Are there mathematical insanities, and idiots who think that two and
two make three? In other words, can hallucination, if the words do not
cry out (at being coupled), invade the affairs of pure reason? If, when
a man is sunk in habits of sloth, of revery, of idleness, to the point
of constantly deferring the important thing to the morrow, another
man were to wake him in the morning with biting lash, and were to
whip him pitilessly until, unable to work for pleasure, he worked for
fear, that man, that flogger, would he not be truly the friend, the
benefactor? Besides, one might declare that pleasure would follow, much
more justly than is said "Love comes after marriage."
Similarly, in politics, the true saint is he who lashes and destroys
the people, for the people's good.
That which is not slightly deformed seems to lack feeling; whence
it follows that irregularity, that is, the un-foreseen, surprise,
astonishment, are an essential part and characteristic of beauty.