March 24, 1903 Tuesday

March 24 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook:

Every man is a slave & a slave-holder; every man is a king & a subject; no man knows any but a fictitious independence. The foreman of a squad of offal-carts possesses all the essentials of those insolent & squalid vanities, nobility & kingship. It is self-conceited man that has placed the reptile at the bottom of animated nature. It is like his presumption.

By immemorial habit & training, the King despises the entire nation with the exception of the nobility,— & in return the nation worships him & is proud of him [NB 46 TS 12-13].