Our modern
philosophy has returned to the point of view of the Ionians, the [Greek:
_physikoi_], or naturalist thinkers. But it will have to pass once more
through Plato and through Aristotle, through the philosophy of
"goodness" and "purpose," through the science of mind.
July 3, 1874.--Rebellion against common sense is a piece of childishness
of which I am quite capable. But it does not last long. I am soon
brought back to the advantages and obligations of my situation; I return
to a calmer self-consciousness. It is disagreeable to me, no doubt, to
realize all that is hopelessly lost to me, all that is now and will be
forever denied to me; but I reckon up my privileges as well as my
losses--I lay stress on what I have, and not only on what I want. And so
I escape from that terrible dilemma of "all or nothing," which for me
always ends in the adoption of the second alternative. It seems to me at
such times that a man may without shame content himself with being
_some_ thing and _some_ one--
"Ni si haut, ni si bas...."
These brusque lapses into the formless, indeterminate state, are the
price of my critical faculty. All my former habits become suddenly
fluid; it seems to me that I am beginning life over again, and that all
my acquired capital has disappeared at a stroke.
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