n,'--'native numskulls,' one might
say,--who muddy the streams of true benevolence by indiscriminating acts
of kindness, and who, by always aiding the wrongdoer, make themselves
accomplices of vice." Could it be that I was in this barren category?
Harpar had told me, the evening before, that he would not leave Lindau
till his sprain was better, and now he was off, just as if, having no
further occasion for me, he was glad to be rid of my companionship--just
as if--I was beginning again to start another conjecture, when I
bethought me that there is not a more deceptive formula in the whole
cyclopaedia of delusion than that which opens with these same words,
"just as if." Rely upon it, amiable reader, that whenever you find
yourself driven to explain a motive, trace a cause, or reconcile a
discrepancy, by "just as if," the chances are about seven to three you
are wrong. If I was not in the bustle of paying my bill and strapping
on my knapsack, I 'd convince you on this head; but, as the morning is a
bright but mellow one of early autumn, and my path lies along the placid
lake, waveless and still, with many a tinted tree reflected in its fair
mirror, let us not think of knaves and rogues, but rather dwell on
the pleasanter thought of all the good and grateful things which daily
befall us in this same life of ours. I am full certain that almost all
of us enter upon what is called the world in too combative a spirit We
are too fond of dragon slaying, and rather than be disappointed of
our sport, we 'd fall foul of a pet lamb, for want of a tiger. Call it
self-delusion, credulity, what you will, it is a faith that makes life
very livable, and, without it,

"We feel a light has left the world,
A nameless sort of treasure,
As though one pluck'd the crimson heart
From out the rose of pleasure.

I could forgive the fate that made
Me poor and young to-morrow,
To hare again the soul that played
So tenderly in sorrow,

So buoyantly in happiness.
Ay, I would brook deceiving,
And even the deceiver bless,
Just to go on believing!"

"Still," thought I, "one ought to maintain self-respect; one should not
willingly make himself a dupe." And then I began to wish that Vaterchen
had come up, and that Tinte-fleck was rushing towards me with tears
in her eyes, and my money-bag in her hands. I wanted to forget them. I
tried in a hundred ways to pre