Chapter 2

MENTALITY.

MIND ACTIVITIES DOMINATED BY A CONSCIOUSNESS OF _Reflection_ OR _Processes_ OF _Thought, Clearness, Definiteness_.

1. "Beyond the street a tower,--beyond the tower a moon,--beyond the moon a star,--beyond the Star, what?"

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2. "Once more: speak clearly, if you speak at all; Carve every word before you let it fall; Don't, like a lecturer or dramatic star, Try overhard to roll the British R; Do put your accents in the proper spot; Don't--let me beg you--don't say 'How?' for 'What?' And when you stick on conversation's burrs, Don't strew the pathway with those dreadful urs."

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3. "To be, or not to be; that is the question:-- Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep,-- No more:"

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4. "I should say sincerity, a deep, great, genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all men in any way heroic. Not the sincerity that calls itself sincere; that is ... oftenest self-conceit mainly. The great man's sincerity is of the kind he cannot speak of, is not conscious of."

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5. "_Brutus_. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius.

_Lucius_. I will, my lord. (_Exit_.)

_Brutus_. It must be by his death: and for my part, I know no cause to spurn at him, But for the general. He would be crown'd:-- How that might change his nature, there's the question. It is the bright day that brings forth the adder; And that craves wary walking. Crown him?--That:-- And then, I grant, we put a sting in him, That at his will he may do danger with."

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6. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God."

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7. "Just in proportion as the writer's aim, consciously or unconsciously, comes to be the transcribing, not of the world, not of mere fact, but of his sense of it, he becomes an artist; his work a _fine_ art, and good art in proportion to the truth of his presentment of that sense. Truth! there can be no merit, no craft at all, without that. And further, all beauty is in the long run only _fineness_ of truth, or what we call expression, the finer accommodation of speech to that vision within."

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8. "For the Universe has three children, born at one time, which reappear, under different names, in every system of thought, whether they be called cause, operation, and effect; or, theologically, the Father, the Spirit, and the Son; but which we call here, the Knower, the Doer, and the Sayer. These stand respectively for the love of truth, for the love of good, and for the love of beauty. These three are equal. Each of these three has the power of the others latent in him, and his own patent."