RESOLUTION

"There are three ways of looking at things. The first and most blessed is the way of those who are more spirit than body, by which I mean men of genius and sensibility, for whom there is nothing that does not speak to the imagination and the heart, and who find everywhere material which inspires them to feel and to live in a continuous rapport with things, with the infinite and with man, a life indefinable and vague. In other words, these are people who see everything in its infinite aspect and in relation to the impulses of their souls. The other and more usual way is of those for whom things have more substance and little spirit, by which I mean the average person (average with regard to the imagination and feeling, and not with regard to everything else such as science, politics etc etc) who, without being sublimely inspired by anything, find reality in everything and see things just as they appear in nature and as they are ordinarily regarded, and behave accordingly. This is the normal way, the most conducive to happiness, which without leading to any grand vision or insights into the meaning of existence, still gives life a purpose, one of which we may be scarcely aware, that remains constant and unchanging and follows an even course, whatever the circumstances, from the cradle to the grave. The third way, which is grim and desperate yet the only truthful one, is the view of those for whom things have neither spirit nor body but are totally vain and insubstantial. I mean philosophers and those people with deep feelings who, having learned from bitter experience, move in one jump from the first way of seeing things to the last without touching the second. Everywhere they find and feel nothing but emptiness, they see the vanity of human cares, desires, hopes and those ideals by which we live and without which life has no meaning. And I would like to note here how we boast that our superiority over other animals lies in human reason through which we imagine we can achieve perfection. Yet reason is inadequate and, I would say, not only quite incapable of making us happy but even of making us less unhappy, much less of making us wise which is supposed to be the main function of reason. Because anyone who becomes so obsessed with thinking about and feeling continuously the true and certain nullity of everything in such a way that neither the succession and variety of things nor some chance event has any power to distract them from this idea, would be absolutely mad, if only because anyone chosing to live by this indisputable principle should be able to predict exactly where it would lead. It is quite certain that most of the time we behave as if we are subject to a kind of distraction or forgetfulness which is directly contrary to reason. Although this might seem real madness, it is our only sensible choice, our only consistent and abiding wisdom whereas the others are not, or only intermittently. From which we see how wisdom as we commonly understand and live by it, is closer to nature than to reason, coming between the two and never, as is usually maintained, arising from the latter alone, and how reason pure and simple, by its very nature, is an obvious route to inevitable and total madness."@ leopardy