which the soul sometimes assays, are
things on which it does not lay hold. It only leaps to them, not as upon a
throne, for ever, but merely for an instant.
352. The strength of a man's virtue must not be measured by his efforts, but
by his ordinary life.
353. I do not admire the excess of a virtue as of valour, except I see at
the same time the excess of the opposite virtue, as in Epaminondas, who had
the greatest valour and the greatest kindness. For otherwise it is not to
rise, it is to fall. We do not display greatness by going to one extreme,
but in touching both at once, and filling all the intervening space. But
perhaps this is only a sudden movement of the soul from one to the other
extreme, and in fact it is ever at one point only, as in the case of a
firebrand. Be it so, but at least this indicates agility if not expanse of
soul.
354. Man's nature is not always to advance; it has its advances and
retreats.
Fever has its cold and hot fits; and the cold proves as well as the hot the
greatness of the fire of fever.
The discoveries of men from age to age turn out the same. The kindness and
the malice of the world in general are the same. Plerumque gratae
principibus vices.[47]
355. Continuous eloquence wearies.
Princes and kings sometimes play. They are not always on their thrones. They
weary there. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated. Continuity in
everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm.
Nature acts by progress, itus et reditus. It goes and returns, then advances
further
.
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