If I show you, that you lack just what is most important and
necessary to happiness, that hitherto your attention has been
bestowed on everything rather than that which claims it most;
and, to crown all, that you know neither what God nor Man is--
neither what Good or Evil is: why, that you are ignorant of
everything else, perhaps you may bear to be told; but to hear
that you know nothing of yourself, how could you submit to that?
How could you stand your ground and suffer that to be proved?
Clearly not at all. You instantly turn away in wrath. Yet what
harm have I done to you? Unless indeed the mirror harms the
ill-favoured man by showing him to himself just as he is; unless the
physician can be thought to insult his patient, when he tells
him:--"Friend, do you suppose there is nothing wrong with you?
why, you have a fever. Eat nothing to-day, and drink only water."
Yet no one says, "What an insufferable insult!" Whereas if you
say to a man, "Your desires are inflamed, your instincts of
rejection are weak and low, your aims are inconsistent, your
impulses are not in harmony with Nature, your opinions are rash
and false," he forthwith goes away and complains that you have
insulted him.
LXVIII

Our way of life resembles a fair. The flocks and herds are
passing along to be sold, and the greater part of the crowd to
buy and sell. But there are some few who come only to look at the
fair, to inquire how and why it is being held, upon what
authority and with what object. So too, in this great Fair of
life, some, like the cattle, trouble themselves about nothing but
the fodder. Know all of you, who are busied about land, slaves
and public posts, that these are nothing but fodder! Some few
there are attending the Fair, who love to contemplate what the
world is, what He that administers it. Can there be no
Administrator? is it possible, that while neither city nor
household could endure even a moment without one to administer
and see to its welfare, this Fabric, so fair, so vast, should be
administered in order so harmonious, without a purpose and by
blind chance? There is therefore an Administrator. What is His
nature and how does He administer? And who are we that are His
children and what work were we born to perform? Have we any close
connection or relation with Him or not?
Such are the impressions of the few of whom I speak. And
further, they apply themselves solely to considering and
examining the great assembly before they depart. Well, they are
derided by the multitude. So are the lookers-on by the traders:
aye, and if the beasts had any sense, they would deride those who
thought much of anything but fodder!

LXIX

I think I know now what I never knew before--the meaning of