sirable that he should do so? Must not the best in particular who act up to this maxim, and their best actions assume an exaggerated and distorted appearance on account of their being overstrained? And will not a grey mist of failure envelope the world owing to the fact that we see everywhere struggling athletes, prodigious gestures, but nowhere a conqueror crowned With victory?
560
What is at our option?—We may be the gardeners of our inclinations, and—which the majority ignore—as richly and advantageously cultivate the germs of anger, pity, inquisitiveness, vanity, as we trail a beautiful fruit along the wall. We may do so with a gardener’s good or bad taste, in the French, English, Dutch, or Chinese style; we may also give full scope to Nature, only here and there applying some embellishment and adornment; finally, we may even without any knowledge and advise allow the plants to grow according to their natural growth and limits, and fight out their contest amongst themselves—nay, we may persist in taking delight in such a wilderness, though it may be difficult to do so. All this is at our option; but only few know this. Do not the majority believe in themselves as in perfect, complete facts? Have not great philosophers put their seals on this prejudice by means of the doctrine of the invariability of character?
