, and this proposition if considered again just by itself, will readily be recognized as utterly false. Since in relation to the order of earthly things, man, as the being more able than all others to conform, is the most perfect of all.

Unless in the aforesaid order of earthly things, when we consider the perfection of each species in a comparative fashion, that is, considering one in relation to another, unless, I repeat, we imagine a double scale, or a partly ascending and partly descending scale. And at the lowest end of the first scale we put beings that are wholly unorganized, or more unorganized than all the others. Then climb up to the top and place the more organized beings, until we arrive at those that occupy the midpoint in organization, sensitivity, and conformability. And treat these latter as the highest [2900] degree of the scale, that is, of perfection comparatively considered, as those that perhaps by nature are the most disposed to obtain their own particular and relative happiness, and to retain it. From these descending ever further down past the beings that are more organized, sensitive, and able to conform, so as to put at the last and lowest degree of the scale man, the most organized, sensitive, and able to conform of all earthly creatures.1

Arguing in this fashion, and doubling or unfolding the scale, we would find that man truly is at the furthest limit not of perfection (as would seem to be the case if we were to make just one scale or a simple and straight one) but of imperfection, and still lower than the furthest end of the other part of the scale. Since from the comparative imperfection of beings placed at that point no unhappiness follows for them, whereas for man the unhappiness is very great.

I really do think this to be the case. Man is not by nature unhappy. Nature has not put [2901] any quality in him that in itself renders him such, no quality such that it is naturally opposed in any respect to his well-being. And therefore nature has not directly so arranged things that man is unhappy, or such that he must necessarily become so. Since man could preserve himself in his pure and original state, just as the other creatures preserve themselves in theirs, and by preserving himself there, he would be just as happy, or just as not unhappy, as the other creatures are happy or not unhappy so long as they persist in their natural state. So that with respect to man nature has in no way violated or transgressed its universal laws, which determine that each creature has in its own essence and immediately all that it needs for the happiness that befits it, and nothing that in itself impels it toward unhappiness. But the excessive, or rather, the supreme conformability and organization of

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