If you wish to get a clear and profound insight—­and it is very needful—­into the true but melancholy elements of which most men are made, you will find in a very instructive thing to take the way they behave in the pages of literature as a commentary to their doings in practical life, and vice versa. The experience thus gained will be very useful in avoiding wrong ideas, whether about yourself or about others.  But if you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity—­in life or in literature,—­you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge—­a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity.  Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral.

Of course there are some facts which are very exceptional, and it is difficult to understand how they arise, and how it is that there come to be such enormous differences between man and man; but, in general, what was said long ago is quite true, and the world is in a very bad way.  In savage countries they eat one another, in civilized they deceive one another; and that is what people call the way of the world!  What are States and all the elaborate systems of political machinery, and the rule of force, whether in home or in foreign affairs,—­what are they but barriers against the boundless iniquity of mankind?  Does not all history show that whenever a king is firmly planted on a throne, and his people reach some degree of prosperity, he uses it to lead his army, like a band of robbers, against adjoining countries?  Are not almost all wars ultimately undertaken for purposes of plunder?  In the most remote antiquity, and to some extent also in the Middle Ages, the conquered became slaves,—­in other words, they had to work for those who conquered them; and where is the difference between that and paying war-taxes, which represent the product of our previous work?

All war, says Voltaire, is a matter of robbery; and the Germans should take that as a warning.

SECTION 30.  No man is so formed that he can be left entirely to himself, to go his own ways; everyone needs to be guided by a preconceived plan, and to follow certain general rules.  But if this is carried too far, and a man tries to take on a character which is not natural or innate in him, but it artificially acquired and evolved merely by a process of reasoning, he will very soon discover that Nature cannot be forced, and that if you drive it out, it will return despite your efforts:—­

Naturam expelles furca, tamen usque recurret.

To understand a rule governing conduct towards others, even to discover it for oneself and to express it neatly, is easy enough; and still, very soon afterwards, the rule may be broken in practice.  But that is no reason for despair; and you need not fancy that as it is impossible to regulate your life in accordance with abstract ideas and maxims, it is better to live just as you please.  Here, as in all theoretical instruction that aims at a practical result, the first thing to do is to understand the rule; the second thing is to learn the practice of it.  The theory may be understand at once by an effort of reason, and yet the practice of it acquired only in course of time.