However probable it is that a desire may be fulfilled, there is always a doubt; and so when the desire is realised, it is always surprising. 229 Absurdities presented with good taste rouse disgust and admiration. 230 Of the best society it used to be said: their speech instructs the mind, and their silence the feelings. 231 Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action. 232 Beauty and Genius must be kept afar if one would avoid becoming their slave. 233 We treat the aged with consideration, as we treat children. 234 An old man loses one of the greatest of human privileges: he is no more judged by his peers. 235 In the matter of knowledge, it has happened to me as to one who rises early, and in the dark impatiently awaits the dawn, and then the sun; but is blinded when it appears. 236 Great primeval powers, evolved in time or in eternity, work on unceasingly: whether to weal or to woe, is a matter of chance. IV 237 People often say to themselves in life that they should avoid a variety of occupation, and, more particularly, be the less willing to enter upon new work the older they grow. But it is easy to talk, easy to give advice to oneself and others. To grow old is itself to enter upon a new business; all the circumstances change, and a man must either cease acting altogether, or willingly and consciously take over the new rôle. 238 Of the Absolute in the theoretical sense, I do not venture to speak; but this I maintain: that if a man recognises it in its manifestation, and always keeps his gaze fixed upon it, he will experience very great reward. 239 To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years. 240 Napoleon lived wholly in a great idea, but he was unable to take conscious hold of it. After utterly disavowing all ideals and denying them any reality, he zealously strove to realise them. His clear, incorruptible intellect could not, however, tolerate such a perpetual conflict within; and there is much value in the thoughts which he was compelled, as it were, to utter, and which are expressed very peculiarly and with much charm. 241 He considered the idea as a thing of the mind, that had, it is true, no reality, but still, on passing away, left a residuum--a _caput mortuum_--to which some reality could not be altogether refused. We may think this a very perverse and material notion; but when he entertained his friends with the neverending consequences of his life and actions, in full belief and confidence in them, he expressed himself quite differently. Then, indeed, he was ready to admit that life produces life; that a fruitful act has effects to all time. He took pleasure in confessing that he had given a great impulse, a new direction, to the course of the world's affairs. 242