12/28 There is no such thing as moral phenomena, but only a moral interpretation of phenomena. The criminal is often enough not equal to his deed: he extenuates and maligns it. The advocates of a criminal are seldom artists enough to turn the beautiful terribleness of the deed to the advantage of the doer. Our vanity is most difficult to wound just when our pride has been wounded. To him who feels himself preordained to contemplation and not to belief, all believers are too noisy and obtrusive; he guards against them. |