Theory of Colours, Volume II

VIII

to give something foreign; if he avoids passing judgment, the reader does not know where he stands; if he judges according to certain maximsGeneral rules or principles of conduct, then his presentations become one-sided and provoke contradiction, and history itself creates further stories.

Furthermore, the dispositionsGerman: Gesinnungen; refers to a person's underlying moral or intellectual attitudes and opinions of a significant author are not so easily expressed. All doctrines to which one can attribute originality are not so easily grasped, nor so quickly epitomizedSummarized or condensed into a brief form and systematized. The writer leans toward this or that disposition; however, it is modified by his individuality—indeed, often merely by the delivery, by the peculiarity of the idiomThe specific style or language used by a particular group or individual in which he speaks and writes, by the turn of the times, and by various considerations. How wonderfully does GassendiPierre Gassendi (1592–1655), a French philosopher who sought to reconcile Epicurean atomism with Christian doctrine relate to EpicurusAncient Greek philosopher (341–270 BCE) who founded a highly influential school of hedonistic atomism!

A man who has lived longer has passed through different epochs; he perhaps does not always agree with himself; he puts forward many things, of which we might call one true and the other false: to present all of this, to separate it, to affirm it, and to deny it, is an infinite labor that can only succeed for one who dedicates himself to it entirely and is willing to sacrifice his life to it.