furnished with a proof of his identity, so that the meaning of the
creature may not be lost to sight for a moment."

"You may put it in the joking way, but I really mean it. I don't
forget how much of the animal is still in us. Of course one wants
relaxation. But I don't want to look on while animals feed. Recovery
after hard intellectual work means, in your sense, the return for
some hours to animal life. Now I prefer the painful ascent of
mankind to the comfortable, backward slide into animal nature. If I
wished to pose as a statue for you it would have to be 'Penseroso'
while eating or drinking, or with a foolish, smiling mask indicating
animal contentment."

"Very well. Let us also abolish the public announcement of eating,
drinking, dancing and other performances, as the remnants of
barbarism or of original animal nature, and let us introduce the
universal duty of philosophy. A soiree of Berlin bankers--sub specie
oeiernitatis--that would do very well, and you must take out a
patent for it."

"Students' jokes, my friend, are not arguments. I am quite in
earnest in what I say, and I feel melancholy when I see Loulou and
the others playing about like thoughtless animals."

"I am going to speak seriously about the joke now, and show you
another side to the question. Is it not in the highest degree
foolish of a young man without position, to set against him men who
carry the sign of recognition from their king, and the esteem of
their fellow-citizens? Cannot the example of the consideration they
enjoy spur us to endeavors to attain the same? Cannot your