Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/75

 indifference of the Sceptic. A philosophy of this kind is all the more to be recommended in view of the fact that we gather our opinions at a time when our judgment is at its weakest. This is a point that deserves to be considered in connection with religion. It is astounding what various degrees of information our organism affords usfrom the most unaccountable presentiment up to the clearest logical insight. These it is one of my hobbies to analyse. Almost every conclusion we reach is preceded by a certain “feeling” about the matter ; which determining factor, so long as we are in happy mood, seldom deceives, and as it were remains merely to be ratified by reason. Animals are led perhaps exclusively by such presentiments. To me it is a mystery why the era of glory everlasting does not rather begin at once, as this our life is in any case no more than a vanishing point. There is in my opinion a great difference between teaching wisdom and being wise. There may be people who possess anything but common sense and yet theorize excellently on the rules which they have to follow; just as the physiologist, though he has a thorough knowledge of the body and its construction, may at the same time himself be in a very unhealthy state. The great analysts of the human mind have not always been reasonable men in practical respects. I refer here not to morals but to logic.