Men are never taught to be gentlemen and are taught everything else; and
they never plume themselves so much on the rest of their knowledge as on
knowing how to be gentlemen. They only plume themselves on knowing the one
thing they do not know.
69. The infinites, the mean.--When we read too fast or too slowly, we
understand nothing.
70. Nature... --Nature has set us so well in the centre, that if we change
one side of the balance, we change the other also. This makes me believe
that the springs in our brain are so adjusted that he who touches one
touches also its contrary.
71. Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give
him too much, the same.
72. Man's disproportion.--This is where our innate knowledge leads us. If it
be not true, there is no truth in man; and if it be true, he finds therein
great cause for humiliation, being compelled to abase himself in one way or
another. And since he cannot exist without this knowledge, I wish that,
before entering on deeper researches into nature, he would consider her both
seriously and at leisure, that he would reflect upon himself also, and
knowing what proportion there is... Let man then contemplate the whole of
nature in her full and grand m