Meteorological Observations upon Man.
When, in the former chapter, I wrote down his Lordship's pithy sayings,
I found that some came into my own head, which might be serviceable for
the Intercalary Day. I have never made one observation alone, but
always twenty, thirty, in succession, and this very first one is a
proof of it!
*
When any one remains modest, not after praise, but after censure, then
he is really so.
*
The talk of the people, and still more the letters of maidens, have a
peculiar euphony, arising from a constant interchange of long and short
syllables (Trochees or Iambuses).
*
The two things which a maiden most easily forgets are, first, how she
looks (hence mirrors were invented); and, secondly, wherein the pronoun
_that_ differs from the conjunction _that_. I fear, however, that they
will from to-day forward observe the distinction, merely for the sake
of upsetting my assertion. And _then_ one of my two touchstones is
lost[156] with which I have hitherto tested learned ladies; the second,
which I retain, is the left thumb-nail, which the penknife has
sometimes notched full of red marks, but seldom, however, because they
drive the quill more easily than they make the pen.
*
One who has received many benefits ceases to _count_, and begins to
_weigh_ them, as if they were votes.
*
The transporting one's self into good characters does more harm to a
poet or player, who retains his own, than entering into bad ones. A
clergyman who, besides, is free to take only the first of these steps,
is more exposed to moral _atony_[157] than the maker of verses and
parts, who is able to make up again for a holy part by an unholy one.
*
Passion makes the best observations and the wretchedest conclusions. It
is a telescope whose field is so much the brighter, as it is narrower.
*
Men require of a new Prince, Bishop, Domestic Tutor, Nursery Tutor,
Capon-Stuffer, Town-Musician, or Town-Recorder _only in the first week_
very special merits which were wanting in his predecessor; for in the
second they have forgotten what they required and what they missed.
*
Such sentences please women most and stay by them longest.
*
Therefore, by way of reward, I will manufacture more than one upon
themselves.--They regard others only as younger, not as fairer, than
themselves.
*
They are even ten times more artful and false towards each other than
towards us; but we are almost more honest to each other than to them.
*
They look to it only that one _does_ justify himself with them, no
matter _how_.
*
They forgive a loved man more stains than we do a loved woman. Hence
the romance-writers let the heroes of their quill guzzle, storm, duel,
and stay overnight anywhere and everywhere, without the least prejudice
to the hero.--The heroine, on the contrary, must sit at home by her
mother and be a little angel.
*
On the whole, they are so delicate, so mild, so sympathetic, so
refined, so loving and love-thirsty, that I cannot get it into my head
why it is that they cannot really like each other, unless it is for
some such reason as this, that they are too courteous to each other to
be formally reconciled or formally at variance with each other. You
dear ones! you sometimes love a man because he has a friend and is one.
O how beautifully would a friend of your own sex _fit_[158] you!
*
One learns taciturnity best among people who have none, and loquacity
among the taciturn.
*
If self-knowledge is the road to virtue, so is virtue still more the
road to self-knowledge. An amended and purified soul is darkened by the
least moral poison, as certain precious stones are by every other, and
now after the amendment one observes for the first time how many
impurities still lurk in all corners.
*
I will close with some rules for improvement. Never, when the bosom has
to fear that thorn in the side, anger, eloquently represent to any one
his faults; for in the very act of convincing him of his guilt thou
persuadest thyself of it, and so becomest exasperated. Picture to
thyself every morning the possible situations and passions into which
during the day thou mayst fall; then thou wilt deport thyself better,
for one seldom behaves badly, in a repeated case, the second time.--Is
thy friend angry with thee, then provide him an opportunity of showing
thee a great favor. Over that his heart must needs melt, and he will
love thee again.--No resolves are great save those which one has more
than once to execute. Hence _forbearing_ is harder than _undertaking_;
for the former has to be kept up longer, and the latter is also linked
with the sense of a double expression of power, a psychological and a
moral.--Only despair not at a single failing; and let thy whole
repentance be--a nobler action.--Only make thyself (by stoicism, or in
ally way thou canst) _tranquil_, then wilt thou have little trouble in
making thyself _virtuous_ also.--Begin the culture of thy heart, not
with the rearing of noble motives, but with the extirpation of bad
ones. When the weeds are once withered or uprooted, then will the
nobler flowerage spontaneously and vigorously spring up.--The virtuous
heart, like the body, grows sound and strong more by _work_ than by
good _food_.
Therefore I can stop.