If it is a piece of good fortune that has befallen him personally, then he is sure that it is his own doing and his own desert; if, on the other hand, it should be an event ofhistorical importance which does not really concern him, he makescitdikewise hisown; and an interest for which he has done nothing is, in his own eyes,a party interest which he has favoured or opposed, and even combated or supported.