Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/291

Rh cing his own person and rarely claiming anything for himself.

296

The duel.—I consider a duel to be of great advantage, somebody said, provided of course it be absolutely necessary; for I have, at all times, brave comrades among my associates. The duel is the last remaining and perfectly honourable road to suicide; unfortunately a circuitous road, and not even a safe one.

297

Pernicious.—The surest way of corrupting a young man is to teach him to esteem the like-minded more highly than the different-minded.

298

Hero-worship and its fanatics.—The fanatic of an ideal made of flesh and blood is usually right as long as he preserves a negative attitude; and in so doing he is terrible: he knows that which he denies as well as himself, for the simple reason that he comes thence, is at home there and is for ever in secret dread of having some day to return there—he wants to make his return an impossibility by the manner of his negation. But as soon as he agrees he shuts his eyes and begins to idealise (frequently for the sole purpose of hurting those who have stayed at home): we might call this