AUTHORS' PARADOXES.--The so-called paradoxes of an author to which a reader objects are often not in the author's book at all, but in the reader's head. 186. WIT.--The wittiest authors produce a scarcely noticeable smile. 187. ANTITHESIS.--Antithesis is the narrow gate through which error is fondest of sneaking to the truth. 188. THINKERS AS STYLISTS.--Most thinkers write badly, because they communicate not only their thoughts, but also the thinking of them. 189. THOUGHTS IN POETRY.--The poet conveys his thoughts ceremoniously in the vehicle of rhythm, usually because they are not able to go on foot. 190. THE SIN AGAINST THE READER'S INTELLECT.--When an author renounces his talent in order merely to put himself on a level with the reader, he commits the only deadly sin which the latter will never forgive, should he notice anything of it. One may say everything that is bad about a person, but in the manner _in which_ it is said one must know how to revive his vanity anew. 191. THE LIMITS OF UPRIGHTNESS.--Even the most upright author lets fall a word too much when he wishes to round off a period. 192. THE BEST AUTHOR,--The best author will be he who is ashamed to become one. 193. DRACONIAN LAW AGAINST AUTHORS.--One should regard authors as criminals who only obtain acquittal or mercy in the rarest cases,--that would be a remedy for books becoming too rife. 194. THE FOOLS OF MODERN CULTURE.--The fools of mediæval courts correspond to our _feuilleton_ writers; they are the same kind of men, semi-rational, witty, extravagant, foolish, sometimes there only for the purpose of lessening the pathos of the outlook with fancies and chatter, and of drowning with their clamour the far too deep and solemn chimes of great events; they were formerly in the service of princes and nobles, now they are in the service of parties (since a large portion of the old obsequiousness in the intercourse of the people with their prince still survives in party-feeling and party-discipline). Modern literary men, however, are generally very similar to the _feuilleton_ writers, they are the "fools of modern culture," whom one judges more leniently when one does not regard them as fully responsible beings. To look upon writing as a regular profession should justly be regarded as a form of madness. 195.