The same may be said for the statement of
ideas. It is doubtless necessary that they
should be felt strongly with all that they
embrace, so that they may be analysed and
developed; that the developed may be re-em-
bodied, again concentrated, and reduced to
unity. In this operation there is an infinity of
gradations which must be delicately perceived
and appreciated. But if this feeling become
too strong, or take too completely possession
of the mind, analysis or exposition becomes
impossible ; the speaker is absorbed by the con-
templation only of the general idea, is unable to
enter upon its development, and from that
moment he is incapable of speaking. This is
the case with men of genius, but of an exag-
gerated mental sensibility, who feel the necessity
of writing to display their thoughts, because they
require time to reflect and recover themselves
from the fulness of the idea which overcomes




18 KATUKAL QUALITIES NBGESSABT.
them at first, or when they are required to speak
of a sudden. Such was probably the case with
Rousseau, who was endowed with remarkable
sensibility of mind. It may even Happen that
a too vehement and over exclusive perception
of an idea may convert it into a fixed idea, and
may lead to madness. Everything is so well
balanced in our existence, everything must be
done in such measure and proportion, that, no
sooner do we exceed, however little, that mean
point where lies the relative perception of hu-
manity, — ^than we fall into exaggeration, which
destroys and renders powerless as much as de-
ficiency itself. — In medio virtus.
