Posted by Mike on 01/24/08 20:32

matter, we
get obstinate and infatuated with it. If one considers one's work
immediately after having done it, one is entirely prepossessed in its
favour; by delaying too long, one can no longer enter into the spirit of it.
So with pictures seen from too far or too near; there is but one exact point
which is the true place wherefrom to look at them: the rest are too near,
too far, too high or too low. Perspective determines that point in the art
of painting. But who shall determine it in truth and morality?

382. When all is equally agitated, nothing appears to be agitated, as in a
ship. When all tend to debauchery, none appears to do so. He who stops draws
attention to the excess of others, like a fixed point.

383. The licentious tell men of orderly lives that they stray from nature's
path, while they themselves follow it; as people in a ship think those move
who are on the shore. On all sides the language is similar. We must have a
fixed point in order to judge. The harbour decides for those who are in a
ship; but where shall we find a harbour in morality?

384. Contradiction is a bad sign of truth; several things which are certain
are contradicted; several things which are false pass without c

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