n never
be a substitute for intellectual talent, may far outweigh it; and even
in a person of the meanest capacity, they give a certain counterpoise
to the power of an extremely intellectual man, so long as the latter
is young. Of course I allude here to personal superiority, not to the
place a man may gain by his works.

And on passing his fortieth year, any man of the slightest power of
mind--any man, that is, who has more than the sorry share of intellect
with which Nature has endowed five-sixths of mankind--will hardly fail
to show some trace of misanthropy. For, as is natural, he has by that
time inferred other people's character from an examination of his own;
with the result that he has been gradually disappointed to find that
in the qualities of the head or in those of the heart--and usually in
both--he reaches a level to which they do not attain; so he gladly
avoids having anything more to do with them. For it may be said, in
general, that every man will love or hate solitude--in other Words,
his own society--just in proportion as he is worth anything in
himself. Kant has some remarks upon this kind of misanthropy in his
_Critique of the Faculty of Judgment_.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Kritik der Urtheilskraft_, Part I, Sec.29, Note ad fin.]

In a young man, it is a bad sign, as well from an intellectual as from
a moral point of view, if he is precocious in understanding the ways
of the world, and in adapting himself to its pursuits; if he at once
knows how to deal with men, and enters upon life, as it were, fully
prepared. It argues a vulgar nature. On the other hand, to be
surprised and astonished at the way people act, and to be clumsy and
cross-grained in having to do with them, indicates a character of the
nobler sort.

The cheerfulness and vivacity of youth are partly due to the fact
that, when we are ascending the hill of life, death is not visible: it
lies down at the bottom of the other side. But once we have crossed
the top of the hill, death comes in view--death--which, until then,
was known to us only by hearsay. This makes our spirits droop, for at
the same time we begin to feel that our vital powers are on the ebb.
A grave seriousness now takes the place of that early extravagance of
spirit; and the change is noticeable even in the expression of a man's
face. As long as we are young, people may tell us what they please! we
look upon life as endless and use our time recklessly; but the older
we become,