ion for the limits
of the world. This is an error of the intellect as inevitable as that
error of the eye which lets us fancy that on the horizon heaven and
earth meet. This explains many things, and among them the fact that
everyone measures us with his own standard--generally about as long as
a tailor's tape, and we have to put up with it: as also that no one
will allow us to be taller than himself--a supposition which is once
for all taken for granted.

* * * * *

There is no doubt that many a man owes his good fortune in life solely
to the circumstance that he has a pleasant way of smiling, and so wins
the heart in his favor.

However, the heart would do better to be careful, and to remember what
Hamlet put down in his tablets--_that one may smile, and smile, and be
a villain_.

* * * * *

Everything that is really fundamental in a man, and therefore genuine
works, as such, unconsciously; in this respect like the power of
nature. That which has passed through the domain of consciousness is
thereby transformed into an idea or picture; and so if it comes to be
uttered, it is only an idea or picture which passes from one person to
another.

Accordingly, any quality of mind or character that is genuine and
lasting, is originally unconscious; and it is only when unconsciously
brought into play that it makes a profound impression. If any like
quality is consciously exercised, it means that it has been worked up;
it becomes intentional, and therefore matter of affectation, in other
words, of deception.

If a man does a thing unconsciously, it costs him no trouble; but if
he tries to do it by taking trouble, he fails. This applies to the
origin of those fundamental ideas which form the pith and marrow of
all genuine work. Only that which is innate is genuine and will hold
water; and every man who wants to achieve something, whether in
practical life, in literature, or in art, must _follow the rules
without knowing them_.

* * * * *

Men of very great capacity, will as a rule, find the company of very
stupid people preferable to that of the common run; for the same
reason that the tyrant and the mob, the grandfather and the
grandchildren, are natural allies.

* * * * *

That line of Ovid's,

_Pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram_,

can be applied in its true physical sense t