Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings. . . Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.
Our knowledge of shape and form remains, in general, a mixture of visual and of tactile experiences. . . A child learns about roundness from handling a ball far more than from looking at it.