Page:The reflections of Lichtenberg.djvu/95

 pursued, and to lend it an air of legitmacy and reasonableness. Nature, it appears, has not cared to let a thing so necessary to her economy as human conviction depend alone on logical deductions, as these may so easily be deceptive. The impulse to act, thank Heaven, often comes to us unawares, before we are half through with proving its need and utility. When anyone takes great pleasure in doing a thing, it is almost invariably from some motive other than the ostensible one. This is a remark the closer examination of which will be attended with the happiest results. Those who are not adept in reading looks are always crueller or ruder than other people. That is why we find it easier to be cruel to small creatures. I said to myself, “I cannot possibly believe that;” and as I did so I perceived that I had already believed it a second time. When we use an old word, it often travels to the head by the channel which the A B C book made. A metaphor, on the other hand, makes a new way for itself, and generally goes straight to the point. Why is it, I wonder, that unpleasant thoughts should worry us so much more on first awaking of a morning than a few hours afterwards, when the