In the same way it may be said
that a man endowed with great mental gifts leads, apart from the
individual life common to all, a second life, purely of the intellect.
He devotes himself to the constant increase, rectification and
extension, not of mere learning, but of real systematic knowledge
and insight; and remains untouched by the fate that overtakes him
personally, so long as it does not disturb him in his work. It is thus
a life which raises a man and sets him above fate and its changes.
Always thinking, learning, experimenting, practicing his knowledge,
the man soon comes to look upon this second life as the chief mode
of existence, and his merely personal life as something subordinate,
serving only to advance ends higher than itself.
An example of this independent, separate existence is furnished by
Goethe. During the war in the Champagne, and amid all the bustle of
the camp, he made observations for his theory of color; and as soon as
the numberless calamities of that war allowed of his retiring for a
short time to the fortress of Luxembourg, he took up the manuscript of
his _Farbenlehre_. This is an example which we, the salt of the earth,
should endeavor to follow, by never letting anything disturb us in the
pursuit of our intellectual life, however much the storm of the world
may invade and agitate our personal environment; always remembering
that we are the sons, not of the bondwoman, but of the free.
Pages:
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147