Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/57

 an absurd argument. I am very strongly convinced that even of what is intelligible to us we know as good as nothing; and how much may there not be besides of which the tissues of our brain can form no representation whatever! Modesty and caution in philosophy, no less than in psychology, eminently becomes us. What, then, is matter as represented by the psychologist? Perhaps no such thing exists in Nature at all; for he first kills matter, and afterwards says that it is dead. Men seek liberty where it would make them unhappyin political life, and reject it when it would make them happy, clinging blindly to the opinions of others. No despotism is so formidable as that of a religion or a scientific system. The Englishman who inveighs against the government is a slave to the opposition; and most men are slaves to fashion and foolish custom. Every moment we do something without being aware of it ; facility increases, and in the end a man would get to do everything without knowing it, and in a literal sense become a rational animal. Thus does reason gradually approximate to animalism. Now that people are pleased to call an acquaintance with the foolish opinions of others science, an acquaintance perhaps deducible from a single formula by the rules of a purely mechanical art of invention, and are everywhere guided by fashion, usage, reputation and interest,life has become too short for us.