I knew intimately all the hats in the university, and I was henceforth looked up to by the caps, as if my head had gained the height of every nat that I knew. But I did not do this immediately. I must tell you two little anecdotes, that first initiated me into the secret of real greatness. The first was this: I was sitting at dinner with some fellows of a college, grave men and clever; two of them not knowing me, were conversing about me: they heard, they said, that I should never be so good a fellow as my father, have such a cellar or keep such a house.
"And his son," returned the first don, "only keeps company with sizars, I believe."
"So then," said I to myself, "to deserve the praise even of clever men, one must have good wines, know plenty of earls, and forswear sizars."
Nothing could be truer than my conclusion.
Anecdote the second is this: — On the day I gained a high university prize, I invited my friends to dine with me; four of them refused, because they were engaged (they had been asked once I asked them) — to whom? The richest man of the university. These occurrences happening at the same time, threw me into a profound reverie: I awoke, and became a man of the world. I no longer resolved to be virtuous, and to hunt after the glory of your Romans and your Athenians — I resolved to become rich, powerful, and of worldly repute. 