Human, All Too Human Volume Ii Part 56

NON-a.s.sERTION OF OUR RIGHTS.-The exertion of power is laborious and demands courage. That is why so many do not a.s.sert their most valid rights, because their rights are a kind of power, and they are too lazy or too cowardly to exercise them. _Indulgence_ and _patience_ are the names given to the virtues that cloak these faults.

252.

BEARERS OF LIGHT.-In Society there would be no suns.h.i.+ne if the born flatterers (I mean the so-called amiable people) did not bring some in with them.

253.

WHEN MOST BENEVOLENT.-When a man has been highly honoured and has eaten a little, he is most benevolent.

254.

TO THE LIGHT.-Men press forward to the light not in order to see better but to s.h.i.+ne better.-The person before whom we s.h.i.+ne we gladly allow to be called a light.

255.

THE HYPOCHONDRIAC.-The hypochondriac is a man who has just enough intellect and pleasure in the intellect to take his sorrows, his losses, and his mistakes seriously. But the field on which he grazes is too small: he crops it so close that in the end he has to look for single stalks.

Thus he finally becomes envious and avaricious-and only then is he unbearable.

256.

GIVING IN RETURN.-Hesiod advises us to give the neighbour who has helped us good measure and, if possible, fuller measure in return, as soon as we have the power. For this is where the neighbour's pleasure comes in, since his former benevolence brings him interest. Moreover, he who gives in return also has his pleasure, inasmuch as, by giving a little more than he got, he redeems the slight humiliation of being compelled to seek aid.

257.

MORE SUBTLE THAN IS NECESSARY.-Our sense of observation for how far others perceive our weaknesses is far more subtle than our sense of observation for the weaknesses of others. It follows that the first-named sense is more subtle than is necessary.

258.

A KIND OF BRIGHT SHADOWS.-Close to the nocturnal type of man we almost regularly find, as if bound up with him, a bright soul. This is, as it were, the negative shadow cast by the former.

259.

NOT TO TAKE REVENGE.-There are so many subtle sorts of revenge that one who has occasion to take revenge can really do or omit to do what he likes. In any case, the whole world will agree, after a time, that he _has_ avenged himself. Hence the avoidance of revenge is hardly within man's power. He must not even so much as say that he does not _want_ to do so, since the contempt for revenge is interpreted and felt as a sublime and exquisite form of revenge.-It follows that we must do nothing superfluous.

260.

THE MISTAKE OF THOSE WHO PAY HOMAGE.-Every one thinks he is paying a most agreeable compliment to a thinker when he says that he himself hit upon exactly the same idea and even upon the same expression. The thinker, however, is seldom delighted at hearing such news, nay, rather, he often becomes distrustful of his own thoughts and expressions. He silently resolves to revise both some day. If we wish to pay homage to any one, we must beware of expressing our agreement, for this puts us on the same level.-Often it is a matter of social tact to listen to an opinion as if it were not ours or even travelled beyond the limits of our own horizon-as, for example, when an old man once in a while opens the storehouse of his acquired knowledge.

261.

LETTERS.-A letter is an unannounced visit, and the postman is the intermediary of impolite surprises. Every week we ought to have one hour for receiving letters, and then go and take a bath.

262.

PREJUDICED.-Some one said: I have been prejudiced against myself from childhood upwards, and hence I find some truth in every censure and some absurdity in every eulogy. Praise I generally value too low and blame too high.

263.

THE PATH TO EQUALITY.-A few hours of mountain-climbing make a blackguard and a saint two rather similar creatures. Weariness is the shortest path to equality and fraternity-and finally liberty is bestowed by sleep.