Page:Dawn of the Day.pdf/73

Rh pursuers of the life contemplative, remember the varied evil and misfortunes which the many after-effects of contemplation have inflicted upon the pursuers of the “life active," and consider the counter-demands which the“life active” makes, if we, in its very face, too vaingloriously boast of our good actions. First of all we have the so-called religious natures, which form the majority among the lovers of contemplation, and therefore represent their commonest species; these have at all times made it their aim to make life difficult and, if possible, intolerable to practical people: to darken the heavens, blot out the sun, suspect joy, depreciate hope, paralyse the active hand, all this they have understood just as they had their comforts, alms, charity and benedictions for times and feelings of wretchedness. Secondly, we have the artists, who, though somewhat scarcer than religious people, still form a pretty numerous branch of the representatives of the “life contemplative." These, in most cases, are individually unbearable, capricious, jealous, violent, quarrelsome : thus presenting a counterbalancing effect to the cheering and exalting effects of their works. Thirdly, we may mention philosophers in whom religions and artistic powers dwell together, but in combination with a third element of dialectics and the love of demonstration; these have been the authors of misfortune after the manner of both religious people and artists, and, in addition to this, they have wearied many people with their love for dialectics; their number, how