Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/264

228 taste, how servile to dignities, ranks, robes, state and splendour must a nation have been, when it began to look upon the simple as the bad, the simple-hearted man as the bad man! We should always confront the moral arrogance of the Germans with nothing else but this one short word—”bad." — Friend, you have talked yourself hoarse.— Then I am refuted. Let us, therefore, drop the matter. —Have you observed what kind of people attach the greatest importance to scrupulous conscientiousness? Those who are conscious of many mean feelings; who are carefully thinking of and about themselves, and are afraid of others; who are intent upon concealing their innermost feelings to the best of their power ;—by this scrupulous conscientiousness and strict fulfilment of duty, by the severe and harsh impression which others, especially their inferiors, are bound to receive of them, they endeavour to impose upon themselves. — Fighting shy of one's renown, intentionally offending one's panegyrist, shrinking from