lex, homo duplex!" writes Alphonse Daudet. "The first time that
I perceived that I was two was at the death of my brother Henri, when my
father cried out so dramatically, 'He is dead, he is dead!' While my
first self wept, my second self thought, 'How truly given was that cry,
how fine it would be at the theater.' I was then fourteen years old.
This horrible duality has often given me matter for reflection. Oh, this
terrible second me, always seated whilst the other is on foot, acting,
living, suffering, bestirring itself. This second me that I have never
been able to intoxicate, to make shed tears, or put to sleep. And how it
sees into things, and how it mocks!"

Some persons are born with an inner constitution which is harmonious and
well balanced from the outset. Their impulses are consistent with one
another, their will follows without trouble the guidance of their
intellect, their passions are not excessive, and their lives are little
haunted by regrets. Others are oppositely constituted; and are so in
degrees which may vary from something so slight as to result in a merely
odd or whimsical inconsistency, to a discordancy of which the
consequences may be inconvenient in the extreme. Of the more innocent
kinds of heterogeneity I find a good example in Mrs. Annie Besant's
autobiography.

I have ever been the queerest mixture of weakness and strength,
and have paid heavily for the weakness. As a child I used to
suffer tortures of shyness, and if my shoe-lace was untied
would feel shamefacedly that every eye was fixed on the unlucky
string; as a girl I would shrink away from strangers and think
myself unwanted and unliked, so that I was full of eager
gratitude to anyone who noticed me kindly; as the young
mistress of a house I was afraid of my servants, and would let
careless work pass rather than bear the pain of reproving the
ill-doer; when I have been lecturing and debating with no lack
of spirit on the platform, I have preferred to go without what
I wanted at the hotel rather than to ring and make the waiter
fetch it. Combative on the platform in defense of any cause I
cared for, I shrink from quarrel or disapproval in the house,
and am a coward at heart in private while a good fighter in
public. How often have I passed unhappy quarters of an hour
screwing up my courage to find fault with some subordinate whom
my duty compel