104

When our passion leads us to do something, we forget our duty; for
example, we like a book and read it, when we ought to be doing something
else. Now, to remind ourselves of our duty, we must set ourselves a task
we dislike; we then plead that we have something else to do, and by this
means remember our duty.


105

How difficult it is to submit anything to the judgment of another,
without prejudicing his judgment by the manner in which we submit it!
If we say, "I think it beautiful," "I think it obscure," or the like, we
either entice the imagination into that view, or irritate it to the
contrary. It is better to say nothing; and then the other judges
according to what really is, that is to say, according as it then is,
and according as the other circumstances, not of our making, have placed
it. But we at least shall have added nothing, unless it be that silence
also produces an effect, according to the turn and the interpretation
which the other will be disposed to give it, or as he will guess it from
gestures or countenance, or from the tone of the voice, if he is a
physiognomist. So difficult is it not to upset a judgment from its
natural place, or, rather, so rarely is it firm and stable!


106

By knowing each man's ruling passion, we are sure of pleasing him; and