"My life is the life that contemplates,--Zanoni's is the life that enjoys: when I gather the herb, I think but of its uses; Zanoni will pause to admire its beauties." "And you deem your own the superior and the loftier existence ?" "No.

His is the existence of youth,--mine of age.

We have cultivated different faculties.

Each has powers the other cannot aspire to.

Those with whom he associates live better,--those who associate with me know more." "I have heard, in truth," said Glyndon, "that his companions at Naples were observed to lead purer and nobler lives after intercourse with Zanoni; yet were they not strange companions, at the best, for a sage?
This terrible power, too, that he exercises at will, as in the death of the Prince di -- , and that of the Count Ughelli, scarcely becomes the tranquil seeker after good." "True," said Mejnour, with an icy smile; "such must ever be the error of those philosophers who would meddle with the active life of mankind.