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The uselessness of philosophers is explained by the circumstance

that mankind will not use them. The world in all ages has been

divided between contempt and fear of those who employ the power

of ideas and know no other weapons. Concerning the false

philosopher, Socrates argues that the best is most liable to

corruption; and that the finer nature is more likely to suffer

from alien conditions. We too observe that there are some kinds

of excellence which spring from a peculiar delicacy of

constitution; as is evidently true of the poetical and

imaginative temperament, which often seems to depend on

impressions, and hence can only breathe or live in a certain

atmosphere. The man of genius has greater pains and greater

pleasures, greater powers and greater weaknesses, and often a

greater play of character than is to be found in ordinary men.