                           20020129.00
,PP I see in A of Either Or, the incarnation of Plato's perfectly
just man as he describes him in Book 2 of the Republic:
    "a simple and noble man who ... does not wish to
    seem but to be good.  Then we must deprive him of
    the seeming.  For if he is going to be thought just
    he will have honours and gifts because of that esteem.
    We cannot be sure in that case whether he is just
    for justice' sake or for the sake of the gifts
    and the honors. So we must strip him bare of
    everything but justice and make his state the
    opposite of his imagined counterpart.  Though doing
    no wrong he must have the repute of the greatest injustice,
    so that he may be put to the test as regards justice
    though not softening because of the ill repute and
    the consequences thereof. But let him hold on
    to his course unchangeable even unto death,
    seeming all his life to be unjust though being just.
    ... such being his disposition the just man will
    have to endure the lash, the rack, chains,
    the branding-iron in his eyes, and finally, after
    every extremity of suffering, he will be crucified."
    (Plato, Republic II, 361C, translated by Paul Shorey)

Compare with Plato's text, this poem from the Diapsalmata
of Either-Or, Part 1.  Samlede Vaerker I 24, and listen to
the complaint of the perfectly just man:

    Aldrig har jeg vaeret glad;
    og dog har det altid seet ud
    som om Glaeden var i mit F/olgeskab,
    som om Glaedens lette Genier dandsede omkring mig,
    usynlige for Andre, men ikke for mig,
    hvis /Oie straalede af Fryd.

    Naar jeg da gaaer Menneskene forbi
    saa lykkelig og glad som en Gud,
    og de misunde mig min Lykke, da leer jeg;
    thi jeg foragter Menneskene, og jeg haevner mig.

    Aldrig har jeg /onsket at gj/ore noget Menneske Uret,
    men altid givet det Udseende af, at ethvert Menneske,
    der kom i min Naerhed, blev kraenket og forurettet.

    Naar jeg da h/orer Andre rose for deres Trofasthed,
    deres Retskaffenhed, da leer jeg;
    thi jeg foragter Menneskene, og jeg haevner mig.

    Aldrig har mit Hjerte vaeret forhaerdet mod noget Menneske,
    men altid, netop naar jeg var meest bevaeget,
    har jeg givet det Udseende af,
    at mit Hjerte var lukket og fremmedt for enhver F/olelse.

    Naar jeg da h/orer Andre ber/omme for deres gode Hjerte,
    seer dem elskede for deres dybe rige F/olelse, da leer jeg;
    thi jeg foragter Menneskene og haevner mig.

    Naar jeg seer mig selv forbandet, afskyet,
    hadet for min Kulde og Hjertel/oshed:
    da leer jeg, da maettes min Vrede.

    Dersom nemlig de gode Mennesker kunde bringe mig til
    virkelig at have Uret, til virkelig at gj/ore Uret -
    ja, da havde jeg tabt.


     "I have never been happy; and yet it has always seemed to me
as if happiness were in my train, as if glad fairies danced
around me, invisible to others but not to me, whose eyes gleamed
with joy.  And when I go among men, happy and glad as a god, and
they envy me my happiness, then I laugh; for I disdain men and I
avenge myself.

     I have never in my heart wished to wrong any man, but I have
always, when I am most moved, given the appearance that everyone
who came near me was wronged and injured.  And when I hear others
praised for their faithfulness and integrity, then I laugh; for I
disdain men and I avenge myself.

     My heart has never been hardened against any human being,
but always, just when I was most affected, I have given the
impression that my heart was closed and alien to every human
feeling. **** And when I hear others praised for their goodness
of heart and see them loved for the depth and wealth of their
feeling, then I laugh; for I disdain men and I avenge myself.

     When I see myself cursed, abominated, hated, for my coldness
and heartlessness: then I laugh and my anger is satisfied.

     If virtuous men could bring me to the point of actually
being in the wrong, if they could actually make me do wrong -
well, then I should have lost."
                    Either/Or, Diapsalmata
(adapted from Swenson and Swenson's translation)

**** This verse is the key to the interpretation
     of the Diary of the Seducer.

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