all contact with them, so that there may be a wide gulf fixed between
you and them; if this cannot be done, to bear their attacks with the
greatest composure. In the latter case, the very thing that provokes
the attack will also neutralize it. This is what appears to be
generally done.

The members of one of these aristocracies usually get on very well
with those of another, and there is no call for envy between them,
because their several privileges effect an equipoise.

SECTION 11. Give mature and repeated consideration to any plan before
you proceed to carry it out; and even after you have thoroughly turned
it over in your mind, make some concession to the incompetency of
human judgment; for it may always happen that circumstances which
cannot be investigated or foreseen, will come in and upset the whole
of your calculation. This is a reflection that will always influence
the negative side of the balance--a kind of warning to refrain from
unnecessary action in matters of importance--_quieta non movere._ But
having once made up your mind and begun your work, you must let it
run its course and abide the result--not worry yourself by fresh
reflections on what is already accomplished, or by a renewal of your
scruples on the score of possible danger: free your mind from the
subject altogether, and refuse to go into it again, secure in the
thought that you gave it mature attention at the proper time. This is
the same advice as is given by an Italian proverb--_legala bene e poi
lascia la andare_--which Goethe has translated thus: See well to your
girths, and then ride on boldly.[1]

[Footnote 1: It may be observed, in passing, that a great many of
the maxims which Goethe puts under the head of _Proverbial_, are