ant) 



Italian " dolce far niente." I have read that there 

 is a delicious Spanish proverb, which is a good 

 equivalent, to the effect that The ideal of life is 

 never to work between meals. I have not come 

 across or heard the original, which I suppose 

 would run somewhat as follows: El ideal de la 

 vida es de nunca trabajar entre comidas. Both 

 these aphorisms are such as the idle or languid 

 may cherish as refreshments in the dog-days. 



While on the subject of maxims, the German 

 one which I realize in obverse and reverse, almost 

 daily, more than any other, is Goethe's dictum: 

 " Vor den Wissenden sich stellen, sicher ist's in 

 alien Fallen," which, however, I find it rather 

 difficult to render literally into English. The 

 meaning of it is : " With wisdom there can be no 

 misunderstanding." One certainly realizes con- 

 stantly that with stupidity there can be, and that 

 misunderstandings constantly arise from lack of 

 knowledge, most discords being due to ignorance 

 on one side or the other. Where full knowledge 

 and complete wisdom exists there can be no room 

 for misconception or misjudgment, and even a 

 disagreement becomes merely an agreement to 

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