the so-called life's calling, which everyone must choose, we may
perceive a touching modesty on the part of mankind. They practically
admit in choosing thus. "We are called upon to serve and to be of
advantage to our equals--the same remark applies to our neighbour and to
his neighbour, so everyone serves somebody else; no one is carrying out
the duties of his calling for his own sake, but always for the sake of
others and thus we are like geese which support one another by the one
leaning against the other. _When the aim of each one of us is centred in
another, then we have all no object in existing;_ and this 'existing for
others' is the most comical of comedies."


13

Vanity is the involuntary inclination to set one's self up for an
individual while not really being one; that is to say, trying to appear
independent when one is dependent. The case of wisdom is the exact
contrary: it appears to be dependent while in reality it is independent.


14

The Hades of Homer--From what type of existence is it really copied? I
think it is the description of the philologist: it is better to be a
day-labourer than to have such an anæmic recollection of the past.--[1]


15

The attitude of the philologist towards antiquity is apologetic, or else