Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/15

 indescribable feeling of exaltation. His person and his attire have seldom been good enough, or his ideas conventional enough, for social functions. To more than three courses for dinner and two for supper, with a little wine, he does not aspire ; as on the other hand, he hopes never to be reduced below a daily portion of potatoes, apples, bread and some wine. In either case he would be unhappy. He has invariably been out of sorts whenever he has exceeded these limits for a few days. Reading and writing are as necessary to him as eating and drinking, and he hopes he will never lack for books. Of death he often thinks, and never with aversion ; he only wishes that he could meditate upon every subject with the same detachment, trusting that when the time comes his Creator will gently demand of him a life of which he was, it is true, no over-economical but certainly no profligate possessor.

A woman's eyes are so essential a thing with me ; I turn to them so often, and find they give me so much to think about, that if I were nothing but head, women might, for all I cared, be nothing but eyes.

Many things pain me that only vex other people.

Sometimes when I had over-indulged in coffee, and on that account started at everything, I remarked in the most positive manner that I started before I heard the crash. It is as if we heard, then, with other organs besides with those of hearing.

Nothing put off; every day a little ; economy at every turn ; not much at a time, and preferably a little all the more oftenthere you have my character at its best. If I do not accomplish something on this plan, I shall never accomplish anything.

My hypochondria is in the last resort a knack of extracting, for personal application, the greatest possible amount of venom from any and every incident of life, no matter what it may be.