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That Aule person seems to have either a lot of bad luck in his choice of pupils, or to suffer from a major case of bad judgement! I wonder, though, whether his own 'presumption' might not have rubbed off on his servants. He tended to act without considering the meaning & possible consequences - his creation of the Dwarves being the prime example. Of course, he may have been motivated by the idea of 'set a thief to catch a thief (- whoa! is that behind the 'burglar' idea in TH?).
Saruman, it seems, needed someone around him, with whom he could talk about his plans & desires, someone who could basically tell him he was in danger, but as with so many who go the way he did, that's the very thing he sought to cut himself off from. I wonder if his anger & frustration with Gandalf at Orthanc was due to his having been cut off from both criticism & challenge for so long? Gandalf seems to have spent so long on the recieving end of such things that any pride he may have had to begin with was knocked out of him. Certainly if one is challenged & criticised for long enough one will tend to look deeply at oneself & question ones motives & desires. I think Gandalf, for all his manipulations (as opposed to Saruman's machinations), was acting selflessly - nothing he did was designed to enhance his own position. He even gave up his life to save his friends. He had reached a point of absolute submission to his mission (aarrgh!!!). It had become, in his mind, greater than himself, whereas for Saruman its as if he felt himself to be greater than the mission.
Gandalf does what he must do, Saruman does what he wants - I think this is what's behind his interchange with Gandalf - Saruman states that the white light may be broken, the white cloth dyed, the white page overwritten, & its clear he means that he may do these things. Gandalf effectively challenges not his statements that these things may be done (they are simple facts) but rather his presumption that he has the right to do those things. Saruman is claiming authority, Gandalf is repsonding that his role should be to serve not to control. Of course, by that time Saruman is too far gone to listen, let alone admit he is wrong. For Gandalf, wisdom is dependent on humility, for Saruman it is the opposite.
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