He guesses correctly what will heal harm, he exploits strokes of bad luck to his advantage; what does not kill him makes him stronger.* Instinctively he gathers together from everything he sees, hears, experiences, his aggregate: he is a selective principle, he lets a great deal go. He is always in his kind of company, whether he is dealing with books, people, or landscapes: he honours by choosing, by granting admission, by trusting. He reacts to every kind of stimulus slowly, with the slowness which years of caution and a willed pride have cultivated in him—he examines the stimulus as it
...more
