"Opinion depends upon the favorite inclination, upon the mood of the moment, upon sundry considerations, which direct it almost always toward the desired solution.
"Also it depends often on thoughtfulness or on the inexactness of the initial representation, which we are pleased to disguise slightly at first, then little by little to color in accordance with our desires.
"Falsehood does not necessarily enter into this process of tricking things out; it is, three-quarters of the time, the result of an illusion which we are prone to perpetuate within us.
"We are too often in the position of the three wise men who, while rummaging in an old sarcophagus, discovered a vase whose primitive function they were unable to determine with any certainty.
"One of them was a poet and an idealist.
"The second only prized positive things.
"The third belonged to the category of melancholy people.
"After a few days devoted to special research work, they met together again in order to communicate to each other their different opinions about the exhumed vase.
"'I have found the secret,' said the first.
"'I also,' affirmed the second.