. . . ALL FABLES,
INDEED, HAVE THEIR MORALS; BUT THE INNOCENT ENJOY THE STORY."
V.
"The only obligation," says he, "which I have a right to
assume is to do at any time what I think right." "Why should
we ever go abroad, even across the way, to ask a neighbour's
advice?" "There is a nearer neighbour within, who is
incessantly telling us how we should behave. BUT WE WAIT FOR
THE NEIGHBOUR WITHOUT TO TELL US OF SOME FALSE, EASIER WAY."
"The greater part of what my neighbours call good I believe
in my soul to be bad." To be what we are, and to become what
we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. It is
"when we fall behind ourselves" that "we are cursed with
duties and the neglect of duties." "I love the wild," he
says, "not less than the good." And again: "The life of a
good man will hardly improve us more than the life of a
freebooter, for the inevitable laws appear as plainly in the
infringement as in the observance, and" (mark this) "OUR
LIVES ARE SUSTAINED BY A NEARLY EQUAL EXPENSE OF VIRTUE OF
SOME KIND." Even although he were a prig, it will be owned
he could announce a startling doctrine. "As for doing good,"
he writes elsewhere, "that is one of the professions that are
full. Moreover, I have tried it fairly, and, strange as it
may seem, am satisfied that it does not agree with my
constitution.
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