378

Scepticism.—­Excess, like defect of intellect, is accused of madness.  Nothing is good but mediocrity.  The majority has settled that, and finds fault with him who escapes it at whichever end.  I will not oppose it.  I quite consent to put myself there, and refuse to be at the lower end, not because it is low, but because it is an end; for I would likewise refuse to be placed at the top.  To leave the mean is to abandon humanity.  The greatness of the human soul consists in knowing how to preserve the mean.  So far from greatness consisting in leaving it, it consists in not leaving it.

379

It is not good to have too much liberty.  It is not good to have all one wants.

380

All good maxims are in the world.  We only need to apply them.  For instance, we do not doubt that we ought to risk our lives in defence of the public good; but for religion, no.

It is true there must be inequality among men; but if this be conceded, the door is opened not only to the highest power, but to the highest tyranny.

We must relax our minds a little; but this opens the door to the greatest debauchery.  Let us mark the limits.  There are no limits in things.  Laws would put them there, and the mind cannot suffer it.

381

When we are too young, we do not judge well; so, also, when we are too old.  If we do not think enough, or if we think too much on any matter, we get obstinate and infatuated about it.  If one considers one’s work immediately after having done it, one is entirely prepossessed in its favour; by delaying too long, one can no longer enter into the spirit of it.  So with pictures seen from too far or too near; there is but one exact point which is the true place wherefrom to look at them:  the rest are too near, too far, too high, or too low.  Perspective determines that point in the art of painting.  But who shall determine it in truth and morality?

382

When all is equally agitated, nothing appears to be agitated, as in a ship.  When all tend to debauchery, none appears to do so.  He who stops draws attention to the excess of others, like a fixed point.

383

The licentious tell men of orderly lives that they stray from nature’s path, while they themselves follow it; as people in a ship think those move who are on the shore.  On all sides the language is similar.  We must have a fixed point in order to judge.  The harbour decides for those who are in a ship; but where shall we find a harbour in morality?

384

Contradiction is a bad sign of truth; several things which are certain are contradicted; several things which are false pass without contradiction.  Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the want of contradiction a sign of truth.

385