|
|
that to take four from nothing leaves nothing). First
principles are too self-evident for us; too much pleasure disagrees with us.
Too many concords are annoying in music; too many benefits irritate us; we
wish to have the wherewithal to overpay our debts. Beneficia eo usque laeta
sunt dum videntur exsolvi posse; ubi multum antevenere, pro gratia odium
redditur.[6] We feel neither extreme heat nor extreme cold. Excessive
qualities are prejudicial to us and not perceptible by the senses; we do not
feel but suffer them. Extreme youth and extreme age hinder the mind, as also
too much and too little education. In short, extremes are for us as though
they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we
them.
This is our true state; this is what makes us incapable of certain knowledge
and of absolute ignorance. We sail within a vast sphere, ever drifting in
uncertainty, driven from end to end. When we think to attach ourselves to
any point and to fasten to it, it wavers and leaves us; and if we follow it,
it eludes our grasp, slips past us, and vanishes for ever. Noth
|
|