CHAP. VIII.] ESSAYS AT CAMBRIDGE. 245 



make blunders. But they do reflect you, and that more 

 faithfully than your looking-glass. 



"... The stomach-pump of the confessional ought only 

 to be used in cases of manifest poisoning. More gentle 

 remedies are better for the constitution in ordinary cases. 



"... Every man has a right and is bound to become 

 acquainted with himself; but he will find himself out better 

 by intercourse with well-chosen reagents, than by putting on 

 his own thumbscrews, or by sending round to his friends for 

 their opinions. In the choice of reagents, the first thing to 

 be avoided is incapability and insincerity, which generally 

 go together. 



"... Suppose such a history or biography to exist, 

 where actions are described without comment, but in a spirit 

 faithful to the highest truth. It will be an indestructible 

 picture of life, which cannot be distorted by future accidents, 

 and which, by its clear arrangement and perfect simplicity, 

 is sure to pass into our experience without that opposition 

 which, by the constitution of man, accompanies the forcible 

 administration of moral precept." 



10. Unnecessary Thought. October (?), 1856. " Is a 

 horror of Unnecessary Thought natural or unnatural? 

 Which does Nature abhor most, a superplenum or a 

 vacuum of thought " ? 



A great part of every life is necessarily unconscious or 

 mechanical. " We have a natural and widespread aversion 

 to the act of thinking, which exists more or less in all men." 

 But, on the other hand, abstract thought needs to be con- 

 tinually checked through contact with reality, and it is more 

 important that our thoughts should have a living root in 

 experience, than that they should be perfectly self-consistent 

 at any particular stage of their growth. 



"... They know the laws by heart, and do the calcu- 

 lations by fingers. . . . When will they begin to think ? 

 Then comes active life : What do they do that by ? Pre- 

 cedent, wheel-tracks, and finger-posts. 



"... There is one part of the process at least to which 



