Volume Ii Part 62 (1/2)

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.