e find the theory of _emboitement_
intelligible.

551

There are many problems in natural science on which we cannot fittingly
speak unless we call metaphysics to our aid; but not the wisdom of the
schools, which consists in mere verbiage. It is that which was before
physics, exists with it, and will be after it.

552

Since men are really interested in nothing but their own opinions, every
one who puts forward an opinion looks about him right and left for means
of strengthening himself and others in it. A man avails himself of the
truth so long as it is serviceable; but he seizes on what is false with
a passionate eloquence as soon as he can make a momentary use of it;
whether it be to dazzle others with it as a kind of half-truth, or to
employ it as a stopgap for effecting an apparent union between things
that have been disjointed. This experience at first caused me annoyance,
and then sorrow; and now it is a source of mischievous satisfaction. I
have pledged myself never again to expose a proceeding of this kind.

553

Everything that we call Invention or Discovery in the higher sense of
the word is the serious exercise and activity of an original feeling for
truth, which, after a long course of silent cultivation, suddenly
flashes out into fruitful knowledge. It is a revelation working from
within on the outer world, and lets a man feel that he is made in the
image of God. It is a synthesis of World and Mind, giving the most
blessed assurance of the eternal harmony of things.

554

A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is
comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it.

555

There are pedants who are also rascals, and they are the worst of all.

556

A man does not need to have seen or experienced everything himself. But
if he is to commit himself to another's experiences and his way of
putting them, let him consider that he has to do with three things--the
object in question and two subjects.

557

The supreme achievement would be to see that stating a fact is starting
a theory.

558

If I acquiesce at last in some ultimate fact of nature, it is, no doubt,
only resignation; but it makes a great difference whether the
resignation takes place at the limits of human faculty, or within the
hypothetical boundaries of my own narrow individuality.

559

If we look at the problems raised by Aristotle, we are astonished at his
gift of observation. What wonderful eyes th