Curiously, influence and success are often accompanied by controversy, and controversy by envy, hatred, and defamation. This rule applies regardless of the personalities and the nature of what is exposed to the public, which loves and hates, admires and envies. Polemicists know it as well as saints and spiritual leaders. The noble and the scoundrel, the impassioned and the refined, are all familiar with it. Thus, to seek the former without understanding the natural course of things is to subject oneself to a rather unpleasant ordeal from which there seems to be no escape.