246
Aristotle and matrimony.—Among the children of master-minds insanity breaks forth; among those of the virtuous, stupidity observes Aristotle. Did he, in so saying, mean to invite the exceptional characters to matrimony?
247
Origin of bad temper.—The injustice and inconsistencies in the minds of many, their unregulated dispositions and immoderations are the final results of innumerable logical inaccuracies, superficialities and rash conclusions which their ancestors have been guilty of. The goodtempered, however, descend from deliberate and thoroughgoing races, who placed reason before everything; whether for laudable or evil purposes is a matter of no great importance.
248
Dissimulation, a duty.—Kindness has been fully developed by that long simulation which tried to appear as kindness: wherever great power subsisted men opened their eyes to the necessity of this very kind of dissembling, which inspires us with a feeling of safety and confidence, multiplying by hundreds the real amount of physical power. Falsehood is, though not the mother, yet the nurse of kindness. Honesty has likewise been reared more especially by the requirement of a semblance
