Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/16

 One of the most remarkable traits of my character is without doubt the extraordinary superstition which makes me see signs in every conceivable affair, and in a single day turn hundreds of things into an oracle. This I need not here describe, as the matter is only too familiar to me. Every crawling insect provides me with an answer to some question or other concerning my fate. Is not that singular for a professor of physics? But the tendency is perhaps rooted in human nature, and has only in my case taken a monstrous form, exceeding the measure of that natural compound which is in itself not harmful. My imagination shied, as horses do, and ran away with me. This best expresses my condition in the way of sentiment.

I traversed the highway to science in the manner of dogs who are taken out for exercise by their masters ; I turned a hundred times forwards and backwards, and when I arrived I was weary.

The celebrated Howard once paid me a visit ; but why I cannot tell, unless it was that he wished to inspect my chamber as a sort of prison, seeing that at the time I had not crossed its threshold for eighteen months.

I have frequently held myself compensated for all my indolence by the fact that I recognized it; and the pleasure which the accurate observation of a personal fault afforded me was often greater than the chagrin caused by the fault itself. So much more did the professor tell with me than the man. Strangely indeed does Providence guide its charges.

If I could only make canals in my head to promote home traffic between my stores of thought! But there they lie in hundreds without being of any use to one another.