Human, All Too Human Volume Ii Part 29

ALL-TOO-BEAUTIFUL AND HUMAN.-"Nature is too beautiful for thee, poor mortal," one often feels. But now and then, at a profound contemplation of all that is human, in its fulness, vigour, tenderness, and complexity, I have felt as if I must say, in all humility, "Man also is too beautiful for the contemplation of man!" Nor did I mean the moral man alone, but every one.

343.

REAL AND PERSONAL ESTATE.-When life has treated us in true robber fashion, and has taken away all that it could of honour, joys, connections, health, and property of every kind, we perhaps discover in the end, after the first shock, that we are richer than before. For now we know for the first time what is so peculiarly ours that no robber hand can touch it, and perhaps, after all the plunder and devastation, we come forward with the airs of a mighty real estate owner.

344.

INVOLUNTARILY IDEALISED.-The most painful feeling that exists is finding out that we are always taken for something higher than we really are. For we must thereby confess to ourselves, "There is in you some element of fraud-your speech, your expression, your bearing, your eye, your dealings; and this deceitful something is as necessary as your usual honesty, but constantly destroys its effect and its value."

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IDEALIST AND LIAR.-We must not let ourselves be tyrannised even by that finest faculty of idealising things: otherwise, truth will one day part company from us with the insulting remark: "Thou arch-liar, what have I to do with thee?"

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BEING MISUNDERSTOOD.-When one is misunderstood generally, it is impossible to remove a particular misunderstanding. This point must be recognised, to save superfluous expenditure of energy in self-defence.

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THE WATER-DRINKER SPEAKS.-Go on drinking your wine, which has refreshed you all your life-what affair is it of yours if I have to be a water-drinker? Are not wine and water peaceable, brotherly elements, that can live side by side without mutual recriminations?

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FROM CANNIBAL COUNTRY.-In solitude the lonely man is eaten up by himself, among crowds by the many. Choose which you prefer.

349.

THE FREEZING-POINT OF THE WILL.-"Some time the hour will come at last, the hour that will envelop you in the golden cloud of painlessness; when the soul enjoys its own weariness and, happy in patient playing with patience, resembles the waves of a lake, which on a quiet summer day, in the reflection of a many-hued evening sky, sip and sip at the sh.o.r.e and again are hushed-without end, without purpose, without satiety, without need-all calm rejoicing in change, all ebb and flow of Nature's pulse." Such is the feeling and talk of all invalids, but if they attain that hour, a brief period of enjoyment is followed by ennui. But this is the thawing-wind of the frozen will, which awakes, stirs, and once more begets desire upon desire.-Desire is a sign of convalescence or recovery.

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THE DISCLAIMED IDEAL.-It happens sometimes by an exception that a man only reaches the highest when he disclaims his ideal. For this ideal previously drove him onward too violently, so that in the middle of the track he regularly got out of breath and had to rest.

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A TREACHEROUS INCLINATION.-It should be regarded as a sign of an envious but aspiring man, when he feels himself attracted by the thought that with regard to the eminent there is but one salvation-love.

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STAIRCASE HAPPINESS.-Just as the wit of many men does not keep pace with opportunity (so that opportunity has already pa.s.sed through the door while wit still waits on the staircase outside), so others have a kind of staircase happiness, which walks too slowly to keep pace with swift-footed Time. The best that it can enjoy of an experience, of a whole span of life, falls to its share long afterwards, often only as a weak, spicy fragrance, giving rise to longing and sadness-as if "it might have been possible"-some time or other-to drink one's fill of this element: but now it is too late.

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WORMS.-The fact that an intellect contains a few worms does not detract from its ripeness.

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THE SEAT OF VICTORY.-A good seat on horseback robs an opponent of his courage, the spectator of his heart-why attack such a man? Sit like one who has been victorious!