Human, All Too Human Volume Ii Part 23

268.

JOY IN REFRACTORINESS.-The good teacher knows cases where he is proud that his pupil remains true to himself in opposition to him-at times when the youth must not understand the man or would be harmed by understanding him.

269.

THE EXPERIMENT OF HONESTY.-Young men, who wish to be more honest than they have been, seek as victim some one acknowledged to be honest, attacking him first with an attempt to reach his height by abuse-with the underlying notion that this first experiment at any rate is void of danger. For just such a one has no right to chastise the impudence of the honest man.

270.

THE ETERNAL CHILD.-We think, short-sighted that we are, that fairy-tales and games belong to childhood. As if at any age we should care to live without fairy-tales and games! Our words and sentiments are indeed different, but the essential fact remains the same, as is proved by the child himself looking on games as his work and fairy-tales as his truth.

The shortness of life ought to preserve us from a pedantic distinction between the different ages-as if every age brought something new-and a poet ought one day to portray a man of two hundred, who really lives without fairy-tales and games.

271.

EVERY PHILOSOPHY IS THE PHILOSOPHY OF A PERIOD OF LIFE.-The period of life in which a philosopher finds his teaching is manifested by his teaching; he cannot avoid that, however elevated above time and hour he may feel himself. Thus, Schopenhauer's philosophy remains a mirror of his hot and melancholy youth-it is no mode of thought for older men. Plato's philosophy reminds one of the middle thirties, when a warm and a cold current generally rush together, so that spray and delicate clouds and, under favourable circ.u.mstances and glimpses of suns.h.i.+ne, enchanting rainbow-pictures result.

272.

OF THE INTELLECT OF WOMEN.-The intellectual strength of a woman is best proved by the fact that she offers her own intellect as a sacrifice out of love for a man and his intellect, and that nevertheless in the new domain, which was previously foreign to her nature, a second intellect at once arises as an aftergrowth, to which the man's mind impels her.

273.

RAISING AND LOWERING IN THE s.e.xUAL DOMAIN.-The storm of desire will sometimes carry a man up to a height where all desire is silenced, where he really loves and lives in a better state of being rather than in a better state of choice. On the other hand, a good woman, from true love, often climbs down to desire, and lowers herself in her own eyes. The latter action in particular is one of the most pathetic sensations which the idea of a good marriage can involve.

274.

MAN PROMISES, WOMAN FULFILS.-By woman Nature shows how far she has. .h.i.therto achieved her task of fas.h.i.+oning humanity, by man she shows what she has had to overcome and what she still proposes to do for humanity.-The most perfect woman of every age is the holiday-task of the Creator on every seventh day of culture, the recreation of the artist from his work.

275.

TRANSPLANTING.-If we have spent our intellect in order to gain mastery over the intemperance of the pa.s.sions, the sad result often follows that we transfer the intemperance to the intellect, and from that time forth are extravagant in thought and desire of knowledge.

276.

LAUGHTER AS TREACHERY.-How and when a woman laughs is a sign of her culture, but in the ring of laughter her nature reveals itself, and in highly cultured women perhaps even the last insoluble residue of their nature. Hence the psychologist will say with Horace, though from different reasons: "Ridete puellae."

277.

FROM THE YOUTHFUL SOUL.-Youths varyingly show devotion and impudence towards the same person, because at bottom they only despise or admire themselves in that other person, and between the two feelings but stagger to and fro in themselves, so long as they have not found in experience the measure of their will and ability.

278.

FOR THE AMELIORATION OF THE WORLD.-If we forbade the discontented, the sullen, and the atrabilious to propagate, we might transform the world into a garden of happiness.-This aphorism belongs to a practical philosophy for the female s.e.x.

279.

NOT TO DISTRUST YOUR EMOTIONS.-The feminine phrase "Do not distrust your emotions" does not mean much more than "Eat what tastes good to you." This may also, especially for moderate natures, be a good everyday rule. But other natures must live according to another maxim: "You must eat not only with your mouth but also with your brain, in order that the greediness of your mouth may not prove your undoing."

280.