For all this, love is most comical among the scholars and intellectuals, for here the contradiction is most glaring. They pride themselves on their respect for reason, yet their lives evidence the exact opposite - because love is without doubt the most irrational and non-sensical of all pursuits. To one and all it is an unknown quantity, yet the intellectuals have no problem with it. This gives one cause to seriously doubt what qualifies them to be the guardians of human knowledge. They are quick enough to pounce on a fellow scholar if he has some small fault which might distort his judgement. Yet love - that immense and unknown power - is accepted as the linchpin of life without question.
To see a serious person, who thinks himself serious, parading in a clowns uniform and behaving as a clown - completely unknown to himself, is comical. It is even more comical when a whole group of serious friends are likewise clowning - unknown to themselves. So are the intellectuals, who cannot see the foolishness of their love, continuing about their business as though nothing were wrong - as though they were innocent!