* * * * *

That arithmetic is the basest of all mental activities is proved by the fact that it is the only one that can be accomplished by means of a machine.  Take, for instance, the reckoning machines that are so commonly used in England at the present time, and solely for the sake of convenience.  But all analysis finitorum et infinitorum is fundamentally based on calculation.  Therefore we may gauge the “profound sense of the mathematician,” of whom Lichtenberg has made fun, in that he says:  “These so-called professors of mathematics have taken advantage of the ingenuousness of other people, have attained the credit of possessing profound sense, which strongly resembles the theologians’ profound sense of their own holiness.”

* * * * *

As a rule, people of very great capacities will get on better with a man of extremely limited intelligence than with a man of ordinary intelligence; and it is for the same reason that the despot and the plebeians, the grandparents and the grandchildren, are natural allies.

* * * * *

I am not surprised that people are bored when they are alone; they cannot laugh when they are alone, for such a thing seems foolish to them.  Is laughter, then, to be regarded as merely a signal for others, a mere sign, like a word?  It is a want of imagination and dulness of mind generally ([Greek:  anaisthaesia kai bradytaes psychaes]), as Theophrastus puts it, that prevents people from laughing when they are alone.  The lower animals neither laugh when they are alone nor in company.

Nyson, the misanthropist, was surprised as he was laughing to himself by one of these people, who asked him why he laughed when he was alone.  “That is just why I was laughing,” was the answer.

* * * * *

People who do not go to the theatre are like those who make their toilet without a looking-glass;—­but it is still worse to come to a decision without seeking the advice of a friend.  For a man may have the most correct and excellent judgment in everything else but in his own affairs; because here the will at once deranges the intellect.  Therefore a man should seek counsel.  A doctor can cure every one but himself; this is why he calls in a colleague when he is ill.

* * * * *

The natural gesticulation of everyday life, such as accompanies any kind of lively conversation, is a language of its own, and, moreover, is much more universal than the language of words; so far as it is independent of words, and the same in all nations; although each nation makes use of gesticulation in proportion to its vivacity, and in individual nations, the Italian, for instance, it is supplemented by some few gesticulations which are merely conventional, and have therefore only local value.