Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/154

 OUR scholars fall into the same mistake as the provincial shopkeeper: they don’t buy where the provisions grow, but prefer to let some Englishman or Frenchman supply them. When the worthy fellow died, one man copied his way of wearing his hat, another his way of carrying his sword; a third copied the cut of his beard, and a fourth his walk, but no one tried to be the honest man he was.

A sweetheart, a hundred and fifty books, a couple of friends, and a prospect of about one statute mile in diameterthat was his whole world. I positively caught sight of the haze upon his faceof the mist which invariably arises from that blissful feeling of thinking ourselves superior to others. The ages when people begin to study the rules by which other ages managed to accomplish such great things, are ages in a poor way. Instead of having good digestions and keen powers of invention, the best minds become terribly well-read, pale, consumptive stay-at-homes.