This second
me that I have never been able to intoxicate, to make shed tears,
or put to sleep. And how it sees into things, and how it
mocks!"[87]
[87] Notes sur la Vie, p. 1.
Recent works on the psychology of character have had much to say
upon this point.[88] Some persons are born with an inner
constitution which is harmonious and well balanced from the
outset. Their impulses are consistent with one another, their
will follows without trouble the guidance of their intellect,
their passions are not excessive, and their lives are little
haunted by regrets. Others are oppositely constituted; and are
so in degrees which may vary from something so slight as to
result in a merely odd or whimsical inconsistency, to a
discordancy of which the consequences may be inconvenient in the
extreme. Of the more innocent kinds of heterogeneity I find a
good example in Mrs. Annie Besant's autobiography.
[88] See, for example, F. Paulhan, in his book Les Caracteres,
1894, who contrasts les Equilibres, les Unifies, with les
Inquiets, les Contrariants, les Incoherents, les Emiettes, as so
many diverse psychic types.
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