It must be a rather unpleasant task for the historian who, having set out to narrate the biography of the great man, cannot hide from it the ever-present and ever-hateful action of the mediocre men who envy him and try to bring him down. And, after all, there seems to have been no historian who could get rid of this burden, since, in order to avoid the envious, a talented man would have to never show himself. If he does manage to stand out, the relentless Japanese proverb ensues. There really is no greater effort than that required to know the world and not curse it; reflected optimism is a tremendous and meritorious intellectual feat.