one side of the balance, we change the other also. This makes me believe
that the springs in our brain are so adjusted that he who touches one
touches also its contrary.

71. Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give
him too much, the same.

72. Man's disproportion.--This is where our innate knowledge leads us. If it
be not true, there is no truth in man; and if it be true, he finds therein
great cause for humiliation, being compelled to abase himself in one way or
another. And since he cannot exist without this knowledge, I wish that,
before entering on deeper researches into nature, he would consider her both
seriously and at leisure, that he would reflect upon himself also, and
knowing what proportion there is... Let man then contemplate the whole of
nature in her full and grand majesty, and turn his vision from the low
objects which surround him. Let him gaze on that brilliant light, set like
an eternal lamp to illumine the universe; let the earth appear to him a
point in comparison with the vast circle described by the sun; and let him
wonder at the fact that this vast circle is itself but a very fine point in
comparison with that described by the stars in their revolution round the
firmament. But if our view be arrested there, let our imagination pass
beyond; it will sooner exhaust the power of conception than nature that of
supplying material for conception. The whole visible world is only an
imperceptible atom in the ample bosom of nature. No idea approaches it.