_Last Words._-It will be recollected that the Emperor Augustus, that terrible man, who had himself as much in his own power and could be silent as well as any wise Socrates, became indiscreet about himself in his last words; for the first time he let his mask fall, when he gave to understand that he had carried a mask and played a comedy,--he had played the father of his country and wisdom on the throne well, even to the point of illusion! _Plaudite amid, comœdia finita est!--_The thought of the dying Nero: _qualis artifex pereo!_ was also the thought of the dying Augustus: histrionic conceit! histrionic loquacity! And the very counterpart to the dying Socrates!--But Tiberius died silently, that most tortured of all self-torturers,--_he_ was _genuine_ and not a stage-player! What may have passed through his head in the end! Perhaps this: "Life--that is a long death. I am a fool, who shortened the lives of so many! Was _I_ created for the purpose of being a benefactor? I should have given them eternal life: and then I could have _seen them dying_ eternally. I had such good eyes _for that: qualis spectator pereo!_" When he seemed once more to regain his powers after a long death-struggle, it was considered advisable to smother him with pillows,--he died a double death. 37. _Owing to three Errors._--Science has been furthered during recent centuries, partly because it was hoped that God's goodness and wisdom would be best understood therewith and thereby--the principal motive in the soul of great Englishmen (like Newton); partly because the absolute utility of knowledge was believed in, and especially the most intimate connection of morality, knowledge, and happiness--the principal motive in the soul of great Frenchmen (like Voltaire); and partly because it was thought that in science there was something unselfish, harmless, self-sufficing, lovable, and truly innocent to be had, in which the evil human impulses did not at all participate--the principal motive in the soul of Spinoza, who felt himself divine, as a knowing being:--it is consequently owing to three errors that science has been furthered. 38. _Explosive People._--When one considers how ready are the forces of young men for discharge, one does not wonder at seeing them decide so uncritically and with so little selection for this or that cause: _that_ which attracts them is the sight of eagerness for a cause, as it were the sight of the burning match--not the cause itself. The more ingenious seducers on that account operate by holding out the prospect of an explosion to such persons, and do not urge their cause by means of reasons; these powder-barrels are not won over by means of reasons! 39.