the mists of death approach. Towards the light is your last movement; a joyful cry of knowledge is your last sound. [Footnote 1: This may remind one of Gobineau's more jocular saying: "_Nous ne descendons pas du singe, mais nous y allons._"--J.M.K.] [Footnote 2: This refers to his essay, "Schopenhauer as Educator," in _Thoughts Out of Season,_ vol. ii. of the English edition.--J.M.K.] [Footnote 3: For it is when loving that mortal man gives of his best.--J.M.K.] SIXTH DIVISION. MAN IN SOCIETY. 293. WELL-MEANT DISSIMULATION.--In intercourse with men a well-meant dissimulation is often necessary, as if we did not see through the motives of their actions. 294. COPIES.--We not unfrequently meet with copies of prominent persons; and as in the case of pictures, so also here, the copies please more than the originals. 295. THE PUBLIC SPEAKER.--One may speak with the greatest appropriateness, and yet so that everybody cries out to the contrary,--that is to say, when one does not speak to everybody. 296. WANT OF CONFIDENCE.--Want of confidence among friends is a fault that cannot be censured without becoming incurable. 297. THE ART OF GIVING.--To have to refuse a gift, merely because it has not been offered in the right way, provokes animosity against the giver. 298. THE MOST DANGEROUS PARTISAN.--In every party there is one who, by his far too dogmatic expression of the party-principles, excites defection among the others. 299. ADVISERS OF THE SICK.--Whoever gives advice to a sick person acquires a feeling of superiority over him, whether the advice be accepted or rejected. Hence proud and sensitive sick persons hate advisers more than their sickness. 300. DOUBLE NATURE OF EQUALITY.--The rage for equality may so manifest itself that we seek either to draw all others down to ourselves (by belittling, disregarding, and tripping up), or ourselves and all others upwards (by recognition, assistance, and congratulation). 301. AGAINST EMBARRASSMENT.--The best way to relieve and calm very embarrassed people is to give them decided praise. 302. PREFERENCE FOR CERTAIN VIRTUES.--We set no special value on the possession of a virtue until we perceive that it is entirely lacking in our adversary. 303. WHY WE CONTRADICT.--We often contradict an opinion when it is really only the tone in which it is expressed that is unsympathetic to us. 304. CONFIDENCE AND INTIMACY.--Whoever proposes to command the intimacy of a person is usually uncertain of possessing his confidence. Whoever is sure of a person's confidence attaches little value to intimacy with him. 305. THE EQUILIBRIUM OF FRIENDSHIP.--The right equilibrium of friendship in our relation to other men is sometimes restored when we put a few grains of wrong on our own side of the scales. 306. THE MOST DANGEROUS PHYSICIANS.--The most dangerous physicians are those who, like born actors, imitate the born physician with the perfect art of imposture. 307.