Human, All Too Human Volume Ii Part 62

325.

THE BEST REMEDY.-A little health on and off is the best remedy for the invalid.

326.

DON'T TOUCH.-There are dreadful people who, instead of solving a problem, complicate it for those who deal with it and make it harder to solve.(29) Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be entreated not to hit the nail at all.

327.

FORGETTING NATURE.-We speak of Nature, and, in doing so, forget ourselves: we ourselves are Nature, _quand meme_.-Consequently, Nature is something quite different from what we feel on hearing her name p.r.o.nounced.

328.

PROFUNDITY AND ENNUI.-In the case of profound men, as of deep wells, it takes a long time before anything that is thrown into them reaches the bottom. The spectators, who generally do not wait long enough, too readily look upon such a man as callous and hard-or even as boring.

329.

WHEN IT IS TIME TO VOW FIDELITY TO ONESELF.-We sometimes go astray in an intellectual direction which does not correspond to our talents. For a time we struggle heroically against wind and tide, really against ourselves; but finally we become weary and we pant. What we accomplish gives us no real pleasure, since we think that we have paid too heavy a price for these successes. We even despair of our productivity, of our future, perhaps in the midst of victory.-Finally, finally we turn back-and then the wind swells our sails and bears us into our smooth water. What bliss! How certain of victory we feel! Only now do we know what we are and what we intend, and now we vow fidelity to ourselves, and have a right to do so-as men that know.

330.

WEATHER PROPHETS.-Just as the clouds reveal to us the direction of the wind high above our heads, so the lightest and freest spirits give signs of future weather by their course. The wind in the valley and the market-place opinions of to-day have no significance for the future, but only for the past.

331.

CONTINUAL ACCELERATION.-Those who begin slowly and find it hard to become familiar with a subject, sometimes acquire afterwards the quality of continual acceleration-so that in the end no one knows where the current will take them.

332.

THE THREE GOOD THINGS.-Greatness, calm, sunlight-these three embrace all that a thinker desires and also demands of himself: his hopes and duties, his claims in the intellectual and moral sphere, nay even in his daily manner of life and the scenic background of his residence. Corresponding to these three things are, firstly thoughts that exalt, secondly thoughts that soothe, and thirdly thoughts that illuminate-but, fourthly, thoughts that share in all these three qualities, in which all earthly things are transfigured. This is the kingdom of the great _trinity of joy_.

333.

DYING FOR "TRUTH."-We should not let ourselves be burnt for our opinions-we are not so certain of them as all that. But we might let ourselves be burnt for the right of possessing and changing our opinions.

334.

MARKET VALUE.-If we wish to pa.s.s exactly for what we are, we must be something that has its market value. As, however, only objects in common use have a market value, this desire is the consequence either of shrewd modesty or of stupid immodesty.

335.

MORAL FOR BUILDERS.-We must remove the scaffolding when the house has been built.

336.

SOPHOCLEANISM.-Who poured more water into wine than the Greeks? Sobriety and grace combined-that was the aristocratic privilege of the Athenian in the time of Sophocles and after. Imitate that whoever can! In life and in work!

337.