Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/123

 What I dislike in the method of treating history is that people see purpose in every action and trace every event to some intention or other. That is assuredly all wrong. The greatest events come to pass without any design; chance makes blunders good, and amplifies the most cleverly-laid scheme. The important events in the world are not deliberately brought about ; they occur. Boswell’s Life of ]ohnson. To me Johnson is a highly uncongenial, unpolished fellow. But these are just the people from whom we must learn what human nature isfrom crystallizations which no amount of polishing can make us mistake for anything else. What good to me are polished stones? Queerer things than books, surely, it would be hard to find in the world. Printed by people who do not understand them ; sold by people who do not understand them; bound, reviewed and read by people who do not understand them ; and nowadays even written by people who do not understand them ! I never studied any particular writer, but have always read simply what pleased me, and remembered whatever impressed itself on my memory as it were without any help of mine, or at any rate apart from any set purpose. Is it not curious that when the public praises us we consider it a competent judge; but it no sooner