on taken captive by a giant--whom I
saw perfectly--and the warriors undertook the task of rescue.

"Every day a panorama moved before me of changing personalities, who
reenacted the events of the story. Finally the obsession took such a
strong hold of me that I began to talk about it in a manner that aroused
the fears of my parents.

"The screen was banished from my room and when, a few days later, it was
brought back for me to see, I was able to discover nothing more in it
than the designs with which it was adorned."

This example, taken directly from life, shows us better than the most
extended arguments the dangers of moral isolation.

By this we do not mean the isolation that is essential to concentration,
the practise of which always leads to the most fruitful results.

We are speaking solely of the aloofness born of timidity or of
exaggerated pride, which, in depriving us of contrary views, develops in
us the propensity to see things from only one angle, which is always
that which happens to flatter our vanity or please our tastes.

All those persons who suffer from this disease of the will, which
deprives them of the ability of discussing things, may be compared to
runners who have neglected to ascertain the limits of their race.

Like the latter, they keep running round the same track without any
means of discovering when they are nearing the goal.

Instead of stopping, when they have reached it, they keep running
forward and the monotony of their efforts, coupled with the fever-heat
engendered by their exertions, very soon causes them to view the objects
that they keep passing and passing under a deformed and distorted
aspect.

The man of reason, on the other hand, runs with the single purpose in
his mind of reaching the winning-post. He studiously avoids taking his
eyes off the goal, which he has carefully located in advance, and takes
pains to note the moment when he is nearing it, so as to run no risks of
making his spurt too soon.

It is a matter of frequent observation that timidity often voluntarily
assumes the role of effrontery, from very despair of successfully
accomplishing the task it is ambitious to perform.

Illustrious examples of this contention are not lacking. Rousseau, who
was a coward of the greatest hardihood, says in his _Confessions_:

"My foolish and unreasoning fear, that I was quite unable to overcome,
of perpetrating some breach of good manners led me to assume the
attitu