e constant company of others; just as little as the
schoolmaster cares for joining in the gambols of the noisy crowd of
boys which surround him. The mission of these great minds is to guide
mankind over the sea of error to the haven of truth--to draw it forth
from the dark abysses of a barbarous vulgarity up into the light of
culture and refinement. Men of great intellect live in the world
without really belonging to it; and so, from their earliest years,
they feel that there is a perceptible difference between them and
other people. But it is only gradually, with the lapse of years,
that they come to a clear understanding of their position. Their
intellectual isolation is then reinforced by actual seclusion in their
manner of life; they let no one approach who is not in some degree
emancipated from the prevailing vulgarity.

From what has been said it is obvious that the love of solitude is
not a direct, original impulse in human nature, but rather something
secondary and of gradual growth. It is the more distinguishing feature
of nobler minds, developed not without some conquest of natural
desires, and now and then in actual opposition to the promptings of
Mephistopheles--bidding you exchange a morose and soul-destroying
solitude for life amongst men, for society; even the worst, he says,
will give a sense of human fellowship:--

_Hoer' auf mit deinem Gram zu spielen,
Der, wie ein Geier, dir am Leben frisst:
Die schlechteste Gesellschaft laesst dich fuehlen
Dass du ein Mensch mit Menschen bist.[1]_

[Footnote 1: Goethe's _Faust_, Part I., 1281-5.]

To be alone is the fate of all great minds--a fate deplored at times,
but still always chosen as the less grievous of two evils. As
the years increase, it always becomes easier to say, Dare to be
wise--_sapere aude_. And after sixty, the inclination to be alone
grows into a kind of real, natural instinct; for at that age
everything combines in favor of it. The strongest impulse--the love of
woman's society--has little or no effect; it is the sexless condition
of old age which lays the foundation of a certain self-sufficiency,
and that gradually absorbs all desire for others' company. A thousand
illusions and follies are overcome; the active years of life are
in most cases gone; a man has no more expectations or plans or
intentions. The generation to which he belonged has passed away, and a
new race has sprung up which looks upon him as essentially outside its