Volume Ii Part 17 (2/2)

ERROR OF PHILOSOPHERS.-The philosopher believes that the value of his philosophy lies in the whole, in the structure. Posterity finds it in the stone with which he built and with which, from that time forth, men will build oftener and better-in other words, in the fact that the structure may be destroyed and yet have value as material.

202.

WIT.-Wit is the epitaph of an emotion.

203.

THE MOMENT BEFORE SOLUTION.-In science it occurs every day and every hour that a man, immediately before the solution, remains stuck, being convinced that his efforts have been entirely in vain-like one who, in untying a noose, hesitates at the moment when it is nearest to coming loose, because at that very moment it looks most like a knot.

204.

AMONG THE VISIONARIES.-The thoughtful man, and he who is sure of his intelligence, may profitably consort with visionaries for a decade and abandon himself in their torrid zone to a moderate insanity. He will thus have travelled a good part of the road towards that cosmopolitanism of the intellect which can say without presumption, ”Nothing intellectual is alien to me.”

205.

KEEN AIR.-The best and healthiest element in science as amid the mountains is the keen air that plays about it.-Intellectual molly-coddles (such as artists) dread and abuse science on account of this atmosphere.

206.

WHY SAVANTS ARE n.o.bLER THAN ARTISTS.-Science requires n.o.bler natures than does poetry; natures that are more simple, less ambitious, more restrained, calmer, that think less of posthumous fame and can bury themselves in studies which, in the eye of the many, scarcely seem worthy of such a sacrifice of personality. There is another loss of which they are conscious. The nature of their occupation, its continual exaction of the greatest sobriety, weakens their will; the fire is not kept up so vigorously as on the hearths of poetic minds. As such, they often lose their strength and prime earlier than artists do-and, as has been said, they are aware of their danger. Under all circ.u.mstances they seem less gifted because they s.h.i.+ne less, and thus they will always be rated below their value.

207.

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