is for yourself; if you do not allow
yourself to be influenced by these pretentious, ceremonious forms, at
least try to discover the reality that lies beneath them. What you call
the height of civilization seems to me the lowest. Do you understand? I
feel that cultured people in their drawing-room society are in the
condition of savages, and even allied to animals."

"Bravo, Wilhelm! go on; this is most edifying."

"You may jeer, but in spite of you I believe that this is so. Try to
discover what is going on in the brains of all these people at this
moment. Their highest power of activity of mind, which makes men of
them, slumbers. They do not think, they only feel. The old gentlemen
enjoy themselves with cigars, ices, the prospect of supper; the young
men seek pleasant sensations in dancing with beautiful girls. The
ladies seek in their partners and admirers to kindle feelings and
desires--vanity, self-seeking, pleasure of the senses, gratification of
the palate, in short, all the grosser tastes. All that is not only like
savages, but like animals. They are merry and contented at the prospect
of a savory meal, and they are fond of playing tricks on each
other--both sexes chaff and tease constantly. I believe that the
development of our larger brain is the intellectual work of man during
hundreds and thousands of years, and it would gratify me to see it
raised to a still greater state of activity."

"I am listening to you so quietly that I don't interrupt you--even when
you talk absurd nonsense. How can one look doleful and disagreeable if
honest, highly constituted men indulge in conversation with each other
for a few hours after hard work? I delight in this harmless enjoyment,
in which people forget all the cares of the day. Here people shake off
the burdens of their vocation and the accidents of their lot. Here am
I, a poor devil enjoying the society of the minister's friends, and
admiring the same beautiful eyes as he does."

"The harmless enjoyments of which you speak are exactly the signs by
which one may recognize the vegetative lives of the savage and the
animal. A serene enjoyment is what naturally appertains to the lower
forms of life when they are satiated, and in no danger of being tracked
for their lives. The oldest drawings on the subject always represent
men with a foolish serene smile. So the privilege of development is to
rejoice in a satisfied stomach and untroubled security, and all through
his li