,,memories ,,and ,,studies  by          
,,william ,,james        ,longmans1     
,green1 and ,co4 ,fourth ,avenue and    
#cjth ,street1 ,new ,york ,london1      
,bombay1 and ,calcutta #aiaa            
,copyright1 #aiaa1 by ,henry ,james ,jr4
 ,all ,rights ,reserved     ,,prefatory 
,,note  ,professor ,william ,james      
formed the intention shortly before his 
death of republishing a number of       
popular addresses and essays under the  
title which this book now bears2 but    
unfortunately he found no opportunity to
 attend to any detail of the book       
himself1 or to leave definite           
instructions for others4  ,i believe1   
however1 that ,i have departed in no    
substantial degree from my father's     
idea1 except perhaps by including two or
 three short pieces which were first    
addressed to special occasions or       
audiences and which now seem clearly    
worthy of republication in their        
original form1 although he might not    
have been willing to reprint them       

himself without the recastings to which 
he was ever most attentive when         
preparing for new readers4 ,everything  
in this volume has already appeared in  
print in magazines or otherwise1 and    
definite acknowledgements are           
hereinafter made in the appropriate     
places4  ,comparison with the original  
texts will disclose slight variations in
 a few passages1 and it is therefore    
proper to explain that in these passages
 the present text follows emendations of
 the original which have survived in the
 author's own handwriting4  ,,henry     
,,james1 ,,jr4     ,,contents       ,i4 
,,louis ,,agassiz    ,,ii4 ,,address    
,,at ,,the ,,emerson ,,centenary ,,in   
,,concord   ,,iii4 ,,robert ,,gould     
,,shaw    ,,iv4 ,,francis ,,boott       
,v4 ,,thomas ,,davidson3 ,a             
,,knight-,,errant ,,of ,,the            
,,intellectual ,,life    ,,vi4 ,,herbert
 ,,spencer',s ,,autobiography   ,,vii4  
,,frederick ,,myers' ,,services ,,to    
,,psychology  ,,viii4 ,,final           

,,impressions ,,of ,a ,,psychical       
,,researcher    ,,ix4 ,,on ,,some       
,,mental ,,effects ,,of ,,the           
,,earthquake     ,x4 ,,the ,,energies   
,,of ,,men    ,,xi4 ,,the ,,moral       
,,equivalent ,,of ,,war   ,,xii4        
,,remarks ,,at ,,the ,,peace ,,banquet  
,,xiii4 ,,the ,,social ,,value ,,of     
,,the ,,college-,,bred   ,,xiv4 ,,the   
,,university ,,and ,,the ,,individual   
,,the ,,ph4 ,d4 ,,octopus        ,,the  
,,true ,,harvard        ,,stanford',s   
,,ideal ,,destiny    ,,xv4 ,a           
,,pluralistic ,,mystic     ,i  ,,louis  
,,agassiz#a  ,it would be unnatural to  
have such an assemblage as this meet in 
the ,museum and ,faculty ,room of this  
,university and yet have no public word 
spoken in honor of a name which must be 
silently present to the minds of all our
 visitors4  ,at some near future day1 it
 is to be hoped some one of you who is  
well acquainted with ,agassiz's         
scientific career will discourse here   
concerning it1--,i could not now1 even  

if ,i would1 speak to you of that of    
which you have far more intimate        
knowledge than ,i4  ,on this social     
occasion it has seemed that what        
,agassiz stood for in the way of        
character and influence is the more     
fitting thing to commemorate1 and to    
that agreeable task ,i have been called4
  ,he made an impression that was       
unrivalled4  ,he left a sort of popular 
myth--the ,agassiz legend1 as one might 
say--behind him in the air about us2 and
 life comes kindlier to all of us1 we   
get more recognition from the world1    
because we call ourselves               
naturalists1--and that was the class to 
which he also belonged4  ,the secret of 
such an extraordinarily effective       
influence lay in the equally            
extraordinary mixture of the animal and 
social gifts1 the intellectual powers1  
and the desires and passions of the man4
  ,from his boyhood1 he looked on the   
world as if it and he were made for each
 other1 and on the vast diversity of    

living things as if he were there with  
authority to take mental possession of  
them all4  ,his habit of collecting     
began in childhood1 and during his long 
life knew no bounds save those that     
separate the things of ,nature from     
those of human art4 ,already in his     
student years1 in spite of the most     
stringent poverty1 his whole scheme of  
existence was that of one predestined to
 greatness1 who takes that fact for     
granted1 and stands forth immediately as
 a scientific leader of men4  ,his      
passion for knowing living things was   
combined with a rapidity of observation1
 and a capacity to recognize them again 
and remember everything about them1     
which all his life it seemed an easy    
triumph and delight for him to exercise1
 and which never allowed him to waste a 
moment in doubts about the              
commensurability of his powers with his 
tasks4  ,if ever a person lived by      
faith1 he did4  ,when a boy of twenty1  
with an allowance of two hundred and    

fifty dollars a year1 he maintained an  
artist attached to his employ1 a custom 
which never afterwards was departed     
from1--except when he maintained two or 
three4 ,he lectured from the very outset
 to all those who would hear him4  ,i   
feel within myself the strength of a    
whole generation1 he wrote to his father
 at that time1 and launched himself upon
 the publication of his costly ,poissons
 ,fossiles with no clear vision of the  
quarter from whence the payment might be
 expected to come4  ,at ,neuchatel      
7where between the ages of twenty-five  
and thirty he enjoyed a stipend that    
varied from four hundred to six hundred 
dollars7 he organized a regular academy 
of natural history1 with its museum1    
managing by one expedient or another to 
employ artists1 secretaries1 and        
assistants1 and to keep a lithographic  
and printing establishment of his own   
employed with the work that he put      
forth4  ,fishes1 fossil and living1     
echinoderms and glaciers1 transfigured  

themselves under his hand1 and at thirty
 he was already at the zenith of his    
reputation1 recognized by all as one of 
those naturalists in the unlimited      
sense1 one of those folio copies of     
mankind1 like ,linnaeus and ,cuvier1 who
 aim at nothing less than an            
acquaintance with the whole of animated 
,nature4 ,his genius for classifying was
 simply marvellous2 and1 as his latest  
biographer says1 nowhere had a single   
person ever given so decisive an impulse
 to natural history4  ,such was the     
human being who on an ,october morning  
fifty years ago disembarked at our port1
 bringing his hungry heart along with   
him1 his confidence in his destiny1 and 
his imagination full of plans4  ,the    
only particular resource he was assured 
of was one course of ,lowell ,lectures4 
,but of one general resource he always  
was assured1 having always counted on it
 and never found it to fail1--and that  
was the good will of every              
fellow-creature in whose presence he    

could find an opportunity to describe   
his aims4  ,his belief in these was so  
intense and unqualified that he could   
not conceive of others not feeling the  
furtherance of them to be a duty binding
 also upon them4  ,velle non discitur1  
as ,seneca says3--,strength of desire   
must be born with a man1 it can't be    
taught4  ,and ,agassiz came before one  
with such enthusiasm glowing in his     
countenance1--such a persuasion         
radiating from his person that his      
projects were the sole things really fit
 to interest man as man1--that he was   
absolutely irresistible4  ,he came1 in  
,byron's words1 with victory beaming    
from his breast1 and every one went down
 before him1 some yielding him money1   
some time1 some specimens1 and some     
labor1 but all contributing their       
applause and their godspeed4 ,and so1   
living among us from month to month and 
from year to year1 with no relation to  
prudence except his pertinacious        
violation of all her usual laws1 he on  

the whole achieved the compass of his   
desires1 studied the geology and fauna  
of a continent1 trained a generation of 
zoologists1 founded one of the chief    
museums of the world1 gave a new impulse
 to scientific education in ,america1   
and died the idol of the public1 as well
 as of his circle of immediate pupils   
and friends4  ,the secret of it all was1
 that while his scientific ideals were  
an integral part of his being1 something
 that he never forgot or laid aside1 so 
that wherever he went he came forward as
 the ,professor1 and talked shop to     
every person1 young or old1 great or    
little1 learned or unlearned1 with whom 
he was thrown1 he was at the same time  
so commanding a presence1 so curious and
 inquiring1 so responsive and expansive1
 and so generous and reckless of himself
 and of his own1 that every one said    
immediately1 ,here is no musty savant1  
but a man1 a great man1 a man on the    
heroic scale1 not to serve whom is      
avarice and sin4  ,he elevated the      

popular notion of what a student of     
,nature could be4  ,since ,benjamin     
,franklin1 we had never had among us a  
person of more popularly impressive     
type4  ,he did not wait for students to 
come to him2 he made inquiry for        
promising youthful collectors1 and when 
he heard of one1 he wrote1 inviting and 
urging him to come4  ,thus there is     
hardly one now of the ,american         
naturalists of my generation whom       
,agassiz did not train4  ,nay1 more2 he 
said to every one that a year or two of 
natural history1 studied as he          
understood it1 would give the best      
training for any kind of mental work4   
,sometimes he was amusingly naf in this 
regard1 as when he offered to put his   
whole ,museum at the disposition of the 
,emperor of ,brazil if he would but come
 and labor there4  ,and ,i well remember
 how certain officials of the ,brazilian
 empire smiled at the cordiality with   
which he pressed upon them a similar    
invitation4  ,but it had a great effect4

  ,natural history must indeed be a     
godlike pursuit1 if such a man as this  
can so adore it1 people said2 and the   
very definition and meaning of the word 
naturalist underwent a favorable        
alteration in the common mind4  ,certain
 sayings of ,agassiz's1 as the famous   
one that he had no time for making      
money1 and his habit of naming his      
occupation simply as that of teacher1   
have caught the public fancy1 and are   
permanent benefactions4  ,we all enjoy  
more consideration for the fact that he 
manifested himself here thus before us  
in his day4  ,he was a splendid example 
of the temperament that looks forward   
and not backward1 and never wastes a    
moment in regrets for the irrevocable4  
,i had the privilege of admission to his
 society during the ,thayer expedition  
to ,brazil4  ,i well remember at night1 
as we all swung in our hammocks in the  
fairy-like moonlight1 on the deck of the
 steamer that throbbed its way up the   
,amazon between the forests guarding the

 stream on either side1 how he turned   
and whispered1 ,james1 are you awake8   
and continued1 ,i cannot sleep2 ,i am   
too happy2 ,i keep thinking of these    
glorious plans4  ,the plans contemplated
 following the ,amazon to its           
headwaters1 and penetrating the ,andes  
in ,peru4  ,and yet1 when he arrived at 
the ,peruvian frontier and learned that 
that country had broken into revolution1
 that his letters to officials would be 
useless1 and that that part of the      
project must be given up1 although he   
was indeed bitterly chagrined and       
excited for part of an hour1 when the   
hour had passed over it seemed as if he 
had quite forgotten the disappointment1 
so enthusiastically was he occupied     
already with the new scheme substituted 
by his active mind4  ,agassiz's         
influence on methods of teaching in our 
community was prompt and decisive1--all 
the more so that it struck people's     
imagination by its very excess4  ,the   
good old way of committing printed      

abstractions to memory seems never to   
have received such a shock as it        
encountered at his hands4  ,there is    
probably no public school teacher now in
 ,new ,england who will not tell you how
 ,agassiz used to lock a student up in a
 room full of turtle shells1 or lobster 
shells1 or oyster shells1 without a book
 or word to help him1 and not let him   
out till he had discovered all the      
truths which the objects contained4     
,some found the truths after weeks and  
months of lonely sorrow2 others never   
found them4  ,those who found them were 
already made into naturalists           
thereby--the failures were blotted from 
the book of honor and of life4 ,go to   
,nature2 take the facts into your own   
hands2 look1 and see for                
yourself6--these were the maxims which  
,agassiz preached wherever he went1 and 
their effect on pedagogy was electric4  
,the extreme rigor of his devotion to   
this concrete method of learning was the
 natural consequence of his own peculiar

 type of intellect1 in which the        
capacity for abstraction and causal     
reasoning and tracing chains of         
consequences from hypotheses was so much
 less developed than the genius for     
acquaintance with vast volumes of       
detail1 and for seizing upon analogies  
and relations of the more proximate and 
concrete kind4  ,while on the ,thayer   
expedition1 ,i remember that ,i often   
put questions to him about the facts of 
our new tropical habitat1 but ,i doubt  
if he ever answered one of these        
questions of mine outright4  ,he always 
said3 ,there1 you see you have a        
definite problem2 go and look and find  
the answer for yourself4  ,his severity 
in this line was a living rebuke to all 
abstractionists and would-be biological 
philosophers4  ,more than once have ,i  
heard him quote with deep feeling the   
lines from ,faust3    ,grau1 theurer    
,freund1 ist alle ,theorie4   ,und grun 
des ,lebens goldner ,baum4  ,the only   
man he really loved and had use for was 

the man who could bring him facts4  ,to 
see facts1 not to argue or raisonniren1 
was what life meant for him2 and ,i     
think he often positively loathed the   
ratiocinating type of mind4  ,mr4       
,blank1 you are totally uneducated6 ,i  
heard him once say to a student who     
propounded to him some glittering       
theoretic generality4  ,and on a similar
 occasion he gave an admonition that    
must have sunk deep into the heart of   
him to whom it was addressed4  ,mr4 ,x1 
some people perhaps now consider you a  
bright young man2 but when you are fifty
 years old1 if they ever speak of you   
then1 what they will say will be this3  
',that ,x1--oh1 yes1 ,i know him2 he    
used to be a very bright young man6'    
,happy is the conceited youth who at the
 proper moment receives such salutary   
cold water therapeutics as this from one
 who1 in other respects1 is a kind      
friend4  ,we cannot all escape from     
being abstractionists4  ,i myself1 for  
instance1 have never been able to       

escape2 but the hours ,i spent with     
,agassiz so taught me the difference    
between all possible abstractionists and
 all livers in the light of the world's 
concrete fulness1 that ,i have never    
been able to forget it4  ,both kinds of 
mind have their place in the infinite   
design1 but there can be no question as 
to which kind lies the nearer to the    
divine type of thinking4  ,agassiz's    
view of ,nature was saturated with      
simple religious feeling1 and for this  
deep but unconventional religiosity he  
found at ,harvard the most sympathetic  
possible environment4  ,in the fifty    
years that have sped since he arrived   
here our knowledge of ,nature has       
penetrated into joints and recesses     
which his vision never pierced4  ,the   
causal elements and not the totals are  
what we are now most passionately       
concerned to understand2 and naked and  
poverty-stricken enough do the          
stripped-out elements and forces        
occasionally appear to us to be4  ,but  

the truth of things is after all their  
living fulness1 and some day1 from a    
more commanding point of view than was  
possible to any one in ,agassiz's       
generation1 our descendants1 enriched   
with the spoils of all our analytic     
investigations1 will get round again to 
that higher and simpler way of looking  
at ,nature4  ,meanwhile as we look back 
upon ,agassiz1 there floats up a breath 
as of life's morning1 that makes the    
work seem young and fresh once more4    
,may we all1 and especially may those   
younger members of our association who  
never knew him1 give a grateful thought 
to his memory as we wander through that 
,museum which he founded1 and through   
this ,university whose ideals he did so 
much to elevate and define4    #a ,words
 spoken at the reception of the         
,american ,society of ,naturalists by   
the ,president and ,fellows of ,harvard 
,college at ,cambridge1 ,december #cj1  
#ahif4  ,printed in ,science1 ,n4 ,s4   
,v4 #bhe4     ,,ii  ,,address ,,at ,,the

 ,,emerson ,,centenary ,,in ,,concord#a 
,the pathos of death is this1 that when 
the days of one's life are ended1 those 
days that were so crowded with business 
and felt so heavy in their passing1 what
 remains of one in memory should usually
 be so slight a thing4  ,the phantom of 
an attitude1 the echo of a certain mode 
of thought1 a few pages of print1 some  
invention1 or some victory we gained in 
a brief critical hour1 are all that can 
survive the best of us4  ,it is as if   
the whole of a man's significance had   
now shrunk into the phantom of an       
attitude1 into a mere musical note or   
phrase suggestive of his                
singularity--happy are those whose      
singularity gives a note so clear as to 
be victorious over the inevitable pity  
of such a diminution and abridgment4    
,an ideal wraith like this1 of          
,emerson's personality1 hovers over all 
,concord to-day1 taking1 in the minds of
 those of you who were his neighbors and
 intimates a somewhat fuller shape1     

remaining more abstract in the younger  
generation1 but bringing home to all of 
us the notion of a spirit indescribably 
precious4  ,the form that so lately     
moved upon these streets and country    
roads1 or awaited in these fields and   
woods the beloved ,muse's visits1 is now
 dust2 but the soul's note1 the         
spiritual voice1 rises strong and clear 
above the uproar of the times1 and seems
 securely destined to exert an ennobling
 influence over future generations4     
,what gave a flavor so matchless to     
,emerson's individuality was1 even more 
than his rich mental gifts1 their       
singularly harmonious combination4      
,rarely has a man so accurately known   
the limits of his genius or so          
unfailingly kept within them4  ,stand by
 your order1 he used to say to youthful 
students2 and perhaps the paramount     
impression one gets of his life is of   
his loyalty to his own personal type and
 mission4  ,the type was that of what he
 liked to call the scholar1 the         

perceiver of pure truth2 and the mission
 was that of the reporter in worthy form
 of each perception4  ,the day is good1 
he said1 in which we have the most      
perceptions4  ,there are times when the 
cawing of a crow1 a weed1 a snowflake1  
or a farmer planting in his field become
 symbols to the intellect of truths     
equal to those which the most majestic  
phenomena can open4  ,let me mind my own
 charge1 then1 walk alone1 consult the  
sky1 the field and forest1 sedulously   
waiting every morning for the news      
concerning the structure of the universe
 which the good ,spirit will give me4   
,this was the first half of ,emerson1   
but only half2 for genius1 as he said1  
is insatiate for expression1 and truth  
has to be clad in the right verbal      
garment4  ,the form of the garment was  
so vital with ,emerson that it is       
impossible to separate it from the      
matter4  ,they form a chemical          
combination--thoughts which would be    
trivial expressed otherwise1 are        

important through the nouns and verbs to
 which he married them4  ,the style is  
the man1 it has been said2 the man      
,emerson's mission culminated in his    
style1 and if we must define him in one 
word1 we have to call him ,artist4  ,he 
was an artist whose medium was verbal   
and who wrought in spiritual material4  
,this duty of spiritual seeing and      
reporting determined the whole tenor of 
his life4  ,it was to shield this duty  
from invasion and distraction that he   
dwelt in the country1 that he           
consistently declined to entangle       
himself with associations or to encumber
 himself with functions which1 however  
he might believe in them1 he felt were  
duties for other men and not for him4   
,even the care of his garden1 with its  
stoopings and fingerings in a few yards 
of space1 he found narrowing and        
poisoning1 and took to long free walks  
and saunterings instead1 without        
apology4  ,causes innumerable sought to 
enlist him as their worker--all got his 

smile and word of sympathy1 but none    
entrapped him into service4  ,the       
struggle against slavery itself1 deeply 
as it appealed to him1 found him firm3  
,god must govern his own world1 and     
knows his way out of this pit without my
 desertion of my post1 which has none to
 guard it but me4  ,i have quite other  
slaves to face than those ,negroes1 to  
wit1 imprisoned thoughts far back in the
 brain of man1 and which have no        
watchman or lover or defender but me4   
,this in reply to the possible questions
 of his own conscience4  ,to hot-blooded
 moralists with more objective ideas of 
duty1 such a fidelity to the limits of  
his genius must often have made him seem
 provokingly remote and unavailable2 but
 we1 who can see things in more liberal 
perspective1 must unqualifiably approve 
the results4  ,the faultless tact with  
which he kept his safe limits while he  
so dauntlessly asserted himself within  
them1 is an example fitted to give heart
 to other theorists and artists the     

world over4  ,the insight and creed from
 which ,emerson's life followed can be  
best summed up in his own verses3    ,so
 nigh is grandeur to our dust1   ,so    
near is ,god to man6  ,through the      
individual fact there ever shone for him
 the effulgence of the ,universal       
,reason4  ,the great ,cosmic ,intellect 
terminates and houses itself in mortal  
men and passing hours4  ,each of us is  
an angle of its eternal vision1 and the 
only way to be true to our ,maker is to 
be loyal to ourselves4  ,o rich and     
various ,man6 he cries1 thou palace of  
sight and sound1 carrying in thy senses 
the morning and the night and the       
unfathomable galaxy2 in thy brain the   
geometry of the city of ,god2 in thy    
heart the bower of love and the realms  
of right and wrong4  ,if the individual 
open thus directly into the ,absolute1  
it follows that there is something in   
each and all of us1 even the lowliest1  
that ought not to consent to borrowing  
traditions and living at second hand4   

,if ,john was perfect1 why are you and  
,i alive8 ,emerson writes2 ,as long as  
any man exists there is some need of    
him2 let him fight for his own4 ,this   
faith that in a life at first hand there
 is something sacred is perhaps the most
 characteristic note in ,emerson's      
writings4  ,the hottest side of him is  
this non-conformist persuasion1 and if  
his temper could ever verge on common   
irascibility1 it would be by reason of  
the passionate character of his feelings
 on this point4  ,the world is still new
 and untried4  ,in seeing freshly1 and  
not in hearing of what others saw1 shall
 a man find what truth is4  ,each one of
 us can bask in the great morning which 
rises out of the ,eastern ,sea1 and be  
himself one of the children of the      
light4  ,trust thyself1 every heart     
vibrates to that iron string4  ,there is
 a time in each man's education when he 
must arrive at the conviction that      
imitation is suicide2 when he must take 
himself for better or worse as his      

portion2 and know that though the wide  
universe is full of good1 no kernel of  
nourishing corn can come to him but     
through his toil bestowed on that plot  
of ground which it was given him to     
till4  ,the matchless eloquence with    
which ,emerson proclaimed the           
sovereignty of the living individual    
electrified and emancipated his         
generation1 and this bugle-blast will   
doubtless be regarded by future critics 
as the soul of his message4  ,the       
present man is the aboriginal reality1  
the ,institution is derivative1 and the 
past man is irrelevant and obliterate   
for present issues4  ,if anyone would   
lay an axe to your tree with a text from
 #a ,john1 v1 #g1 or a sentence from    
,saint ,paul1 say to him1 ,emerson      
wrote1 ',my tree is ,yggdrasil1 the tree
 of life4'  ,let him know by your       
security that your conviction is clear  
and sufficient1 and1 if he were ,paul   
himself1 that you also are here and with
 your ,creator4  ,cleave ever to ,god1  

he insisted1 against the name of        
,god2--and so1 in spite of the intensely
 religious character of his total       
thought1 when he began his career it    
seemed to many of his brethren in the   
clerical profession that he was little  
more than an iconoclast and desecrator4 
,emerson's belief that the individual   
must in reason be adequate to the       
vocation for which the ,spirit of the   
world has called him into being1 is the 
source of those sublime pages1          
hearteners and sustainers of our youth1 
in which he urges his hearers to be     
incorruptibly true to their own private 
conscience4  ,nothing can harm the man  
who rests in his appointed place and    
character4  ,such a man is invulnerable2
 he balances the universe1 balances it  
as much by keeping small when he is     
small1 as by being great and spreading  
when he is great4  ,i love and honor    
,epaminondas1 said ,emerson1 but ,i do  
not wish to be ,epaminondas4  ,i hold it
 more just to love the world of this    

hour than the world of his hour4  ,nor  
can you1 if ,i am true1 excite me to the
 least uneasiness by saying1 ',he acted 
and thou sittest still4'  ,i see action 
to be good when the need is1 and sitting
 still to be also good4  ,epaminondas1  
if he was the man ,i take him for1 would
 have sat still with joy and peace1 if  
his lot had been mine4  ,heaven is      
large1 and affords space for all modes  
of love and fortitude4  ,the fact that  
,i am here certainly shows me that the  
,soul has need of an organ here1 and    
shall ,i not assume the post8  ,the     
vanity of all superserviceableness and  
pretence was never more happily set     
forth than by ,emerson in the many      
passages in which he develops this      
aspect of his philosophy4  ,character   
infallibly proclaims itself4  ,hide your
 thoughts6--hide the sun and moon4      
,they publish themselves to the         
universe4  ,they will speak through you 
though you were dumb4  ,they will flow  
out of your actions1 your manners and   

your face4 4 4 4  ,don't say things3    
,what you are stands over you the while 
and thunders so that ,i cannot say what 
you say to the contrary4 4 4 4 ,what a  
man is engraves itself upon him in      
letters of light4 ,concealment avails   
him nothing1 boasting nothing4  ,there  
is confession in the glances of our     
eyes2 in our smiles2 in salutations2 and
 the grasp of hands4  ,his sin bedaubs  
him1 mars all his good impression4 ,men 
know not why they do not trust him1 but 
they do not trust him4  ,his vice       
glasses the eye1 casts lines of mean    
expression in the cheek1 pinches the    
nose1 sets the mark of the beast upon   
the back of the head1 and writes1 ,o    
fool6 fool6 on the forehead of a king4  
,if you would not be known to do a      
thing1 never do it2 a man may play the  
fool in the drifts of a desert1 but     
every grain of sand shall seem to       
see4--,how can a man be concealed8  ,how
 can he be concealed8  ,on the other    
hand1 never was a sincere word or a     

sincere thought utterly lost4  ,never a 
magnanimity fell to the ground but there
 is some heart to greet and accept it   
unexpectedly4 4 4 4  ,the hero fears not
 that if he withstood the avowal of a   
just and brave act1 it will go          
unwitnessed and unloved4  ,one knows    
it1--himself1--and is pledged by it to  
sweetness of peace and to nobleness of  
aim1 which will prove in the end a      
better proclamation than the relating of
 the incident4  ,the same indefeasible  
right to be exactly what one is1        
provided one only be authentic1 spreads 
itself1 in ,emerson's way of thinking1  
from persons to things and to times and 
places4  ,no date1 no position is       
insignificant1 if the life that fills it
 out be only genuine3--  ,in solitude1  
in a remote village1 the ardent youth   
loiters and mourns4 ,with inflamed eye1 
in this sleeping wilderness1 he has read
 the story of the ,emperor1 ,charles the
 ,fifth1 until his fancy has brought    
home to the surrounding woods the faint 

roar of cannonades in the ,milanese1 and
 marches in ,germany4  ,he is curious   
concerning that man's day4  ,what filled
 it8  ,the crowded orders1 the stern    
decisions1 the foreign despatches1 the  
,castilian etiquette8  ,the soul        
answers--,behold his day here6  ,in the 
sighing of these woods1 in the quiet of 
these gray fields1 in the cool breeze   
that sings out of these northern        
mountains2 in the workmen1 the boys1 the
 maidens you meet1--in the hopes of the 
morning1 the ennui of noon1 and         
sauntering of the afternoon2 in the     
disquieting comparisons2 in the regrets 
at want of vigor2 in the great idea and 
the puny execution1--behold ,charles the
 ,fifth's day2 another1 yet the same2   
behold ,chatham's1 ,hampden's1          
,bayard's1 ,alfred's1 ,scipio's1        
,pericles's day1--day of all that are   
born of women4  ,the difference of      
circumstance is merely costume4  ,i am  
tasting the self-same life1--its        
sweetness1 its greatness1 its pain1     

which ,i so admire in other men4  ,do   
not foolishly ask of the inscrutable1   
obliterated past what it cannot         
tell1--the details of that nature1 of   
that day1 called ,byron or ,burke2--but 
ask it of the enveloping ,now4 4 4 4    
,be lord of a day1 and you can put up   
your history books4  ,the deep to-day   
which all men scorn1 receives thus from 
,emerson superb revindication4  ,other  
world6 there is no other world4  ,all   
,god's life opens into the individual   
particular1 and here and now1 or        
nowhere1 is reality4  ,the present hour 
is the decisive hour1 and every day is  
doomsday4  ,such a conviction that      
,divinity is everywhere may easily make 
of one an optimist of the sentimental   
type that refuses to speak ill of       
anything4 ,emerson's drastic perception 
of differences kept him at the opposite 
pole from this weakness4  ,after you    
have seen men a few times1 he could say1
 you find most of them as alike as their
 barns and pantries1 and soon as musty  

and as dreary4  ,never was such a       
fastidious lover of significance and    
distinction1 and never an eye so keen   
for their discovery4  ,his optimism had 
nothing in common with that             
indiscriminate hurrahing for the        
,universe with which ,walt ,whitman has 
made us familiar4  ,for ,emerson1 the   
individual fact and moment were indeed  
suffused with absolute radiance1 but it 
was upon a condition that saved the     
situation--they must be worthy          
specimens1--sincere1 authentic1         
archetypal2 they must have made         
connection with what he calls the ,moral
 ,sentiment1 they must in some way act  
as symbolic mouthpieces of the          
,universe's meaning4  ,to know just     
which thing does act in this way1 and   
which thing fails to make the true      
connection1 is the secret 7somewhat     
incommunicable1 it must be confessed7 of
 seership1 and doubtless we must not    
expect of the seer too rigorous a       
consistency4  ,emerson himself was a    

real seer4  ,he could perceive the full 
squalor of the individual fact1 but he  
could also see the transfiguration4  ,he
 might easily have found himself saying 
of some present-day agitator against our
 ,philippine conquest what he said of   
this or that reformer of his own time4  
,he might have called him1 as a private 
person1 a tedious bore and canter4  ,but
 he would infallibly have added what he 
then added3 ,it is strange and horrible 
to say this1 for ,i feel that under him 
and his partiality and exclusiveness is 
the earth and the sea1 and all that in  
them is1 and the axis round which the   
,universe revolves passes through his   
body where he stands4  ,be it how it    
may1 then1 this is ,emerson's           
revelation3--,the point of any pen can  
be an epitome of reality2 the commonest 
person's act1 if genuinely actuated1 can
 lay hold on eternity4  ,this vision is 
the head-spring of all his outpourings2 
and it is for this truth1 given to no   
previous literary artist to express in  

such penetratingly persuasive tones1    
that posterity will reckon him a        
prophet1 and1 perhaps neglecting other  
pages1 piously turn to those that convey
 this message4 ,his life was one long   
conversation with the invisible divine1 
expressing itself through individuals   
and particulars3--,so nigh is grandeur  
to our dust1 so near is ,god to man6  ,i
 spoke of how shrunken the wraith1 how  
thin the echo1 of men is after they are 
departed8  ,emerson's wraith comes to me
 now as if it were but the very voice of
 this victorious argument4  ,his words  
to this effect are certain to be quoted 
and extracted more and more as time goes
 on1 and to take their place among the  
,scriptures of humanity4  ',gainst death
 and all oblivious enmity1 shall you    
pace forth1 beloved ,master4 ,as long as
 our ,english language lasts men's      
hearts will be cheered and their souls  
strengthened and liberated by the noble 
and musical pages with which you have   
enriched it4    #a ,an ,address         

delivered at the ,centenary of the      
,birth of ,ralph ,waldo ,emerson in     
,concord1 ,may #be1 #aijc1 and printed  
in the published proceedings of that    
meeting4     ,,iii  ,,robert ,,gould    
,,shaw#a  ,your ,excellency1 your       
,honor1 ,soldiers1 and ,friends3 ,in    
these unveiling exercises the duty falls
 to me of expressing in simple words    
some of the feelings which have actuated
 the givers of ,st4 ,gaudens' noble work
 of bronze1 and of briefly recalling the
 history of ,robert ,shaw and of his    
regiment to the memory of this possibly 
too forgetful generation4  ,the men who 
do brave deeds are usually unconscious  
of their picturesqueness4  ,for two     
nights previous to the assault upon     
,fort ,wagner1 the ,fifty-fourth        
,massachusetts ,regiment had been afoot1
 making forced marches in the rain2 and 
on the day of the battle the men had had
 no food since early morning4  ,as they 
lay there in the evening twilight1      
hungry and wet1 against the cold sands  

of ,morris ,island1 with the sea-fog    
drifting over them1 their eyes fixed on 
the huge bulk of the fortress looming   
darkly three-quarters of a mile ahead   
against the sky1 and their hearts       
beating in expectation of the word that 
was to bring them to their feet and     
launch them on their desperate charge1  
neither officers nor men could have been
 in any holiday mood of contemplation4  
,many and different must have been the  
thoughts that came and went in them     
during that hour of bodeful reverie2 but
 however free the flights of fancy of   
some of them may have been1 it is       
improbable that any one who lay there   
had so wild and whirling an imagination 
as to foresee in prophetic vision this  
morning of a future ,may1 when we1 the  
people of a richer and more splendid    
,boston1 with mayor and governor1 and   
troops from other ,states1 and every    
circumstance of ceremony1 should meet   
together to celebrate their conduct on  
that evening1 and do their memory this  

conspicuous honor4  ,how1 indeed1 comes 
it that out of all the great engagements
 of the war1 engagements in many of     
which the troops of ,massachusetts had  
borne the most distinguished part1 this 
officer1 only a young colonel1 this     
regiment of black men and its maiden    
battle1--a battle1 moreover1 which was  
lost1--should be picked out for such    
unusual commemoration8  ,the historic   
significance of an event is measured    
neither by its material magnitude1 nor  
by its immediate success4  ,thermopylae 
was a defeat2 but to the ,greek         
imagination1 ,leonidas and his few      
,spartans stood for the whole worth of  
,grecian life4  ,bunker ,hill was a     
defeat2 but for our people1 the fight   
over that breastwork has always seemed  
to show as well as any victory that our 
forefathers were men of a temper not to 
be finally overcome4  ,and so here4     
,the war for our ,union1 with all the   
constitutional questions which it       
settled1 and all the military lessons   

which it gathered in1 has throughout its
 dilatory length but one meaning in the 
eye of history4  ,and nowhere was that  
meaning better symbolized and embodied  
than in the constitution of this first  
,northern negro regiment4  ,look at the 
monument and read the story2--see the   
mingling of elements which the          
sculptor's genius has brought so vividly
 before the eye4 ,there on foot go the  
dark outcasts1 so true to nature that   
one can almost hear them breathing as   
they march4  ,state after ,state by its 
laws had denied them to be human        
persons4  ,the ,southern leaders in     
congressional debates1 insolent in their
 security1 loved most to designate them 
by the contemptuous collective epithet  
of this peculiar kind of property4      
,there they march1 warm-blooded         
champions of a better day for man4      
,there on horseback1 among them1 in his 
very habit as he lived1 sits the        
blue-eyed child of fortune1 upon whose  
happy youth every divinity had smiled4  

,onward they move together1 a single    
resolution kindled in their eyes1 and   
animating their otherwise so different  
frames4  ,the bronze that makes their   
memory eternal betrays the very soul and
 secret of those awful years4  ,since   
the 'thirties the slavery question been 
the only question1 and by the end of    
'fifties our land lay sick and shaking  
with it like a traveller who has thrown 
himself down at night beside a          
pestilential swamp1 and in the morning  
finds the fever through the marrow of   
his bones4  ,only muzzle the ,abolition 
fanatics1 said the ,south1 and all will 
be well again6  ,but the ,abolitionists 
would not be muzzled1--they were the    
voice of the world's conscience1 they   
were a part of destiny4 ,weak as they   
were1 they drove the ,south to madness4 
,every step she takes in her blindness1 
said ,wendell ,phillips1 is one more    
step towards ruin4  ,and when ,south    
,carolina took the final step in        
battering down ,fort ,sumter1 it was the

 fanatics of slavery themselves who     
called upon their idolized institution  
ruin swift and complete4 ,what law and  
reason were unable to accomplish1 had   
now to be done by that uncertain and    
dreadful dispenser of ,god's judgments1 
,war--,war1 with its abominably casual1 
inaccurate methods1 destroying good and 
bad together1 but at last able to hew a 
way out of intolerable situations1 when 
through man's delusion of perversity    
every better way is blocked4  ,our great
 western republic had from its origin   
been a singular anomaly4 ,a land of     
freedom1 boastfully so-called1 with     
human slavery enthroned at the heart of 
it1 and at last dictating terms of      
unconditional surrender to every other  
organ of its life1 what was it but a    
thing of falsehood and horrible         
self-contradiction8  ,for three-quarters
 of a century it had nevertheless       
endured1 kept together by policy1       
compromise1 and concession4  ,but at the
 last that republic was torn in two2 and

 truth was to be possible under the     
flag4  ,truth1 thank ,god1 truth6 even  
though for the moment it must be truth  
written in hell-fire4  ,and this1       
fellow-citizens1 is why1 after the great
 generals have had their monuments1 and 
long after the abstract                 
soldier's-monuments have been reared on 
every village green1 we have chosen to  
take ,robert ,shaw and his regiment as  
the subjects of the first               
soldier's-monument to be raised to a    
particular set of comparatively         
undistinguished men4  ,the very lack of 
external complication in the history of 
these soldiers is what makes them       
represent with such typical purity the  
profounder meaning of the ,union cause4 
,our nation had been founded in what we 
may call our ,american religion1        
baptized and reared in the faith that a 
man requires no master to take care of  
him1 and that common people can work out
 their salvation well enough together if
 left free to try4  ,but the founders   

had not dared to touch the great        
intractable exception2 and slavery had  
wrought until at last the only          
alternative for the nation was to fight 
or die4  ,what ,shaw and his comrades   
stand for and show us is that in such an
 emergency ,americans of all complexions
 and conditions can go forth like       
brothers1 and meet death cheerfully if  
need be1 in order that this religion of 
our native land shall not become a      
failure on earth4  ,we of this          
,commonwealth believe in that religion2 
and it is not at all because ,robert    
,shaw was an exceptional genius1 but    
simply because he was faithful to it as 
we all may hope to be faithful in our   
measure when the times demand1 that we  
wish his beautiful image to stand here  
for all time1 an inciter to similarly   
unselfish public deeds4  ,shaw thought  
but little of himself1 yet he had a     
personal charm which1 as we look back on
 him1 makes us repeat3 ,none knew thee  
but to love thee1 none named thee but to

 praise4  ,this grace of nature was     
united in him in the happiest way with a
 filial heart1 a cheerful will1 and a   
judgment that was true and fair4  ,and  
when the war came1 and great things were
 doing of the kind that he could help   
in1 he went as a matter of course to the
 front4  ,what country under heaven has 
not thousands of such youths to rejoice 
in1 youths on whom the safety of the    
human race depends8  ,whether or not    
they leave memorials behind them1       
whether their names are writ in water or
 in marble1 depends mostly on the       
opportunities which the accidents of    
history throw into their path4  ,shaw   
recognized the vital opportunity3 he saw
 that the time had come when the colored
 people must put the country in their   
debt4  ,colonel ,lee has just told us   
something about the obstacles with which
 this idea had to contend4  ,for a large
 party of us this was still exclusively 
a white man's war2 and should colored   
troops be tried and not succeed1        

confusion would grow worse confounded4  
,shaw was a captain in the              
,massachusetts ,second1 when ,governor  
,andrew invited him to take the lead in 
the experiment4  ,he was very modest1   
and doubted1 for a moment1 his own      
capacity for so responsible a post4  ,we
 may also imagine human motives         
whispering other doubts4  ,shaw loved   
the ,second ,regiment1 illustrious      
already1 and was sure of promotion where
 he stood4  ,in this new negro-soldier  
venture1 loneliness was certain1        
ridicule inevitable1 failure possible2  
and ,shaw was only twenty-five2 and1    
although he had stood among the bullets 
at ,cedar ,mountain and ,antietam1 he   
had till then been walking socially on  
the sunny side of life4  ,but whatever  
doubts may have beset him1 they were    
over in a day1 for he inclined naturally
 toward difficult resolves4  ,he        
accepted the proffered command1 and from
 that moment lived but for one object1  
to establish the honor of the           

,massachusetts ,fifty-fourth4  ,i have  
had the privilege of reading his letters
 to his family from the day of ,april   
when1 as a private in the ,new ,york    
,seventh1 he obeyed the ,president's    
first call4  ,some day they must be     
published1 for they form a veritable    
poem for serenity and simplicity of     
tone4  ,he took to camp life as if it   
were his native element1 and 7like so   
many of our young soldiers7 he was at   
first all eagerness to make arms his    
permanent profession4  ,drilling and    
disciplining2 interminable marching and 
counter-marching1 and picket-duty on the
 ,upper ,potomac as lieutenant in our   
,second ,regiment1 to which post he had 
soon been promoted2 pride at the        
discipline attained by the ,second1 and 
horror at the bad discipline of other   
regiments2 these are the staple matter  
of earlier letters1 and last for many   
months4  ,these1 and occasional more    
recreative incidents1 visits to         
,virginian houses1 the reading of books 

like ,napier's ,peninsular ,war1 or the 
,idylls of the ,king1 ,thanksgiving     
feats1 and races among officers1 that   
helped the weary weeks to glide away4   
,then the bloodier business opens1 and  
the plot thickens till the end is       
reached4  ,from first to last there is  
not a rancorous word against the        
enemy1--often quite the reverse1--and   
amid all the scenes of hardship1 death1 
and devastation that his pen soon has to
 write of1 there is unfailing           
cheerfulness and even a sort of         
innermost peace4  ,after he left it1    
,robert ,shaw's heart still clung to the
 fortunes of the ,second4  ,months later
 when1 in ,south ,carolina with the     
,fifty-fourth1 he writes to his young   
wife3 ,i should have been major of the  
,second now if ,i had remained there and
 lived through the battles4 ,as regards 
my own pleasure1 ,i had rather have that
 place than any other in the army4  ,it 
would have been fine to go home a field 
officer in that regiment6  ,poor        

fellows1 how they have been slaughtered6
  ,meanwhile he had well taught his new 
command how to do their duty2 for only  
three days after he wrote this he led   
them up the parapet of ,fort ,wagner1   
where he and nearly half of them were   
left upon the ground4  ,robert ,shaw    
quickly inspired others with his own    
love of discipline4 ,there was something
 almost pathetic in the earnestness with
 which both the officers and men of the 
,fifty-fourth embraced their mission of 
showing that a black regiment could     
excel in every virtue known to man4     
,they had good success1 and the         
,fifty-fourth became a model in all     
possible respects4  ,almost the only    
trace of bitterness in ,shaw's whole    
correspondence is over an incident in   
which he thought his men had been       
morally disgraced4  ,it had become their
 duty1 immediately after their arrival  
at the seat of war1 to participate1 in  
obedience to fanatical orders from the  
head of the department1 in the sack and 

burning of the inoffensive little town  
of ,darien on the ,georgia coast4  ,i   
fear1 he writes to his wife1 that such  
actions will hurt the reputation of     
black troops and of those connected with
 them4  ,for myself ,i have gone through
 the war so far without dishonor1 and ,i
 do not like to degenerate into a       
plunderer and a robber1--and the same   
applies to every officer in my regiment4
  ,after going through the hard         
campaigning and the hard fighting in    
,virginia1 this makes me very much      
ashamed4 ,there are two courses only for
 me to pursue3 to obey orders and say   
nothing2 or to refuse to go upon any    
more such expeditions1 and be put under 
arrest and probably court-martialled1   
which is a very serious thing4          
,fortunately for ,shaw1 the general in  
command of that department was almost   
immediately relieved4  ,four weeks of   
camp life and discipline on the ,sea    
,islands1 and the regiment had its      
baptism of fire4  ,a small affair1 but  

it proved the men to be staunch4  ,shaw 
again writes to his wife3 ,you don't    
know what a fortunate day this has been 
for me and for us all1 excepting some   
poor fellows who were killed and        
wounded4  ,we have fought at last       
alongside of white troops4  ,two hundred
 of my men on picket this morning were  
attacked by five regiments of infantry1 
some cavalry1 and a battery of          
artillery4  ,the ,tenth ,connecticut    
were on their left1 and say they would  
have had a bad time if the ,fifty-fourth
 men had not stood so well4  ,the whole 
division was under arms in fifteen      
minutes1 and after coming up close in   
front of us1 the enemy1 finding us so   
strong1 fell back4 4 4 4  ,general      
,terry sent me word he was highly       
gratified with the behavior of our men1 
and the officers and privates of other  
regiments praise us very much4  ,all    
this is very gratifying to us           
personally1 and a fine thing for the    
colored troops4  ,i know this will give 

you pleasure for it wipes out the       
remembrance of the ,darien affair1 which
 you could not but grieve over1 though  
we were innocent participators4  ,the   
adjutant of the ,fifty-fourth1 who made 
report of this skirmish to ,general     
,terry1 well expresses the feelings of  
loneliness that still prevailed in that 
command3--  ,the general's favorite     
regiment1 writes the adjutant1#b the    
,twenty-fourth ,massachusetts ,infantry1
 one of the best that had so far faced  
the rebel foe1 largely officered by     
,boston men1 was surrounding his        
headquarters4  ,it had been a living    
breathing suspicion with us--perhaps not
 altogether justly--that all white      
troops abhorred our presence in the     
army1 and that the ,twenty-fourth would 
rather hear of us in some remote corner 
of the ,confederacy than tolerate us in 
advance of any battle in which they     
themselves were to act as reserves or   
lookers-on4  ,can you not then readily  
imagine the pleasure which ,i felt as ,i

 alighted from my horse before ,general 
,terry and his staff--,i was going to   
say his unfriendly staff1 but of this ,i
 am not sure--to report to him1 with    
,colonel ,shaw's compliments1 that we   
had repulsed the enemy without the loss 
of a single inch of ground4  ,general   
,terry bade me mount again and tell     
,colonel ,shaw that he was proud of the 
conduct of his men1 and that he must    
still hold the ground against any future
 sortie of the enemy4  ,you can even now
 share with me the sensation of that    
moment of soldierly satisfaction4  ,the 
next night but one after this episode   
was spent by the ,fifty-fourth in       
disembarking on ,morris ,island in the  
rain1 and at noon ,colonel ,shaw was    
able to report their arrival to ,general
 ,strong1 to whose brigade he was       
assigned4  ,a terrific bombardment was  
playing on ,fort ,wagner1 then the most 
formidable earthwork ever built1 and the
 general1 knowing ,shaw's desire to     
place his men beside white troops1 said 

to him3 ,colonel1 ,fort ,wagner is to be
 stormed this evening1 and you may lead 
the column1 if you say ,yes4  ,your men1
 ,i know1 are worn out1 but do as you   
choose4  ,shaw's face brightened4       
,before answering the general1 he       
instantly turned to me1 writes the      
adjutant1 who reports the interview1 and
 said1 ,tell ,colonel ,hallowell to     
bring up the ,fifty-fourth immediately4'
  ,this was done1 and just before       
nightfall the attack was made4  ,shaw   
was serious1 for he knew the assault was
 desperate1 and had a premonition of his
 end4  ,walking up and down in front of 
the regiment1 he briefly exhorted them  
to prove that they were men4  ,then he  
gave the order3 ,move in quick time till
 within a hundred yards1 then double    
quick and charge4  ,forward6 and the    
,fifty-fourth advanced to the storming1 
its colonel and colors at its head4  ,on
 over the sand1 through a narrow defile 
which broke up the formation1 double    
quick over the chevaux de frise1 into   

the ditch and over it1 as best they     
could1 and up the rampart with ,fort    
,sumter1 which had seen them1 playing on
 them1 and ,fort ,wagner1 now one mighty
 mound of fire1 tearing out their lives4
  ,shaw led from first to last4         
,gaining successfully the parapet1 he   
stood there for a moment with uplifted  
sword1 shouting1 ,forward1              
,fifty-fourth6 and then fell headlong1  
with a bullet through his heart4  ,the  
battle raged for nigh two hours4        
,regiment after regiment1 following upon
 the ,fifty-fourth1 hurled themselves   
upon its ramparts1 but ,fort ,wagner was
 nobly defended1 and for that night     
stood safe4  ,the ,fifty-fourth withdrew
 after two-thirds of its officers and   
five-twelfths or nearly half its men had
 been shot down or bayoneted within the 
fortress or before its walls4  ,it was  
good behavior for a regiment1 no one of 
whose soldiers had had a musket in his  
hands more than eighteen weeks1 and     
which had seen the enemy for the first  

time only two days before4  ,the negroes
 fought gallantly1 wrote a ,confederate 
officer1 and were headed by as brave a  
colonel as ever lived4  ,as for the     
colonel1 not a drum was heard nor a     
funeral note1 not a soldier discharged  
his farewell shot1 when the             
,confederates buried him1 the morning   
after the engagement4  ,his body1 half  
stripped of its clothing1 and the       
corpses of his dauntless negroes were   
flung into one common trench together1  
and the sand was shovelled over them1   
without a stake or stone to signalize   
the spot4  ,in death as in life1 then1  
the ,fifty-fourth bore witness to the   
brotherhood of man4  ,the lover of      
heroic history could wish for no more   
fitting sepulchre for ,shaw's           
magnanimous young heart4  ,there let his
 body rest1 united with the forms of his
 brave nameless comrades4  ,there let   
the breezes of the ,atlantic sigh1 and  
its gales roar their requiem1 while this
 bronze effigy and these inscriptions   

keep their fame alive long after you and
 ,i and all who meet here are forgotten4
  ,how soon1 indeed1 are human things   
forgotten6  ,as we meet here this       
morning1 the ,southern sun is shining on
 their place of burial1 and the waves   
sparkling and the sea-gulls circling    
around ,fort ,wagner's ancient site4    
,but the great earthworks and their     
thundering cannon1 the commanders and   
their followers1 the wild assault and   
repulse that for a brief space made     
night hideous on that far-off evening1  
have all sunk into the blue gulf of the 
past1 and for the majority of this      
generation are hardly more than an      
abstract name1 a picture1 a tale that is
 told4 ,only when some yellow-bleached  
photograph of a soldier of the 'sixties 
comes into our hands1 with that odd and 
vivid look of individuality due to the  
moment when it was taken1 do we realize 
the concreteness of that by-gone        
history1 and feel how interminable to   
the actors in them were those           

leaden-footed hours and years4  ,the    
photographs themselves erelong will fade
 utterly1 and books of history and      
monuments like this alone will tell the 
tale4  ,the great war for the ,union    
will be like the siege of ,troy2 it will
 have taken its place amongst all other 
old1 unhappy1 far-off things and battles
 long ago4  ,in all such events two     
things must be distinguished--the moral 
service of them from the fortitude which
 they display4  ,war has been much      
praised and celebrated among us of late 
as a school of manly virtue2 but it is  
easy to exaggerate upon this point4     
,ages ago1 war was the gory cradle of   
mankind1 the grim-featured nurse that   
alone could train our savage progenitors
 into some semblance of social virtue1  
teach them to be faithful one to        
another1 and force them to sink their   
selfishness in wider tribal ends4  ,war 
still excels in this prerogative2 and   
whether it be paid in years of service1 
in treasure1 or in life-blood1 the war  

tax is still the only tax that men      
ungrudgingly will pay4  ,how could it be
 otherwise1 when the survivors of one   
successful massacre after another are   
the beings from whose loins we and all  
our contemporary races spring8  ,man is 
once for all a fighting animal2         
centuries of peaceful history could not 
breed the battle-instinct out of us2 and
 our pugnacity is the virtue least in   
need of reinforcement by reflection1    
least in need of orator's or poet's     
help4  ,what we really need the poet's  
and orator's help to keep alive in us is
 not1 then1 the common and gregarious   
courage which ,robert ,shaw showed when 
he marched with you1 men of the ,seventh
 ,regiment4  ,it is that more lonely    
courage which he showed when he dropped 
his warm commission in the glorious     
,second to head your dubious fortunes1  
negroes of the ,fifty-fourth4  ,that    
lonely kind of courage 7civic courage as
 we call it in times of peace7 is the   
kind of valor to which the monuments of 

nations should most of all be reared1   
for the survival of the fittest has not 
bred it into the bone of human beings as
 it has bred military valor2 and of five
 hundred of us who could storm a battery
 side by side with others1 perhaps not  
one would be found ready to risk his    
worldly fortunes all alone in resisting 
an enthroned abuse4  ,the deadliest     
enemies of nations are not their foreign
 foes2 they always dwell within their   
borders4  ,and from these internal      
enemies civilization is always in need  
of being saved4  ,the nation blest above
 all nations is she in whom the civic   
genius of the people does the saving day
 by day1 by acts without external       
picturesqueness2 by speaking1 writing1  
voting reasonably2 by smiting corruption
 swiftly2 by good temper between        
parties2 by the people knowing true men 
when they see them1 and preferring them 
as leaders to rabid partisans or empty  
quacks4  ,such nations have no need of  
wars to save them4  ,their accounts with

 righteousness are always even2 and     
,god's judgments do not have to overtake
 them fitfully in bloody spasms and     
convulsions of the race4  ,the lesson   
that our war ought most of all to teach 
us is the lesson that evils must be     
checked in time1 before they grow so    
great4  ,the ,almighty cannot love such 
long-postponed accounts1 or such        
tremendous settlements4  ,and surely ,he
 hates all settlements that do such     
quantities of incidental devils' work4  
,our present situation1 with its rancors
 and delusions1 what is it but the      
direct outcome of the added powers of   
government1 the corruptions and         
inflations of the war8  ,every war      
leaves such miserable legacies1 fatal   
seeds of future war and revolution1     
unless the civic virtues of the people  
save the ,state in time4  ,robert ,shaw 
had both kinds of virtue4  ,as he then  
led his regiment against ,fort ,wagner1 
so surely would he now be leading us    
against all lesser powers of darkness1  

had his sweet young life been spared4   
,you think of many as ,i speak of one4  
,for1 ,north and ,south1 how many lives 
as sweet1 unmonumented for the most     
part1 commemorated solely in the hearts 
of mourning mothers1 widowed brides1 or 
friends did the inexorable war mow down6
  ,instead of the full years of natural 
service from so many of her children1   
our country counts but their poor       
memories1 the tender grace of a day that
 is dead1 lingering like echoes of past 
music on the vacant air4  ,but so and so
 only was it written that she should    
grow sound again4 ,from that fatal      
earlier unsoundness those lives have    
brought for ,north and ,south together  
permanent release4  ,the warfare is     
accomplished2 the iniquity is pardoned4 
,no future problem can be like that     
problem4  ,no task laid on our children 
can compare in difficulty with the task 
with which their fathers had to deal4   
,yet as we face the future1 tasks enough
 await us4  ,the republic to which      

,robert ,shaw and a quarter of a million
 like him were faithful unto death is no
 republic that can live at ease         
hereafter on the interest of what they  
have won4  ,democracy is still upon its 
trial4  ,the civic genius of our people 
is its only bulwark1 and neither laws   
nor monuments1 neither battleships nor  
public libraries1 nor great newspapers  
nor booming stocks2 neither mechanical  
invention nor political adroitness1 nor 
churches nor universities nor civil     
service examinations can save us from   
degeneration if the inner mystery be    
lost4  ,that mystery1 as once the secret
 and the glory of our ,english-speaking 
race1 consists in nothing but two common
 habits1 two inveterate habits carried  
into public life1--habits so homely that
 they lend themselves to no rhetorical  
expression1 yet habits more precious1   
perhaps1 than any that the human race   
has gained4  ,they can never be too     
often pointed out or praised4  ,one of  
them is the habit of trained and        

disciplined good temper towards the     
opposite party when it fairly wins its  
innings4  ,it was by breaking away from 
this habit that the ,slave ,states      
nearly wrecked our ,nation4  ,the other 
is that of fierce and merciless         
resentment toward every man or set of   
men who break the public peace4  ,by    
holding to this habit the free ,states  
saved her life4  ,o my countrymen1      
,southern and ,northern1 brothers       
hereafter1 masters1 slaves1 and enemies 
no more1 let us see to it that both of  
those heirlooms are preserved4  ,so may 
our ransomed country1 like the city of  
the promise1 lie forever foursquare     
under ,heaven1 and the ways of all the  
nations be lit up by its light4    #a   
,oration at the ,exercises in the       
,boston ,music ,hall1 ,may #ca1 #ahig1  
upon the ,unveiling of the ,shaw        
,monument4  #b ,g4 ,w4 ,james3 ,the     
,assault upon ,fort ,wagner1 in ,war    
,papers read before the ,commandery of  
the ,state of ,wisconsin1 ,military     

,order of the ,loyal ,legion of the     
,united ,states4  ,milwaukee1 #ahia4    
,,iv  ,,francis ,,boott#a  ,how often   
does it happen here in ,new ,england    
that we come away from a funeral with a 
feeling that the service has been       
insufficient4  ,if it be purely ritual1 
the individuality of the departed friend
 seems to play too small a part in it4  
,if the minister conducts it in his own 
fashion1 it is apt to be too thin and   
monotonous1 and if he were not an       
intimate friend1 too remote and         
official4  ,we miss direct discourse of 
simple human affection about the person1
 which we find so often in those lay    
speeches at the grave of which in       
,france they set us nowadays so many    
good examples4  ,in the case of the     
friend whose memory brings us together  
on the present occasion1 it was easy to 
organize this supplementary service4    
,not everyone leaves musical            
compositions of his own to fill the hour
 with4  ,and if we may believe that     

spirits can know aught of what          
transpires in the world which they have 
forsaken1 it must please us all to think
 how dear old ,francis ,boott's shade   
must now be touched at seeing in the    
,chapel of this university to which his 
feelings clung so loyally1 his music and
 his life at last become the subjects of
 cordial and admiring recognition and   
commemorated by so many of his          
neighbors4  ,i can imagine nothing at   
any rate of which the foreknowledge     
could have given him deeper             
satisfaction4  ,shy and sensitive1      
craving praise as every normal human    
being craves it1 yet getting little1 he 
had1 ,i think1 a certain consciousness  
of living in the shadow4  ,i greatly    
doubt whether his daydreams ever went so
 far as to let him imagine a service    
like this4  ,such a cordial and         
spontaneous outgoing towards him on our 
part would surprise as much as it would 
delight him4  ,his life was private in  
the strongest sense of the term4  ,his  

contributions to literature were all    
anonymous1 book-reviews chiefly1 or     
letters and paragraphs in the ,new ,york
 ,nation on musical or literary topics4 
,good as was their quality1 and witty as
 was their form1--his only independent  
volume was an almost incredibly witty   
little book of charades in verse--they  
were too slight in bulk for             
commemoration2 and it was only as a     
musical composer that he touched on any 
really public function4  ,with so many  
of his compositions sounding in your    
ears1 it would be out of place1 even    
were ,i qualified1 to attempt to        
characterize ,mr4 ,boott's musical      
genius4  ,let it speak for itself4  ,i  
prefer to speak of the man and friend   
whom we knew and whom so many of us     
loved so dearly4  ,one of the usual     
classifications of men is into those of 
expansive and those of conservative     
temper4  ,the word conservative commonly
 suggests a dose of religious and       
political prejudice1 and a fondness for 

traditional opinions4  ,mr4 ,boott was a
 liberal in politics and theology2 and  
all his opinions were self-made1 and as 
often as not at variance with every     
tradition4  ,yet in a wider sense he was
 profoundly conservative4  ,he respected
 bounds of ordinance1 and emphasized the
 fact of limits4 ,he knew well his own  
limits4  ,the knowledge of them was in  
fact one of the things he lived by4  ,to
 judge of abstract philosophy1 of       
sculpture and painting1 of certain lines
 of literary art1 he admitted1 was not  
of his competency4  ,but within the     
sphere where he thought he had a right  
to judge1 he parted his likes from his  
dislikes and preserved his preferences  
with a pathetic steadfastness4  ,he was 
faithful in age to the lights that lit  
his youth1 and obeyed at eve the voice  
obeyed at prime1 with a consistency most
 unusual4  ,elsewhere the opinions of   
others might perplex him1 but he laughed
 and let them live4  ,within his own    
appropriated sphere he was too          

scrupulous a lover of the truth not to  
essay to correct them1 when he thought  
them erroneous4  ,a certain appearance  
comes in here of a self-contradictory   
character1 for ,mr4 ,boott was primarily
 modest and sensitive1 and all his      
interests and pre-occupations were with 
life's refinements and delicacies4  ,yet
 one's mind always pictured him as a    
rugged sort of person1 opposing         
successful resistance to all influences 
that might seek to change his habits    
either of feeling or of action4  ,his   
admirable health1 his sober life1 his   
regular walk twice a day1 whatever might
 be the weather1 his invariable evenness
 of mood and opinion1 so that1 when you 
once knew his range1 he never           
disappointed you--all this was at       
variance with popular notions of the    
artistic temperament4  ,he was indeed1 a
 man of reason1 no romancer1            
sentimentalist or dreamer1 in spite of  
the fact that his main interests were   
with the muses4  ,he was exact and      

accurate2 affectionate1 indeed1 and     
sociable1 but neither gregarious nor    
demonstrative2 and such words as honest1
 sturdy1 faithful1 are the adjectives   
first to rise when one thinks of him4   
,a friend said to me soon after his     
death3 ,i seem still to see ,mr4 ,boott1
 with his two feet planted on the       
ground1 and his cane in front of him1   
making of himself a sort of tripod of   
honesty and veracity4  ,old age changes 
men in different ways4  ,some it        
softens2 some it hardens2 some it       
degenerates2 some it alters4  ,our old  
friend ,boott was identical in spiritual
 essence all his life1 and the effect of
 his growing old was not to alter1 but  
only to make the same man mellower1 more
 tolerant1 more lovable4  ,sadder he    
was1 ,i think1 for his life had grown   
pretty lonely2 but he was a stoic and he
 never complained either of losses or of
 years1 and that contagious laugh of his
 at any and every pretext for laughter  
rang as free and true upon his deathbed 

as at any previous time of his          
existence4  ,born in #ahac1 he had lived
 through three generations1 and seen    
enormous social and public changes4     
,when a carpenter has a surface to      
measure1 he slides his rule along it1   
and over all its peculiarities4  ,i     
sometimes think of ,boott as such a     
standard rule against which the changing
 fashions of humanity of the last       
century might come to measurement4  ,a  
character as healthy and definite as    
his1 of whatsoever type it be1 need only
 remain entirely true to itself for a   
sufficient number of years1 while the   
outer conditions change1 to grow into   
something like a common measure4        
,compared with its repose and permanent 
fitness to continue1 the changes of the 
generations seem ephemeral and          
accidental4  ,it remains the standard1  
the rule1 the term of comparison4  ,mr4 
,boott's younger friends must often have
 felt in his presence how much more     
vitally near they were than they had    

supposed to the old ,boston long before 
the war1 to the older ,harvard1 to the  
older ,rome and ,florence4  ,to grow old
 after his manner is of itself to grow  
important4  ,i said that ,mr4 ,boott was
 not demonstrative or sentimental4      
,tender-hearted he was and faithful as  
few men are1 in friendship4  ,he made   
new friends1 and dear ones1 in the very 
last years of his life1 and it is good  
to think of him as having had that      
consolation4  ,the will in which he     
surprised so many persons by remembering
 them--one of the only purely beautiful 
wills ,i have ever read1 said a         
lawyer1--showed how much he cared at    
heart for many of us to whom he had     
rarely made express professions of      
affection4  ,good-by1 then1 old friend4 
,we shall nevermore meet the upright    
figure1 the blue eye1 the hearty laugh1 
upon these ,cambridge streets4  ,but in 
that wider world of being of which this 
little ,cambridge world of ours forms so
 infinitesimal a part1 we may be sure   

that all our spirits and their missions 
here will continue in some way to be    
represented1 and that ancient human     
loves will never lose their own4    #a  
,an address delivered at the ,memorial  
,service to ,francis ,boott in the      
,harvard ,chapel1 ,sunday1 ,may #h1     
#aijd4  ,printed in #ch ,harvard        
,monthly1 #abe4     ,v  ,,thomas        
,,davidson3 ,a ,,knight-,,errant ,,of   
,,the ,,intellectual ,,life4#a  ,i wish 
to pay my tribute to the memory of a    
,scottish-,american friend of mine who  
died five years ago1 a man of a         
character extraordinarily and intensely 
human1 in spite of the fact that he was 
classed by obituary articles in ,england
 among the twelve most learned men of   
his time4  ,it would do no honor to     
,thomas ,davidson's memory not to be    
frank about him4  ,he handled people    
without gloves1 himself1 and one has no 
right to retouch his photograph until   
its features are softened into          
insipidity4  ,he had defects and        

excesses which he wore upon his sleeve1 
so that everyone could see them4  ,they 
made him many enemies1 and if one liked 
quarrelling he was an easy man to       
quarrel with4  ,but his heart and mind  
held treasures of the rarest4  ,he had a
 genius for friendship4  ,money1 place1 
fashion1 fame1 and other vulgar idols of
 the tribe had no hold on his           
imagination4  ,he led his own life      
absolutely1 in whatever company he found
 himself1 and the intense individualism 
which he taught by word and deed1 is the
 lesson of which our generation is      
perhaps most in need4  ,all sorts of    
contrary adjectives come up as ,i think 
of him4  ,to begin with1 there was      
something physically rustic which       
suggested to the end his farm-boy       
origin4  ,his voice was sweet and its   
,scottish cadences most musical1 and the
 extraordinary sociability of his nature
 made friends for him as much among     
women as among men2 he had1 moreover1 a 
sort of physical dignity2 but neither in

 dress nor in manner did he ever grow   
quite gentlemanly or ,salonfhig in the  
conventional and obliterated sense of   
the terms4  ,he was too cordial and     
emphatic for that4  ,his broad brow1 his
 big chest1 his bright blue eyes1 his   
volubility in talk and laughter told a  
tale of vitality far beyond the common2 
but his fine and nervous hands1 and the 
vivacity of all his reactions suggested 
a degree of sensibility that one rarely 
finds conjoined with so robustly animal 
a frame4  ,the great peculiarity of     
,davidson did indeed consist in this    
combination of the acutest sensibilities
 with massive faculties of thought and  
action1 a combination which1 when the   
thought and actions are important1 gives
 to the world its greatest men4         
,davidson's native mood was happy4  ,he 
took optimistic views of life and of his
 own share in it4  ,a sort of permanent 
satisfaction radiated from his face2 and
 this expression of inward glory 7which 
in reality was to a large extent        

structural and not expressive at all7   
was displeasing to many new             
acquaintances on whom it made an        
impression of too much conceit4  ,the   
impression of conceit was not diminished
 in their eyes by the freedom with which
 ,davidson contradicted1 corrected and  
reprehended other people4  ,a longer    
acquaintance invariably diminished the  
impression4  ,but it must be confessed  
that ,t4 ,d4 never was exactly          
humble-minded1 and that the solidity of 
his self-consciousness withstood strains
 under which that of weaker men would   
have crumbled4 ,the malady which finally
 killed him was one of the most         
exhausting to the nervous tone to which 
our flesh is subject1 and it wore him   
out before it ended him4  ,he told me of
 the paroxysms of motiveless nervous    
dread which used to beset him in the    
night-watches4  ,yet these never subdued
 his stalwartness1 nor made him a       
sick-soul in the theological sense of   
that appelation4  ,god is afraid of me1 

was the phrase by which he described his
 well-being to me one morning when his  
night had been a good one1 and he was   
feeling so cannibalistic that he thought
 he might get well4  ,there are men     
whose attitude is always that of seeking
 for truth1 and men who on the contrary 
always believe that they have the root  
of it already in them4  ,davidson was of
 the latter class4  ,like his           
countrymen1 ,carlyle and ,ruskin1 he    
felt himself to be in the possession of 
something1 whether articulate or as yet 
articulated by himself1 that authorized 
him 7and authorized him with uncommon   
openness and frequency7 to condemn the  
errors of others4  ,i think that to the 
last he never fully extricated this     
philosophy4  ,it was a tendency1 a faith
 in a direction1 which gave him an      
active persuasion that other directions 
were false1 but of which the central    
insight never got fully formulated1 but 
remained in a state which ,frederic     
,myers would have called subliminal4    

,he varied to a certain extent his      
watchwords and his heroes4  ,when ,i    
first knew him all was ,aristotle4      
,later all was ,rosmini4  ,later still  
,rosmini seemed forgotten4  ,he knew so 
many writers that he grew fond of very  
various ones and had a strange tolerance
 for systematizers and dogmatizers whom1
 as the consistent individualist that he
 was1 he should have disliked4  ,hegel1 
it is true1 he detested2 but he always  
spoke with reverence of ,kant4  ,of     
,mill and ,spencer he had a low opinion2
 and when ,i lent him ,paulsen's        
,introduction to ,philosophy 7then just 
out71 as an example of a kind of        
eclectic thought that seemed to be      
growing1 and with which ,i largely      
sympathized1 he returned it with richer 
expressions of disdain than often fell  
even from his lips3 ,it's the shabbiest1
 seediest pretence at a philosophy ,i   
ever dreamed of as possible4  ,it's like
 a man dressed in a black coat so       
threadbare as to be all shiny4  ,the    

most poverty-stricken1 out-at-elbows    
thing ,i ever read4  ,a perfect monument
 of seediness and shabbiness1 etc4  ,the
 truth is that ,davidson1 brought up on 
the older classical traditions1 never   
outgrew those habits of judging the     
world by purely aesthetic criteria which
 men fed on the sciences of nature are  
so willing to abandon4  ,even if a      
philosophy were true1 he could easily   
fail to relish it unless it showed a    
certain formal nobility and dogmatic    
pretension to finality4  ,but ,i must   
not describe him so much from my own    
professional point of view--it is as a  
vessel of life at large that one ought  
to keep him in remembrance4  ,he came to
 ,boston from ,st4 ,louis1 where he had 
been teaching1 about the year #ahgc4    
,he was ruddy and radiant1 and ,i soon  
saw much of him1 though at first it was 
without the thoroughness of sympathy    
which we afterwards acquired and which  
made us overflow1 on meeting after long 
absences1 into such laughing greetings  

as3 ,ha6 you old thief6  ,ha6 you old   
blackguard6--pure contrast-effects of   
affection and familiarity passing beyond
 their bounds4  ,at that time ,i saw    
most of him at a little philosophical   
club which used to meet every fortnight 
at his rooms in ,temple ,street in      
,boston4  ,of the other members1 ,j4    
,elliot ,cabot and ,c4 ,c4 ,everett1 are
 now dead--,i will not name the         
survivors4 ,we never worked out         
harmonious conclusions4  ,davidson used 
to crack the whip of ,aristotle over us2
 and ,i remember that1 whatever topic   
was formally appointed for the day1 we  
invariably wound up with a quarrel about
 ,space and ,space-perception4  ,the    
,club had existed before ,davidson's    
advent4  ,the previous year we had gone 
over a good part of ,hegel's larger     
,logic1 under the self-constituted      
leadership of two young business men    
from ,illinois1 who had become          
enthusiastic ,hegelians and1 knowing    
almost no ,german1 had actually         

possessed themselves of a manuscript    
translation of the entire three volumes 
of ,logic1 made by an extraordinary     
,pomeranian immigrant1 named            
,brockmeyer4  ,these disciples were     
leaving business for the law and        
studying at the ,harvard law-school2 but
 they saw the whole universe through    
,hegelian spectacles1 and a more        
admirable homo unius libri than one of  
them1 with his three big folios of      
,hegelian manuscript1 ,i have never had 
the good fortune to know4  ,i forget how
 ,davidson was earning his subsistence  
at this time4  ,he did some lecturing   
and private teaching1 but ,i do not     
think they were great in amount4  ,in   
the springs and summers he frequented   
the coast1 and indulged in long swimming
 bouts and salt-water immersions1 which 
seemed to agree with him greatly4  ,his 
sociability was boundless1 and his time 
seemed to belong to anyone who asked for
 it4  ,i soon conceived that such a man 
would be invaluable in ,harvard         

,university--a kind of ,socrates1 a     
devotee of truth and lover of youth1    
ready to sit up to any hour1 and drink  
beer and talk with anyone1 lavish of    
learning and counsel1 a contagious      
example of how lightly and humanly a    
burden of erudition might be borne upon 
a pair of shoulders4 ,in                
faculty-business he might not run well  
in harness1 but as an inspiration and   
ferment of character1 as an example of  
the ranges of combination of scholarship
 with manhood that are possible1 his    
influence on the students would be      
priceless4  ,i do not know whether this 
scheme of mine could under any          
circumstances have been carried out4    
,in point of fact it was nipped in the  
bud by ,t4 ,d4 himself4  ,a natural     
chair for him would have been ,greek    
philosophy4 ,unfortunately1 just at the 
decisive hour1 he offended our ,greek   
department by a savage onslaught on its 
methods1 which1 without taking anyone's 
counsel1 he sent to the ,atlantic       

,monthly1 whose editor printed it4      
,this1 with his other                   
unconventionalisms1 made advocating his 
cause more difficult1 and the university
 authorities1 never1 ,i believe1        
seriously thought of an appointment for 
him4  ,i believe that in this case1 as  
in one or two others like it1 which ,i  
might mention1 ,harvard ,university lost
 a great opportunity4 ,organization and 
method mean much1 but contagious human  
characters mean more in a university1   
where a few undisciplinables like ,t4   
,d4 may be infinitely more precious than
 a faculty-full of orderly routinists4  
,as to what ,davidson might have become 
under the conventionalizing influences  
of an official position1 it would be    
idle to speculate4  ,as things fell out1
 he became more and more unconventional 
and even developed a sort of antipathy  
to all regular academic life4  ,it      
subdued individuality1 he thought1 and  
made for ,philistinism4  ,he earnestly  
dissuaded his young friend ,bakewell    

from accepting a professorship2 and ,i  
well remember one dark night in the     
,adirondacks1 after a good dinner at a  
neighbor's1 the eloquence with which1 as
 we trudged down-hill to his own        
quarters with a lantern1 he denounced me
 for the musty and mouldy and generally 
ignoble academicism of my character4    
,never before or since1 ,i fancy1 has   
the air of the ,adirondack wilderness   
vibrated more repugnantly to a vocable  
than it did that night to the word      
academicism4  ,yet ,davidson himself was
 always essentially a teacher4  ,he must
 give forth1 inspire1 and have the young
 about him4  ,after leaving ,boston for 
,europe and ,africa1 founding the       
,fellowship of the ,new ,life in ,london
 and ,new ,york 7the present ,fabian    
,society in ,england is its offshoot71  
he hit upon the plan which pleased him  
best of all when1 in #ahhb or           
thereabouts1 he bought a couple of      
hundred acres on ,east ,hill1 which     
closes the beautiful ,keene ,valley in  

the ,adirondacks1 on the north1 and     
founded there1 at the foot of ,hurricane
 ,mountain1 his place ,glenmore and its 
,summer ,school of the ,culture         
,sciences4  ,although the primeval      
forest has departed from its immediate  
vicinity1 the region is still sylvan1   
the air is sweet and strong and almost  
alpine in quality1 and the mountain     
panorama spread before one is           
superlative4  ,davidson showed a        
business faculty which ,i should hardly 
have expected from him1 in organizing   
his settlement4  ,he built a number of  
cottages pretty in design and of the    
simplest construction1 and disposed them
 well for effect4  ,he turned a couple  
of farm buildings which were on the     
grounds into a lecturing place and a    
refectory2 and there1 arriving in early 
,april and not leaving till late in     
,november1 he spent the happiest part of
 all his later years1 surrounded during 
the summer months by colleagues1        
friends1 and listeners to lectures1 and 

in the spring and fall by a few         
independent women who were his faithful 
friends1 and who had found ,east ,hill a
 congenial residence4  ,twice ,i went up
 with ,t4 ,d4 to open the place in      
,april4  ,i remember leaving his        
fireside one night with three ladies who
 were also early comers1 and finding the
 thermometer at #h degrees ,fahrenheit  
and a tremendous gale blowing the snow  
about us4  ,davidson loved these        
blustering vicissitudes of climate4  ,in
 the early years the brook was never too
 cold for him to bathe in1 and he spent 
days in rambling over the hills and up  
the glens and through the forest4  ,his 
own cottage was full of books whose use 
was free to all who visited the         
settlement4  ,it stood high on a hill in
 a grove of silver-birches and looked   
upon the ,western ,mountains2 and it    
always seemed to me an ideal dwelling   
for such a bachelor-scholar4  ,here in  
,may and ,june he became almost one with
 the resurgent vegetation4  ,here1 in   

,october1 he was a witness of the       
jewelled pageant of the dying foliage1  
and saw the hillsides reeking1 as it    
were1 and aflame with ruby and gold and 
emerald and topaz4  ,one ,september day 
in #aijj1 at the ,kurhaus at ,nauheim1  
,i took up a copy of the ,paris ,new    
,york ,herald1 and read in capitals3    
,death of ,professor ,thomas ,davidson4 
,i had well known how ill he was1 yet   
such was his vitality that the shock was
 wholly unexpected4  ,i did not realize 
till that moment how much that free     
companionship with him every spring and 
autumn1 surrounded by that beautiful    
nature1 had signified to me1 or how big 
a piece would be subtracted from my life
 by its cessation4  ,davidson's capacity
 for imparting information seemed       
endless4  ,there were few subjects1     
especially humanistic subjects1 in which
 at some time or other he had not taken 
an interest2 and as everything that had 
ever touched him was instantaneously in 
reach of his omnipotent memory1 he      

easily became a living dictionary of    
reference4  ,as such all his friends    
were wont to use him4  ,he was1 for     
example1 never at a loss to supply a    
quotation4  ,he loved poetry            
passionately1 and the sympathetic voice 
with which he would recall page after   
page of it--,english1 ,french1 ,german1 
or ,italian--is a thing always to be    
remembered4  ,but notwithstanding the   
instructive part he played in every     
conceivable conversation1 he was never  
prolix1 and he never lectured4  ,from   
,davidson ,i learned what immunities a  
perfect memory bestows upon one4  ,i    
never could discover when he amassed his
 learning for he never seemed occupied4 
,the secret of it was that any odd time 
would do1 for he never had to acquire a 
thing twice over4  ,he avoided stated   
hours of work on principle4             
,reprehending 7mildly7 a certain chapter
 of my own on ,habit1 he said that it   
was a fixed rule with him to form no    
regular habits4  ,when he found himself 

in danger of settling into even a good  
one1 he made a point of interrupting it4
  ,habits and methods make a prisoner of
 a man1 destroy his readiness1 keep him 
from answering the call of the fresh    
moment4  ,individualist  outrance1      
,davidson felt that every hour was an   
unique entity1 to whose claims one      
should lie open4  ,thus he was never    
abstracted or preoccupied1 but always   
seemed1 when with you1 as if you were   
the one person whom it was then right to
 attend to4  ,it was this               
individualistic religion that made ,t4  
,d41 democrat as he nevertheless was1 so
 hostile to all socialisms and          
administrative panaceas4  ,life must be 
flexible4  ,you ask for a free man1 and 
these ,utopias give you an              
interchangeable part1 with a fixed      
number1 in a rule-bound organism4  ,the 
real thing to aim at is liberation of   
the inner interests4  ,give man         
possession of a soul1 and he will work  
out his own happiness under any set of  

conditions4  ,accordingly1 when1 in the 
penultimate year of his life1 he        
proposed his night-school to a meeting  
of young ,east-,side workingmen in ,new 
,york1 he told them that he had no      
sympathy whatever with the griefs of    
labor1 that outward circumstances meant 
nothing in his eyes2 that through their 
individual wills and intellects they    
could share1 just as they were1 in the  
highest spiritual life of humanity1 and 
that he was there to help them severally
 to that privilege4  ,the enthusiasm    
with which they responded speaks        
volumes1 both for his genius as a       
teacher and for the sanity of his       
position4  ,a small posthumous book of  
articles by ,davidson and of letters    
written from ,glenmore to his class1    
just published1 with an introduction by 
his disciple ,professor ,bakewell1#b    
gives a full account of the experiment1 
and ought to stand as a model and       
inspirer to similar attempts the world  
over4  ,davidson's idea of the universe 

was that of a republic of immortal      
spirits1 the chief business of whom in  
their several grades of existence1      
should be to know and love and help one 
another4  ,creeds are nothing1 life is  
everything4 4 4 4  ,you can do far more 
by presenting to the world the example  
of noble social relations than by       
enumerating any set of principles4      
,know all you can1 love all you can1 do 
all you can--that is the whole duty of  
man4 4 4 4  ,be friends1 in the truest  
sense1 each to the other4  ,there is    
nothing in all the world like           
friendship1 when it is deep and real4 4 
4 4  ,the divine 4 4 4 is a republic of 
self-existent spirits1 each seeking the 
realization of its ideas through love1  
through intimacy with all the rest1 and 
finding its heaven in such intimacy4    
,we all say and think that we believe   
this sort of thing2 but ,davidson       
believed it really and actively1 and    
that made all the difference4 ,when the 
young wage-earners whom he addressed    

found that here was a man of measureless
 learning ready to give his soul to them
 as if he had nothing else to do with   
it1 life's ideal possibilities widened  
to their view4  ,when he was taken from 
them1 they founded in ,new ,york the    
,thomas ,davidson ,society1 for study   
and neighborhood work1 which will       
probably become perpetual1 and of which 
his epistles from ,glenmore will be the 
rule1 and keep the standards set by him 
from degenerating--unless1 indeed1 the  
,society should some day grow too rich1 
of which there is no danger at present1 
and from which may ,heaven long preserve
 it4  ,in one of his letters to the     
,class1 ,davidson sums up the results of
 his own experience of life in twenty   
maxims1 as follows3   #a4 ,rely upon    
your own energies1 and do not wait for1 
or depend on other people4  #b4 ,cling  
with all your might to your own highest 
ideals1 and do not be led astray by such
 vulgar aims as wealth1 position1       
popularity4  ,be yourself4  #c4 ,your   

worth consists in what you are1 and not 
in what you have4  ,what you are will   
show in what you do4  #d4 ,never fret1  
repine1 or envy4  ,do not make yourself 
unhappy by comparing your circumstances 
with those of more fortunate people2 but
 make the most of the opportunities you 
have4  ,employ profitably every moment4 
#e4 ,associate with the noblest people  
you can find2 read the best books2 live 
with the mighty4  ,but learn to be happy
 alone4  #f4 ,do not believe that all   
greatness and heroism are in the past4  
,learn to discover princes1 prophets1   
heroes1 and saints among the people     
about you4  ,be assured they are there4 
#g4 ,be on earth what good people hope  
to be in heaven4  #h4 ,cultivate ideal  
friendships1 and gather into an intimate
 circle all your acquaintances who are  
hungering for truth and right4          
,remember that heaven itself can be     
nothing but the intimacy of pure and    
noble souls4  #i4 ,do not shrink from   
any useful or kindly act1 however hard  

or repellent it may be4  ,the worth of  
acts is measured by the spirit in which 
they are performed4  #aj4 ,if the world 
despise you because you do not follow   
its ways1 pay no heed to it4  ,but be   
sure your way is right4  #aa4 ,if a     
thousand plans fail1 be not             
disheartened4  ,as long as your purposes
 are right1 you have not failed4  #ab4  
,examine yourself every night1 and see  
whether you have progressed in          
knowledge1 sympathy1 and helpfulness    
during the day4  ,count every day a loss
 in which no progress has been made4    
#ac4 ,seek enjoyment in energy1 not in  
dalliance4  ,our worth is measured      
solely by what we do4  #ad4 ,let not    
your goodness be professional2 let it be
 the simple1 natural outcome of your    
character4  ,therefore cultivate        
character4  #ae4 ,if you do wrong1 say  
so1 and make what atonement you can4    
,that is true nobleness4  ,have no moral
 debts4  #af4 ,when in doubt how to act1
 ask yourself1 ,what does nobility      

command8 ,be on good terms with         
yourself4  #ag4 ,look for no reward for 
goodness but goodness itself4  ,remember
 heaven and hell are utterly immoral    
institutions1 if they are meant as      
reward and punishment4  #ah4 ,give      
whatever countenance and help you can to
 every movement and institution that is 
working for good4  ,be not sectarian4   
#ai4 ,wear no placards1 within or       
without4  ,be human fully4  #bj4 ,never 
be satisfied until you have understood  
the meaning of the world1 and the       
purpose of our own life1 and have       
reduced your world to a rational cosmos4
   ,one of the placards ,davidson tried 
hardest to keep his ,society from       
wearing was that of ,socialism4  ,yet no
 one felt more deeply than he the evils 
of rapacious individual competition4    
,spontaneously and flexibly organized   
social settlements or communities1 with 
individual leaders as their centres1    
seem to have been his ideal1 each with  
its own religious or ethical elements of

 discipline4  ,the present isolation of 
the family is too inhuman4  ,the ideal  
type of future life1 he thought1 will be
 something like the monastery1 with the 
family instead of the individual1 for   
its unit4  ,leveller upwards of men as  
,davidson was1 upon the intellectual and
 moral level1 he seemed wholly without  
that sort of religion which makes so    
many of our contemporary anarchists     
think that they ought to dip1 at least1 
into some manual occupation1 in order to
 share the common burden of humanity ,i 
never saw ,t4 ,d4 work with his hands in
 any way4  ,he accepted material        
services of all kinds without apology1  
as if he were a patrician1 evidently    
feeling that if he played his own more  
intellectual part rightly1 society could
 make no further claim upon him4  ,this 
confidence that the life of the spirit  
is the absolutely highest1 made         
,davidson serene about his outward      
fortunes4  ,pecuniary worry would not   
tally with his program4  ,he had a very 

small provision against a rainy day1 but
 he did little to increase it4  ,he used
 to write as many articles and give as  
many lectures1 talks1 or readings every 
winter as would suffice to pay the      
year's expenses1 and thereafter he      
refused additional invitations1 and     
repaired to ,glenmore as early in the   
spring as possible4  ,i could but admire
 the temper he showed when the principal
 building there was one night burned to 
ashes4  ,there was no insurance on it1  
and it would cost a couple of thousand  
dollars to replace it4  ,excitable as   
,davidson was about small contrarieties1
 he watched this fire without a syllable
 of impatience4  ,plaie d'argent n'est  
pas mortelle1 he seemed to say1 and if  
he felt sharp regrets1 he disdained to  
express them4  ,no more did care about  
his literary reputation trouble him4    
,in the ordinary greedy sense1 he seemed
 quite free from ambition4  ,during his 
last years he had prepared a large      
amount of material for that history of  

the interaction of ,greek1 ,christian1  
,hebrew1 and ,arabic thought upon one   
another before the revival of learning1 
which was to be his magnum opus4  ,it   
was a territory to which1 in its        
totality1 few living minds had access1  
and in which a certain proprietary      
feeling was natural4 ,knowing how short 
his life might be1 ,i once asked him    
whether he felt no concern lest the work
 already done by him should be          
frustrate1 from the lack of its         
necessary complement1 in case he were   
suddenly cut off4 ,his answer surprised 
me by its indifference4  ,he would work 
as long as he lived1 he said1 but not   
allow himself to worry1 and look        
serenely at whatever might be the       
outcome4  ,this seemed to me uncommonly 
high-minded4  ,i think that ,davidson's 
conviction of immortality had much to do
 with such a superiority to accidents4  
,on the surface1 and towards small      
things1 he was irritable enough1 but the
 undertone of his character was         

remarkable for equanimity4  ,he showed  
it in his final illness1 of which the   
misery was really atrocious4  ,there    
were no general complaints or           
lamentations about the personal         
situation or the arrest to his career4  
,it was the human lot and he must even  
bear it2 so he kept his mind upon       
objective matters4  ,but1 as ,i said at 
the outset1 the paramount thing in      
,davidson in my eyes was his capacity   
for friendship4  ,his friends were      
innumerable--boys and girls and old boys
 and old girls1 ,papists and            
,protestants1 ,jews and ,gentiles1      
married and single2 and he cared deeply 
for each one of them1 admiring them     
often too extravagantly4  ,what term can
 name those recurrent waves of delighted
 laughter that expressed his greeting1  
beginning from the moment he saw you and
 accompanying his words continuously1 as
 if his pleasure in you were            
interminable8  ,his hand too1 stretched 
out when yards away1 so that a country  

neighbor said it reached farther than   
any hand he ever met with4  ,the odd    
thing was that friendship in ,davidson  
seemed so little to interfere with      
criticism4  ,persons with whom          
intercourse was one long contradiction  
on his part1 and who appeared to annoy  
him to extermination1 he none the less  
loved tenderly1 and enjoyed living with 
them4  ,he's the most utterly selfish1  
illiberal and narrow-hearted human being
 ,i ever knew1 ,i heard him once say of 
someone1 and yet he's the dearest1      
nicest fellow living4  ,his enthusiastic
 belief in any young person who gave a  
promise of genius was touching4         
,naturally a man who is willing1 as he  
was1 to be a prophet1 always finds some 
women who are willing to be disciples4  
,i never heard of any sentimental       
weakness in ,davidson in this relation1 
save possibly in one case4  ,they harmed
 themselves at the fire of his soul1 and
 he told them truths without            
accommodation4 ,you 're farther off from

 ,god than any woman ,i ever heard of4  
,nay1 if you believe in a protective    
tariff1 you 're in hell already1 though 
you may not know it4  ,you had a fine   
hysterical time last night1 didn't you1 
when ,miss ,b was brought up from the   
ravine with her dislocated shoulder4    
,to ,miss ,b he said3 ,i don't pity you4
  ,it served you right for being so     
ignorant as to go there at that hour4   
,seldom1 strange to say1 did the        
recipients of these deliverances seem to
 resent them4  ,what with ,davidson's   
warmth of heart and sociability1 ,i used
 to wonder at his never marrying4  ,two 
years before his death he told me the   
reason--an unhappy youthful love-affair 
in ,scotland4  ,twice in later life1 he 
said1 temptation had come to him1 and he
 had had to make his decision4  ,when he
 had come to the point1 he had felt each
 time that the tie with the dead girl   
was prohibitive4  ,when two persons have
 known each other as we did1 he said1   
neither can ever fully belong to a      

stranger4  ,so it would n't do4  ,it    
would n't do1 it would n't do6 he       
repeated1 as we lay on the hillside1 in 
a tone so musically tender that it      
chimes in my ear now as ,i write down   
his confession4  ,it can surely be no   
breach of confidence to publish it--it  
is too creditable to the profundity of  
,davidson's affections4  ,as ,i knew    
him1 he was one of the purest of human  
beings4  ,if one asks1 now1 what the    
value of ,thomas ,davidson was1 what was
 the general significance of his life1  
apart from his particular books and     
articles1 ,i have to say that it lay in 
the example he set to us all of how1    
even in the midst of this intensely     
worldly social system of ours1 in which 
each human interest is organized so     
collectively and so commercially1 a     
single man may still be a knight-errant 
of the intellectual life1 and preserve  
full freedom in the midst of            
sociability4  ,extreme as was his need  
of friends1 and faithful as he was to   

them1 he yet lived mainly in reliance on
 his private inspiration4  ,asking no   
man's permission1 bowing the knee to no 
tribal idol1 renouncing the conventional
 channels of recognition1 he showed us  
how a life devoted to purely            
intellectual ends could be beautifully  
wholesome outwardly1 and overflow with  
inner contentment4  ,fortunately this   
type of man is recurrent1 and from      
generation to generation1 literary      
history preserves examples4  ,but it is 
infrequent enough for few of us to have 
known more than one example--,i count   
myself happy in knowing two and a half6 
,the memory of ,davidson will always    
strengthen my faith in personal freedom 
and its spontaneities1 and make me less 
unqualifiedly respectful than ever of   
,civilization1 with its herding and     
branding1 licensing and degree-giving1  
authorizing and appointing1 and in      
general regulating and administering by 
system the lives human beings4  ,surely 
the individual1 the person in the       

singular number1 is the more fundamental
 phenomenon1 and the social institution1
 of whatever grade1 is but secondary and
 ministerial4  ,many as are the         
interests which social systems satisfy1 
always unsatisfied interests remain     
over1 and among them are interests to   
which system1 as such1 does violence    
whenever it lays its hand upon us4  ,the
 best ,commonwealth will always be the  
one that most cherishes the men who     
represent the residual interests1 the   
one that leaves the largest scope to    
their peculiarities4    #a ,first       
published in ,mc,clure's ,magazine for  
,may1 #aije4  #b ,the ,education of the 
,wage-,earners4  ,boston1 ,ginn         
,company1 #aijd4     ,,vi  ,,herbert    
,,spencer',s ,,autobiography#a  ,god    
moves in a mysterious way his wonders to
 perform4  ,if the greatest of all his  
wonders be the human individual1 the    
richness with which the specimens       
thereof are diversified1 the limitless  
variety of outline1 from gothic to      

classic or flowing arabesque1 the       
contradictory nature of the filling1    
composed of little and great1 of comic1 
heroic1 and pathetic elements blended   
inextricably1 in personalities all of   
whom can go1 and go successfully1 must  
surely be reckoned the supreme miracle  
of creative ingenuity4  ,rarely has     
,nature performed an odder or more      
,dickens-like feat than when she        
deliberately designed1 or accidentally  
stumbled into1 the personality of       
,herbert ,spencer4 ,greatness and       
smallness surely never lived so closely 
in one skin together4  ,the opposite    
verdicts passed upon his work by his    
contemporaries bear witness to the      
extraordinary mingling of defects and   
merits in his mental character4  ,here  
are a few1 juxtaposed3--  ,a philosophic
 saw-mill4--,the most capacious and     
powerful thinker of all time4  ,the     
,arry' of philosophy4--,aristotle and   
his master were not more beyond the     
pygmies who preceded them than he is    

beyond ,aristotle4  ,herbert ,spencer's 
chromo-philosophy4--,no other man that  
has walked the earth has so wrought and 
written himself into the life of the    
world4  ,the touch of his mind takes the
 living flavor out of everything4--,he  
is as much above and beyond all the     
other great philosophers who have ever  
lived as the telegraph is beyond the    
carrier-pigeon1 or the railway beyond   
the sedan chair4  ,he has merely        
combined facts which we knew before into
 a huge fantastic contradictory system1 
which hides its nakedness and emptiness 
partly under the veil of an imposing    
terminology1 and partly in the primeval 
fog4--,his contributions are of a depth1
 profundity1 and magnitude which have no
 parallel in the history of mind4       
,taking but one--and one only--of his   
transcendent reaches of                 
thought1--namely1 that referring to the 
positive sense of the ,unknown as the   
basis of religion1--it may              
unhesitatingly be affirmed that the     

analysis and synthesis by which he      
advances to the almost supernal grasp of
 this mighty truth give a sense of power
 and reach verging on the preternatural4
  ,can the two thick volumes of         
autobiography which ,mr4 ,spencer leaves
 behind him explain such discrepant     
appreciations8  ,can we find revealed in
 them the higher synthesis which        
reconciles the contradictions8 ,partly  
they do explain1 ,i think1 and even     
justify1 both kinds of judgment upon    
their author4  ,but ,i confess that in  
the last resort ,i still feel baffled4  
,in ,spencer1 as in every concrete      
individual1 there is a uniqueness that  
defies all formulation4  ,we can feel   
the touch of it and recognize its taste1
 so to speak1 relishing or disliking1 as
 the case may be1 but we can give no    
ultimate account of it1 and we have in  
the end simply to admire the ,creator4  
,mr4 ,spencer's task1 the unification of
 all knowledge into an articulate       
system1 was more ambitious than anything

 attempted since ,st4 ,thomas or        
,descartes4  ,most thinkers have        
confined themselves either to           
generalities or to details1 but ,spencer
 addressed himself to everything4  ,he  
dealt in logical1 metaphysical1 and     
ethical first principles1 in cosmogony  
and geology1 in physics1 and chemistry  
after a fashion1 in biology1 psychology1
 sociology1 politics1 and aesthetics4   
,hardly any subject can be named which  
has not at least been touched on in some
 one of his many volumes4  ,his         
erudition was prodigious4  ,his civic   
conscience and his social courage both  
were admirable4  ,his life was pure4    
,he was devoted to truth and usefulness1
 and his character was wholly free from 
envy and malice 7though not from        
contempt71 and from the perverse egoisms
 that so often go with greatness4       
,surely1 any one hearing this veracious 
enumeration would think that ,spencer   
must have been a rich and exuberant     
human being4  ,such wide curiosities    

must have gone with the widest          
sympathies1 and such a powerful harmony 
of character1 whether it were a         
congenital gift1 or were acquired by    
spiritual wrestling and eating bread    
with tears1 must in any case have been a
 glorious spectacle for the beholder4   
,since ,goethe1 no such ideal human     
being can have been visible1 walking our
 poor earth4  ,yet when we turn to the  
,autobiography1 the self-confession     
which we find is this3 ,an old-maidish  
personage1 inhabiting boarding-houses1  
equable and lukewarm in all his tastes  
and passions1 having no desultory       
curiosity1 showing little interest in   
either books or people4 ,a petty        
fault-finder and stickler for trifles1  
devoid in youth of any wide designs on  
life1 fond only of the more mechanical  
side of things1 yet drifting as it were 
involuntarily into the possession of a  
world-formula which by dint of his      
extraordinary pertinacity he proceeded  
to apply to so many special cases that  

it made him a philosopher in spite of   
himself4  ,he appears as modest enough1 
but with a curious vanity in some of his
 deficiencies1--his lack of desultory   
interests1 for example1 and his         
nonconformity to reigning customs4  ,he 
gives a queer sense of having no        
emotional perspective1 as if small      
things and large were on the same plane 
of vision1 and equally commanded his    
attention4  ,in spite of his professed  
dislike of monotony1 one feels an       
awfully monotonous quality in him2 and  
in spite of the fact that invalidism    
condemned him to avoid thinking1 and to 
saunter and potter through large parts  
of every day1 one finds no twilight     
region in his mind1 and no capacity for 
dreaminess or passivity4  ,all parts of 
it are filled with the same noonday     
glare1 like a dry desert where every    
grain of sand shows singly1 and there   
are no mysteries or shadows4  ,look on  
this picture and on that1 and answer how
 they can be compatible4  ,for one      

thing1 ,mr4 ,spencer certainly writes   
himself down too much4 ,he complains of 
a poor memory1 of an idle disposition1  
of a general dislike for reading4       
,doubtless there have been more gifted  
men in all these respects4  ,but when   
,spencer once buckled to a particular   
task1 his memory1 his industry1 and his 
reading went beyond those of the most   
gifted4  ,he had excessive sensibility  
to stimulation by a challenge1 and he   
had preminent pertinacity4  ,when the   
notion of his philosophic system once   
grasped him1 it seemed to possess itself
 of every effective fibre of his being4 
,no faculty in him was left             
unemployed1--nor1 on the other hand1 was
 anything that his philosophy could     
contain left unstated4  ,roughly        
speaking1 the task and the man absorbed 
each other without residuum4  ,compare  
this type of mind with such an opposite 
type as ,ruskin's1 or even as ,j4 ,s4   
,mill's1 or ,huxley's1 and you realize  
its peculiarity4 ,behind the work of    

those others was a background of        
overflowing mental temptations4  ,the   
men loom larger than all their          
publications1 and leave an impression of
 unexpressed potentialities4  ,spencer  
tossed all his inexpressibilities into  
the ,unknowable1 and gladly turned his  
back on them forever4  ,his books seem  
to have expressed all that there was to 
express in his character4  ,he is very  
frank about this himself4  ,no ,sturm   
und ,drang ,periode1 no problematic     
stage of thought1 where the burden of   
the much-to-be-straightened exceeds the 
powers of straightening4  ,when ,george 
,eliot uttered surprise at seeing no    
lines on his forehead1 his reply        
was3--,i suppose it is because ,i am    
never puzzled4--,it has never been my   
way1 he continues1 to set before myself 
a problem and puzzle out an answer4     
,the conclusions at which ,i have from  
time to time arrived1 have not been     
arrived at as solutions of questions    
raised2 but have been arrived at        

unawares--each as the ultimate outcome  
of a body of thought which slowly grew  
from a germ4  ,some direct observation1 
or some fact met with in reading1 would 
dwell with me2 apparently because ,i had
 a sense of its significance4 4 4 4  ,a 
week afterwards1 possibly1 the matter   
would be remembered2 and with further   
thought about it1 might occur a         
recognition of some wider application3  
new instances being aggregated with     
those already noted4  ,again1 after an  
interval1 etc41 etc4  ,and thus1 little 
by little1 in unobtrusive ways1 without 
conscious intention or appreciable      
effort1 there would grow up a coherent  
and organized theory 7vol4 i1 page      
#dfd74  ,a sort of mill1 this1 wound up 
to grind in a certain way1 and          
irresponsive otherwise4  ,to apply day  
after day merely with the general idea  
of acquiring information1 or of         
increasing ability1 was not in me4      
,anything like passive receptivity is   
foreign to my nature2 and there results 

an unusually small tendency to be       
affected by others' thoughts4  ,it seems
 as though the fabric of my conclusions 
had in all cases to be developed from   
within4  ,material which could be taken 
in and organized so as to form part of a
 coherent structure1 there was always a 
readiness to receive4  ,but ideas and   
sentiments of alien kinds1 or           
unorganizable kinds1 were1 if not       
rejected1 yet accepted with             
indifference1 and soon dropped away4    
,it has always been out of the question 
for me to go on reading a book the      
fundamental principles of which ,i      
entirely dissent from4  ,i take it for  
granted that if the fundamental         
principles are wrong the rest cannot be 
right2 and thereupon cease              
reading--being1 ,i suspect1 rather glad 
of an excuse for doing so4  ,systematic 
books of a political or ethical kind1   
written from points of view quite unlike
 my own1 were either not consulted at   
all1 or else they were glanced at and   

thereafter disregarded 7vol4 i1 pages   
#bae1 #bgg1 #bhi1 #cej74  ,there is     
pride rather than compunction in these  
confessions4  ,spencer's mind was so    
narrowly systematized1 that he was at   
last almost incapable of believing in   
the reality of alien ways of feeling4   
,the invariable arrogance of his replies
 to criticisms shows his absolute       
self-confidence4  ,every opinion in the 
world had to be articulately right or   
articulately wrong1--so proved by some  
principle or other of his infallible    
system4  ,he confesses freely his own   
inflexibility and censoriousness4  ,his 
account of his father makes one believe 
in the fatality of heredity4 ,born of   
old nonconformist stock1 the elder      
,spencer was a man of absolute          
punctuality4  ,always he would step out 
of his way to kick a stone off the      
pavement lest somebody should trip over 
it4  ,if he saw boys quarrelling he     
stopped to expostulate2 and he never    
could pass a man who was ill-treating a 

horse without trying to make him behave 
better4  ,he would never take off his   
hat to any one1 no matter of what rank1 
nor could he be induced to address any  
one as ,esquire or as ,reverend4  ,he   
would never put on any sign of mourning1
 even for father and mother2 and he     
adhered to one style of coat and hat    
throughout all changes of fashion4      
,improvement was his watchword always   
and everywhere4  ,whatever he wrote had 
to be endlessly corrected1 and his love 
of detail led all his life to his       
neglecting large ends in his care for   
small ones4  ,a good heart1 but a       
pedantic conscience1 and a sort of      
energetically mechanical intelligence4  
,of himself ,herbert ,spencer says3 ,no 
one will deny that ,i am much given to  
criticism4  ,along with exposition of my
 own views there has always gone a      
pointing out of defects in those of     
others4  ,and if this is a trait in my  
writing1 still more is it a trait in my 
conversation4  ,the tendency to         

fault-finding is dominant--disagreeably 
dominant4  ,the indicating of errors in 
thought and speech made by those around 
has all through life been an incurable  
habit--a habit for which ,i have often  
reproached myself1 but to no purpose4   
,the ,autobiography abounds in          
illustrations of the habit4  ,for       
instance3--  ,of late ,i have observed  
sundry cases in which1 having found the 
right1 people deliberately desert it for
 the wrong4 4 4 4  ,a generation ago    
salt-cellars were made of convenient    
shapes--either ellipses or elongated    
parallelograms3 the advantage being that
 the salt-spoon1 placed lengthwise1     
remained in its place4  ,but for some   
time past1 fashion has dictated circular
 salt-cellars1 on the edges of which the
 salt-spoon will not remain without     
skilful balancing3 it falls on the      
cloth4  ,in my boyhood a jug was made of
 a form at once convenient and graceful4
 4 4 4  ,now1 however1 the almost       
universal form of jug in use is a       

frustum of a cone with a miniature      
spout4  ,it combines all possible       
defects4  ,when anything like full1 it  
is impossible to pour out a small       
quantity without part of the liquid     
trickling down beneath the spout2 and a 
larger quantity cannot be poured out    
without exceeding the limits of the     
spout and running over on each side of  
it4  ,if the jug is half empty1 the     
tilting must be continued a long time   
before any liquid comes2 and then1 when 
it does come1 it comes with a rush2     
because its surface has now become so   
large that a small inclination delivers 
a great deal4  ,to all which add that   
the shape is as ugly a one as can well  
be hit upon4  ,still more extraordinary 
is the folly of a change made in another
 utensil of daily use--and ,spencer goes
 on to find fault with the cylindrical  
form of candle extinguisher1 proving by 
a description of its shape that it      
squashes the wick into the melted       
composition1 the result being that when1

 next day1 the extinguisher is taken    
off1 the wick1 imbedded in the          
solidified composition1 cannot be       
lighted without difficulty 7vol4 ii1    
page #bch74  ,the remorseless           
explicitness1 the punctuation1          
everything1 make these specimens of     
public fault-finding with what probably 
was the equipment of ,mr4 ,spencer's    
latest boarding-house1 sound like       
passages from ,the ,man versus the      
,state4  ,another example3--  ,playing  
billiards became 'my custom always of   
the afternoon4'  ,those who confess to  
billiard-playing commonly make some kind
 of an excuse4 4 4 4  ,it suffices to me
 that ,i like billiards1 and the        
attainment of the pleasure given ,i     
regard as a sufficient motive4  ,i have 
for a long time deliberately set my face
 against that asceticism which makes it 
an offence to do a thing for the        
pleasure of doing it2 and have          
habitually contended that1 so long as no
 injury is inflicted on others1 nor any 

ulterior injury on self1 and so long as 
the various duties of life have been    
discharged1 the pursuit of pleasure for 
its own sake is perfectly legitimate and
 requires no apology4  ,the opposite    
view is nothing else than a remote      
sequence of the old devil worship of the
 barbarian1 who sought to please his god
 by inflicting pains upon himself1 and  
believed his god would be angry if he   
made himself happy 7vol4 ii1 page #bfc74
  ,the tone of pedantic rectitude in    
these passages is characteristic4 ,every
 smallest thing is either right or      
wrong1 and if wrong1 can be articulately
 proved so by reasoning4  ,life grows   
too dry and literal1 and loses all arial
 perspective at such a rate2 and the    
effect is the more displeasing when the 
matters in dispute have a rich variety  
of aspects1 and when the aspect from    
which ,mr4 ,spencer deduces his         
conclusions is manifestly partial4  ,for
 instance1 in his art-criticisms4       
,spencer in his youth did much drawing1 

both mechanical and artistic4  ,volume  
one contains a photo-print of a very    
creditable bust which he modelled of his
 uncle4 ,he had a musical ear1 and      
practiced singing4  ,he paid attention  
to style1 and was not wholly insensible 
to poetry4  ,yet in all his dealings    
with the art-products of mankind he     
manifests the same curious dryness and  
mechanical literality of judgment--a    
dryness increased by pride in his       
non-conformity4  ,he would1 for example1
 rather give a large sum than read to   
the end of ,homer's ,iliad1--the        
ceaseless repetition of battles1        
speeches1 and epithets like well-greaved
 ,greeks1 horse-breaking ,trojans2 the  
tedious enumeration of details of       
dresses1 arms1 and chariots2 such       
absurdities as giving the genealogy of a
 horse while in the midst of a battle2  
and the appeals to savage and brutal    
passions1 having soon made the poem     
intolerable to him 7vol4 i1 page #cjj74 
,turner's paintings he finds untrue1 in 

that the earth-region is habitually as  
bright in tone as the air-region4       
,moreover1 ,turner scatters his detail  
too evenly4  ,in ,greek statues the hair
 is falsely treated4  ,renaissance      
painting1 even the best1 is spoiled by  
unreal illumination1 and non-rendering  
of reflected light in the shadows4      
,venetian gothic sins by meaningless    
ornamentation4  ,st4 ,mark's ,church may
 be precious archaeologically1 but is   
not aesthetically precious4 ,of         
,wagner's music he admires nothing but  
the skilful specialization of the       
instruments in the orchestra4  ,the     
fault-finding in all these cases rests  
on observation1 true as far as it goes2 
but the total absence of genial         
relations with the entirety of the      
phenomenon discussed1 the clutching at  
some paltry mechanical aspect of it that
 lends itself to reasoned proof by a    
plus b1 and the practical denial of     
everything that only appeals to vaguer  
sentiment1 show a mind so oddly limited 

to ratiocinative and explicit processes1
 and so wedded to the superficial and   
flagrantly insufficient1 that one begins
 to wonder whether in the philosophic   
and scientific spheres the same mind can
 have wrought out results of            
extraordinary value4  ,both yes and no  
are here the answer4  ,every one who    
writes books or articles knows how he   
must flounder until he hits upon the    
proper opening4  ,once the right        
beginning found1 everything follows     
easily and in due order4  ,if a man1    
however narrow1 strikes even by         
accident1 into one of these fertile     
openings1 and pertinaciously follows the
 lead1 he is almost sure to meet truth  
on his path4  ,some thoughts act almost 
like mechanical centres of              
crystallization2 facts cluster of       
themselves about them4  ,such a thought 
was that of the gradual growth of all   
things1 by natural processes1 out of    
natural antecedents4  ,until the middle 
of the nineteenth century no one had    

grasped it wholesale2 and the thinker   
who did so earliest was bound to make   
discoveries just in proportion to the   
exclusiveness of his interest in the    
principle4  ,he who had the keenest eye 
for instances and illustrations1 and was
 least divertible by casual             
side-curiosity1 would score the quickest
 triumph4  ,to ,spencer is certainly due
 the immense credit of having been the  
first to see in evolution an absolutely 
universal principle4  ,if any one else  
had grasped its universality1 it failed 
at any rate to grasp him as it grasped  
,spencer4  ,for ,spencer it instantly   
became the guiding conception running   
through and connecting all the concrete 
sciences 7vol4 ii1 page #aif74  ,here at
 last was an object at once large and   
distinct enough to overcome his         
constitutional idleness4  ,with an      
important and definite end to achieve1  
,i could work 7vol4 i1 page #bae74  ,he 
became1 in short1 the victim of a vivid 
obsession1 and for the first time in his

 life seems to have grown genuinely     
ambitious4 ,every item of his           
experience1 small or great1 every idea  
in his mental storehouse1 had now to be 
considered with reference to its bearing
 on the new universal principle4  ,on   
pages #aid-aii of volume two he gives an
 interesting summary of the way in which
 all his previous and subsequent ideas  
moved into harmonious cordination and   
subordination1 when once he had this    
universal key to insight4  ,applying it 
wholesale as he did1 innumerable truths 
unobserved till then had to fall into   
his gamebag4  ,and his peculiar trick1 a
 priggish infirmity in daily            
intercourse1 of treating every smallest 
thing by abstract law1 was here a merit4
  ,add his sleuth-hound scent for what  
he was after1 and his untiring          
pertinacity1 to his priority in         
perceiving the one great truth and you  
fully justify the popular estimate of   
him as one of the world's geniuses1 in  
spite of the fact that the temperament  

of genius1 so called1 seems to have been
 so lacking in him4  ,in one sense1     
then1 ,spencer's personal narrowness and
 dryness were not hindering1 but helping
 conditions of his achievement4  ,grant 
that a vast picture quelconque had to be
 made before the details could be made  
perfect1 and a greater richness and     
receptivity of mind would have resulted 
in hesitation4  ,the quality would have 
been better in spots1 but the           
extensiveness would have suffered4      
,spencer is thus the philosopher of     
vastness4  ,misprised by many           
specialists1 who carp at his technical  
imperfections1 he has nevertheless      
enlarged the imagination1 and set free  
the speculative mind of countless       
doctors1 engineers1 and lawyers1 of many
 physicists and chemists1 and of        
thoughtful laymen generally4  ,he is the
 philosopher whom those who have no     
other philosopher can appreciate4 ,to be
 able to say this of any man is great   
praise1 and gives the yes answer to my  

recent question4  ,can the no answer be 
as unhesitatingly uttered8  ,i think so1
 if one makes the qualitative aspect of 
,spencer's work undo its quantitative   
aspect4  ,the luke-warm equable         
temperament1 the narrowness of sympathy 
and passion1 the fondness for mechanical
 forms of thought1 the imperfect        
receptivity and lack of interest in     
facts as such1 dissevered from their    
possible connection with a theory2 nay1 
the very vividness itself1 the keenness 
of scent and the pertinacity2 these all 
are qualities which may easily make for 
second-rateness1 and for contentment    
with a cheap and loosely woven          
achievement4  ,as ,mr4 ,spencer's ,first
 ,principles is the book which more than
 any other has spread his popular       
reputation1 ,i had perhaps better       
explain what ,i mean by criticising some
 of its peculiarities4  ,i read this    
book as a youth when it was still       
appearing in numbers1 and was carried   
away with enthusiasm by the intellectual

 perspectives which it seemed to open4  
,when a maturer companion1 ,mr4 ,charles
 ,s4 ,peirce1 attacked it in my         
presence1 ,i felt spiritually wounded1  
as by the defacement of a sacred image  
or picture1 though ,i could not verbally
 defend it against his criticisms4      
,later ,i have used it often as a       
text-book with students1 and the total  
outcome of my dealings with it is an    
exceedingly unfavorable verdict4 ,apart 
from the great truth which it enforces1 
that everything has evolved somehow1 and
 apart from the inevitable stimulating  
effect of any such universal picture1 ,i
 regard its teachings as almost a museum
 of blundering reasoning4  ,let me try  
to indicate briefly my grounds for such 
an opinion4  ,i pass by the section on  
the ,unknowable1 because this part of   
,mr4 ,spencer's philosophy has won fewer
 friends than any other4  ,it consists  
chiefly of a rehash of ,mansel's rehash 
of ,hamilton's ,philosophy of the       
,conditioned1 and has hardly raised its 

head since ,john ,mill so effectively   
demolished it4  ,if criticism of our    
human intellectual constitution is      
needed1 it can be got out of ,bradley   
to-day better than out of ,spencer4     
,the latter's way of reconciling science
 and religion is1 moreover1 too absurdly
 naf4  ,find1 he says1 a fundamental    
abstract truth on which they can agree1 
and that will reconcile them4 ,such a   
truth1 he thinks1 is that there is a    
mystery4  ,the trouble is that it is    
over just such common truths that       
quarrels begin4  ,did the fact that both
 believed in the existence of the ,pope 
reconcile ,luther and ,ignatius ,loyola8
  ,did it reconcile the ,south and the  
,north that both agreed that there were 
slaves8  ,religion claims that the      
mystery is interpretable by human       
reason2 ,science1 speaking through      
,spencer1 insists that it is not4  ,the 
admission of the mystery is the very    
signal for the quarrel4  ,moreover1 for 
nine hundred and ninety-nine men out of 

a thousand the sense of mystery is the  
sense of more-to-be-known1 not the sense
 of a ,more1 not to be known4  ,but pass
 the ,unknowable by1 and turn to        
,spencer's famous law of ,evolution4    
,science works with several types of    
law4  ,the most frequent and useful type
 is that of the elementary law1--that of
 the composition of forces1 that of     
gravitation1 of refraction1 and the     
like4  ,such laws declare no concrete   
facts to exist1 and make no prophecy as 
to any actual future4  ,they limit      
themselves to saying that if a certain  
character be found in any fact1 another 
character will co-exist with it or      
follow it4  ,the usefulness of these    
laws is proportionate to the extent to  
which the characters they treat of      
pervade the world1 and to the accuracy  
with which they are definable4          
,statistical laws form another type1 and
 positively declare something about the 
world of actuality4  ,although they tell
 us nothing of the elements of things1  

either abstract or concrete1 they affirm
 that the resultant of their actions    
drifts preponderantly in a particular   
direction4  ,population tends toward    
cities2 the working classes tend to grow
 discontented2 the available energy of  
the universe is running down--such laws 
prophesy the real future en gros1 but   
they never help us to predict any       
particular detail of it4  ,spencer's law
 of ,evolution is of the statistical    
variety4  ,it defines what evolution    
means1 and what dissolution means1 and  
asserts that1 although both processes   
are always going on together1 there is  
in the present phase of the world a     
drift in favor of evolution4  ,in the   
first edition of ,first ,principles an  
evolutive change in anything was        
described as the passage of it from a   
state of indefinite incoherent          
homogeneity to a definite coherent      
heterogeneity4  ,the existence of a     
drift in this direction in everything   
,mr4 ,spencer proves1 both by a survey  

of facts1 and by deducing it from       
certain laws of the elementary type1    
which he severally names the instability
 of the homogeneous1 the multiplication 
of effects1 segregation1 and            
equilibration4 ,the two former insure   
the heterogeneity1 while segregation    
brings about the definiteness and       
coherence1 and equilibration arrests the
 process1 and determines when           
dissolutive changes shall begin4  ,the  
whole panorama is resplendent for       
variety and inclusiveness1 and has      
aroused an admiration for philosophy in 
minds that never admired philosophy     
before4  ,like ,descartes in earlier    
days1 ,spencer aims at a purely         
mechanical explanation of ,nature4  ,the
 knowable universe is nothing but matter
 and motion1 and its history is nothing 
but the redistribution of these         
entities4  ,the value of such an        
explanation for scientific purposes     
depends altogether on how consistent and
 exact it is4  ,every thing must be     

interpreted as a configuration1 every   
event as a change of configuration1     
every predicate ascribed must be of a   
geometrical sort4  ,measured by these   
requirements of mechanics ,spencer's    
attempt has lamentably failed4  ,his    
terms are vagueness and ambiguity       
incarnate1 and he seems incapable of    
keeping the mechanical point of view in 
mind for five pages consecutively4      
,definite1 for example1 is hardly a     
physical idea at all4  ,every motion and
 every arrangement of matter is         
definitely what it is1--a fog or an     
irregular scrawl1 as much so as a       
billiard ball or a straight line4       
,spencer means by definiteness in a     
thing any character that makes it arrest
 our attention1 and forces us to        
distinguish it from other things4  ,the 
word with him has a human1 not a        
physical connotation4  ,definite things1
 in his book1 finally appear merely as  
things that men have made separate names
 for1 so that there is hardly a pretence

 of the mechanical view being kept4  ,of
 course names increase as human history 
proceeds1 so definiteness in things must
 necessarily more and more evolve4      
,coherent1 again4  ,this has the        
definite mechanical meaning of resisting
 separation1 of sticking together2 but  
,spencer plays fast and loose with this 
meaning4  ,coherence with him sometimes 
means permanence in time1 sometimes such
 mutual dependence of parts as is       
realized in a widely scattered system of
 no fixed material configuration2 a     
commercial house1 for example1 with its 
travellers and ships and cars4  ,an     
honestly mechanical reader soon rubs his
 eyes with bewilderment at the orgy of  
ambiguity to which he is introduced4    
,every term in ,spencer's fireworks     
shimmers through a whole spectrum of    
meanings in order to adapt itself to the
 successive spheres of evolution to     
which it must apply4  ,integration1 for 
instance4  ,a definite coherence is an  
,integration2 and examples given of     

integration are the contraction of the  
solar nebula1 the formation of the      
earth's crust1 the calcification of     
cartilage1 the shortening of the body of
 crabs1 the loss of his tail by man1 the
 mutual dependence of plants and        
animals1 the growth of powerful states1 
the tendency of human occupations to go 
to distinct localities1 the dropping of 
terminal inflexions in ,english grammar1
 the formation of general concepts by   
the mind1 the use of machinery instead  
of simple tools1 the development of     
composition in the fine arts1 etc41 etc4
  ,it is obvious that no one form of the
 motion of matter characterizes all     
these facts4  ,the human ones simply    
embody the more and more successful     
pursuit of certain ends4  ,in the second
 edition of his book1 ,mr4 ,spencer     
supplemented his first formula by a     
unifying addition1 meant to be strictly 
mechanical4 ,evolution1 he now said1 is 
the progressive integration of matter   
and dissipation of motion1 during which 

both the matter and the motion undergo  
the previously designated kinds of      
change4  ,but this makes the formula    
worse instead of better4  ,the          
dissipation of motion part of it is     
simple vagueness1--for what particular  
motion is dissipated when a man or state
 grows more highly evolved8  ,and the   
integration of matter belongs only to   
stellar and geologic evolution4         
,neither heightened specific gravity1   
nor greater massiveness1 which are the  
only conceivable integrations of matter1
 is a mark of the more evolved vital1   
mental1 or social things4  ,it is       
obvious that the facts of which ,spencer
 here gives so clumsy an account could  
all have been set down more simply4     
,first there is solar1 and then there is
 geological evolution1 processes        
accurately describable as integrations  
in the mechanical sense1 namely1 as     
decrease in bulk1 or growth in hardness4
  ,then ,life appears2 and after that   
neither integration of matter nor       

dissipation of motion play any part     
whatever4  ,the result of life1 however1
 is to fill the world more and more with
 things displaying organic unity4  ,by  
this is meant any arrangement of which  
one part helps to keep the other parts  
in existence4  ,some organic unities are
 material1--a sea-urchin1 for example1 a
 department store1 a civil service1 or  
an ecclesiastical organization4  ,some  
are mental1 as a science1 a code of     
laws1 or an educational programme4  ,but
 whether they be material or mental     
products1 organic unities must          
accumulate2 for every old one tends to  
conserve itself1 and if successful new  
ones arise they also come to stay4  ,the
 human use of ,spencer's adjectives     
integrated1 definite1 coherent1 here no 
longer shocks one4  ,we are frankly on  
teleological ground1 and metaphor and   
vagueness are permissible4  ,this       
tendency of organic unities to          
accumulate when once they are formed is 
absolutely all the truth ,i can distill 

from ,spencer's unwieldy account of     
evolution4  ,it makes a much less gaudy 
and chromatic picture1 but what there is
 of it is exact4  ,countless other      
criticisms swarm toward my pen1 but ,i  
have no heart to express them1--it is   
too sorry an occupation4  ,a word about 
,spencer's conception of ,force1        
however1 insists on being added2 for    
although it is one of his most          
essential1 it is one of his vaguest     
ideas4  ,over all his special laws of   
evolution there reigns an absolutely    
general law1 that of the persistence of 
force4  ,by this ,spencer sometimes     
means the phenomenal law of conservation
 of energy1 sometimes the metaphysical  
principle that the quantity of existence
 is unalterable1 sometimes the logical  
principle that nothing can happen       
without a reason1 sometimes the         
practical postulate that in the absence 
of any assignable difference you must   
call a thing the same4  ,this law is one
 vast vagueness1 of which ,i can give no

 clear account2 but of his special      
vaguenesses mental force and social     
force are good examples4  ,these        
manifestations of the universal force1  
he says1 are due to vital force1 and    
this latter is due to physical force1   
both being proportionate to the amount  
of physical force which is transformed  
into them4  ,but what on earth is social
 force8  ,sometimes he identifies it    
with social activity 7showing the latter
 to be proportionate to the amount of   
food eaten71 sometimes with the work    
done by human beings and their          
steam-engines1 and shows it to be due   
ultimately to the sun's heat4  ,it would
 never occur to a reader of his pages   
that a social force proper might be     
anything that acted as a stimulus of    
social change1--a leader1 for example1 a
 discovery1 a book1 a new idea1 or a    
national insult2 and that the greatest  
of forces of this kind need embody no   
more physical force than the smallest4  
,the measure of greatness here is the   

effect produced on the environment1 not 
a quantity antecedently absorbed from   
physical nature4  ,mr4 ,spencer himself 
is a great social force2 but he ate no  
more than an average man1 and his body1 
if cremated1 would disengage no more    
energy4  ,the effects he exerts are of  
no nature of releases1--his words pull  
triggers in certain kinds of brain4     
,the fundamental distinction in         
mechanics between forces of             
push-and-pull and forces of release is  
one of which ,mr4 ,spencer1 in his      
earlier years1 made no use whatever4    
,only in his sixth edition did he show  
that it had seriously arrested his      
attention4  ,in biology1 psychology1 and
 sociology the forces concerned are     
almost exclusively forces of release4   
,spencer's account of social forces is  
neither good sociology nor good         
mechanics4  ,his feeble grasp of the    
conception of force vitiates1 in fact1  
all his work4  ,but the task of a carper
 is repugnant4  ,the ,essays1 ,biology1 

,psychology1 ,sociology1 and ,ethics are
 all better than ,first ,principles1 and
 contain numerous and admirable bits of 
penetrating work of detail4  ,my        
impression is that1 of the systematic   
treaties1 the ,psychology will rank as  
the most original4  ,spencer broke new  
ground here in insisting that1 since    
mind and its environment have evolved   
together1 they must be studied together4
  ,he gave to the study of mind in      
isolation a definitive quietus1 and that
 certainly is a great thing to have     
achieved4  ,to be sure he overdid the   
matter1 as usual1 and left no room for  
any mental structure at all1 except that
 which passively resulted from the      
storage of impressions received from the
 outer world in the order of their      
frequency by fathers and transmitted to 
their sons4  ,the belief that whatever  
is acquired by sires is inherited by    
sons1 and the ignoring of purely inner  
variations1 are weak points2 but to have
 brought in the environment as vital was

 a master stroke4  ,i may say that      
,spencer's controversy over             
use-inheritance with ,weismann1 entered 
into after he was sixty1 seems to me in 
point of quality better than any other  
part of his work4  ,it is genuine labor 
over a puzzle1 genuine research4        
,spencer's ,ethics is a most vital and  
original piece of attitude-taking in the
 world of ideals4  ,his politico-ethical
 activity in general breathes the purest
 ,english spirit liberty1 and his       
attacks on over-administration and      
criticisms on the inferiority of great  
centralized systems are worthy to be the
 textbooks of individualists the world  
over4  ,i confess that it is with this  
part of his work1 in spite of its       
hardness and inflexibility of tone1 that
 ,i personally sympathize most4         
,looking back on ,mr4 ,spencer as a     
whole1 as this admirably truth-telling  
,autobiography reveals him1 he is a     
figure unique for quaint consistency4   
,he never varied from that inimitable   

blend of small and vast mindedness1 of  
liberality and crabbedness1 which was   
his personal note1 and which defies our 
formulating power4  ,if an abstract     
logical concept could come to life1 its 
life would be like ,spencer's1--the same
 definiteness of exclusion and          
inclusion1 the same bloodlessness of    
temperament1 the same narrowness of     
intent and vastness of extent1 the same 
power of applying itself to numberless  
instances4  ,but he was no abstract     
idea2 he was a man vigorously devoted to
 truth and justice as he saw them1 who  
had deep insights1 and who finished1    
under terrible frustrations from bad    
health1 a piece of work that taken for  
all in all1 is extraordinary4  ,a human 
life is greater than all its possible   
appraisers1 assessors1 and critics4  ,in
 comparison with the fact of ,spencer's 
actual living1 such critical            
characterization of it as ,i have been  
at all these pains to produce seems a   
rather unimportant as well as a         

decidedly graceless thing4    #a        
,written upon the publication of        
,herbert ,spencer's ,autobiography4     
,published in the ,atlantic ,monthly for
 ,july1 #aijd4     ,,vii  ,,frederic    
,,myers' ,,services ,,to ,,psychology#a 
,on this memorial occasion it is from   
,english hearts and tongues belonging1  
as ,i never had the privilege of        
belonging1 to the immediate environment 
of our lamented ,president1 that        
discourse of him as a man and as a      
friend must come4  ,it is for those who 
participated in the endless drudgery of 
his labors for our ,society to tell of  
the high powers he showed there2 and it 
is for those who have something of his  
burning interest in the problem of our  
human destiny to estimate his success in
 throwing a little more light into its  
dark recesses4  ,to me it has been      
deemed best to assign a colder task4    
,frederic ,myers was a psychologist who 
worked upon lines hardly admitted by the
 more academic branch of the profession 

to be legitimate2 and as for some years 
,i bore the title of ,professor of      
,psychology1 the suggestion has been    
made 7and by me gladly welcomed7 that ,i
 should spend my portion of this hour in
 defining the exact place and rank which
 we must accord to him as a cultivator  
and promoter of the science of the      
,mind4  ,brought up entirely upon       
literature and history1 and interested  
at first in poetry and religion chiefly2
 never by nature a philosopher in the   
technical sense of a man forced to      
pursue consistency among concepts for   
the mere love of the logical occupation2
 not crammed with science at college1 or
 trained to scientific method by any    
passage through a laboratory1 ,myers had
 as it were to recreate his personality 
before he became the wary critic of     
evidence1 the skilful handler of        
hypothesis1 the learned neurologist and 
omnivorous reader of biological and     
cosmological matter1 with whom in later 
years we were acquainted4  ,the         

transformation came about because he    
needed to be all these things in order  
to work successfully at the problem that
 lay near his heart2 and the ardor of   
his will and the richness of his        
intellect are proved by the success with
 which he underwent so unusual a        
transformation4  ,the problem1 as you   
know1 was that of seeking evidence for  
human immortality4  ,his contributions  
to psychology were incidental to that   
research1 and would probably never have 
been made had he not entered on it4     
,but they have a value for ,science     
entirely independent of the light they  
shed upon that problem2 and it is quite 
apart from it that ,i shall venture to  
consider them4   ,if we look at the     
history of mental science we are        
immediately struck by diverse tendencies
 among its several cultivators1 the     
consequence being a certain opposition  
of schools and some repugnance among    
their disciples4 ,apart from the great  
contrasts between minds that are        

teleological or biological and minds    
that are mechanical1 between the        
animists and the associationists in     
psychology1 there is the entirely       
different contrast between what ,i will 
call the classic-academic and the       
romantic type of imagination4  ,the     
former has a fondness for clean pure    
lines and noble simplicity in its       
constructions4  ,it explains things by  
as few principles as possible and is    
intolerant of either nondescript facts  
or clumsy formulas4  ,the facts must lie
 in a neat assemblage1 and the          
psychologist must be enabled to cover   
them and tuck them in as safely under   
his system as a mother tucks her babe in
 under the down coverlet on a winter    
night4  ,until quite recently all       
psychology1 whether animistic or        
associationistic1 was written on        
classic-academic lines4  ,the           
consequence was that the human mind1 as 
it is figured in this literature1 was   
largely an abstraction4  ,its normal    

adult traits were recognized4  ,a sort  
of sun-lit terrace was exhibited on     
which it took its exercise4  ,but where 
that terrace stopped1 the mind stopped2 
and there was nothing farther left to   
tell of in this kind of philosophy but  
the brain and the other physical facts  
of nature on the one hand1 and the      
absolute metaphysical ground of the     
universe on the other4  ,but of late    
years the terrace has been overrun by   
romantic improvers1 and to pass to their
 work is like going from classic to     
gothic architecture1 where few outlines 
are pure and where uncouth forms lurk in
 the shadows4 ,a mass of mental         
phenomena are now seen in the shrubbery 
beyond the parapet4  ,fantastic1        
ignoble1 hardly human1 or frankly       
non-human are some of these new         
candidates for psychological            
description4  ,the menagerie and the    
madhouse1 the nursery1 the prison1 and  
the hospital1 have been made to deliver 
up their material4  ,the world of mind  

is shown as something infinitely more   
complex than was suspected2 and whatever
 beauties it may still possess1 it has  
lost at any rate the beauty of academic 
neatness4  ,but despite the triumph of  
romanticism1 psychologists as a rule    
have still some lingering prejudice in  
favor of the nobler simplicities4       
,moreover1 there are social prejudices  
which scientific men themselves obey4   
,the word hypnotism has been trailed    
about in the newspapers so that even we 
ourselves rather wince at it1 and avoid 
occasions of its use4  ,mesmerism1      
clairvoyance1 medium1--horrescimus      
referentes6--and with all these things1 
infected by their previous              
mystery-mongering discoverers1 even our 
best friends had rather avoid           
complicity4  ,for instance1 ,i invite   
eight of my scientific colleagues       
severally to come to my house at their  
own time1 and sit with a medium for whom
 the evidence already published in our  
,proceedings had been most noteworthy4  

,although it means at worst the waste of
 the hour for each1 five of them decline
 the adventure4  ,i then beg the        
,commission connected with the chair of 
a certain learned psychologist in a     
neighboring university to examine the   
same medium1 whom ,mr4 ,hodgson and ,i  
offer at our own expense to send and    
leave with them4  ,they also have to be 
excused from any such entanglement4  ,i 
advise another psychological friend to  
look into this medium's case1 but he    
replies that it is useless2 for if he   
should get such results as ,i report1 he
 would 7being suggestible7 simply       
believe himself hallucinated4  ,when ,i 
propose as a remedy that he should      
remain in the background and take notes1
 whilst his wife has the sitting1 he    
explains that he can never consent to   
his wife's presence at such             
performances4  ,this friend of mine     
writes ex cathedra on the subject of    
psychical research1 declaring 7,i need  
hardly add7 that there is nothing in it2

 the chair of the psychologist with the 
,commission was founded by a spiritist1 
partly with a view to investigate       
mediums2 and one of the five colleagues 
who declined my invitation is widely    
quoted as an effective critic of our    
evidence4  ,so runs the world away6 ,i  
should not indulge in the personality   
and triviality of such anecdotes1 were  
it not that they paint the temper of our
 time1 a temper which1 thanks to        
,frederic ,myers more than to any one1  
will certainly be impossible after this 
generation4  ,myers was1 ,i think1      
decidedly exclusive and intolerant by   
nature4  ,but his keenness for truth    
carried him into regions where either   
intellectual or social squeamishness    
would have been fatal1 so he mortified  
his amour propre1 unclubbed himself     
completely1 and became a model of       
patience1 tact and humility wherever    
investigation required it4  ,both his   
example and his body of doctrine will   
make this temper the only one           

henceforward scientifically respectable4
  ,if you ask me how his doctrine has   
this effect1 ,i answer3 ,by             
co-ordinating6  ,for ,myers' great      
principle of research was that in order 
to understand any one species of fact we
 ought to have all the species of the   
same general class of fact before us4   
,so he took a lot of scattered          
phenomena1 some of them recognized as   
reputable1 others outlawed from science1
 or treated as isolated curiosities2 he 
made series of them1 filled in the      
transitions by delicate hypotheses or   
analogies2 and bound them together in a 
system by his bold inclusive conception 
of the ,subliminal ,self1 so that no one
 can now touch one part of the fabric   
without finding the rest entangled with 
it4  ,such vague terms of apperception  
as psychologists have hitherto been     
satisfied with using for most of these  
phenomena1 as fraud1 rot1 rubbish1 will 
no more be possible hereafter than dirt 
is possible as a head of classification 

in chemistry1 or vermin in zoology4     
,whatever they are1 they are things with
 a right to definite description and to 
careful observation4  ,i cannot but     
account this as a great service rendered
 to ,psychology4  ,i expect that ,myers 
will ere long distinctly figure in      
mental science as the radical leader in 
what ,i have called the romantic        
movement4  ,through him for the first   
time1 psychologists are in possession of
 their full material1 and mental        
phenomena are set down in an adequate   
inventory4  ,to bring unlike things thus
 together by forming series of which the
 intermediary terms connect the         
extremes1 is a procedure much in use by 
scientific men4  ,it is a first step    
made towards securing their interest in 
the romantic facts1 that ,myers should  
have shown how easily this familiar     
method can be applied to their study4   
,myers' conception of the extensiveness 
of the ,subliminal ,self quite overturns
 the classic notion of what the human   

mind consists in4  ,the supraliminal    
region1 as ,myers calls it1 the         
classic-academic consciousness1 which   
was once alone considered either by     
associationists or animists1 figures in 
his theory as only a small segment of   
the psychic spectrum4  ,it is a special 
phase of mentality1 teleologically      
evolved for adaptation to our natural   
environment1 and forms only what he     
calls a privileged case of personality4 
,the out-lying ,subliminal1 according to
 him1 represents more fully our central 
and abiding being4  ,i think the words  
subliminal and supraliminal unfortunate1
 but they were probably unavoidable4  ,i
 think1 too1 that ,myers' belief in the 
ubiquity and great extent of the        
,subliminal will demand a far larger    
number of facts than sufficed to        
persuade him1 before the next generation
 of psychologists shall become          
persuaded4  ,he regards the ,subliminal 
as the enveloping mother-consciousness  
in each of us1 from which the           

consciousness we wot of is precipitated 
like a crystal4  ,but whether this view 
get confirmed or get overthrown by      
future inquiry1 the definite way in     
which ,myers has thrown it down is a new
 and specific challenge to inquiry4     
,for half a century now1 psychologists  
have fully admitted the existence of a  
subliminal mental region1 under the name
 either of unconscious cerebration or of
 the involuntary life2 but they have    
never definitely taken up the question  
of the extent of this region1 never     
sought explicitly to map it out4  ,myers
 definitely attacks this problem1 which1
 after him1 it will be impossible to    
ignore4  ,what is the precise           
constitution of the ,subliminal--such is
 the problem which deserves to figure in
 our ,science hereafter as the problem  
of ,myers2 and willy-nilly1 inquiry must
 follow on the path which it has opened 
up4  ,but ,myers has not only propounded
 the ,problem definitely1 he has also   
invented definite methods for its       

solution4  ,posthypnotic suggestion1    
crystal-gazing1 automatic writing and   
trance-speech1 the willing-game1 etc41  
are now1 thanks to him1 instruments of  
research1 reagents like litmus paper or 
the galvanometer1 for revealing what    
would otherwise be hidden4  ,these are  
so many ways of putting the ,subliminal 
on tap4  ,of course without the         
simultaneous work on hypnotism and      
hysteria independently begun by others1 
he could not have pushed his own work so
 far4  ,but he is so far the only       
generalizer of the problem and the only 
user of all the methods2 and even though
 his theory of the extent of the        
,subliminal should have to be subverted 
in the end1 its formulation will1 ,i am 
sure1 figure always as a rather         
momentous event in the history of our   
,science4  ,any psychologist who should 
wish to read ,myers out of the          
profession--and there are probably still
 some who would be glad to do so        
to-day--is committed to a definite      

alternative4  ,either he must say that  
we knew all about the subliminal region 
before ,myers took it up1 or he must say
 that it is certain that states of      
super-normal cognition form no part of  
its content4  ,the first contention     
would be too absurd4  ,the second one   
remains more plausible4  ,there are many
 first hand investigators into the      
,subliminal who1 not having themselves  
met with anything super-normal1 would   
probably not hesitate to call all the   
reports of it erroneous1 and who would  
limit the ,subliminal to dissolutive    
phenomena of consciousness exclusively1 
to lapsed memories1 subconscious        
sensations1 impulses and phobias1 and   
the like4  ,messrs4 ,janet and ,binet1  
for aught ,i know1 may hold some such   
position as this4  ,against it ,myers'  
thesis would stand sharply out4  ,of the
 ,subliminal1 he would say1 we can give 
no ultra-simple account3 there are      
discreet regions in it1 levels separated
 by critical points of transition1 and  

no one formula holds true of them all4  
,and any conscientious psychologist     
ought1 it seems to me1 to see that1     
since these multiple modifications of   
personality are only beginning to be    
reported and observed with care1 it is  
obvious that a dogmatically negative    
treatment of them must be premature and 
that the problem of ,myers still awaits 
us as the problem of far the deepest    
moment for our actual psychology1       
whether his own tentative solutions of  
certain parts of it be correct or not4  
,meanwhile1 descending to detail1 one   
cannot help admiring the great          
originality with which ,myers wove such 
an extraordinarily detached and         
discontinuous series of phenomena       
together4  ,unconscious cerebration1    
dreams1 hypnotism1 hysteria1            
inspirations of genius1 the             
willing-game1 planchette1               
crystal-gazing1 hallucinatory voices1   
apparitions of the dying1               
medium-trances1 demoniacal possession1  

clairvoyance1 thought-transference1 even
 ghosts and other facts more doubtful2  
these things form a chaos at first sight
 most discouraging4  ,no wonder that    
scientists can think of no other        
principle of unity among them than their
 common appeal to men's perverse        
propensity to superstition4  ,yet ,myers
 has actually made a system of them1    
stringing them continuously upon a      
perfectly legitimate objective          
hypothesis1 verified in some cases and  
extended to others by analogy4  ,taking 
the name automatism from the phenomenon 
of automatic writing--,i am not sure    
that he may not himself have been the   
first so to baptize this latter         
phenomenon--he made one great           
simplification at a stroke by treating  
hallucinations and active impulses under
 a common head1 as sensory and motor    
automatisms4 ,automatism he then        
conceived broadly as a message of any   
kind from the ,subliminal to the        
,supraliminal4  ,and he went a step     

farther in his hypothetic               
interpretation1 when he insisted on     
symbolism as one of the ways in which   
one stratum of our personality will     
often interpret the influences of       
another4  ,obsessive thoughts and       
delusions1 as well as voices1 visions1  
and impulses1 thus fall subject to one  
mode of treatment4  ,to explain them1 we
 must explore the ,subliminal2 to cure  
them we must practically influence it4  
,myers' work on automatism led to his   
brilliant conception1 in #ahia1 of      
hysteria4  ,he defined it1 with good    
reasons given1 as a disease of the      
hypnotic stratum4  ,hardly had he done  
so when the wonderfully ingenious       
observations of ,binet1 and especially  
of ,janet in ,france1 gave to this view 
the completest of corroborations4       
,these observations have been extended  
in ,germany1 ,america1 and elsewhere2   
and although ,binet and ,janet worked   
independently of ,myers1 and did work   
far more objective1 he nevertheless will

 stand as the original announcer of a   
theory which1 in my opinion1 makes an   
epoch1 not only in medical but in       
psychological science1 because it brings
 in an entirely new conception of our   
mental possibilities4  ,myers' manner of
 apprehending the problem of the        
,subliminal shows itself fruitful in    
every possible direction4  ,while       
official science practically refuses to 
attend to ,subliminal phenomena1 the    
circles which do attend to them treat   
them with a respect altogether too      
undiscriminating1--every ,subliminal    
deliverance must be an oracle4  ,the    
result is that there is no basis of     
intercourse between those who best know 
the facts and those who are most        
competent to discuss them4  ,myers      
immediately establishes a basis by his  
remark that in so far as they have to   
use the same organism1 with its         
preformed avenues of expression--what   
may be very different strata of the     
,subliminal are condemned in advance to 

manifest themselves in similar ways4    
,this might account for the great       
generic likeness of so many automatic   
performances1 while their different     
starting-points behind the threshold    
might account for certain differences in
 them4  ,some of them1 namely1 seem to  
include elements of super-normal        
knowledge2 others to show a curious     
subconscious mania for personation and  
deception2 others again to be mere      
drivel4  ,but ,myers' conception of     
various strata or levels in the         
,subliminal sets us to analyzing them   
all from a new point of view4  ,the word
 ,subliminal for him denotes only a     
region1 with possibly the most          
heterogeneous contents4  ,much of the   
content is certainly rubbish1 matter    
that ,myers calls dissolutive1 stuff    
that dreams are made of1 fragments of   
lapsed memory1 mechanical effects of    
habit and ordinary suggestion2 some     
belongs to a middle region where a      
strange manufacture of inner romances   

perpetually goes on2 finally1 some of   
the content appears superiorly and      
subtly perceptive4  ,but each has to    
appeal to us by the same channels and to
 use organs partly trained to their     
performance by messages from the other  
levels4  ,under these conditions what   
could be more natural to expect than a  
confusion which ,myers' suggestion would
 then have been the first indispensable 
step towards finally clearing away4     
,once more1 then1 whatever be the upshot
 of the patient work required here1     
,myers' resourceful intellect has       
certainly done a service to psychology4 
,i said a while ago that his intellect  
was not by nature philosophic in the    
narrower sense of being that of a       
logician4  ,in the broader sense of     
being a man of wide scientific          
imagination1 ,myers was most eminently a
 philosopher4  ,he has shown this by his
 unusually daring grasp of the principle
 of evolution1 and by the wonderful way 
in which he has worked out suggestions  

of mental evolution by means of         
biological analogies4 ,these analogies  
are1 if anything1 too profuse and       
dazzling in his pages2 but his          
conception of mental evolution is more  
radical than anything yet considered by 
psychologists as possible4  ,it is      
absolutely original2 and1 being so      
radical1 it becomes one of those        
hypotheses which1 once propounded1 can  
never be forgotten1 but sooner or later 
have to be worked out and submitted in  
every way to criticism and verification4
  ,the corner-stone of his conception is
 the fact that consciousness has no     
essential unity4  ,it aggregates and    
dissipates1 and what we call normal     
consciousness1--the ,human ,mind of     
classic psychology1--is not even        
typical1 but only one case out of       
thousands4  ,slight organic alterations1
 intoxications1 and auto-intoxications1 
give supraliminal forms completely      
different1 and the subliminal region    
seems to have laws in many respects     

peculiar4  ,myers thereupon makes the   
suggestion that the whole system of     
consciousness studied by the classic    
psychology is only an extract from a    
larger total1 being a part told-off1 as 
it were1 to do service in the           
adjustments of our physical organism to 
the world of nature4  ,this extract1    
aggregated and personified for this     
particular purpose1 has1 like all       
evolving things1 a variety of           
peculiarities4  ,having evolved1 it may 
also dissolve1 and in dreams1 hysteria1 
and divers forms of degeneration it     
seems to do so4  ,this is a retrograde  
process of separation in a consciousness
 of which the unity was once effected4  
,but again the consciousness may follow 
the opposite course and integrate still 
farther1 or evolve by growing into yet  
untried directions4  ,in veridical      
automatisms it actually seems to do so4 
,it drops some of its usual modes of    
increase1 its ordinary use of the       
senses1 for example1 and lays hold of   

bits of information which1 in ways that 
we cannot even follow conjecturally1    
leak into it by way of the ,subliminal4 
,the ulterior source of a certain part  
of this information 7limited and        
perverted as it always is by the        
organism's idiosyncrasies in the way of 
transmission and expression7 ,myers     
thought he could reasonably trace to    
departed human intelligence1 or its     
existing equivalent4  ,i pretend to no  
opinion on this point1 for ,i have as   
yet studied the evidence with so little 
critical care that ,myers was always    
surprised at my negligence4  ,i can     
therefore speak with detachment from    
this question and1 as a mere empirical  
psychologist1 of ,myers' general        
evolutionary conception4  ,as such a    
psychologist ,i feel sure that the      
latter is a hypothesis of first-rate    
philosophic importance4  ,it is based1  
of course1 on his conviction of the     
extent of the ,subliminal1 and will     
stand or fall as that is verified or    

not2 but whether it stand or fall1 it   
looks to me like one of those sweeping  
ideas by which the scientific researches
 of an entire generation are often      
moulded4  ,it would not be surprising if
 it proved such a leading idea in the   
investigation of the near future2 for in
 one shape or another1 the ,subliminal  
has come to stay with us1 and the only  
possible course to take henceforth is   
radically and thoroughly to explore its 
significance4   ,looking back from      
,frederic ,myers' vision of vastness in 
the field of psychological research upon
 the programme as most academic         
psychologists frame it1 one must confess
 that its limitation at their hands     
seems not only implausible1 but in      
truth1 a little ridiculous4  ,even with 
brutes and madmen1 even with hysterics  
and hypnotics admitted as the academic  
psychologists admit them1 the official  
outlines of the subject are far too neat
 to stand in the light of analogy with  
the rest of ,nature4  ,the ultimates of 

,nature1--her simple elements1 it there 
be such1--may indeed combine in definite
 proportions and follow classic laws of 
architecture2 but her proximates1 in her
 phenomena as we immediately experience 
them1 ,nature is everywhere gothic1 not 
classic4  ,she forms a real jungle1     
where all things are provisional1       
half-fitted to each other1 and untidy4  
,when we add such a complex kind of     
subliminal region as ,myers believed in 
to the official region1 we restore the  
analogy2 and1 though we may be mistaken 
in much detail1 in a general way1 at    
least1 we become plausible4 ,in         
comparison with ,myers' way of attacking
 the question of immortality in         
particular1 the official way is         
certainly so far from the mark as to be 
almost preposterous4  ,it assumes that  
when our ordinary consciousness goes    
out1 the only alternative surviving kind
 of consciousness that could be possible
 is abstract mentality1 living on       
spiritual truth1 and communicating ideal

 wisdom--in short1 the whole classic    
platonizing ,sunday-school conception4  
,failing to get that sort of thing when 
it listens to reports about mediums1 it 
denies that there can be anything4      
,myers approaches the subject with no   
such a priori requirement4  ,if he finds
 any positive indication of spirits1 he 
records it1 whatever it may be1 and is  
willing to fit his conception to the    
facts1 however grotesque the latter may 
appear1 rather than to blot out the     
facts to suit his conception4  ,but1 as 
was long ago said by our collaborator1  
,mr4 ,canning ,schiller1 in words more  
effective than any ,i can write1 if any 
conception should be blotted out by     
serious lovers of ,nature1 it surely    
ought to be classic academic            
,sunday-school conception4  ,if anything
 is unlikely in a world like this1 it is
 that the next adjacent thing to the    
mere surface-show of our experience     
should be the realm of eternal essences1
 of platonic ideas1 of crystal          

battlements1 of absolute significance4  
,but whether they be animists or        
associationists1 a supposition something
 like this is still the assumption of   
our usual psychologists4  ,it comes from
 their being for the most part          
philosophers1 in the technical sense1   
and from their showing the weakness of  
that profession for logical             
abstractions4  ,myers was primarily a   
lover of life and not of abstractions4  
,he loved human life1 human persons1 and
 their peculiarities4  ,so he could     
easily admit the possibility of level   
beyond level of perfectly concrete      
experience1 all queer and cactus-like   
though it might be1 before we touch the 
absolute1 or reach the eternal essences4
  ,behind the minute anatomists and the 
physiologists1 with their metallic      
instruments1 there have always stood the
 out-door naturalists with their eyes   
and love of concrete nature4  ,the      
former call the latter superficial1 but 
there is something wrong about your     

laboratory-biologist who has no sympathy
 with living animals4  ,in psychology   
there is a similar distinction4  ,some  
psychologists are fascinated by the     
varieties of mind in living action1     
others by the dissecting out1 whether by
 logical analysis or by brass           
instruments1 of whatever elementary     
mental processes may be there4  ,myers  
must decidedly be placed in the former  
class1 though his powerful use of       
analogy enabled him also to do work     
after the fashion of the latter4  ,he   
loved human nature as ,cuvier and       
,agassiz loved animal nature2 in his    
view1 as in their view1 the subject     
formed a vast living picture4  ,whether 
his name will have in psychology as     
honorable a place as their names have   
gained in the sister science1 will      
depend on whether future inquirers shall
 adopt or reject his theories2 and the  
rapidity with which their decision      
shapes itself will depend largely on the
 vigor with which this ,society         

continues its labor in his absence4  ,it
 is at any rate a possibility1 and ,i am
 disposed to think it a probability1    
that ,frederic ,myers will always be    
remembered in psychology as the pioneer 
who staked out a vast tract of mental   
wilderness and planted the flag of      
genuine science upon it4  ,he was an    
enormous collector4  ,he introduced for 
the first time comparison1              
classification1 and serial order into   
the peculiar kind of fact which he      
collected4  ,he was a genius at         
perceiving analogies2 he was fertile in 
hypotheses2 and as far as conditions    
allowed it in this meteoric region1 he  
relied on verification4  ,such          
advantages are of no avail1 however1 if 
one has struck into a false road from   
the outset4  ,but should it turn out    
that ,frederic ,myers has really hit the
 right road by his divining instinct1 it
 is certain that1 like the names of     
others who have been wise1 his name will
 keep an honorable place in scientific  

history4    #a ,written for a meeting of
 the ,society for ,psychical ,research  
held after the death of ,frederic ,myers
 and first published in the ,society's  
,proceedings1 ,part ,,xlii1 ,page #ag   
7#aija74     ,,viii  ,,final            
,,impressions ,,of ,a ,,psychical       
,,researcher#a  ,the late ,professor    
,henry ,sidgwick was celebrated for the 
rare mixture of ardor and critical      
judgment which his character exhibited4 
,the liberal heart which he possessed   
had to work with an intellect which     
acted destructively on almost every     
particular object of belief that was    
offered to its acceptance4  ,a quarter  
of a century ago1 scandalized by the    
chaotic state of opinion regarding the  
phenomena now called by the rather      
ridiculous name of psychic--phenomena1  
of which the supply reported seems      
inexhaustible1 but which scientifically 
trained minds mostly refuse to look     
at--he established1 along with          
,professor ,barrett1 ,frederic ,myers   

and ,edmund ,gurney1 the ,society for   
,psychical ,research4 ,these men hoped  
that if the material were treated       
rigorously1 and1 as far as possible     
experimentally1 objective truth would be
 elicited1 and the subject rescued from 
sentimentalism on the one side and      
dogmatizing ignorance on the other4     
,like all founders1 ,sidgwick hoped for 
a certain promptitude of result2 and ,i 
heard him say1 the year before his      
death1 that if anyone had told him at   
the outset that after twenty years he   
would be in the same identical state of 
doubt and balance that he started with1 
he would have deemed the prophecy       
incredible4  ,it appeared impossible    
that that amount of handling evidence   
should bring so little finality of      
decision4  ,my own experience has been  
similar to ,sidgwick's4  ,for           
twenty-five years ,i have been in touch 
with the literature of psychical        
research1 and have had acquaintance with
 numerous researchers4  ,i have also    

spent a good many hours 7though far     
fewer than ,i ought to have spent7 in   
witnessing 7or trying to witness7       
phenomena4  ,yet ,i am theoretically no 
further than ,i was at the beginning2   
and ,i confess that at times ,i have    
been tempted to believe that the        
,creator has eternally intended this    
department of nature to remain baffling1
 to prompt our curiosities and hopes and
 suspicions all in equal measure1 so    
that1 although ghosts and clairvoyances1
 and raps and messages from spirits1 are
 always seeming to exist and can never  
be fully explained away1 they also can  
never be susceptible of full            
corroboration4  ,the peculiarity of the 
case is just that there are so many     
sources of possible deception in most of
 the observations that the whole lot of 
them may be worthless1 and yet that in  
comparatively few cases can aught more  
fatal than this vague general           
possibility of error be pleaded against 
the record4  ,science meanwhile needs   

something more than bare possibilities  
to build upon2 so your genuinely        
scientific inquirer--,i don't mean your 
ignoramus scientist--has to remain      
unsatisfied4  ,it is hard to believe1   
however1 that the ,creator has really   
put any big array of phenomena into the 
world merely to defy and mock our       
scientific tendencies2 so my deeper     
belief is that we psychical researchers 
have been too precipitate with our      
hopes1 and that we must expect to mark  
progress not by quarter-centuries1 but  
by half-centuries or whole centuries4   
,i am strengthened in this belief by my 
impression that just at this moment a   
faint but distinct step forward is being
 taken by competent opinion in these    
matters4  ,physical phenomena 7movements
 of matter without contact1 lights1     
hands and faces materialized1 etc47 have
 been one of the most baffling regions  
of the general field 7or perhaps one of 
the least baffling prima facie1 so      
certain and great has been the part     

played by fraud in their production72   
yet even here the balance of testimony  
seems slowly to be inclining towards    
admitting the supernaturalist view4     
,eusapia ,paladino1 the ,neapolitan     
medium1 has been under observation for  
twenty years or more4  ,schiaparelli1   
the astronomer1 and ,lombroso were the  
first scientific men to be converted by 
her performances4  ,since then          
innumerable men of scientific standing  
have seen her1 including many psychic   
experts4  ,every one agrees that she    
cheats in the most barefaced manner     
whenever she gets an opportunity4  ,the 
,cambridge experts1 with the ,sidgwicks 
and ,richard ,hodgson at their head1    
rejected her in toto on that account4   
,yet her credit has steadily risen1 and 
now her last converts are the eminent   
psychiatrist1 ,morselli1 the eminent    
physiologist1 ,botazzi1 and our own     
psychical researcher1 ,carrington1 whose
 book on ,the ,physical ,phenomena of   
,spiritualism 7against them rather67    

makes his conquest strategically        
important4  ,if ,mr4 ,podmore1 hitherto 
the prosecuting attorney of the ,s4 ,p4 
,r41 so far as physical phenomena are   
concerned becomes converted also1 we may
 indeed sit up and look around us4      
,getting a good health bill from        
,science1 ,eusapia will then throw      
retrospective credit on ,home and       
,stainton ,moses1 ,florence ,cook       
7,prof4 ,crookes' medium71 and all      
similar wonder-workers4  ,the balance of
 presumptions will be changed in favor  
of genuineness being possible at least  
in all reports of this particularly     
crass and low type of supernatural      
phenomena4   ,not long after ,darwin's  
,origin of ,species appeared ,i was     
studying with that excellent anatomist  
and man1 ,jeffries ,wyman1 at ,harvard4 
,he was a convert1 yet so far a         
half-hesitating one1 to ,darwin's views2
 but ,i heard him make a remark that    
applies well to the subject ,i now write
 about4  ,when1 he said1 a theory gets  

propounded over and over again1 coming  
up afresh after each time orthodox      
criticism has buried it1 and each time  
seeming solider and harder to abolish1  
you may be sure that there is truth in  
it4  ,oken and ,lamarck and ,chambers   
had been triumphantly despatched and    
buried1 but here was ,darwin making the 
very same heresy seem only more         
plausible4  ,how often has ,science     
killed off all spook philosophy1 and    
laid ghosts and raps and telepathy away 
underground as so much popular delusion4
  ,yet never before were these things   
offered us so voluminously1 and never in
 such authentic-seeming shape or with   
such good credentials4  ,the tide seems 
steadily to be rising1 in spite of all  
the expedients of scientific orthodoxy4 
,it is hard not to suspect that here may
 be something different from a mere     
chapter in human gullibility4  ,it may  
be a genuine realm of natural phenomena4
  ,falsus in uno1 falsus in omnibus1    
once a cheat1 always a cheat1 such has  

been the motto of the ,english psychical
 researchers in dealing with mediums4   
,i am disposed to think that1 as a      
matter of policy1 it has been wise4     
,tactically1 it is far better to believe
 much too little than a little too much2
 and the exceptional credit attaching to
 the row of volumes of the ,s4 ,p4 ,r4's
 ,proceedings1 is due to the fixed      
intention of the editors to proceed very
 slowly4  ,better a little belief tied  
fast1 better a small investment salted  
down1 than a mass of comparative        
insecurity4  ,but1 however wise as a    
policy the ,s4 ,p4 ,r4's maxim may have 
been1 as a test of truth1 ,i believe it 
to be almost irrelevant4  ,in most      
things human the accusation of          
deliberate fraud and falsehood is       
grossly superficial4  ,man's character  
is too sophistically mixed for the      
alternative of honest or dishonest to be
 a sharp one4  ,scientific men          
themselves will cheat--at public        
lectures--rather than let experiments   

obey their well-known tendency towards  
failure4  ,i have heard of a lecturer on
 physics1 who had taken over the        
apparatus of the previous incumbent1    
consulting him about a certain machine  
intended to show that1 however the      
peripheral parts of it might be         
agitated1 its centre of gravity remained
 immovable4  ,it will wobble1 he        
complained4 ,well1 said the predecessor1
 apologetically1 to tell the truth1     
whenever ,i used that machine ,i found  
it advisable to drive a nail through the
 centre of gravity4  ,i once saw a      
distinguished physiologist1 now dead1   
cheat most shamelessly at a public      
lecture1 at the expense of a poor       
rabbit1 and all for the sake of being   
able to make a cheap joke about its     
being an ,american rabbit--for no other1
 he said1 could survive such a wound as 
he pretended to have given it4  ,to     
compare small men with great1 ,i have   
myself cheated shamelessly4  ,in the    
early days of the ,sanders ,theater at  

,harvard1 ,i once had charge of a heart 
on the physiology of which ,professor   
,newell ,martin was giving a popular    
lecture4  ,this heart1 which belonged to
 a turtle1 supported an index-straw     
which threw a moving shadow1 greatly    
enlarged1 upon the screen1 while the    
heart pulsated4  ,when certain nerves   
were stimulated1 the lecturer said1 the 
heart would act in certain ways which he
 described4  ,but the poor heart was too
 far gone and1 although it stopped duly 
when the nerve of arrest was excited1   
that was the final end of its life's    
tether4  ,presiding over the            
performance1 ,i was terrified at the    
fiasco1 and found myself suddenly acting
 like one of those military geniuses who
 on the field of battle convert disaster
 into victory4  ,there was no time for  
deliberation2 so1 with my forefinger    
under a part of the straw that cast no  
shadow1 ,i found myself impulsively and 
automatically imitating the rhythmical  
movements which my colleague had        

prophesied the heart would undergo4  ,i 
kept the experiment from failing2 and   
not only saved my colleague 7and the    
turtle7 from a humiliation that but for 
my presence of mind would have been     
their lot1 but ,i established in the    
audience the true view of the subject4  
,the lecturer was stating this2 and the 
misconduct of one half-dead specimen of 
heart ought not to destroy the          
impression of his words4  ,there is no  
worse lie than a truth misunderstood1 is
 a maxim which ,i have heard ascribed to
 a former venerated ,president of       
,harvard4 ,the heart's failure would    
have been misunderstood by the audience 
and given the lie to the lecturer4  ,it 
was hard enough to make them understand 
the subject anyhow2 so that even now as 
,i write in cool blood ,i am tempted to 
think that ,i acted quite correctly4  ,i
 was acting for the larger truth1 at any
 rate1 however automatically2 and my    
sense of this was probably what         
prevented the more pedantic and literal 

part of my conscience from checking the 
action of my sympathetic finger4  ,to   
this day the memory of that critical    
emergency has made me feel charitable   
towards all mediums who make phenomena  
come in one way when they won't come    
easily in another4  ,on the principles  
of the ,s4 ,p4 ,r41 my conduct on that  
one occasion ought to discredit         
everything ,i ever do1 everything1 for  
example1 ,i may write in this           
article1--a manifestly unjust           
conclusion4  ,fraud1 conscious or       
unconscious1 seems ubiquitous throughout
 the range of physical phenomena of     
spiritism1 and false pretence1          
prevarication and fishing for clues are 
ubiquitous in the mental manifestations 
of mediums4  ,if it be not everywhere   
fraud simulating reality1 one is tempted
 to say1 then the reality 7if any       
reality there be7 has the bad luck of   
being fated everywhere to simulate      
fraud4  ,the suggestion of humbug seldom
 stops1 and mixes itself with the best  

manifestations4 ,mrs4 ,piper's control1 
,rector1 is a most impressive personage1
 who discerns in an extraordinary degree
 his sitter's inner needs1 and is       
capable of giving elevated counsel to   
fastidious and critical minds4 ,yet in  
many respects he is an arrant           
humbug--such he seems to me at          
least--pretending to a knowledge and    
power to which he has no title1         
nonplussed by contradiction1 yielding to
 suggestion1 and covering his tracks    
with plausible excuses4  ,now the       
non-researching mind looks upon such    
phenomena simply according to their     
face-pretension and never thinks of     
asking what they may signify below the  
surface4  ,since they profess for the   
most part to be revealers of spirit     
life1 it is either as being absolutely  
that1 or as being absolute frauds1 that 
they are judged4  ,the result is an     
inconceivably shallow state of public   
opinion on the subject4  ,one set of    
persons1 emotionally touched at hearing 

the names of their loved ones given1 and
 consoled by assurances that they are   
happy1 accept the revelation1 and       
consider spiritualism beautiful4  ,more 
hard-headed subjects1 disgusted by the  
revelation's contemptible contents1     
outraged by the fraud1 and prejudiced   
beforehand against all spirits1 high or 
low1 avert their minds from what they   
call such rot or bosh entirely4  ,thus  
do two opposite sentimentalisms divide  
opinion between them6  ,a good          
expression of the scientific state of   
mind occurs in ,huxley's ,life and      
,letters3  ,i regret1 he writes1 that ,i
 am unable to accept the invitation of  
the ,committee of the ,dialectical      
,society4 4 4 4  ,i take no interest in 
the subject4  ,the only case of         
',spiritualism' ,i have ever had the    
opportunity of examining into for myself
 was as gross an imposture as ever came 
under my notice4  ,but supposing these  
phenomena to be genuine--they do not    
interest me4  ,if anybody would endow me

 with the faculty of listening to the   
chatter of old women and curates in the 
nearest provincial town1 ,i should      
decline the privilege1 having better    
things to do4  ,and if the folk in the  
spiritual world do not talk more wisely 
and sensibly than their friends report  
them to do1 ,i put them in the same     
category4  ,the only good that ,i can   
see in the demonstration of the ',truth 
of ,spiritualism' is to furnish an      
additional argument against suicide4    
,better live a crossing-sweeper1 than   
die and be made to talk twaddle by a    
'medium' hired at a guinea a ,seance4 #b
  ,obviously the mind of the excellent  
,huxley has here but two whole-souled   
categories namely revelation or         
imposture1 to apperceive the case by4   
,sentimental reasons bar revelation out1
 for the messages1 he thinks1 are not   
romantic enough for that2 fraud exists  
anyhow2 therefore the whole thing is    
nothing but imposture4  ,the odd point  
is that so few of those who talk in this

 way realize that they and the          
spiritists are using the same major     
premise and differing only in the minor4
  ,the major premise is3 ,any           
spirit-revelation must be romantic4 ,the
 minor of the spiritist is3 ,this is    
romantic2 that of the ,huxley an is3    
this is dingy twaddle--whence their     
opposite conclusions6  ,meanwhile the   
first thing that anyone learns who      
attends seriously to these phenomena is 
that their causation is far too complex 
for our feelings about what is or is not
 romantic enough to be spiritual to     
throw any light upon it4  ,the causal   
factors must be carefully distinguished 
and traced through series1 from their   
simplest to their strongest forms1      
before we can begin to understand the   
various resultants in which they issue4 
,myers and ,gurney began this work1 the 
one by his serial study of the various  
sorts of automatism1 sensory and motor1 
the other by his experimental proofs    
that a split-off consciousness may abide

 after a post-hypnotic suggestion has   
been given4  ,here we have subjective   
factors2 but are not transsubjective or 
objective forces also at work8          
,veridical messages1 apparitions1       
movements without contact1 seem prima   
facie to be such4  ,it was a good stroke
 on ,gurney's part to construct a theory
 of apparitions which brought the       
subjective and the objective factors    
into harmonious co-operation4  ,i doubt 
whether this telepathic theory of       
,gurney's will hold along the whole line
 of apparitions to which he applied it1 
but it is unquestionable that some      
theory of that mixed type is required   
for the explanation of all mediumistic  
phenomena2 and that when all the        
psychological factors and elements      
involved have been told off--and they   
are many--the question still forces     
itself upon us3 ,are these all1 or are  
there indications of any residual forces
 acting on the subject from beyond1 or  
of any meta-psychic faculty 7to use     

,richet's useful term7 exerted by him8  
,this is the problem that requires real 
expertness1 and this is where the simple
 sentimentalisms of the spiritist and   
scientist leave us in the lurch         
completely4  ,psychics form indeed a    
special branch of education1 in which   
experts are only gradually becoming     
developed4  ,the phenomena are as       
massive and wide-spread as is anything  
in ,nature1 and the study of them is as 
tedious1 repellent and undignified4  ,to
 reject it for its unromantic character 
is like rejecting bacteriology because  
penicillium glaucum grows on horse-dung 
and bacterium termo lives in            
putrefaction4 ,scientific men have long 
ago ceased to think of the dignity of   
the materials they work in4  ,when      
imposture has been checked off as far as
 possible1 when chance coincidence has  
been allowed for1 when opportunities for
 normal knowledge on the part of the    
subject have been noted1 and skill in   
fishing and following clues unwittingly 

furnished by the voice or face of       
bystanders have been counted in1 those  
who have the fullest acquaintance with  
the phenomena admit that in good mediums
 there is a residuum of knowledge       
displayed that can only be called       
supernormal3 the medium taps some source
 of information not open to ordinary    
people4  ,myers used the word telepathy 
to indicate that the sitter's own       
thoughts or feelings may be thus        
directly tapped4  ,mrs4 ,sidgwick has   
suggested that if living minds can be   
thus tapped telepathically1 so possibly 
may the minds of spirits be similarly   
tapped--if spirits there be4  ,on this  
view we should have one distinct theory 
of the performances of a typical        
test-medium4  ,they would be all        
originally due to an odd tendency to    
personate1 found in her dream life as it
 expresses itself in trance4  ,most of  
us reveal such a tendency whenever we   
handle a ouija-board or a planchet1 or  
let ourselves write automatically with a

 pencil4  ,the result is a control1 who 
purports to be speaking2 and all the    
resources of the automatist1 including  
his or her trance-faculty of telepathy  
are called into play in building this   
fictitious personage out plausibly4  ,on
 such a view of the control1 the        
medium's will to personate runs the     
whole show2 and if spirits be involved  
in it at all1 they are passive beings1  
stray bits of whose memory she is able  
to seize and use for her purposes1      
without the spirit being any more aware 
of it than the sitter is aware of it    
when his own mind is similarly tapped4  
,this is one possible way of            
interpreting a certain type of psychical
 phenomenon4  ,it uses psychological as 
well as spiritual factors1 and quite    
obviously it throws open for us far more
 questions than it answers1 questions   
about our subconscious constitution and 
its curious tendency to humbug1 about   
the telepathic faculty1 and about the   
possibility of an existent spirit-world4

  ,i do not instance this theory to     
defend it1 but simply to show what      
complicated hypotheses one is inevitably
 led to consider1 the moment one looks  
at the facts in their complexity and    
turns one's back on the nave alternative
 of revelation or imposture1 which is as
 far as either spiritist thought or     
ordinary scientist thought goes4  ,the  
phenomena are endlessly complex in their
 factors1 and they are so little        
understood as yet that off-hand         
judgments1 whether of spirits or of bosh
 are the one as silly as the other4     
,when we complicate the subject still   
farther by considering what connection  
such things as rappings1 apparitions1   
poltergeists1 spirit-photographs1 and   
materializations may have with it1 the  
bosh end of the scale gets heavily      
loaded1 it is true1 but your genuine    
inquirer still is loath to give up4  ,he
 lets the data collect1 and bides his   
time4  ,he believes that bosh is no more
 an ultimate element in ,nature1 or a   

really explanatory category in human    
life than dirt is in chemistry4  ,every 
kind of bosh has its own factors and    
laws2 and patient study will bring them 
definitely to light4  ,the only way to  
rescue the pure bosh view of the matter 
is one which has sometimes appealed to  
my own fancy1 but which ,i imagine few  
readers will seriously adopt4  ,if1     
namely1 one takes the theory of         
evolution radically1 one ought to apply 
it not only to the rock-strata1 the     
animals and the plants but to the stars1
 to the chemical elements1 and to the   
laws of nature4  ,there must have been a
 far-off antiquity1 one is then tempted 
to suppose1 when things were really     
chaotic4  ,little by little1 out of all 
the haphazard possibilities of that     
time1 a few connected things and habits 
arose1 and the rudiments of regular     
performance began4  ,every variation in 
the way of law and order added itself to
 this nucleus1 which inevitably grew    
more considerable as history went on2   

while the aberrant and inconstant       
variations1 not being similarly         
preserved1 disappeared from being1      
wandered off as unrelated vagrants1 or  
else remained so imperfectly connected  
with the part of the world that had     
grown regular as only to manifest their 
existence by occasional lawless         
intrusions1 like those which psychic    
phenomena now make into our             
scientifically organized world4  ,on    
such a view1 these phenomena ought to   
remain pure bosh forever1 that is1 they 
ought to be forever intractable to      
intellectual methods1 because they      
should not yet be organized enough in   
themselves to follow any laws4  ,wisps  
and shreds of the original chaos1 they  
would be connected enough with the      
cosmos to affect its periphery every now
 and then1 as by a momentary whiff or   
touch or gleam1 but not enough ever to  
be followed up and hunted down and      
bagged4  ,their relation to the cosmos  
would be tangential solely4  ,looked at 

dramatically1 most occult phenomena make
 just this sort of impression4  ,they   
are inwardly as incoherent as they are  
outwardly wayward and fitful4  ,if they 
express anything1 it is pure bosh1 pure 
discontinuity1 accident1 and            
disturbance1 with no law apparent but to
 interrupt1 and no purpose but to       
baffle4  ,they seem like stray vestiges 
of that primordial irrationality1 from  
which all our rationalities have been   
evolved4  ,to settle dogmatically into  
this bosh-view would save labor1 but it 
would go against too many intellectual  
prepossessions to be adopted save as a  
last resort of despair4  ,your psychical
 researcher therefore bates no jot of   
hope1 and has faith that when we get our
 data numerous enough1 some sort of     
rational treatment of them will succeed4
  ,when ,i hear good people say 7as they
 often say1 not without show of reason71
 that dabbling in such phenomena reduces
 us to a sort of jelly1 disintegrates   
the critical faculties1 liquifies the   

character1 and makes of one a           
gobe-mouche generally1 ,i console myself
 by thinking of my friends ,frederic    
,myers and ,richard ,hodgson4  ,these   
men lived exclusively for psychical     
research1 and it converted both to      
spiritism4 ,hodgson would have been a   
man among men anywhere2 but ,i doubt    
whether under any other baptism he would
 have been that happy1 sober and        
righteous form of energy which his face 
proclaimed him in his later years1 when 
heart and head alike were wholly        
satisfied by his occupation4  ,myers'   
character also grew stronger in every   
particular for his devotion to the same 
inquirings4  ,brought up on literature  
and sentiment1 something of a courtier1 
passionate1 disdainful1 and impatient   
naturally1 he was made over again from  
the day when he took up psychical       
research seriously4  ,he became learned 
in science1 circumspect1 democratic in  
sympathy1 endlessly patient1 and above  
all1 happy4  ,the fortitude of his last 

hours touched the heroic1 so completely 
were the atrocious sufferings of his    
body cast into insignificance by his    
interest in the cause he lived for4     
,when a man's pursuit gradually makes   
his face shine and grow handsome1 you   
may be sure it is a worthy one4  ,both  
,hodgson and ,myers kept growing ever   
handsomer and stronger-looking4  ,such  
personal examples will convert no one1  
and of course they ought not to4  ,nor  
do ,i seek at all in this article to    
convert any one to belief that psychical
 research is an important branch of     
science4  ,to do that1 ,i should have to
 quote evidence2 and those for whom the 
volumes of ,s4 ,p4 ,r4 ,proceedings     
already published count for nothing     
would remain in their dogmatic slumber1 
though one rose from the dead4 ,no1 not 
to convert readers1 but simply to put my
 own state of mind upon record publicly 
is the purpose of my present writing4   
,some one said to me a short time ago   
that after my twenty-five years of      

dabbling in ,psychics1 it would be      
rather shameful were ,i unable to state 
any definite conclusions whatever as a  
consequence4  ,i had to agree2 so ,i now
 proceed to take up the challenge and   
express such convictions as have been   
engendered in me by that length of      
experience1 be the same true or false   
ones4  ,i may be dooming myself to the  
pit in the eyes of better-judging       
posterity2 ,i may be raising myself to  
honor2 ,i am willing to take the risk1  
for what ,i shall write is my truth1 as 
,i now see it4   ,i began this article  
by confessing myself baffled4  ,i am    
baffled1 as to spirit-return1 and as to 
many other special problems4  ,i am also
 constantly baffled as to what to think 
of this or that particular story1 for   
the sources of error in any one         
observation are seldom fully knowable4  
,but weak sticks make strong faggots2   
and when the stories fall into          
consistent sorts that point each in a   
definite direction1 one gets a sense of 

being in presence of genuinely natural  
types of phenomena4  ,as to there being 
such real natural types of phenomena    
ignored by orthodox science1 ,i am not  
baffled at all1 for ,i am fully         
convinced of it4  ,one cannot get       
demonstrative proof here4  ,one has to  
follow one's personal sense1 which1 of  
course1 is liable to err1 of the        
dramatic probabilities of nature4  ,our 
critics here obey their sense of        
dramatic probability as much as we do4  
,take raps for example1 and the whole   
business of objects moving without      
contact4  ,nature1 thinks the scientific
 man1 is not so unutterably silly4  ,the
 cabinet1 the darkness1 the tying1      
suggest a sort of human rat-hole life   
exclusively and swindling is for him the
 dramatically sufficient explanation4   
,it probably is1 in an indefinite       
majority of instances2 yet it is to me  
dramatically improbable that the        
swindling should not have accreted round
 some originally genuine nucleus4  ,if  

we look at human imposture as a historic
 phenomenon1 we find it always          
imitative4  ,one swindler imitates a    
previous swindler1 but the first        
swindler of that kind imitated some one 
who was honest4  ,you can no more create
 an absolutely new trick than you can   
create a new word without any previous  
basis4--,you don't know how to go about 
it4  ,try1 reader1 yourself1 to invent  
an unprecedented kind of physical       
phenomenon of spiritualism4 ,when ,i    
try1 ,i find myself mentally turning    
over the regular medium-stock1 and      
thinking how ,i might improve some item4
  ,this being the dramatically probable 
human way1 ,i think differently of the  
whole type1 taken collectively1 from the
 way in which ,i may think of the single
 instance4  ,i find myself believing    
that there is something in these never  
ending reports of physical phenomena1   
although ,i have n't yet the least      
positive notion of the something4  ,it  
becomes to my mind simply a very worthy 

problem for investigation4  ,either ,i  
or the scientist is of course a fool1   
with our opposite views of probability  
here2 and ,i only wish he might feel the
 liability1 as cordially as ,i do1 to   
pertain to both of us4  ,i fear ,i look 
on ,nature generally with more          
charitable eyes than his1 though perhaps
 he would pause if he realized as ,i do1
 how vast the fraudulency is which      
inconsistency he must attribute to her4 
,nature is brutal enough1 ,heaven knows2
 but no one yet has held her non-human  
side to be dishonest1 and even in the   
human sphere deliberate deceit is far   
rarer than the classic intellect1 with  
its few and rigid categories1 was ready 
to acknowledge4  ,there is a hazy       
penumbra in us all where lying and      
delusion meet1 where passion rules      
beliefs as well as conduct1 and where   
the term scoundrel does not clear up    
everything to the depths as it did for  
our forefathers4  ,the first automatic  
writing ,i ever saw was forty years ago4

  ,i unhesitatingly thought of it as    
deceit1 although it contained vague     
elements of supernormal knowledge4      
,since then ,i have come to see in      
automatic writing one example of a      
department of human activity as vast as 
it is enigmatic4 ,every sort of person  
is liable to it1 or to something        
equivalent to it2 and whoever encourages
 it in himself finds himself personating
 someone else1 either signing what he   
writes by fictitious name1 or1 spelling 
out1 by ouija-board or table-tips1      
messages from the departed4  ,our       
subconscious region seems1 as a rule1 to
 be dominated either by a crazy will to 
make-believe1 or by some curious        
external force impelling us to          
personation4  ,the first difference     
between the psychical researcher and the
 inexpert person is that the former     
realizes the commonness and typicality  
of the phenomenon here1 while the       
latter1 less informed1 thinks it so rare
 as to be unworthy of attention4  ,i    

wish to go on record for the commonness4
  ,the next thing ,i wish to go on      
record for is the presence1 in the midst
 of all the humbug1 of really           
supernormal knowledge4  ,by this ,i mean
 knowledge that cannot be traced to the 
ordinary sources of information--the    
senses namely1 of the automatist4  ,in  
really strong mediums this knowledge    
seems to be abundant1 though it is      
usually spotty1 capricious and          
unconnected4  ,really strong mediums are
 rarities2 but when one starts with them
 and works downwards into less brilliant
 regions of the automatic life1 one     
tends to interpret many slight but odd  
coincidences with truth as possibly     
rudimentary forms of this kind of       
knowledge4  ,what is one to think of    
this queer chapter in human nature8  ,it
 is odd enough on any view4  ,if all it 
means is a preposterous and inferior    
monkey-like tendency to forge messages1 
systematically embedded in the soul of  
all of us1 it is weird2 and weirder     

still that it should then own all this  
supernormal information4  ,if on the    
other hand the supernormal information  
be the key to the phenomenon1 it ought  
to be superior2 and then how ought we to
 account for the wicked partner1 and for
 the undeniable mendacity and           
inferiority of so much of the           
performance8  ,we are thrown1 for our   
conclusions1 upon our instinctive sense 
of the dramatic probabilities of nature4
  ,my own dramatic sense tends          
instinctively to picture the situation  
as an interaction between slumbering    
faculties in the automatist's mind and a
 cosmic environment of other            
consciousness of some sort which is able
 to work upon them4 ,if there were in   
the universe a lot of diffuse           
soul-stuff1 unable of itself to get into
 consistent personal form1 or to take   
permanent possession of an organism1 yet
 always craving to do so1 it might get  
its head into the air1 parasitically1 so
 to speak1 by profiting by weak spots in

 the armor of human minds1 and slipping 
in and stirring up there the sleeping   
tendency to personate4  ,it would induce
 habits in the subconscious region of   
the mind it used thus1 and would seek   
above all things to prolong its social  
opportunities by making itself agreeable
 and plausible4  ,it would drag stray   
scraps of truth with it from the wider  
environment1 but would betray its mental
 inferiority by knowing little how to   
weave them into any important or        
significant story4  ,this1 ,i say1 is   
the dramatic view which my mind         
spontaneously takes1 and it has the     
advantage of falling into line with     
ancient human traditions4  ,the views of
 others are just as dramatic1 for the   
phenomenon is actuated by will of some  
sort anyhow1 and wills give rise to     
dramas4  ,the spiritist view1 as held by
 ,messrs4 ,hyslop and ,hodgson1 sees a  
will to communicate1 struggling through 
inconceivable layers of obstruction in  
the conditions4  ,i have heard ,hodgson 

liken the difficulties to those of two  
persons who on earth should have only   
dead-drunk servants to use as their     
messengers4  ,the scientist1 for his    
part1 sees a will to deceive1 watching  
its chance in all of us1 and able       
7possibly87 to use telepathy in its     
service4  ,which kind of will1 and how  
many kinds of will are most inherently  
probable8  ,who can say with certainty8 
,the only certainty is that the         
phenomena are enormously complex1       
especially if one includes in them such 
intellectual flights of mediumship as   
,swedenborg's1 and if one tries in any  
way to work the physical phenomena in4  
,that is why ,i personally am as yet    
neither a convinced believer in         
parasitic demons1 nor a spiritist1 nor a
 scientist1 but still remain a psychical
 researcher waiting for more facts      
before concluding4  ,out of my          
experience1 such as it is 7and it is    
limited enough7 one fixed conclusion    
dogmatically emerges1 and that is this1 

that we with our lives are like islands 
in the sea1 or like trees in the forest4
 ,the maple and the pine may whisper to 
each other with their leaves1 and       
,conanicut and ,newport hear each       
other's fog-horns4  ,but the trees also 
commingle their roots in the darkness   
underground1 and the islands also hang  
together through the ocean's bottom4    
,just so there is a continuum of cosmic 
consciousness1 against which our        
individuality builds but accidental     
fences1 and into which our several minds
 plunge as into a mother-sea or         
reservoir4  ,our normal consciousness is
 circumscribed for adaptation to our    
external earthly environment1 but the   
fence is weak in spots1 and fitful      
influences from beyond leak in1 showing 
the otherwise unverifiable common       
connection4  ,not only psychic research1
 but metaphysical philosophy1 and       
speculative biology are led in their own
 ways to look with favor on some such   
panpsychic view of the universe as this4

  ,assuming this common reservoir of    
consciousness to exist1 this bank upon  
which we all draw1 and in which so many 
of earth's memories must in some way be 
stored1 or mediums would not get at them
 as they do1 the question is1 ,what is  
its own structure8  ,what is its inner  
topography8  ,this question1 first      
squarely formulated by ,myers1 deserves 
to be called ,myers' problem by         
scientific men hereafter4  ,what are the
 conditions of individuation or         
insulation in this mother-sea8  ,to what
 tracts1 to what active systems         
functioning separately in it1 do        
personalities correspond8  ,are         
individual spirits constituted there8   
,how numerous1 and of how many          
hierarchic orders may these then be8    
,how permanent8  ,how transient8  ,and  
how confluent with one another may they 
become8  ,what again1 are the relations 
between the cosmic consciousness and    
matter8  ,are there subtler forms of    
matter which upon occasion may enter    

into functional connection with the     
individuations in the psychic sea1 and  
then1 and then only1 show               
themselves8--,so that our ordinary human
 experience1 on its material as well as 
on its mental side1 would appear to be  
only an extract from the larger         
psycho-physical world8  ,vast1 indeed1  
and difficult is the inquirer's prospect
 here1 and the most significant data for
 his purpose will probably be just these
 dingy little mediumistic facts which   
the ,huxleyan minds of our time find so 
unworthy of their attention4  ,but when 
was not the science of the future       
stirred to its conquering activities by 
the little rebellious exceptions to the 
science of the present8  ,hardly1 as    
yet1 has the surface of the facts called
 psychic begun to be scratched for      
scientific purposes4  ,it is through    
following these facts1 ,i am persuaded1 
that the greatest scientific conquests  
of the coming generation will be        
achieved4  ,khn ist das ,mhen1 herrlich 

der ,lohn6    #a ,published under the   
title ,confidences of a ,psychical      
,researcher in the ,american ,magazine1 
,october1 #aiji4  ,for a more complete  
and less popular statement of some      
theories suggested in this article see  
the last pages of a ,report on ,mrs4    
,piper's ,hodgson-,control in           
,proceedings of the ,eng4 ,society for  
,psychical ,research1 #aiji1 #dgj2 also 
printed in ,proc4 of ,am4 ,soc4 for     
,psychical ,research for the same year4 
#b ,t4 ,h4 ,huxley1 ,life and ,letters1 
,i1 #bdj4     ,,ix  ,,on ,,some ,,mental
 ,,effects ,,of ,,the ,,earthquake#a    
,when ,i departed from ,harvard for     
,stanford ,university last ,december1   
almost the last good-by ,i got was that 
of my old ,californian friend ,b3 ,i    
hope they'll give you a touch of        
earthquake while you 're there1 so that 
you may also become acquainted with that
 ,californian institution4              
,accordingly1 when1 lying awake at about
 half past five on the morning of ,april

 #ah in my little flat on the campus of 
,stanford1 ,i felt the bed begin to     
waggle1 my first consciousness was one  
of gleeful recognition of the nature of 
the movement4  ,by ,jove1 ,i said to    
myself1 here's ,b'ssold ,transcriber's  
note3 ',b's old'8 earthquake1 after all6
  ,and then1 as it went crescendo4  ,and
 a jolly good one it is1 too6 ,i said4  
,sitting up involuntarily1 and taking a 
kneeling position1 ,i was thrown down on
 my face as it went fortior shaking the 
room exactly as a terrier shakes a rat4 
,then everything that was on anything   
else slid off to the floor1 over went   
bureau and chiffonier with a crash1 as  
the fortissimo was reached2 plaster     
cracked1 an awful roaring noise seemed  
to fill the outer air1 and in an instant
 all was still again1 save the soft     
babble of human voices from far and near
 that soon began to make itself heard1  
as the inhabitants in costumes negligs  
in various degrees sought the greater   
safety of the street and yielded to the 

passionate desire for sympathetic       
communication4  ,the thing was over1 as 
,i understand the ,lick ,observatory to 
have declared1 in forty-eight seconds4  
,to me it felt as if about that length  
of time1 although ,i have heard others  
say that it seemed to them longer4  ,in 
my case1 sensation and emotion were so  
strong that little thought1 and no      
reflection or volition1 were possible in
 the short time consumed by the         
phenomenon4  ,the emotion consisted     
wholly of glee and admiration2 glee at  
the vividness which such an abstract    
idea or verbal term as earthquake could 
put on when translated into sensible    
reality and verified concretely2 and    
admiration at the way in which the frail
 little wooden house could hold itself  
together in spite of such a shaking4  ,i
 felt no trace whatever of fear2 it was 
pure delight and welcome4  ,go it1 ,i   
almost cried aloud1 and go it stronger6 
,i ran into my wife's room1 and found   
that she1 although awakened from sound  

sleep1 had felt no fear1 either4  ,of   
all the persons whom ,i later           
interrogated1 very few had felt any fear
 while the shaking lasted1 although many
 had had a turn1 as they realized their 
narrow escapes from bookcases or bricks 
from chimney-breasts falling on their   
beds and pillows an instant after they  
had left them4  ,as soon as ,i could    
think1 ,i discerned retrospectively     
certain peculiar ways in which my       
consciousness had taken in the          
phenomenon4  ,these ways were quite     
spontaneous1 and1 so to speak1          
inevitable and irresistible4  ,first1 ,i
 personified the earthquake as a        
permanent individual entity4 ,it was the
 earthquake of my friend ,b's augury1   
which had been lying low and holding    
itself back during all the intervening  
months1 in order1 on that lustrous      
,april morning1 to invade my room1 and  
energize the more intensely and         
triumphantly4  ,it came1 moreover1      
directly to me4  ,it stole in behind my 

back1 and once inside the room1 had me  
all to itself1 and could manifest itself
 convincingly4  ,animus and intent were 
never more present in any human action1 
nor did any human activity ever more    
definitely point back to a living agent 
as its source and origin4  ,all whom ,i 
consulted on the point agreed as to this
 feature in their experience4  ,it      
expressed intention1 ,it was vicious1   
,it was bent on destruction1 ,it wanted 
to show its power1 or what not4  ,to me1
 it wanted simply to manifest the full  
meaning of its name4  ,but what was this
 ,it8  ,to some1 apparently1 a vague    
demonic power2 to me an individualized  
being1 ,b's earthquake1 namely4  ,one   
informant interpreted it as the end of  
the world and the beginning of the final
 judgment4  ,this was a lady in a ,san  
,francisco hotel1 who did not think of  
its being an earthquake till after she  
had got into the street and some one had
 explained it to her4  ,she told me that
 the theological interpretation had kept

 fear from her mind1 and made her take  
the shaking calmly4  ,for science1 when 
the tensions in the earth's crust reach 
the breaking-point1 and strata fall into
 an altered equilibrium1 earthquake is  
simply the collective name of all the   
cracks and shakings and disturbances    
that happen4  ,they are the earthquake4 
,but for me the earthquake was the cause
 of the disturbances1 and the perception
 of it as a living agent was            
irresistible4  ,it had an overpowering  
dramatic convincingness4  ,i realize now
 better than ever how inevitable were   
men's earlier mythologic versions of    
such catastrophes1 and how artificial   
and against the grain of our spontaneous
 perceiving are the later habits into   
which science educates us4  ,it was     
simply impossible for untutored men to  
take earthquakes into their minds as    
anything but supernatural warnings or   
retributions4  ,a good instance of the  
way in which the tremendousness of a    
catastrophe may banish fear was given me

 by a ,stanford student4  ,he was in the
 fourth story of ,encina ,hall1 an      
immense stone dormitory building4       
,awakened from sleep1 he recognized what
 the disturbance was1 and sprang from   
the bed1 but was thrown off his feet in 
a moment1 while his books and furniture 
fell round him4  ,then with an awful1   
sinister1 grinding roar1 everything gave
 way1 and with chimneys1 floor-beams1   
walls and all1 he descended through the 
three lower stories of the building into
 the basement4  ,this is my end1 this is
 my death1 he felt2 but all the while no
 trace of fear4  ,the experience was too
 overwhelming for anything but passive  
surrender to it4  7,certain heavy       
chimneys had fallen in1 carrying the    
whole centre of the building with them47
  ,arrived at the bottom1 he found      
himself with rafters and dbris round    
him1 but not pinned in or crushed4  ,he 
saw daylight1 and crept toward it       
through the obstacles4  ,then1 realizing
 that he was in his nightgown1 and      

feeling no pain anywhere1 his first     
thought was to get back to his room and 
find some more presentable clothing4    
,the stairways at ,encina ,hall are at  
the ends of the building4  ,he made his 
way to one of them1 and went up the four
 flights1 only to find his room no      
longer extant4  ,then he noticed pain in
 his feet1 which had been injured1 and  
came down the stairs with difficulty4   
,when he talked with me ten days later  
he had been in hospital a week1 was very
 thin and pale1 and went on crutches1   
and was dressed in borrowed clothing4   
,so much for ,stanford1 where all our   
experiences seem to have been very      
similar4  ,nearly all our chimneys went 
down1 some of them disintegrating from  
top to bottom2 parlor floors were       
covered with bricks2 plaster strewed the
 floors2 furniture was everywhere upset 
and dislocated2 but the wooden dwellings
 sprang back to their original position1
 and in house after house not a window  
stuck or a door scraped at top or       

bottom4  ,wood architecture was         
triumphant6  ,everybody was excited1 but
 the excitement at first1 at any rate1  
seemed to be almost joyous4  ,here at   
last was a real earthquake after so many
 years of harmless waggle6  ,above all1 
there was an irresistible desire to talk
 about it1 and exchange experiences4    
,most people slept outdoors for several 
subsequent nights1 partly to be safer in
 case of recurrence1 but also to work   
off their emotion1 and get the full     
unusualness out of the experience4  ,the
 vocal babble of early-waking girls and 
boys from the gardens of the campus1    
mingling with the birds' songs and the  
exquisite weather1 was for three or four
 days delightful sunrise phenomenon4    
,now turn to ,san ,francisco1           
thirty-five miles distant1 from which an
 automobile ere long brought us the dire
 news of a city in ruins1 with fires    
beginning at various points1 and the    
water-supply interrupted4  ,i was       
fortunate enough to board the only train

 of cars--a very small one--that got up 
to the city2 fortunate enough also to   
escape in the evening by the only train 
that left it4  ,this gave me and my     
valiant feminine escort some four hours 
of observation4  ,my business is with   
subjective phenomena exclusively2 so ,i 
will say nothing of the material ruin   
that greeted us on every hand--the daily
 papers and the weekly journals have    
done full justice to that topic4  ,by   
midday1 when we reached the city1 the   
pall of smoke was vast and the dynamite 
detonations had begun1 but the troops1  
the police and the firemen seemed to    
have established order1 dangerous       
neighborhoods were roped off everywhere 
and picketed1 saloons closed1 vehicles  
impressed1 and every one at work who    
could work4  ,it was indeed a strange   
sight to see an entire population in the
 streets1 busy as ants in an uncovered  
ant-hill scurrying to save their eggs   
and larvae4  ,every horse1 and          
everything on wheels in the city1 from  

hucksters' wagons to automobiles1 was   
being loaded with what effects could be 
scraped together from houses which the  
advancing flames were threatening4  ,the
 sidewalks were covered with            
well-dressed men and women1 carrying    
baskets1 bundles1 valises1 or dragging  
trunks to spots of greater temporary    
safety1 soon to be dragged farther1 as  
the fire kept spreading6  ,in the safer 
quarters1 every doorstep was covered    
with the dwelling's tenants1 sitting    
surrounded with their more indispensable
 chattels1 and ready to flee at a       
minute's notice4  ,i think every one    
must have fasted on that day1 for ,i saw
 no one eating4  ,there was no          
appearance of general dismay1 and little
 of chatter or of inco-ordinated        
excitement4  ,every one seemed doggedly 
bent on achieving the job which he had  
set himself to perform2 and the faces1  
although somewhat tense and set and     
grave1 were inexpressive of emotion4  ,i
 noticed only three persons overcome1   

two ,italian women1 very poor1 embracing
 an aged fellow countrywoman1 and all   
weeping4  ,physical fatigue and         
seriousness were the only inner states  
that one could read on countenances4    
,with lights forbidden in the houses1   
and the streets lighted only by the     
conflagration1 it was apprehended that  
the criminals of ,san ,francisco would  
hold high carnival on the ensuing night4
  ,but whether they feared the          
disciplinary methods of the ,united     
,states troops1 who were visible        
everywhere1 or whether they were        
themselves solemnized by the immensity  
of the disaster1 they lay low and did   
not manifest1 either then or            
subsequently4  ,the only very           
discreditable thing to human nature that
 occurred was later1 when hundreds of   
lazy bummers found that they could keep 
camping in the parks1 and make          
alimentary storage-batteries of their   
stomachs1 even in some cases getting    
enough of the free rations in their huts

 or tents to last them well into the    
summer4  ,this charm of pauperized      
vagabondage seems all along to have been
 ,satan's most serious bait to human    
nature4  ,there was theft from the      
outset1 but confined1 ,i believe1 to    
petty pilfering4  ,cash in hand was the 
only money1 and millionaires and their  
families were no better off in this     
respect than any one4  ,whoever got a   
vehicle could have the use of it2 but   
the richest often went without1 and     
spent the first two nights on rugs on   
the bare ground1 with nothing but what  
their own arms had rescued4             
,fortunately1 those nights were dry and 
comparatively warm1 and ,californians   
are accustomed to camping conditions in 
the summer1 so suffering from exposure  
was less great than it would have been  
elsewhere4  ,by the fourth night1 which 
was rainy1 tents and huts had brought   
most campers under cover4  ,i went      
through the city again eight days later4
  ,the fire was out1 and about a quarter

 of the area stood unconsumed4  ,intact 
skyscrapers dominated the smoking level 
majestically and superbly--they and a   
few walls that had survived the         
overthrow4  ,thus has the courage of our
 architects and builders received       
triumphant vindication6  ,the inert     
elements of the population had mostly   
got away1 and those that remained seemed
 what ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells calls         
efficients4  ,sheds were already going  
up as temporary starting-points of      
business4  ,every one looked cheerful1  
in spite of the awful discontinuity of  
past and future1 with every familiar    
association with material things        
dissevered2 and the discipline and order
 were practically perfect4  ,as these   
notes of mine must be short1 ,i had     
better turn to my more generalized      
reflections4  ,two things in retrospect 
strike me especially1 and are the most  
emphatic of all my impressions4  ,both  
are reassuring as to human nature4  ,the
 first of these was the rapidity of the 

improvisation of order out of chaos4    
,it is clear that just as in every      
thousand human beings there will be     
statistically so many artists1 so many  
athletes1 so many thinkers1 and so many 
potentially good soldiers1 so there will
 be so many potential organizers in     
times of emergency4  ,in point of fact1 
not only in the great city1 but in the  
outlying towns1 these natural           
ordermakers1 whether amateurs or        
officials1 came to the front            
immediately4  ,there seemed to be no    
possibility which there was not some one
 there to think of1 or which within     
twenty-four hours was not in some way   
provided for4  ,a good illustration is  
this3 ,mr4 ,keith is the great          
landscape-painter of the ,pacific slope1
 and his pictures1 which are many1 are  
artistically and pecuniarily precious4  
,two citizens1 lovers of his work1 early
 in the day diverted their attention    
from all other interests1 their own     
private ones included1 and made it their

 duty to visit every place which they   
knew to contain a ,keith painting4      
,they cut them from their frames1 rolled
 them up1 and in this way got all the   
more important ones into a place of     
safety4  ,when they then sought ,mr4    
,keith1 to convey the joyous news to    
him1 they found him still in his studio1
 which was remote from the fire1        
beginning a new painting4  ,having given
 up his previous work for lost1 he had  
resolved to lose no time in making what 
amends he could for the disaster4  ,the 
completeness of organization at ,palo   
,alto1 a town of ten thousand           
inhabitants close to ,stanford          
,university1 was almost comical4        
,people feared exodus on a large scale  
of the rowdy elements of ,san           
,francisco4 ,in point of tact1 very few 
refugees came to ,palo ,alto4  ,but     
within twenty-four hours1 rations1      
clothing1 hospital1 quarantine1         
disinfection1 washing1 police1 military1
 quarters in camp and in houses1 printed

 information1 employment1 all were      
provided for under the care of so many  
volunteer committees4  ,much of this    
readiness was ,american1 much of it     
,californian2 but ,i believe that every 
country in a similar crisis would have  
displayed it in a way to astonish the   
spectators4  ,like soldiering1 it lies  
always latent in human nature4  ,the    
second thing that struck me was the     
universal equanimity4  ,we soon got     
letters from the ,east1 ringing with    
anxiety and pathos2 but ,i now know     
fully what ,i have always believed1 that
 the pathetic way of feeling great      
disasters belongs rather to the point of
 view of people at a distance than to   
the immediate victims4  ,i heard not a  
single really pathetic or sentimental   
word in ,california expressed by any    
one4  ,the terms awful1 dreadful fell   
often enough from people's lips1 but    
always with a sort of abstract meaning1 
and with a face that seemed to admire   
the vastness of the catastrophe as much 

as it bewailed its cuttingness4  ,when  
talk was not directly practical1 ,i     
might almost say that it expressed 7at  
any rate in the nine days ,i was there7 
a tendency more toward nervous          
excitement than toward grief4  ,the     
hearts concealed private bitterness     
enough1 no doubt1 but the tongues       
disdained to dwell on the misfortunes of
 self1 when almost everybody one spoke  
to had suffered equally4  ,surely the   
cutting edge of all our usual           
misfortunes comes from their character  
of loneliness4  ,we lose our health1 our
 wife or children die1 our house burns  
down1 or our money is made way with1 and
 the world goes on rejoicing1 leaving us
 on one side and counting us out from   
all its business4  ,in ,california every
 one1 to some degree1 was suffering1 and
 one's private miseries were merged in  
the vast general sum of privation and in
 the all-absorbing practical problem of 
general recuperation4 ,the cheerfulness1
 or1 at any rate1 the steadfastness of  

tone1 was universal4  ,not a single     
whine or plaintive word did ,i hear from
 the hundred losers whom ,i spoke to4   
,instead of that there was a temper of  
helpfulness beyond the counting4  ,it is
 easy to glorify this as something      
characteristically ,american1 or        
especially ,californian4  ,californian  
education has1 of course1 made the      
thought of all possible recuperations   
easy4  ,in an exhausted country1 with no
 marginal resources1 the outlook on the 
future would be much darker4  ,but ,i   
like to think that what ,i write of is a
 normal and universal trait of human    
nature4  ,in our drawing-rooms and      
offices we wonder how people ever do go 
through battles1 sieges and shipwrecks4 
,we quiver and sicken in imagination1   
and think those heroes superhuman4      
,physical pain whether suffered alone or
 in company1 is always more or less     
unnerving and intolerable4  ,but mental 
pathos and anguish1 ,i fancy1 are       
usually effects of distance4  ,at the   

place of action1 where all are concerned
 together1 healthy animal insensibility 
and heartiness take their place4  ,at   
,san ,francisco the need will continue  
to be awful1 and there will doubtless be
 a crop of nervous wrecks before the    
weeks and months are over1 but meanwhile
 the commonest men1 simply because they 
are men1 will go on1 singly and         
collectively1 showing this admirable    
fortitude of temper4    #a ,at the time 
of the ,san ,francisco earthquake the   
author was at ,leland ,stanford         
,university nearby4  ,he succeeded in   
getting into ,san ,francisco on the     
morning of the earthquake1 and spent the
 remainder of the day in the city4      
,these observations appeared in the     
,youth's ,companion for ,june #g1 #aijf4
     ,x  ,,the ,,energies ,,of ,,men#a  
,everyone knows what it is to start a   
piece of work1 either intellectual or   
muscular1 feeling stale--or oold1 as an 
,adirondack guide once put it to me4    
,and everybody knows what it is to warm 

up to his job4  ,the process of warming 
up gets particularly striking in the    
phenomenon known as second wind4  ,on   
usual occasions we make a practice of   
stopping an occupation as soon as we    
meet the first effective layer 7so to   
call it7 of fatigue4  ,we have then     
walked1 played1 or worked enough1 so we 
desist4  ,that amount of fatigue is an  
efficacious obstruction on this side of 
which our usual life is cast4  ,but if  
an unusual necessity forces us to press 
onward a surprising thing occurs4 ,the  
fatigue gets worse up to a certain      
critical point1 when gradually or       
suddenly it passes away1 and we are     
fresher than before4  ,we have evidently
 tapped a level of new energy1 masked   
until then by the fatigue-obstacle      
usually obeyed4  ,there may be layer    
after layer of this experience4  ,a     
third and a fourth wind may supervene4  
,mental activity shows the phenomenon as
 well as physical1 and in exceptional   
cases we may find1 beyond the very      

extremity of fatigue-distress1 amounts  
of ease and power that we never dreamed 
ourselves to own1--sources of strength  
habitually not taxed at all1 because    
habitually we never push through the    
obstruction1 never pass those early     
critical points4  ,for many years ,i    
have mused on the phenomenon of second  
wind1 trying to find a physiological    
theory4  ,it is evident that our        
organism has stored-up reserves of      
energy that are ordinarily not called   
upon1 but that may be called upon3      
deeper and deeper strata of combustible 
or explosible material1 discontinuously 
arranged1 but ready for use by anyone   
who probes so deep1 and repairing       
themselves by rest as well as do the    
superficial strata4  ,most of us        
continue living unnecessarily near our  
surface4  ,our energy-budget is like our
 nutritive budget4 ,physiologists say   
that a man is in nutritive equilibrium  
when day after day he neither gains nor 
loses weight4  ,but the odd thing is    

that this condition may obtain on       
astonishingly different amounts of food4
 ,take a man in nutritive equilibrium1  
and systematically increase or lessen   
his rations4  ,in the first case he will
 begin to gain weight1 in the second    
case to lose it4  ,the change will be   
greatest on the first day1 less on the  
second1 less still on the third2 and so 
on1 till he has gained all that he will 
gain1 or lost all that he will lose1 on 
that altered diet4  ,he is now in       
nutritive equilibrium again1 but with a 
new weight2 and this neither lessens nor
 increases because his various          
combustion-processes have adjusted      
themselves to the changed dietary4  ,he 
gets rid1 in one way or another1 of just
 as much ,n1 ,c1 ,h1 etc41 as he takes  
in per diem4  ,just so one can be in    
what ,i might call                      
efficiency-equilibrium 7neither gaining 
nor losing power when once the          
equilibrium is reached7 on astonishingly
 different quantities of work1 no matter

 in what direction the work may be      
measured4  ,it may be physical work1    
intellectual work1 moral work1 or       
spiritual work4  ,of course there are   
limits3 the trees don't grow into the   
sky4  ,but the plain fact remains that  
men the world over possess amounts of   
resource which only very exceptional    
individuals push to their extremes of   
use4 ,but the very same individual1     
pushing his energies to their extreme1  
may in a vast number of cases keep the  
pace up day after day1 and find no      
reaction of a bad sort1 so long as      
decent hygienic conditions are          
preserved4  ,his more active rate of    
energizing does not wreck him2 for the  
organism adapts itself1 and as the rate 
of waste augments1 augments             
correspondingly the rate of repair4  ,i 
say the rate and not the time of repair4
  ,the busiest man needs no more hours  
of rest than the idler4  ,some years ago
 ,professor ,patrick1 of the ,iowa      
,state ,university1 kept three young men

 awake for four days and nights4  ,when 
his observations on them were finished1 
the subjects were permitted to sleep    
themselves out4  ,all awoke from this   
sleep completely refreshed1 but the one 
who took longest to restore himself from
 his long vigil only slept one-third    
more time than was regular with him4    
,if my reader will put together these   
two conceptions1 first1 that few men    
live at their maximum of energy1 and    
second1 that anyone may be in vital     
equilibrium at very different rates of  
energizing1 he will find1 ,i think1 that
 a very pretty practical problem of     
national economy1 as well as of         
individual ethics1 opens upon his view4 
,in rough terms1 we may say that a man  
who energizes below his normal maximum  
fails by just so much to profit by his  
chance at life2 and that a nation filled
 with such men is inferior to a nation  
run at higher pressure4  ,the problem   
is1 then1 how can men be trained up to  
their most useful pitch of energy8  ,and

 how can nations make such training most
 accessible to all their sons and       
daughters4  ,this1 after all1 is only   
the general problem of education1       
formulated in slightly different terms4 
,rough terms1 ,i said just now1 because 
the words energy and maximum may easily 
suggest only quantity to the reader's   
mind1 whereas in measuring the human    
energies of which ,i speak1 qualities as
 well as quantities have to be taken    
into account4  ,everyone feels that his 
total power rises when he passes to a   
higher qualitative level of life4       
,writing is higher than walking1        
thinking is higher than writing1        
deciding higher than thinking1 deciding 
no higher than deciding yes--at least   
the man who passes from one of these    
activities to another will usually say  
that each later one involves a greater  
element of inner work than the earlier  
ones1 even though the total heat given  
out or the foot-pounds expended by the  
organism1 may be less4  ,just how to    

conceive this inner work physiologically
 is as yet impossible1 but              
psychologically we all know what the    
word means4  ,we need a particular spur 
or effort to start us upon inner work2  
it tires us to sustain it2 and when long
 sustained1 we know how easily we lapse4
  ,when ,i speak of energizing1 and its 
rates and levels and sources1 ,i mean   
therefore our inner as well as our outer
 work4  ,let no one think1 then1 that   
our problem of individual and national  
economy is solely that of the maximum of
 pounds raisable against gravity1 the   
maximum of locomotion1 or of agitation  
of any sort1 that human beings can      
accomplish4  ,that might signify little 
more than hurrying and jumping about in 
inco-ordinated ways2 whereas inner work1
 though it so often reinforces outer    
work1 quite as often means its arrest4  
,to relax1 to say to ourselves 7with the
 new thoughters7 ,peace6 be still6 is   
sometimes a great achievement of inner  
work4 ,when ,i speak of human energizing

 in general1 the reader must therefore  
understand that sum-total of activities1
 some outer and some inner1 some        
muscular1 some emotional1 some moral1   
some spiritual1 of whose waxing and     
waning in himself he is at all times so 
well aware4  ,how to keep it at an      
appreciable maximum8  ,how not to let   
the level lapse8 ,that is the great     
problem4  ,but the work of men and women
 is of innumerable kinds1 each kind     
being1 as we say1 carried on by a       
particular faculty2 so the great problem
 splits into two sub-problems1 thus3    
7#a74 ,what are the limits of human     
faculty in various directions8  7#b74   
,by what diversity of means1 in the     
differing types of human beings1 may the
 faculties be stimulated to their best  
results8  ,read in one way1 these two   
questions sound both trivial and        
familiar3 there is a sense in which we  
have all asked them ever since we were  
born4  ,yet as a methodical programme of
 scientific inquiry1 ,i doubt whether   

they have ever been seriously taken up4 
,if answered fully2 almost the whole of 
mental science and of the science of    
conduct would find a place under them4  
,i propose1 in what follows1 to press   
them on the reader's attention in an    
informal way4  ,the first point to agree
 upon in this enterprise is that as a   
rule men habitually use only a small    
part of the powers which they actually  
possess and which they might use under  
appropriate conditions4  ,every one is  
familiar with the phenomenon of feeling 
more or less alive on different days4   
,every one knows on any given day that  
there are energies slumbering in him    
which the incitements of that day do not
 call forth1 but which he might display 
if these were greater4  ,most of us feel
 as if a sort of cloud weighed upon us1 
keeping us below our highest notch of   
clearness in discernment1 sureness in   
reasoning1 or firmness in deciding4     
,compared with what we ought to be1 we  
are only half awake4  ,our fires are    

damped1 our drafts are checked4  ,we are
 making use of only a small part of our 
possible mental and physical resources4 
,in some persons this sense of being cut
 off from their rightful resources is   
extreme1 and we then get the formidable 
neurasthenic and psychasthenic          
conditions with life grown into one     
tissue of impossibilities1 that so many 
medical books describe4  ,stating the   
thing broadly1 the human individual thus
 lives usually far within his limits2 he
 possesses powers of various sorts which
 he habitually fails to use4  ,he       
energizes below his maximum1 and he     
behaves below his optimum4  ,in         
elementary faculty1 in co-ordination1 in
 power of inhibition and control1 in    
every conceivable way1 his life is      
contracted like the field of vision of  
an hysteric subject--but with less      
excuse1 for the poor hysteric is        
diseased1 while in the rest of us it is 
only an inveterate habit--the habit of  
inferiority to our full self--that is   

bad4  ,admit so much1 then1 and admit   
also that the charge of being inferior  
to their full self is far truer of some 
men than of others2 then the practical  
question ensues3 to what do the better  
men owe their escape8 and1 in the       
fluctuations which all men feel in their
 own degree of energizing1 to what are  
the improvements due1 when they occur8  
,in general terms the answer is plain3  
,either some unusual stimulus fills them
 with emotional excitement1 or some     
unusual idea of necessity induces them  
to make an extra effort of will4        
,excitements1 ideas1 and efforts1 in a  
word1 are what carry us over the dam4   
,in those hyperesthetic conditions which
 chronic invalidism so often brings in  
its train1 the dam has changed its      
normal place4  ,the slightest functional
 exercise gives a distress which the    
patient yields to and stops4  ,in such  
cases of habit-neurosis a new range of  
power often comes in consequence of the 
bullying-treatment1 of efforts which the

 doctor obliges the patient1 much       
against his will1 to make4 ,first comes 
the very extremity of distress1 then    
follows unexpected relief4  ,there seems
 no doubt that we are each and all of us
 to some extent victims of              
habit-neurosis4  ,we have to admit the  
wider potential range and the habitually
 narrow actual use4  ,we live subject to
 arrest by degrees of fatigue which we  
have come only from habit to obey4      
,most of us may learn to push the       
barrier farther off1 and to live in     
perfect comfort on much higher levels of
 power4  ,country people and city       
people1 as a class1 illustrate this     
difference4 ,the rapid rate of life1 the
 number of decisions in an hour1 the    
many things to keep account of1 in a    
busy city man's or woman's life1 seem   
monstrous to a country brother4  ,he    
does n't see how we live at all4  ,a day
 in ,new ,york or ,chicago fills him    
with terror4  ,the danger and noise make
 it appear like a permanent earthquake4 

,but settle him there1 and in a year or 
two he will have caught the pulse-beat4 
,he will vibrate to the city's rhythms2 
and if he only succeeds in his          
avocation1 whatever that may be1 he will
 find a joy in all the hurry and the    
tension1 he will keep the pace as well  
as any of us1 and get as much out of    
himself in any week as he ever did in   
ten weeks in the country4  ,the stimuli 
of those who successfully spend and     
undergo the transformation here1 are    
duty1 the example of others1 and        
crowd-pressure and contagion4  ,the     
transformation1 moreover1 is a chronic  
one3 the new level of energy becomes    
permanent4  ,the duties of new offices  
of trust are constantly producing this  
effect on the human beings appointed to 
them4  ,the physiologists call a        
stimulus dynamogenic when it increases  
the muscular contractions of men to whom
 it is applied2 but appeals can be      
dynamogenic morally as well as          
muscularly4  ,we are witnessing here in 

,america to-day the dynamogenic effect  
of a very exalted political office upon 
the energies of an individual who had   
already manifested a healthy amount of  
energy before the office came4  ,humbler
 examples show perhaps still better what
 chronic effects duty's appeal may      
produce in chosen individuals4  ,john   
,stuart ,mill somewhere says that women 
excel men in the power of keeping up    
sustained moral excitement4  ,every case
 of illness nursed by wife or mother is 
a proof of this2 and where can one find 
greater examples of sustained endurance 
than in those thousands of poor homes1  
where the woman successfully holds the  
family together and keeps it going by   
taking all the thought and doing all the
 work--nursing1 teaching1 cooking1      
washing1 sewing1 scrubbing1 saving1     
helping neighbors1 choring              
outside--where does the catalogue end8  
,if she does a bit of scolding now and  
then who can blame her8  ,but often she 
does just the reverse2 keeping the      

children clean and the man good         
tempered1 and soothing and smoothing the
 whole neighborhood into finer shape4   
,eighty years ago a certain ,montyon    
left to the ,acadmie ,franaise a sum of 
money to be given in small prizes1 to   
the best examples of virtue of the year4
  ,the academy's committees1 with great 
good sense1 have shown a partiality to  
virtues simple and chronic1 rather than 
to her spasmodic and dramatic flights2  
and the exemplary housewives reported on
 have been wonderful and admirable      
enough4  ,in ,paul ,bourget's report for
 this year we find numerous cases1 of   
which this is a type2 ,jeanne ,chaix1   
eldest of six children2 mother insane1  
father chronically ill4 ,jeanne1 with no
 money but her wages at a pasteboard-box
 factory1 directs the household1 brings 
up the children1 and successfully       
maintains the family of eight1 which    
thus subsists1 morally as well as       
materially1 by the sole force of her    
valiant will4  ,in some of these ,french

 cases charity to outsiders is added to 
the inner family burden2 or helpless    
relatives1 young or old1 are adopted1 as
 if the strength were inexhaustible and 
ample for every appeal4  ,details are   
too long to quote here2 but human       
nature1 responding to the call of duty1 
appears nowhere sublimer than in the    
person of these humble heroines of      
family life4  ,turning from more chronic
 to acuter proofs of human nature's     
reserves of power1 we find that the     
stimuli that carry us over the usually  
effective dam are most often the classic
 emotional ones1 love1 anger1           
crowd-contagion or despair4  ,despair   
lames most people1 but it wakes others  
fully up4  ,every siege or shipwreck or 
polar expedition brings out some hero   
who keeps the whole company in heart4   
,last year there was a terrible colliery
 explosion at ,courrieres in ,france4   
,two hundred corpses1 if ,i remember    
rightly1 were exhumed4  ,after twenty   
days of excavation1 the rescuers heard a

 voice4  ,me voici1 said the first man  
unearthed4  ,he proved to be a collier  
named ,nemy1 who had taken command of   
thirteen others in the darkness1        
disciplined them and cheered them1 and  
brought them out alive4  ,hardly any of 
them could see or speak or walk when    
brought into the day4  ,five days later1
 a different type of vital endurance was
 unexpectedly unburied in the person of 
one ,berton who1 isolated from any but  
dead companions1 had been able to sleep 
away most of his time4  ,a new position 
of responsibility will usually show a   
man to be a far stronger creature than  
was supposed4  ,cromwell's and ,grant's 
careers are the stock examples of how   
war will wake a man up4  ,i owe to      
,professor ,c4 ,e4 ,norton1 my          
colleague1 the permission to print part 
of a private letter from ,colonel       
,baird-,smith written shortly after the 
six weeks' siege of ,delhi1 in #aheg1   
for the victorious issue of which that  
excellent officer was chiefly to be     

thanked4  ,he writes as follows3  4 4 4 
,my poor wife had some reason to think  
that war and disease between them had   
left very little of a husband to take   
under nursing when she got him again4   
,an attack of camp-scurvy had filled my 
mouth with sores1 shaken every joint in 
my body1 and covered me all over with   
sores and livid spots1 so that ,i was   
marvellously unlovely to look upon4  ,a 
smart knock on the ankle-joint from the 
splinter of a shell that burst in my    
face1 in itself a mere bagatelle of a   
wound1 had been of necessity neglected  
under the pressing and incessant calls  
upon me1 and had grown worse and worse  
till the whole foot below the ankle     
became a black mass and seemed to       
threaten mortification4  ,i insisted1   
however1 on being allowed to use it till
 the place was taken1 mortification or  
no2 and though the pain was sometimes   
horrible ,i carried my point and kept up
 to the last4  ,on the day after the    
assault ,i had an unlucky fall on some  

bad ground1 and it was an open question 
for a day or two whether ,i hadn't      
broken my arm at the elbow4 ,fortunately
 it turned out to be only a severe      
sprain1 but ,i am still conscious of the
 wrench it gave me4  ,to crown the whole
 pleasant catalogue1 ,i was worn to a   
shadow by a constant diarrhoea1 and     
consumed as much opium as would have    
done credit to my father-in-law ,thomas 
,de ,quincey4  ,however1 thank ,god1 ,i 
have a good share of ,tapleyism in me   
and come out strong under difficulties4 
,i think ,i may confidently say that no 
man ever saw me out of heart1 or ever   
heard one croaking word from me even    
when our prospects were gloomiest4  ,we 
were sadly scourged by the cholera1 and 
it was almost appalling to me to find   
that out of twenty-seven officers       
present1 ,i could only muster fifteen   
for the operations of the attack4       
,however1 it was done1 and after it was 
done came the collapse4  ,don't be      
horrified when ,i tell you that for the 

whole of the actual siege1 and in truth 
for some little time before1 ,i almost  
lived on brandy4  ,appetite for food ,i 
had none1 but ,i forced myself to eat   
just sufficient to sustain life1 and ,i 
had an incessant craving for brandy as  
the strongest stimulant ,i could get4   
,strange to say1 ,i was quite           
unconscious of its affecting me in the  
slightest degree4  ,the excitement of   
the work was so great that no lesser one
 seemed to have any chance against it1  
and ,i certainly never found my         
intellect clearer or my nerves stronger 
in my life4  ,it was only my wretched   
body that was weak1 and the moment the  
real work was done by our becoming      
complete masters of ,delhi1 ,i broke    
down without delay and discovered that  
if ,i wished to live ,i must continue no
 longer the system that had kept me up  
until the crisis was passed4  ,with it  
passed away as if in a moment all desire
 to stimulate1 and a perfect loathing of
 my late staff of life took possession  

of me4  ,such experiences show how      
profound is the alteration in the manner
 in which1 under excitement1 our        
organism will sometimes perform its     
physiological work4  ,the processes of  
repair become different when the        
reserves have to be used1 and for weeks 
and months the deeper use may go on4    
,morbid cases1 here as elsewhere1 lay   
the normal machinery bare4  ,in the     
first number of ,dr4 ,morton ,prince's  
,journal of ,abnormal ,psychology1 ,dr4 
,janet has discussed five cases of      
morbid impulse1 with an explanation that
 is precious for my present point of    
view4  ,one is a girl who eats1 eats1   
eats1 all day4  ,another walks1 walks1  
walks1 and gets her food from an        
automobile that escorts her4  ,another  
is a dipsomaniac4  ,a fourth pulls out  
her hair4  ,a fifth wounds her flesh and
 burns her skin4  ,hitherto such freaks 
of impulse have received ,greek names   
7as bulimia1 dromomania1 etc47 and been 
scientifically disposed of as episodic  

syndromata of hereditary degeneration4  
,but it turns out that ,janet's cases   
are all what he calls psychasthenics1 or
 victims of a chronic sense of weakness1
 torpor1 lethargy1 fatigue1             
insufficiency1 impossibility1 unreality 
and powerlessness of will2 and that in  
each and all of them the particular     
activity pursued1 deleterious though it 
be1 has the temporary result of raising 
the sense of vitality and making the    
patient feel alive again4  ,these things
 reanimate3 they would reanimate us1 but
 it happens that in  each patient the   
particular freak-activity chosen is the 
only thing that does reanimate2 and     
therein lies the morbid state4  ,the way
 to treat such persons is to discover to
 them more usual and useful ways of     
throwing their stores of vital energy   
into gear4  ,colonel ,baird-,smith1     
needing to draw on altogether           
extraordinary stores of energy1 found   
that brandy and opium were ways of      
throwing them into gear4  ,such cases   

are humanly typical4  ,we are all to    
some degree oppressed1 unfree4  ,we     
don't come to our own4  ,it is there1   
but we don't get at it4  ,the threshold 
must be made to shift4  ,then many of us
 find that an eccentric activity--a     
spree1 say--relieves4  ,there is no     
doubt that to some men sprees and       
excesses of almost any kind are         
medicinal1 temporarily at any rate1 in  
spite of what the moralists and doctors 
say4  ,but when the normal tasks and    
stimulations of life don't put a man's  
deeper levels of energy on tap1 and he  
requires distinctly deleterious         
excitements1 his constitution verges on 
the abnormal4  ,the normal opener of    
deeper and deeper levels of energy is   
the will4  ,the difficulty is to use it1
 to make the effort which the word      
volition implies4  ,but if we do make it
 7or if a god1 though he were only the  
god ,chance1 makes it through us71 it   
will act dynamogenically on us for a    
month4  ,it is notorious that a single  

successful effort of moral volition1    
such as saying no to some habitual      
temptation1 or performing some          
courageous act1 will launch a man on a  
higher level of energy for days and     
weeks1 will give him a new range of     
power4  ,in the act of uncorking the    
whiskey bottle which ,i had brought home
 to get drunk upon1 said a man to me1 ,i
 suddenly found myself running out into 
the garden1 where ,i smashed it on the  
ground4  ,i felt so happy and uplifted  
after this act1 that for two months ,i  
was n't tempted to touch a drop4  ,the  
emotions and excitements due to usual   
situations are the usual inciters of the
 will4  ,but these act discontinuously2 
and in the intervals the shallower      
levels of life tend to close in and shut
 us off4  ,accordingly the best         
practical knowers of the human soul have
 invented the thing known as methodical 
ascetic discipline to keep the deeper   
levels constantly in reach4  ,beginning 
with easy tasks1 passing to harder ones1

 and exercising day by day1 it is1 ,i   
believe1 admitted that disciples of     
asceticism can reach very high levels of
 freedom and power of will4  ,ignatius  
,loyola's spiritual exercises must have 
produced this result in innumerable     
devotees4  ,but the most venerable      
ascetic system1 and the one whose       
results have the most voluminous        
experimental corroboration is           
undoubtedly the ,yoga system in         
,hindustan4  ,from time immemorial1 by  
,hatha ,yoga1 ,raja ,yoga1 ,karma ,yoga1
 or whatever code of practice it might  
be1 ,hindu aspirants to perfection have 
trained themselves1 month in and out1   
for years4  ,the result claimed1 and    
certainly in many cases accorded by     
impartial judges1 is strength of        
character1 personal power1 unshakability
 of soul4  ,in an article in the        
,philosophical ,review1#b from which ,i 
am largely copying here1 ,i have quoted 
at great length the experience with     
,hatha ,yoga of a very gifted ,european 

friend of mine who1 by persistently     
carrying out for several months its     
methods of fasting from food and sleep1 
its exercises in breathing and          
thought-concentration1 and its fantastic
 posture-gymnastics1 seems to have      
succeeded in waking up deeper and deeper
 levels of will and moral and           
intellectual power in himself1 and to   
have escaped from a decidedly menacing  
brain-condition of the circular type1   
from which he had suffered for years4   
,judging by my friend's letters1 of     
which the last ,i have is written       
fourteen months after the ,yoga training
 began1 there can be no doubt of his    
relative regeneration4  ,he has         
undergone material trials with          
indifference1 travelled third-class on  
,mediterranean steamers1 and            
fourth-class on ,african trains1 living 
with the poorest ,arabs and sharing     
their unaccustomed food1 all with       
equanimity4  ,his devotion to certain   
interests has been put to heavy strain1 

and nothing is more remarkable to me    
than the changed moral tone with which  
he reports the situation4  ,a profound  
modification has unquestionably occurred
 in the running of his mental machinery4
  ,the gearing has changed1 and his will
 is available otherwise than it was4    
,my friend is a man of very peculiar    
temperament4  ,few of us would have had 
the will to start upon the ,yoga        
training1 which1 once started1 seemed to
 conjure the further willpower needed   
out of itself4  ,and not all of those   
who could launch themselves would have  
reached the same results4  ,the ,hindus 
themselves admit that in some men the   
results may come without call or bell4  
,my friend writes to me3 ,you are quite 
right in thinking that religious crises1
 love-crises1 indignation-crises may    
awaken in a very short time powers      
similar to those reached by years of    
patient ,yoga-practice4  ,probably most 
medical men would treat this            
individual's case as one of what it is  

fashionable now to call by the name of  
self-suggestion1 or expectant           
attention--as if those phrases were     
explanatory1 or meant more than the fact
 that certain men can be influenced1    
while others cannot be influenced1 by   
certain sorts of ideas4  ,this leads me 
to say a word about ideas considered as 
dynamogenic agents1 or stimuli for      
unlocking what would otherwise be unused
 reservoirs of individual power4  ,one  
thing that ideas do is to contradict    
other ideas and keep us from believing  
them4  ,an idea that thus negates a     
first idea may itself in turn be negated
 by a third idea1 and the first idea may
 thus regain its natural influence over 
our belief and determine our behavior4  
,our philosophic and religious          
development proceeds thus by            
credulities1 negations1 and the negating
 of negations4  ,but whether for        
arousing or for stopping belief1 ideas  
may fail to be efficacious1 just as a   
wire1 at one time alive with            

electricity1 may at another time be     
dead4  ,here our insight into causes    
fails us1 and we can only note results  
in general terms4  ,in general1 whether 
a given idea shall be a live idea       
depends more on the person into whose   
mind it is injected than on the idea    
itself4  ,which is the suggestive idea  
for this person1 and which for that one8
  ,mr4 ,fletcher's disciples regenerate 
themselves by the idea 7and the fact7   
that they are chewing1 and re-chewing1  
and super-chewing their food4  ,dr4     
,dewey's pupils regenerate themselves by
 going without their breakfast--a fact1 
but also an ascetic idea4  ,not every   
one can use these ideas with the same   
success4  ,but apart from such          
individually varying susceptibilities1  
there are common lines along which men  
simply as men tend to be inflammable by 
ideas4  ,as certain objects naturally   
awaken love1 anger1 or cupidity1 so     
certain ideas naturally awaken the      
energies of loyalty1 courage1 endurance1

 or devotion4  ,when these ideas are    
effective in an individual's life1 their
 effect is often very great indeed4     
,they may transfigure it1 unlocking     
innumerable powers which1 but for the   
idea1 would never have come into play4  
,fatherland1 the ,flag1 the ,union1     
,holy ,church1 the ,monroe ,doctrine1   
,truth1 ,science1 ,liberty1 ,garibaldi's
 phrase1 ,rome or ,death1 etc41 are so  
many examples of energy-releasing ideas4
  ,the social nature of such phrases is 
an essential factor of their dynamic    
power4  ,they are forces of detent in   
situations in which no other force      
produces equivalent effects1 and each is
 a force of detent only in a specific   
group of men4  ,the memory that an oath 
or vow has been made will nerve one to  
abstinences and efforts otherwise       
impossible2 witness the pledge in the   
history of the temperance movement4  ,a 
mere promise to his sweetheart will     
clean up a youth's life all over--at any
 rate for time4 ,for such effects an    

educated susceptibility is required4    
,the idea of one's honor1 for example1  
unlocks energy only in those of us who  
have had the education of a gentleman1  
so called4  ,that delightful being1     
,prince ,pueckler-,muskau1 writes to his
 wife from ,england that he has invented
 a sort of artificial resolution        
respecting things that are difficult of 
performance4  ,my device1 he continues1 
is this3 ,i give my word of honor most  
solemnly to myself to do or to leave    
undone this or that4  ,i am of course   
extremely cautious in the use of this   
expedient1 but when once the word is    
given1 even though ,i afterwards think  
,i have been precipitate or mistaken1 ,i
 hold it to be perfectly irrevocable1   
whatever inconveniences ,i foresee      
likely to result4  ,if ,i were capable  
of breaking my word after such mature   
consideration1 ,i should lose all       
respect for myself1--and what man of    
sense would not prefer death to such an 
alternative8 4 4 4  ,when the mysterious

 formula is pronounced1 no alteration in
 my own view1 nothing short of physical 
impossibilities1 must1 for the welfare  
of my soul1 alter my will4 4 4 4  ,i    
find something very satisfactory in the 
thought that man has the power of       
framing such props and weapons out of   
the most trivial materials1 indeed out  
of nothing1 merely by the force of his  
will1 which thereby truly deserves the  
name of omnipotent4 #c  ,conversions1   
whether they be political1 scientific1  
philosophic1 or religious1 form another 
way in which bound energies are let     
loose4 ,they unify us1 and put a stop to
 ancient mental interferences4  ,the    
result is freedom1 and often a great    
enlargement of power4  ,a belief that   
thus settles upon an individual always  
acts as a challenge to his will4  ,but1 
for the particular challenge to operate1
 he must be the right challengee4  ,in  
religious conversions we have so fine an
 adjustment that the idea may be in the 
mind of the challengee for years before 

it exerts effects2 and why it should do 
so then is often so far from obvious    
that the event is taken for a miracle of
 grace1 and not a natural occurrence4   
,whatever it is1 it may be a highwater  
mark of energy1 in which noes1 once     
impossible1 are easy1 and in which a new
 range of yeses gains the right of way4 
,we are just now witnessing a very      
copious unlocking of energies by ideas  
in the persons of those converts to ,new
 ,thought1 ,christian ,science1         
,metaphysical ,healing1 or other forms  
of spiritual philosophy1 who are so     
numerous among us to-day4  ,the ideas   
here are healthy-minded and optimistic2 
and it is quite obvious that a wave of  
religious activity1 analogous in some   
respects to the spread of early         
,christianity1 ,buddhism1 and           
,mohammedanism1 is passing over our     
,american world4  ,the common feature of
 these optimistic faiths is that they   
all tend to the suppression of what ,mr4
 ,horace ,fletcher calls fearthought4   

,fearthought he defines as the          
self-suggestion of inferiority2 so that 
one may say that these systems all      
operate by the suggestion of power4     
,and the power1 small or great1 comes in
 various shapes to the                  
individual1--power1 as he will tell you1
 not to mind things that used to vex    
him1 power to concentrate his mind1 good
 cheer1 good temper--in short1 to put it
 mildly1 a firmer1 more elastic moral   
tone4  ,the most genuinely saintly      
person ,i have ever known is a friend of
 mine now suffering from cancer of the  
breast--,i hope that she may pardon my  
citing her here as an example of what   
ideas can do4  ,her ideas have kept her 
a practically well woman for months     
after she should have given up and gone 
to bed4  ,they have annulled all pain   
and weakness and given her a cheerful   
active life1 unusually beneficent to    
others to whom she has afforded help4   
,her doctors1 acquiescing in results    
they could not understand1 have had the 

good sense to let her go her own way4   
,how far the mind-cure movement is      
destined to extend its influence1 or    
what intellectual modifications it may  
yet undergo1 no one can foretell4  ,it  
is essentially a religious movement1 and
 to academically nurtured minds its     
utterances are tasteless and often      
grotesque enough4 ,it also incurs the   
natural enmity of medical politicians1  
and of the whole trades-union wing of   
that profession4  ,but no unprejudiced  
observer can fail to recognize its      
importance as a social phenomenon       
to-day1 and the higher medical minds are
 already trying to interpret it fairly1 
and make its power available for their  
own therapeutic ends4  ,dr4 ,thomas     
,hyslop1 of the great ,west ,riding     
,asylum in ,england1 said last year to  
the ,british ,medical ,association that 
the best sleep-producing agent which his
 practice had revealed to him1 was      
prayer4  ,i say this1 he added 7,i am   
sorry here that ,i must quote from      

memory71 purely as a medical man4  ,the 
exercise of prayer1 in those who        
habitually exert it1 must be regarded by
 us doctors as the most adequate and    
normal of all the pacifiers of the mind 
and calmers of the nerves4  ,but in few 
of us are functions not tied up by the  
exercise of other functions4            
,relatively few medical men and         
scientific men1 ,i fancy1 can pray4     
,few can carry on any living commerce   
with ,god4  ,yet many of us are well    
aware of how much freer and abler our   
lives would be1 were such important     
forms of energizing not sealed up by the
 critical atmosphere in which we have   
been reared4  ,there are in every one   
potential forms of activity that        
actually are shunted out from use4 ,part
 of the imperfect vitality under which  
we labor can thus be easily explained4  
,one part of our mind dams up--even     
damns up6--the other parts4  ,conscience
 makes cowards of us all4  ,social      
conventions prevent us from telling the 

truth after the fashion of the heroes   
and heroines of ,bernard ,shaw4  ,we all
 know persons who are models of         
excellence1 but who belong to the       
extreme philistine type of mind4  ,so   
deadly is their intellectual            
respectability that we can't converse   
about certain subjects at all1 can't let
 our minds play over them1 can't even   
mention them in their presence4  ,i have
 numbered among my dearest friends      
persons thus inhibited intellectually1  
with whom ,i would gladly have been able
 to talk freely about certain interests 
of mine1 certain authors1 say1 as       
,bernard ,shaw1 ,chesterton1 ,edward    
,carpenter1 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells1 but it would
 n't do1 it made them too uncomfortable1
 they would n't play1 ,i had to be      
silent4  ,an intellect thus tied down by
 literality and decorum makes on one the
 same sort of an impression that an     
able-bodied man would who should        
habituate himself to do his work with   
only one of his fingers1 locking up the 

rest of his organism and leaving it     
unused4  ,i trust that by this time ,i  
have said enough to convince the reader 
both of the truth and of the importance 
of my thesis4  ,the two questions1      
first1 that of the possible extent of   
our powers2 and1 second1 that of the    
various avenues of approach to them1 the
 various keys for unlocking them in     
diverse individuals1 dominate the whole 
problem of individual and national      
education4  ,we need a topography of the
 limits of human power1 similar to the  
chart which oculists use of the field of
 human vision4  ,we need also a study of
 the various types of human being with  
reference to the different ways in which
 their energy-reserves may be appealed  
to and set loose4  ,biographies and     
individual experiences of every kind may
 be drawn upon for evidence here4#d     
#a ,this was the title originally given 
to the ,presidential ,address delivered 
before the ,american ,philosophical     
,association at ,columbia ,university1  

,december #bh1 #aijf1 and published as  
there delivered in the ,philosophical   
,review for ,january1 #aijg4  ,the      
address was later published1 after      
slight alteration1 in the ,american     
,magazine for ,october1 #aijg1 under the
 title ,the ,powers of ,men4  ,the more 
popular form is here reprinted under the
 title which the author himself         
preferred4  #b ,the ,energies of ,men4  
,philosophical ,review1 vol4 xvi1 ,no4  
#a1 ,january1 #aijg4  ,cf4 ,note on p4  
#bbi4  #c ,tour in ,england1 ,ireland1  
and ,france1 ,philadelphia1 #ahcc1 p4   
#dce4  #d ,this would be an absolutely  
concrete study 4 4 4  ,the limits of    
power must be limits that have been     
realized in actual persons1 and the     
various ways of unlocking the reserves  
of power must have been exemplified in  
individual lives 4 4 4  ,so here is a   
program of concrete individual          
psychology 4 4 4  ,it is replete with   
interesting facts1 and points to        
practical issues superior in importance 

to anything we know4 ,from the address  
as originally delivered before the      
,philosophical ,association2 ,see xvi4  
,philosophical ,review1 #a1 #ai4        
,,xi  ,,the ,,moral ,,equivalent ,,of   
,,war#a  ,the war against war is going  
to be no holiday excursion or camping   
party4  ,the military feelings are too  
deeply grounded to abdicate their place 
among our ideals until better           
substitutes are offered than the glory  
and shame that come to nations as well  
as to individuals from the ups and downs
 of politics and the vicissitudes of    
trade4  ,there is something highly      
paradoxical in the modern man's relation
 to war4  ,ask all our millions1 north  
and south1 whether they would vote now  
7were such a thing possible7 to have our
 war for the ,union expunged from       
history1 and the record of a peaceful   
transition to the present time          
substituted for that of its marches and 
battles1 and probably hardly a handful  
of eccentrics would say yes4  ,those    

ancestors1 those efforts1 those memories
 and legends1 are the most ideal part of
 what we now own together1 a sacred     
spiritual possession worth more than all
 the blood poured out4  ,yet ask those  
same people whether they would be       
willing in cold blood to start another  
civil war now to gain another similar   
possession1 and not one man or women    
would vote for the proposition4 ,in     
modern eyes1 precious though wars may   
be1 they must not be waged solely for   
the sake of the ideal harvest4  ,only   
when forced upon one1 only when an      
enemy's injustice leaves us no          
alternative1 is a war now thought       
permissible4  ,it was not thus in       
ancient times4  ,the earlier men were   
hunting men1 and to hunt a neighboring  
tribe1 kill the males1 loot the village 
and possess the females1 was the most   
profitable1 as well as the most         
exciting1 way of living4  ,thus were the
 more martial tribes selected1 and in   
chiefs and peoples a pure pugnacity and 

love of glory came to mingle with the   
more fundamental appetite for plunder4  
,modern war is so expensive that we feel
 trade to be a better avenue to plunder2
 but modern man inherits all the innate 
pugnacity and all the love of glory of  
his ancestors4  ,showing war's          
irrationality and horror is of no effect
 upon him4  ,the horrors make the       
fascination4  ,war is the strong life2  
it is life in extremis2 war-taxes are   
the only ones men never hesitate to pay1
 as the budgets of all nations show us4 
,history is a bath of blood4  ,the      
,iliad is one long recital of how       
,diomedes and ,ajax1 ,sarpedon and      
,hector killed4  ,no detail of the      
wounds they made is spared us1 and the  
,greek mind fed upon the story4 ,greek  
history is a panorama of jingoism and   
imperialism--war for war's sake1 all the
 citizens being warriors4  ,it is       
horrible reading1 because of the        
irrationality of it all--save for the   
purpose of making history--and the      

history is that of the utter ruin of a  
civilization in intellectual respects   
perhaps the highest the earth has ever  
seen4  ,those wars were purely          
piratical4  ,pride1 gold1 women1 slaves1
 excitement1 were their only motives4   
,in the ,peloponnesian war for example1 
the ,athenians ask the inhabitants of   
,melos 7the island where the ,venus of  
,milo was found71 hitherto neutral1 to  
own their lordship4  ,the envoys meet1  
and hold a debate which ,thucydides     
gives in full1 and which1 for sweet     
reasonableness of form1 would have      
satisfied ,matthew ,arnold4  ,the       
powerful exact what they can1 said the  
,athenians1 and the weak grant what they
 must4  ,when the ,meleans say that     
sooner than be slaves they will appeal  
to the gods1 the ,athenians reply3 ,of  
the gods we believe and of men we know  
that1 by a law of their nature1 wherever
 they can rule they will4  ,this law was
 not made by us1 and we are not the     
first to have acted upon it2 we did but 

inherit it1 and we know that you and all
 mankind1 if you were as strong as we   
are1 would do as we do4  ,so much for   
the gods2 we have told you why we expect
 to stand as high in their good opinion 
as you4  ,well1 the ,meleans still      
refused1 and their town was taken4  ,the
 ,athenians1 ,thucydides quietly says1  
thereupon put to death all who were of  
military age and made slaves of the     
women and children4  ,they then         
colonized the island1 sending thither   
five hundred settlers of their own4     
,alexander's career was piracy pure and 
simple1 nothing but an orgy of power and
 plunder1 made romantic by the character
 of the hero4  ,there was no rational   
principle in it1 and the moment he died 
his generals and governors attacked one 
another4  ,the cruelty of those times is
 incredible4  ,when ,rome finally       
conquered ,greece1 ,paulus ,aemilius1   
was told by the ,roman ,senate to reward
 his soldiers for their toil by giving  
them the old kingdom of ,epirus4  ,they 

sacked seventy cities and carried off a 
hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants  
as slaves4 ,how many they killed ,i know
 not2 but in ,etolia they killed all the
 senators1 five hundred and fifty in    
number4  ,brutus was the noblest ,roman 
of them all1 but to reanimate his       
soldiers on the eve of ,philippi he     
similarly promises to give them the     
cities of ,sparta and ,thessalonica to  
ravage1 if they win the fight4  ,such   
was the gory nurse that trained         
societies to cohesiveness4  ,we inherit 
the warlike type2 and for most of the   
capacities of heroism that the human    
race is full of we have to thank this   
cruel history4 ,dead men tell no tales1 
and if there were any tribes of other   
type than this they have left no        
survivors4  ,our ancestors have bred    
pugnacity into our bone and marrow1 and 
thousands of years of peace won't breed 
it out of us4  ,the popular imagination 
fairly fattens on the thought of wars4  
,let public opinion once reach a certain

 fighting pitch1 and no ruler can       
withstand it4  ,in the ,boer war both   
governments began with bluff but could  
n't stay there1 the military tension was
 too much for them4  ,in #ahih our      
people had read the word war in letters 
three inches high for three months in   
every newspaper4  ,the pliant politician
 ,mc,kinley was swept away by their     
eagerness1 and our squalid war with     
,spain became a necessity4  ,at the     
present day1 civilized opinion is a     
curious mental mixture4  ,the military  
instincts and ideals are as strong as   
ever1 but are confronted by reflective  
criticisms which sorely curb their      
ancient freedom4 ,innumerable writers   
are showing up the bestial side of      
military service4  ,pure loot and       
mastery seem no longer morally avowable 
motives1 and pretexts must be found for 
attributing them solely to the enemy4   
,england and we1 our army and navy      
authorities repeat without ceasing1 arm 
solely for peace1 ,germany and ,japan it

 is who are bent on loot and glory4     
,peace in military mouths to-day is a   
synonym for war expected4  ,the word has
 become a pure provocative1 and no      
government wishing peace sincerely      
should allow it ever to be printed in a 
newspaper4  ,every up-to-date dictionary
 should say that peace and war mean the 
same thing1 now in posse1 now in actu4  
,it may even reasonably be said that the
 intensely sharp competitive preparation
 for war by the nations is the real war1
 permanent1 unceasing2 and that the     
battles are only a sort of public       
verification of the mastery gained      
during the peace-interval4  ,it is plain
 that on this subject civilized man has 
developed a sort of double personality4 
,if we take ,european nations1 no       
legitimate interest of any one of them  
would seem to justify the tremendous    
destructions which a war to compass it  
would necessarily entail4  ,it would    
seem as though common sense and reason  
ought to find a way to reach agreement  

in every conflict of honest interests4  
,i myself think it our bounden duty to  
believe in such international           
rationality as possible4  ,but1 as      
things stand1 ,i see how desperately    
hard it is to bring the peace-party and 
the war-party together1 and ,i believe  
that the difficulty is due to certain   
deficiencies in the program of          
pacificism which set the militarist     
imagination strongly1 and to a certain  
extent justifiably1 against it4  ,in the
 whole discussion both sides are on     
imaginative and sentimental ground4  ,it
 is but one utopia against another1 and 
everything one says must be abstract and
 hypothetical4  ,subject to this        
criticism and caution1 ,i will try to   
characterize in abstract strokes the    
opposite imaginative forces1 and point  
out what to my own very fallible mind   
seems the best ,utopian hypothesis1 the 
most promising line of conciliation4    
,in my remarks1 pacificist though ,i am1
 ,i will refuse to speak of the bestial 

side of the war-rgime 7already done     
justice to by many writers7 and consider
 only the higher aspects of militaristic
 sentiment4  ,patriotism no one thinks  
discreditable2 nor does any one deny    
that war is the romance of history4     
,but inordinate ambitions are the soul  
of every patriotism1 and the possibility
 of violent death the soul of all       
romance4  ,the militarily patriotic and 
romantic-minded everywhere1 and         
especially the professional military    
class1 refuse to admit for a moment that
 war may be a transitory phenomenon in  
social evolution4  ,the notion of a     
sheep's paradise like that revolts1 they
 say1 our higher imagination4  ,where   
then would be the steeps of life8 ,if   
war had ever stopped1 we should have to 
re-invent it1 on this view1 to redeem   
life from flat degeneration4            
,reflective apologists for war at the   
present day all take it religiously4    
,it is a sort of sacrament4  ,its       
profits are to the vanquished as well as

 to the victor2 and quite apart from any
 question of profit1 it is an absolute  
good1 we are told1 for it is human      
nature at its highest dynamic4  ,its    
horrors are a cheap price to pay for    
rescue from the only alternative        
supposed1 of a world of clerks and      
teachers1 of co-education and zo-ophily1
 of consumer's leagues and associated   
charities1 of industrialism unlimited1  
and feminism unabashed4  ,no scorn1 no  
hardness1 no valor any more6  ,fie upon 
such a cattleyard of a planet6  ,so far 
as the central essence of this feeling  
goes1 no healthy minded person1 it seems
 to me1 can help to some degree         
partaking of it4 ,militarism is the     
great preserver of our ideals of        
hardihood1 and human life with no use   
for hardihood would be contemptible4    
,without risks or prizes for the darer1 
history would be insipid indeed2 and    
there is a type of military character   
which every one feels that the race     
should never cease to breed1 for every  

one is sensitive to its superiority4    
,the duty is incumbent on mankind1 of   
keeping military characters in stock--of
 keeping them1 if not for use1 then as  
ends in themselves and as pure pieces of
 perfection1--so that ,roosevelt's      
weaklings and mollycoddles may not end  
by making everything else disappear from
 the face of nature4  ,this natural sort
 of feeling forms1 ,i think1 the        
innermost soul of army-writings4        
,without any exception known to me1     
militarist authors take a highly        
mystical view of their subject1 and     
regard war as a biological or           
sociological necessity1 uncontrolled by 
ordinary psychological checks and       
motives4  ,when the time of development 
is ripe the war must come1 reason or no 
reason1 for the justifications pleaded  
are invariably fictitious4  ,war is1 in 
short1 a permanent human obligation4    
,general ,homer ,lea1 in his recent book
 ,the ,valor of ,ignorance1 plants      
himself squarely on this ground4        

,readiness for war is for him the       
essence of nationality1 and ability in  
it the supreme measure of the health of 
nations4  ,nations1 ,general ,lea says1 
are never stationary--they must         
necessarily expand or shrink1 according 
to their vitality or decrepitude4       
,japan now is culminating2 and by the   
fatal law in question it is impossible  
that her statesmen should not long since
 have entered1 with extraordinary       
foresight1 upon a vast policy of        
conquest--the game in which the first   
moves were her wars with ,china and     
,russia and her treaty with ,england1   
and of which the final objective is the 
capture of the ,philippines1 the        
,hawaiian ,islands1 ,alaska1 and the    
whole of our ,coast west of the ,sierra 
,passes4  ,this will give ,japan what   
her ineluctable vocation as a state     
absolutely forces her to claim1 the     
possession of the entire ,pacific       
,ocean2 and to oppose these deep designs
 we ,americans have1 according to our   

author1 nothing but our conceit1 our    
ignorance1 our commercialism1 our       
corruption1 and our feminism4  ,general 
,lea makes a minute technical comparison
 of the military strength which we at   
present could oppose to the strength of 
,japan1 and concludes that the islands1 
,alaska1 ,oregon1 and ,southern         
,california1 would fall almost without  
resistance1 that ,san ,francisco must   
surrender in a fortnight to a ,japanese 
investment1 that in three or four months
 the war would be over1 and our         
republic1 unable to regain what it had  
heedlessly neglected to protect         
sufficiently1 would then disintegrate1  
until perhaps some ,caesar should arise 
to weld us again into a nation4  ,a     
dismal forecast indeed6  ,yet not       
implausible1 if the mentality of        
,japan's statesmen be of the ,caesarian 
type of which history shows so many     
examples1 and which is all that ,general
 ,lea seems able to imagine4 ,but there 
is no reason to think that women can no 

longer be the mothers of ,napoleonic or 
,alexandrian characters2 and if these   
come in ,japan and find their           
opportunity1 just such surprises as ,the
 ,valor of ,ignorance paints may lurk in
 ambush for us4  ,ignorant as we still  
are of the innermost recesses of        
,japanese mentality1 we may be foolhardy
 to disregard such possibilities4       
,other militarists are more complex and 
more moral in their considerations4     
,the ,philosophie des ,krieges1 by ,s4  
,r4 ,steinmetz is a good example4  ,war1
 according to this author1 is an ordeal 
instituted by ,god1 who weighs the      
nations in its balance4  ,it is the     
essential form of the ,state1 and the   
only function in which peoples can      
employ all their powers at once and     
convergently4  ,no victory is possible  
save as the resultant of a totality of  
virtues1 no defeat for which some vice  
or weakness is not responsible4         
,fidelity1 cohesiveness1 tenacity1      
heroism1 conscience1 education1         

inventiveness1 economy1 wealth1 physical
 health and vigor--there is n't a moral 
or intellectual point of superiority    
that does n't tell1 when ,god holds his 
assizes and hurls the peoples upon one  
another4  ,die ,weltgeschichte ist das  
,weltgericht2 and ,dr4 ,steinmetz does  
not believe that in the long run chance 
and luck play any part in apportioning  
the issues4  ,the virtues that prevail1 
it must be noted1 are virtues anyhow1   
superiorities that count in peaceful as 
well as in military competition2 but the
 strain on them1 being infinitely       
intenser in the latter case1 makes war  
infinitely more searching as a trial4   
,no ordeal is comparable to its         
winnowings4  ,its dread hammer is the   
welder of men into cohesive states1 and 
nowhere but in such states can human    
nature adequately develop its capacity4 
,the only alternative is degeneration4  
,dr4 ,steinmetz is a conscientious      
thinker1 and his book1 short as it is1  
takes much into account4  ,its upshot   

can1 it seems to me1 be summed up in    
,simon ,patten's word1 that mankind was 
nursed in pain and fear1 and that the   
transition to a pleasure-economy may be 
fatal to a being wielding no powers of  
defence against its disintegrative      
influences4 ,if we speak of the fear of 
emancipation from the fear-rgime1 we put
 the whole situation into a single      
phrase2 fear regarding ourselves now    
taking the place of the ancient fear of 
the enemy4  ,turn the fear over as ,i   
will in my mind1 it all seems to lead   
back to two unwillingnesses of the      
imagination1 one aesthetic1 and the     
other moral2 unwillingness1 first to    
envisage a future in which army-life1   
with its many elements of charm1 shall  
be forever impossible1 and in which the 
destinies of peoples shall nevermore be 
decided1 quickly1 thrillingly1 and      
tragically1 by force1 but only gradually
 and insipidly by evolution2 and1       
secondly1 unwillingness to see the      
supreme theatre of human strenuousness  

closed1 and the splendid military       
aptitudes of men doomed to keep always  
in a state of latency and never show    
themselves in action4  ,these insistent 
unwillingnesses1 no less than other     
aesthetic and ethical insistencies1     
have1 it seems to me1 to be listened to 
and respected4  ,one cannot meet them   
effectively by mere counter-insistency  
on war's expensiveness and horror4  ,the
 horror makes the thrill2 and when the  
question is of getting the extremest and
 supremest out of human nature1 talk of 
expense sounds ignominious4  ,the       
weakness of so much merely negative     
criticism is evident--pacificism makes  
no converts from the military party4    
,the military party denies neither the  
bestiality nor the horror1 nor the      
expense2 it only says that these things 
tell but half the story4  ,it only says 
that war is worth them2 that1 taking    
human nature as a whole1 its wars are   
its best protection against its weaker  
and more cowardly self1 and that mankind

 cannot afford to adopt a peace-economy4
  ,pacificists ought to enter more      
deeply into the aesthetical and ethical 
point of view of their opponents4  ,do  
that first in any controversy1 says ,j4 
,j4 ,chapman1 then move the point1 and  
your opponent will follow4  ,so long as 
anti-militarists propose no substitute  
for war's disciplinary function1 no     
moral equivalent of war1 analogous1 as  
one might say1 to the mechanical        
equivalent of heat1 so long they fail to
 realize the full inwardness of the     
situation4  ,and as a rule they do fail4
  ,the duties1 penalties1 and sanctions 
pictured in the ,utopias they paint are 
all too weak and tame to touch the      
military-minded4 ,tolstoi's pacificism  
is the only exception to this rule1 for 
it is profoundly pessimistic as regards 
all this world's values1 and makes the  
fear of the ,lord furnish the moral spur
 provided elsewhere by the fear of the  
enemy4  ,but our socialistic            
peace-advocates all believe absolutely  

in this world's values2 and instead of  
the fear of the ,lord and the fear of   
the enemy1 the only fear they reckon    
with is the fear of poverty if one be   
lazy4  ,this weakness pervades all the  
socialistic literature with which ,i am 
acquainted4  ,even in ,lowes            
,dickinson's exquisite dialogue1#b high 
wages and short hours are the only      
forces invoked for overcoming man's     
distaste for repulsive kinds of labor4  
,meanwhile men at large still live as   
they always have lived1 under a         
pain-and-fear economy--for those of us  
who live in an ease-economy are but an  
island in the stormy ocean--and the     
whole atmosphere of present-day ,utopian
 literature tastes mawkish and          
dishwatery to people who still keep a   
sense for life's more bitter flavors4   
,it suggests1 in truth1 ubiquitous      
inferiority4  ,inferiority is always    
with us1 and merciless scorn of it is   
the keynote of the military temper4     
,dogs1 would you live forever8 shouted  

,frederick the ,great4  ,yes1 say our   
,utopians1 let us live forever1 and     
raise our level gradually4  ,the best   
thing about our inferiors to-day is that
 they are as tough as nails1 and        
physically and morally almost as        
insensitive4  ,utopianism would see them
 soft and squeamish1 while militarism   
would keep their callousness1 but       
transfigure it into a meritorious       
characteristic1 needed by the service1  
and redeemed by that from the suspicion 
of inferiority4  ,all the qualities of a
 man acquire dignity when he knows that 
the service of the collectivity that    
owns him needs them4  ,if proud of the  
collectivity1 his own pride rises in    
proportion4  ,no collectivity is like an
 army for nourishing such pride2 but it 
has to be confessed that the only       
sentiment which the image of pacific    
cosmopolitan industrialism is capable of
 arousing in countless worthy breasts is
 shame at the idea of belonging to such 
a collectivity4  ,it is obvious that the

 ,united ,states of ,america as they    
exist to-day impress a mind like        
,general ,lea's as so much human        
blubber4  ,where is the sharpness and   
precipitousness1 the contempt for life1 
whether one's own1 or another's8  ,where
 is the savage yes and no1 the          
unconditional duty8  ,where is the      
conscription8  ,where is the blood-tax8 
,where is anything that one feels       
honored by belonging to8  ,having said  
thus much in preparation1 ,i will now   
confess my own ,utopia4 ,i devoutly     
believe in the reign of peace and in the
 gradual advent of some sort of a       
socialistic equilibrium4  ,the          
fatalistic view of the war-function is  
to me nonsense1 for ,i know that        
war-making is due to definite motives   
and subject to prudential checks and    
reasonable criticisms1 just like any    
other form of enterprise4  ,and when    
whole nations are the armies1 and the   
science of destruction vies in          
intellectual refinement with the        

sciences of production1 ,i see that war 
becomes absurd and impossible from its  
own monstrosity4  ,extravagant ambitions
 will have to be replaced by reasonable 
claims1 and nations must make common    
cause against them4  ,i see no reason   
why all this should not apply to yellow 
as well as to white countries1 and ,i   
look forward to a future when acts of   
war shall be formally outlawed as       
between civilized peoples4  ,all these  
beliefs of mine put me squarely into the
 anti-militarist party4  ,but ,i do not 
believe that peace either ought to be or
 will be permanent on this globe1 unless
 the states pacifically organized       
preserve some of the old elements of    
army-discipline4  ,a permanently        
successful peace-economy cannot be a    
simple pleasure-economy4  ,in the more  
or less socialistic future towards which
 mankind seems drifting we must still   
subject ourselves collectively to those 
severities which answer to our real     
position upon this only partly          

hospitable globe4  ,we must make new    
energies and hardihoods continue the    
manliness to which the military mind so 
faithfully clings4  ,martial virtues    
must be the enduring cement2            
intrepidity1 contempt of softness1      
surrender of private interest1 obedience
 to command1 must still remain the rock 
upon which states are built--unless1    
indeed1 we wish for dangerous reactions 
against commonwealths fit only for      
contempt1 and liable to invite attack   
whenever a centre of crystallization for
 military-minded enterprise gets formed 
anywhere in their neighborhood4  ,the   
war-party is assuredly right in         
affirming and reaffirming that the      
martial virtues1 although originally    
gained by the race through war1 are     
absolute and permanent human goods4     
,patriotic pride and ambition in their  
military form are1 after all1 only      
specifications of a more general        
competitive passion4  ,they are its     
first form1 but that is no reason for   

supposing them to be its last form4     
,men now are proud of belonging to a    
conquering nation1 and without a murmur 
they lay down their persons and their   
wealth1 if by so doing they may fend off
 subjection4  ,but who can be sure that 
other aspects of one's country may not1 
with time and education and suggestion  
enough1 come to be regarded with        
similarly effective feelings of pride   
and shame8  ,why should men not some day
 feel that it is worth a blood-tax to   
belong to a collectivity superior in any
 ideal respect8  ,why should they not   
blush with indignant shame if the       
community that owns them is vile in any 
way whatsoever8  ,individuals1 daily    
more numerous1 now feel this civic      
passion4  ,it is only a question of     
blowing on the spark till the whole     
population gets incandescent1 and on the
 ruins of the old morals of military    
honor1 a stable system of morals of     
civic honor builds itself up4  ,what the
 whole community comes to believe in    

grasps the individual as in a vise4     
,the war-function has grasped us so far2
 but constructive interests may some day
 seem no less imperative1 and impose on 
the individual a hardly lighter burden4 
,let me illustrate my idea more         
concretely4  ,there is nothing to make  
one indignant in the mere fact that life
 is hard1 that men should toil and      
suffer pain4  ,the planetary conditions 
once for all are such1 and we can stand 
it4  ,but that so many men1 by mere     
accidents of birth and opportunity1     
should have a life of nothing else but  
toil and pain and hardness and          
inferiority imposed upon them1 should   
have no vacation1 while others natively 
no more deserving never get any taste of
 this campaigning life at all1--this is 
capable of arousing indignation in      
reflective minds4  ,it may end by       
seeming shameful to all of us that some 
of us have nothing but campaigning1 and 
others nothing but unmanly ease4  ,if   
now--and this is my idea--there were1   

instead of military conscription a      
conscription of the whole youthful      
population to form for a certain number 
of years a part of the army enlisted    
against ,nature1 the injustice would    
tend to be evened out1 and numerous     
other goods to the commonwealth would   
follow4  ,the military ideals of        
hardihood and discipline would be       
wrought into the growing fibre of the   
people2 no one would remain blind as the
 luxurious classes now are blind1 to    
man's relations to the globe he lives   
on1 and to the permanently sour and hard
 foundations of his higher life4  ,to   
coal and iron mines1 to freight trains1 
to fishing fleets in ,december1 to      
dishwashing1 clothes-washing1 and       
window-washing1 to road-building and    
tunnel-making1 to foundries and         
stoke-holes1 and to the frames of       
skyscrapers1 would our gilded youths be 
drafted off1 according to their choice1 
to get the childishness knocked out of  
them1 and to come back into society with

 healthier sympathies and soberer ideas4
  ,they would have paid  their          
blood-tax1 done their own part in the   
immemorial human warfare against nature2
 they would tread the earth more        
proudly1 the women would value them more
 highly1 they would be better fathers   
and teachers of the following           
generation4  ,such a conscription1 with 
the state of public opinion that would  
have required it1 and the many moral    
fruits it would bear1 would preserve in 
the midst of a pacific civilization the 
manly virtues which the military party  
is so afraid of seeing disappear in     
peace4  ,we should get toughness without
 callousness1 authority with as little  
criminal cruelty as possible1 and       
painful work done cheerily because the  
duty is temporary1 and threatens not1 as
 now1 to degrade the whole remainder of 
one's life4  ,i spoke of the moral      
equivalent of war4  ,so far1 war has    
been the only force that can discipline 
a whole community1 and until an         

equivalent discipline is organized1 ,i  
believe that war must have its way4     
,but ,i have no serious doubt that the  
ordinary prides and shames of social    
man1 once developed to a certain        
intensity1 are capable of organizing    
such a moral equivalent as ,i have      
sketched1 or some other just as         
effective for preserving manliness of   
type4  ,it is but a question of time1 of
 skilful propagandism1 and of           
opinion-making men seizing historic     
opportunities4  ,the martial type of    
character can be bred without war4      
,strenuous honor and disinterestedness  
abound elsewhere4  ,priests and medical 
men are in a fashion educated to it and 
we should all feel some degree of it    
imperative if we were conscious of our  
work as an obligatory service to the    
state4  ,we should be owned1 as soldiers
 are by the army1 and our pride would   
rise accordingly4  ,we could be poor1   
then1 without humiliation1 as army      
officers now are4  ,the only thing      

needed henceforward is to inflame the   
civic temper as past history has        
inflamed the military temper4  ,h4 ,g4  
,wells1 as usual1 sees the centre of the
 situation4  ,in many ways1 he says1    
military organization is the most       
peaceful of activities4  ,when the      
contemporary man steps from the street1 
of clamorous insincere advertisement1   
push1 adulteration1 underselling and    
intermittent employment into the        
barrack-yard1 he steps on to a higher   
social plane1 into an atmosphere of     
service and cooperation and of          
infinitely more honorable emulations4   
,here at least men are not flung out of 
employment to degenerate because there  
is no immediate work for them to do4    
,they are fed and drilled and trained   
for better services4  ,here at least a  
man is supposed to win promotion by     
self-forgetfulness and not by           
self-seeking4  ,and beside the feeble   
and irregular endowment of research by  
commercialism1 its little short-sighted 

snatches at profit by innovation and    
scientific economy1 see how remarkable  
is the steady and rapid development of  
method and appliances in naval and      
military affairs6  ,nothing is more     
striking than to compare the progress of
 civil conveniences which has been left 
almost entirely to the trader1 to the   
progress in military apparatus during   
the last few decades4  ,the             
house-appliances of to-day for example1 
are little better than they were fifty  
years ago4  ,a house of to-day is still 
almost as ill-ventilated1 badly heated  
by wasteful fires1 clumsily arranged and
 furnished as the house of #aheh4       
,houses a couple of hundred years old   
are still satisfactory places of        
residence1 so little have our standards 
risen4  ,but the rifle or battleship of 
fifty years ago was beyond all          
comparison inferior to those we possess2
 in power1 in speed1 in convenience     
alike4  ,no one has a use now for such  
superannuated things4 #c  ,wells adds#d 

that he thinks that the conceptions of  
order and discipline1 the tradition of  
service and devotion1 of physical       
fitness1 unstinted exertion1 and        
universal responsibility1 which         
universal military duty is now teaching 
,european nations1 will remain a        
permanent acquisition1 when the last    
ammunition has been used in the         
fireworks that celebrate the final      
peace4  ,i believe as he does4  ,it     
would be simply preposterous if the only
 force that could work ideals of honor  
and standards of efficiency into        
,english or ,american natures should be 
the fear of being killed by the ,germans
 or the ,japanese4  ,great indeed is    
,fear2 but it is not1 as our military   
enthusiasts believe and try to make us  
believe1 the only stimulus known for    
awakening the higher ranges of men's    
spiritual energy4  ,the amount of       
alteration in public opinion which my   
utopia postulates is vastly less than   
the difference between the mentality of 

those black warriors who pursued        
,stanley's party on the ,congo with     
their cannibal war-cry of ,meat6  ,meat6
 and that of the general-staff of any   
civilized nation4  ,history has seen the
 latter interval bridged over3 the      
former one can be bridged over much more
 easily4    #a ,written for and first   
published by the ,association for       
,international ,conciliation 7,leaflet  
,no4 #bg7 and also published in         
,mc,clure's ,magazine1 ,august1 #aiaj1  
and ,the ,popular ,science ,monthly1    
,october1 #aiaj4  #b ,justice and       
,liberty1 ,n4 ,y41 #aiji4  #c ,first and
 ,last ,things1 #aijh1 p4 #bae4  #d     
,first and ,last ,things1 #aijh1 p4     
#bbf4     ,,xii  ,,remarks ,,at ,,the   
,,peace ,,banquet#a  ,i am only a       
philosopher1 and there is only one thing
 that a philosopher can be relied on to 
do1 and that is1 to contradict other    
philosophers4 ,in ancient times         
philosophers defined man as the rational
 animal2 and philosophers since then    

have always found much more to say about
 the rational than about the animal part
 of the definition4  ,but looked at     
candidly1 reason bears about the same   
proportion to the rest of human nature  
that we in this hall bear to the rest of
 ,america1 ,europe1 ,asia1 ,africa and  
,polynesia4  ,reason is one of the very 
feeblest of nature's forces1 if you take
 it at only one spot and moment4  ,it is
 only in the very long run that its     
effects become perceptible4  ,reason    
assumes to settle things by weighing    
them against each other without         
prejudice1 partiality or excitement2 but
 what affairs in the concrete are       
settled by is1 and always will be1 just 
prejudices1 partialities1 cupidities and
 excitements4  ,appealing to reason as  
we do1 we are in a sort of forlorn-hope 
situation1 like a small sandbank in the 
midst of a hungry sea ready to wash it  
out of existence4  ,but sand-banks grow 
when the conditions favor2 and weak as  
reason is1 it has this unique advantage 

over its antagonists that its activity  
never lets up and that it presses always
 in one direction1 while men's          
prejudices vary1 their passions ebb and 
flow1 and their excitements are         
intermittent4  ,our sand-bank1 ,i       
absolutely believe1 is bound to grow4   
,bit by bit it will get dyked and       
breakwatered4  ,but sitting as we do in 
this warm room1 with music and lights   
and smiling faces1 it is easy to get too
 sanguine about our task2 and since ,i  
am called to speak1 ,i feel as if it    
might not be out of place to say a word 
about the strength4  ,our permanent     
enemy is the rooted bellicosity of human
 nature4  ,man1 biologically considered1
 and whatever else he may be into the   
bargain1 is the most formidable of all  
beasts of prey1 and1 indeed1 the only   
one that preys systematically on his own
 species4  ,we are once for all adapted 
to the military status4  ,a millennium  
of peace would not breed the fighting   
disposition out of our bone and marrow1 

and a function so ingrained and vital   
will never consent to die without       
resistance1 and will always find        
impassioned apologists and idealizers4  
,not only men born to be soldiers1 but  
non-combatants by trade and nature1     
historians in their studies1 and        
clergymen in their pulpits1 have been   
war's idealizers4  ,they have talked of 
war as of ,god's court of justice4      
,and1 indeed1 if we think how many      
things beside the frontiers of states   
the wars of history have decided1 we    
must feel some respectful awe1 in spite 
of all the horrors4  ,our actual        
civilization1 good and bad alike1 has   
had past wars for its determining       
condition4 ,great mindedness among the  
tribes of men has always meant the will 
to prevail1 and all the more1 so if     
prevailing included slaughtering and    
being slaughtered4  ,rome1 ,paris1      
,england1 ,brandenburg1                 
,piedmont1--possibly soon ,japan1--along
 with their arms have their traits of   

character and habits of thought prevail 
among their conquered neighbors4  ,the  
blessings we actually enjoy1 such as    
they are1 have grown up in the shadow of
 the wars of antiquity4  ,the various   
ideals were backed by fighting wills1   
and when neither would give way1 the    
,god of battles had to be the arbiter4  
,a shallow view this1 truly2 for who can
 say what might have prevailed if man   
had ever been a reasoning and not a     
fighting animal8  ,like dead men1 dead  
causes tell no tales1 and the ideals    
that went under in the past1 along with 
all the tribes that represented them1   
find to-day no recorder1 no explainer1  
no defender4  ,but apart from theoretic 
defenders1 and apart from every         
soldierly individual straining at the   
leash and clamoring for opportunity1 war
 has an omnipotent support in the form  
of our imagination4  ,man lives by      
habits indeed1 but what he lives for is 
thrills and excitements4 ,the only      
relief from habit's tediousness is      

periodical excitement4 ,from time       
immemorial wars have been1 especially   
for non-combatants1 the supremely       
thrilling excitement4  ,heavy and       
dragging at its end1 at its outset every
 war means an explosion of imaginative  
energy4  ,the dams of routine burst1 and
 boundless prospects open4  ,the        
remotest spectators share the           
fascination of that awful struggle now  
in process on the confines of the world4
  ,there is not a man in this room1 ,i  
suppose1 who doesn't buy both an evening
 and a morning paper1 and first of all  
pounce on the war column4  ,a deadly    
listlessness would come over most men's 
imagination of the future if they could 
seriously be brought to believe that    
never again in soecula soeculorum would 
a war trouble human history4  ,in such a
 stagnant summer afternoon of a world1  
where would be the zest or interest8    
,this is the constitution of human      
nature which we have to work against4   
,the plain truth is that people want    

war4  ,they want it anyhow2 for itself1 
and apart from each and every possible  
consequence4  ,it is the final bouquet  
of life's fireworks4  ,the born soldiers
 want it hot and actual4  ,the          
non-combatants want it in the           
background1 and always as an open       
possibility1 to feed imagination on and 
keep excitement going4 ,its clerical and
 historical defenders fool themselves   
when they talk as they do about it4     
,what moves them is not the blessings it
 has won for us1 but a vague religious  
exaltation4  ,war is human nature at its
 uttermost4  ,we are here to do our     
uttermost4  ,it is a sacrament4 ,society
 would rot without the mystical         
blood-payment4  ,we do ill1 ,i think1   
therefore1 to talk much of universal    
peace or of a general disarmament4  ,we 
must go in for preventive medicine1 not 
for radical cure4  ,we must cheat our   
foe1 circumvent him in detail1 not try  
to change his nature4  ,in one respect  
war is like love1 though in no other4   

,both leave us intervals of rest2 and in
 the intervals life goes on perfectly   
well without them1 though the           
imagination still dallies with their    
possibility4  ,equally insane when once 
aroused and under headway1 whether they 
shall be aroused or not depends on      
accidental circumstances4  ,how are old 
maids and old bachelors made8  ,not by  
deliberate vows of celibacy1 but by     
sliding on from year to year with no    
sufficient matrimonial provocation4  ,so
 of the nations with their wars4  ,let  
the general possibility of war be left  
open1 in ,heaven's name1 for the        
imagination to dally with4  ,let the    
soldiers dream of killing1 as the old   
maids dream of marrying4  ,but organize 
in every conceivable way the practical  
machinery for making each successive    
chance of war abortive4  ,put peace men 
in power2 educate the editors and       
statesmen to responsibility4  ,how      
beautifully did their trained           
responsibility in ,england make the     

,venezuela incident abortive6  ,seize   
every pretext1 however small1 for       
arbitration methods1 and multiply the   
precedents2 foster rival excitements1   
and invent new outlets for heroic       
energy2 and from one generation to      
another the chances are that irritation 
will grow less acute and states of      
strain less dangerous among the nations4
  ,armies and navies will continue1 of  
course1 and fire the minds of           
populations with their potentialities of
 greatness4  ,but their officers will   
find that somehow or other1 with no     
deliberate intention on any one's part1 
each successive incident has managed to 
evaporate and to lead nowhere1 and that 
the thought of what might have been     
remains their only consolation4  ,the   
last weak runnings of the war spirit    
will be punitive expeditions4  ,a       
country that turns its arms only against
 uncivilized foes is1 ,i think1 wrongly 
taunted as degenerate4  ,of course it   
has ceased to be heroic in the old grand

 style4  ,but ,i verily believe that    
this is because it now sees something   
better4  ,it has a conscience4  ,it will
 still perpetrate peccadillos4  ,but it 
is afraid1 afraid in the good sense1 to 
engage in absolute crimes against       
civilization4    #a ,published in the   
,official ,report of the ,universal     
,peace ,congress1 held in ,boston in    
#aijd1 and in the ,atlantic ,monthly1   
,december1 #aijd4     ,,xiii  ,,the     
,,social ,,value ,,of ,,the             
,,college-,,bred#a  ,of what use is a   
college training8  ,we who have had it  
seldom hear the question raised2 we     
might be a little nonplussed to answer  
it offhand4 ,a certain amount of        
meditation has brought me to this as the
 pithiest reply which ,i myself can     
give3 ,the best claim that a college    
education can possibly make on your     
respect1 the best thing it can aspire to
 accomplish for you1 is this3 that it   
should help you to know a good man when 
you see him4  ,this is as true of       

women's as of men's colleges2 but that  
it is neither a joke nor a one-sided    
abstraction ,i shall now endeavor to    
show4  ,what talk do we commonly hear   
about the contrast between college      
education and the education which       
business or technical or professional   
schools confer8  ,the college education 
is called higher because it is supposed 
to be so general and so disinterested4  
,at the schools you get a relatively    
narrow practical skill1 you are told1   
whereas the colleges give you the more  
liberal culture1 the broader outlook1   
the historical perspective1 the         
philosophic atmosphere1 or something    
which phrases of that sort try to       
express4  ,you are made into an         
efficient instrument for doing a        
definite thing1 you hear1 at the        
schools2 but1 apart from that1 you may  
remain a crude and smoky kind of        
petroleum1 incapable of spreading light4
  ,the universities and colleges1 on the
 other hand1 although they may leave you

 less efficient for this or that        
practical task1 suffuse your whole      
mentality with something more important 
than skill4  ,they redeem you1 make you 
well-bred2 they make good company of you
 mentally4  ,if they find you with a    
naturally boorish or caddish mind1 they 
cannot leave you so1 as a technical     
school may leave you4  ,this1 at least1 
is pretended2 this is what we hear among
 college-trained people when they       
compare their education with every other
 sort4  ,now1 exactly how much does this
 signify8  ,it is certain1 to begin     
with1 that the narrowest trade or       
professional training does something    
more for a man than to make a skilful   
practical tool of him--it makes him also
 a judge of other men's skill4  ,whether
 his trade be pleading at the bar or    
surgery or plastering or plumbing1 it   
develops a critical sense in him for    
that sort of occupation4  ,he           
understands the difference between      
second-rate and first-rate work in his  

whole branch of industry2 he gets to    
know a good job in his own line as soon 
as he sees it2 and getting to know this 
in his own line1 he gets a faint sense  
of what good work may mean anyhow1 that 
may1 if circumstances favor1 spread into
 his judgments elsewhere4  ,sound work1 
clean work1 finished work3 feeble work1 
slack work1 sham work--these words      
express an identical contrast in many   
different departments of activity4  ,in 
so far forth1 then1 even the humblest   
manual trade may beget in one a certain 
small degree of power to judge of good  
work generally4  ,now1 what is supposed 
to be the line of us who have the higher
 college training8  ,is there any       
broader line--since our education claims
 primarily not to be narrow--in which we
 also are made good judges between what 
is first-rate and what is second-rate   
only8  ,what is especially taught in the
 colleges has long been known by the    
name of the humanities1 and these are   
often identified with ,greek and ,latin4

 ,but it is only as literatures1 not as 
languages1 that ,greek and ,latin have  
any general humanity-value2 so that in a
 broad sense the humanities mean        
literature primarily1 and in a still    
broader sense the study of masterpieces 
in almost any field of human endeavor4  
,literature keeps the primacy2 for it   
not only consists of masterpieces1 but  
is largely about masterpieces1 being    
little more than an appreciative        
chronicle of human master-strokes1 so   
far as it takes the form of criticism   
and history4  ,you can give humanistic  
value to almost anything by teaching it 
historically4  ,geology1 economics1     
mechanics1 are humanities when taught   
with reference to the successive        
achievements of the geniuses to which   
these sciences owe their being4 ,not    
taught thus literature remains grammar1 
art a catalogue1 history a list of      
dates1 and natural science a sheet of   
formulas and weights and measures4  ,the
 sifting of human creations6--nothing   

less than this is what we ought to mean 
by the humanities4  ,essentially this   
means biography2 what our colleges      
should teach is1 therefore1 biographical
 history1 that not of politics merely1  
but of anything and everything so far as
 human efforts and conquests are factors
 that have played their part4 ,studying 
in this way1 we learn what types of     
activity have stood the test of time2 we
 acquire standards of the excellent and 
durable4  ,all our arts and sciences and
 institutions are but so many quests of 
perfection on the part of men2 and when 
we see how diverse the types of         
excellence may be1 how various the      
tests1 how flexible the adaptations1 we 
gain a richer sense of what the terms   
better and worse may signify in general4
  ,our critical sensibilities grow both 
more acute and less fanatical4  ,we     
sympathize with men's mistakes even in  
the act of penetrating them2 we feel the
 pathos of lost causes and misguided    
epochs even while we applaud what       

overcame them4  ,such words are vague   
and such ideas are inadequate1 but their
 meaning is unmistakable4  ,what the    
colleges--teaching humanities by        
examples which may be special1 but which
 must be typical and pregnant--should at
 least try to give us1 is a general     
sense of what1 under various disguises1 
superiority has always signified and may
 still signify4 ,the feeling for a good 
human job anywhere1 the admiration of   
the really admirable1 the disesteem of  
what is cheap and trashy and            
impermanent1--this is what we call the  
critical sense1 the sense for ideal     
values4  ,it is the better part of what 
men know as wisdom4  ,some of us are    
wise in this way naturally and by       
genius2 some of us never become so4     
,but to have spent one's youth at       
college1 in contact with the choice and 
rare and precious1 and yet still to be a
 blind prig or vulgarian1 unable to     
scent out human excellence or to divine 
it amid its accidents1 to know it only  

when ticketed and labelled and forced on
 us by others1 this indeed should be    
accounted the very calamity and         
shipwreck of a higher education4  ,the  
sense for human superiority ought1 then1
 to be considered our line1 as boring   
subways is the engineer's line and the  
surgeon's is appendicitis4  ,our        
colleges ought to have lit up in us a   
lasting relish for the better kind of   
man1 a loss of appetite for             
mediocrities1 and a disgust for cheap   
jacks4  ,we ought to smell1 as it were1 
the difference of quality in men and    
their proposals when we enter the world 
of affairs about us4  ,expertness in    
this might well atone for some of our   
awkwardness at accounts1 for some of our
 ignorance of dynamos4  ,the best claim 
we can make for the higher education1   
the best single phrase in which we can  
tell what it ought to do for us1 is1    
then1 exactly what ,i said3 it should   
enable us to know a good man when we see
 him4  ,that the phrase is anything but 

an empty epigram follows from the fact  
that if you ask in what line it is most 
important that a democracy like ours    
should have its sons and daughters      
skilful1 you see that it is this line   
more than any other4  ,the people in    
their wisdom--this is the kind of wisdom
 most needed by the people4  ,democracy 
is on its trial1 and no one knows how it
 will stand the ordeal4  ,abounding     
about us are pessimistic prophets4      
,fickleness and violence used to be1 but
 are no longer1 the vices which they    
charge to democracy4  ,what its critics 
now affirm is that its preferences are  
inveterately for the inferior4  ,so it  
was in the beginning1 they say1 and so  
it will be world without end4           
,vulgarity enthroned and                
institutionalized1 elbowing everything  
superior from the highway1 this1 they   
tell us1 is our irremediable destiny2   
and the picture-papers of the ,european 
continent are already drawing ,uncle    
,sam with the hog instead of the eagle  

for his heraldic emblem4  ,the          
privileged aristocracies of the         
foretime1 with all their iniquities1 did
 at least preserve some taste for higher
 human quality1 and honor certain forms 
of refinement by their enduring         
traditions4  ,but when democracy is     
sovereign1 its doubters say1 nobility   
will form a sort of invisible church1   
and sincerity and refinement1 stripped  
of honor1 precedence1 and favor1 will   
have to vegetate on sufferance in       
private corners4  ,they will have no    
general influence4  ,they will be       
harmless eccentricities4  ,now1 who can 
be absolutely certain that this may not 
be the career of democracy8  ,nothing   
future is quite secure2 states enough   
have inwardly rotted2 and democracy as a
 whole may undergo self-poisoning4      
,but1 on the other hand1 democracy is a 
kind of religion1 and we are bound not  
to admit its failure4  ,faiths and      
,utopias are the noblest exercise of    
human reason1 and no one with a spark of

 reason in him will sit down            
fatalistically before the croaker's     
picture4  ,the best of us are filled    
with the contrary vision of a democracy 
stumbling through every error till its  
institutions glow with justice and its  
customs shine with beauty4  ,our better 
men shall show the way and we shall     
follow them2 so we are brought round    
again to the mission of the higher      
education in helping us to know the     
better kind of man whenever we see him4 
,the notion that a people can run itself
 and its affairs anonymously is now well
 known to be the silliest of            
absurdities4  ,mankind does nothing save
 through initiatives on the part of     
inventors1 great or small1 and imitation
 by the rest of us--these are the sole  
factors active in human progress4       
,individuals of genius show the way1 and
 set the patterns1 which common people  
then adopt and follow4  ,the rivalry of 
the patterns is the history of the      
world4  ,our democratic problem thus is 

statable in ultra-simple terms3 ,who are
 the kind of men from whom our          
majorities shall take their cue8  ,whom 
shall they treat as rightful leaders8   
,we and our leaders are the x and the y 
of the equation here2 all other historic
 circumstances1 be they economical1     
political1 or intellectual1 are only the
 background of occasion on which the    
living drama works itself out between   
us4  ,in this very simple way does the  
value of our educated class define      
itself3 we more than others should be   
able to divine the worthier and better  
leaders4  ,the terms here are           
monstrously simplified1 of course1 but  
such a bird's-eye view lets us          
immediately take our bearings4  ,in our 
democracy1 where everything else is so  
shifting1 we alumni and alumnae of the  
colleges are the only permanent presence
 that corresponds to the aristocracy in 
older countries4  ,we have continuous   
traditions1 as they have2 our motto1    
too1 is noblesse oblige2 and1 unlike    

them1 we stand for ideal interests      
solely1 for we have no corporate        
selfishness and wield no powers of      
corruption4  ,we ought to have our own  
class-consciousness4  ,les              
,intellectuels6  ,what prouder club-name
 could there be than this one1 used     
ironically by the party of redblood1 the
 party of every stupid prejudice and    
passion1 during the anti-,dreyfus craze1
 to satirize the men in ,france who     
still retained some critical sense and  
judgment6  ,critical sense1 it has to be
 confessed1 is not an exciting term1    
hardly a banner to carry in processions4
  ,affections for old habit1 currents of
 self-interest1 and gales of passion are
 the forces that keep the human ship    
moving2 and the pressure of the         
judicious pilot's hand upon the tiller  
is a relatively insignificant energy4   
,but the affections1 passions1 and      
interests are shifting1 successive1 and 
distraught2 they blow in alternation    
while the pilot's hand is steadfast4    

,he knows the compass1 and1 with all the
 leeways he is obliged to tack toward1  
he always makes some headway4  ,a small 
force1 if it never lets up1 will        
accumulate effects more considerable    
than those of much greater forces if    
these work inconsistently4  ,the        
ceaseless whisper of the more permanent 
ideals1 the steady tug of truth and     
justice1 give them but time1 must warp  
the world in their direction4  ,this    
bird's-eye view of the general steering 
function of the college-bred amid the   
driftings of democracy ought to help us 
to a wider vision of what our colleges  
themselves should aim at4  ,if we are to
 be the yeast-cake for democracy's      
dough1 if we are to make it rise with   
culture's preferences1 we must see to it
 that culture spreads broad sails4  ,we 
must shake the old double reefs out of  
the canvas into the wind and sunshine1  
and let in every modern subject1 sure   
that any subject will prove humanistic1 
if its setting be kept only wide enough4

  ,stevenson says somewhere to his      
reader3 ,you think you are just making  
this bargain1 but you are really laying 
down a link in the policy of mankind4   
,well1 your technical school should     
enable you to make your bargain         
splendidly2 but your college should show
 you just the place of that kind of     
bargain--a pretty poor place1           
possibly--in the whole policy of        
mankind4  ,that is the kind of liberal  
outlook1 of perspective1 of atmosphere1 
which should surround every subject as a
 college deals with it4  ,we of the     
colleges must eradicate a curious notion
 which numbers of good people have about
 such ancient seats of learning as      
,harvard4  ,to many ignorant outsiders1 
the name suggests little more than a    
kind of sterilized conceit and          
incapacity for being pleased4  ,in      
,edith ,wyatt's exquisite book of       
,chicago sketches called ,every ,one his
 ,own ,way there is a couple who stand  
for culture in the sense of             

exclusiveness1 ,richard ,elliot and his 
feminine counterpart--feeble caricatures
 of mankind1 unable to know any good    
thing when they see it1 incapable of    
enjoyment unless a printed label gives  
them leave4  ,possibly this type of     
culture may exist near ,cambridge and   
,boston4  ,there may be specimens there1
 for priggishness is just like painter's
 colic or any other trade-disease4  ,but
 every good college makes its students  
immune against this malady1 of which the
 microbe haunts the neighborhood of     
printed pages4  ,it does so by its      
general tone being too hearty for the   
microbe's life4  ,real culture lives by 
sympathies and admirations1 not by      
dislikes and disdains2 under all        
misleading wrappings it pounces         
unerringly upon the human core4  ,if a  
college1 through the inferior human     
influences that have grown regnant      
there1 fails to catch the robuster tone1
 its failure is colossal1 for its social
 function stops3 democracy gives it a   

wide berth1 turns toward it a deaf ear4 
,tone1 to be sure1 is a terribly vague  
word to use1 but there is no other1 and 
this whole meditation is over questions 
of tone4  ,by their tone are all things 
human either lost or saved4  ,if        
democracy is to be saved it must catch  
the higher1 healthier tone4  ,if we are 
to impress it with our preferences1 we  
ourselves must use the proper tone1     
which we1 in turn1 must have caught from
 our own teachers4  ,it all reverts in  
the end to the action of innumerable    
imitative individuals upon each other   
and to the question of whose tone has   
the highest spreading power4  ,as a     
class1 we college graduates should look 
to it that ours has spreading power4    
,it ought to have the highest spreading 
power4  ,in our essential function of   
indicating the better men1 we now have  
formidable competitors outside4         
,mc,clure's ,magazine1 the ,american    
,magazine1 ,collier's ,weekly1 and1 in  
its fashion1 the ,world's ,work1        

constitute together a real popular      
university along this very line4  ,it   
would be a pity if any future historian 
were to have to write words like these3 
,by the middle of the twentieth century 
the higher institutions of learning had 
lost all influence over public opinion  
in the ,united ,states4  ,but the       
mission of raising the tone of          
democracy1 which they had proved        
themselves so lamentably unfitted to    
exert1 was assumed with rare enthusiasm 
and prosecuted with extraordinary skill 
and success by a new educational power2 
and for the clarification of their human
 sympathies and elevation of their human
 preferences1 the people at large       
acquired the habit of resorting         
exclusively to the guidance of certain  
private literary adventures1 commonly   
designated in the market by the         
affectionate name of ten-cent magazines4
  ,must not we of the colleges see to it
 that no historian shall ever say       
anything like this8  ,vague as the      

phrase of knowing a good man when you   
see him may be1 diffuse and indefinite  
as one must leave its application1 is   
there any other formula that describes  
so well the result at which our         
institutions ought to aim8  ,if they do 
that1 they do the best thing            
conceivable4  ,if they fail to do it1   
they fail in very deed4  ,it surely is a
 fine synthetic formula4  ,if our       
faculties and graduates could once      
collectively come to realize it as the  
great underlying purpose toward which   
they have always been more or less      
obscurely groping1 a great clearness    
would be shed over many of their        
problems2 and1 as for their influence in
 the midst of our social system1 it     
would embark upon a new career of       
strength4    #a ,address delivered at a 
meeting of the ,association of ,american
 ,alumnae at ,radcliffe ,college1       
,november #g1 #aijg1 and first published
 in ,mc,clure's ,magazine for ,february1
 #aijh4     ,,xiv  ,,the ,,university   

,,and ,,the ,,individual   ,i4 ,,the    
,,ph4,d4 ,,octopus#a  ,some years ago we
 had at our ,harvard ,graduate ,school a
 very brilliant student of ,philosophy1 
who1 after leaving us and supporting    
himself by literary labor for three     
years1 received an appointment to teach 
,english ,literature at a               
sister-institution of learning4  ,the   
governors of this institution1 however1 
had no sooner communicated the          
appointment than they made the awful    
discovery that they had enrolled upon   
their staff a person who was unprovided 
with the ,ph4,d4 degree4 ,the man in    
question had been satisfied to work at  
,philosophy for her own sweet 7or       
bitter7 sake1 and had disdained to      
consider that an academic bauble should 
be his reward4  ,his appointment had    
thus been made under a misunderstanding4
  ,he was not the proper man2 and there 
was nothing to do but to inform him of  
the fact4  ,it was notified to him by   
his new ,president that his appointment 

must be revoked1 or that a ,harvard     
doctor's degree must forthwith be       
procured4  ,although it was already the 
spring of the year1 our ,subject1 being 
a man of spirit1 took up the challenge1 
turned his back upon literature 7which  
in view of his approaching duties might 
have seemed his more urgent concern7 and
 spent the weeks that were left him1 in 
writing a metaphysical thesis and       
grinding his psychology1 logic and      
history of philosophy up again1 so as to
 pass our formidable ordeals4  ,when the
 thesis came to be read by our          
committee1 we could not pass it4        
,brilliancy and originality by          
themselves won't save a thesis for the  
doctorate2 it must also exhibit a heavy 
technical apparatus of learning2 and    
this our candidate had neglected to     
bring to bear4  ,so1 telling him that he
 was temporarily rejected1 we advised   
him to pad out the thesis properly1 and 
return with it next year1 at the same   
time informing his new ,president that  

this signified nothing as to his merits1
 that he was of ultra ,ph4,d4 quality1  
and one of the strongest men with whom  
we had ever had to deal4  ,to our       
surprise we were given to understand in 
reply that the quality per se of the man
 signified nothing in this connection1  
and that three magical letters were the 
thing seriously required4  ,the ,college
 had always gloried in a list of faculty
 members who bore the doctor's title1   
and to make a gap in the galaxy1 and    
admit a common fox without a tail1 would
 be a degradation impossible to be      
thought of4  ,we wrote again1 pointing  
out that a ,ph4,d4 in philosophy would  
prove little anyhow as to one's ability 
to teach literature2 we sent separate   
letters in which we outdid each other in
 eulogy of our candidate's powers1 for  
indeed they were great2 and at last1    
mirabile dictu1 our eloquence prevailed4
  ,he was allowed to retain his         
appointment provisionally1 on condition 
that one year later at the farthest his 

miserably naked name should be prolonged
 by the sacred appendage the lack of    
which had given so much trouble to all  
concerned4  ,accordingly he came up here
 the following spring with an adequate  
thesis 7known since in print as a most  
brilliant contribution to metaphysics71 
passed a first-rate examination1 wiped  
out the stain1 and brought his college  
into proper relations with the world    
again4 ,whether his teaching1 during    
that first year1 of ,english ,literature
 was made any the better by the         
impending examination in a different    
subject1 is a question which ,i will not
 try to solve4  ,i have related this    
incident at such length because it is so
 characteristic of ,american academic   
conditions at the present day4 ,graduate
 schools still are something of a       
novelty1 and higher diplomas something  
of a rarity4  ,the latter1 therefore1   
carry a vague sense of preciousness and 
honor1 and have a particularly          
up-to-date appearance1 and it is no     

wonder if smaller institutions1 unable  
to attract professors already eminent1  
and forced usually to recruit their     
faculties from the relatively young1    
should hope to compensate for the       
obscurity of the names of their officers
 of instruction by the abundance of     
decorative titles by which those names  
are followed on the pages of the        
catalogues where they appear4  ,the     
dazzled reader of the list1 the parent  
or student1 says to himself1 ,this must 
be a terribly distinguished             
crowd1--their titles shine like the     
stars in the firmament2 ,ph4,d4's1      
,s4,d4's1 and ,litt4,d4's1 bespangle the
 page as if they were sprinkled over it 
from a pepper caster4  ,human nature is 
once for all so childish that every     
reality becomes a sham somewhere1 and in
 the minds of ,presidents and ,trustees 
the ,ph4,d4 degree is in point of fact  
already looked upon as a mere           
advertising resource1 a manner of       
throwing dust in the ,public's eyes4    

,no instructor who is not a ,doctor has 
become a maxim in the smaller           
institutions which represent demand2 and
 in each of the larger ones which       
represent supply1 the same belief in    
decorated scholarship expresses itself  
in two antagonistic passions1 one for   
multiplying as much as possible the     
annual output of doctors1 the other for 
raising the standard of difficulty in   
passing1 so that the ,ph4,d4 of the     
special institution shall carry a higher
 blaze of distinction than it does      
elsewhere4  ,thus we at ,harvard are    
proud of the number of candidates whom  
we reject1 and of the inability of men  
who are not distingus in intellect to   
pass our tests4  ,america is thus as a  
nation rapidly drifting towards a state 
of things in which no man of science or 
letters will be accounted respectable   
unless some kind of badge or diploma is 
stamped upon him1 and in which bare     
personality will be a mark of outcast   
estate4  ,it seems to me high time to   

rouse ourselves to consciousness1 and to
 cast a critical eye upon this decidedly
 grotesque tendency4  ,other nations    
suffer terribly from the ,mandarin      
disease4  ,are we doomed to suffer like 
the rest8  ,our higher degrees were     
instituted for the laudable purpose of  
stimulating scholarship1 especially in  
the form of original research4          
,experience has proved that great as the
 love of truth may be among men1 it can 
be made still greater by adventitious   
rewards4  ,the winning of a diploma     
certifying mastery and marking a barrier
 successfully passed1 acts as a         
challenge to the ambitious2 and if the  
diploma will help to gain bread-winning 
positions also1 its power as a stimulus 
to work is tremendously increased4  ,so 
far1 we are on innocent ground2 it is   
well for a country to have research in  
abundance1 and our graduate schools do  
but apply a normal psychological spur4  
,but the institutionizing on a large    
scale of any natural combination of need

 and motive always tends to run into    
technicality and to develop a tyrannical
 ,machine with unforeseen powers of     
exclusion and corruption4  ,observation 
of the workings of our ,harvard system  
for twenty years past has brought some  
of these drawbacks home to my           
consciousness1 and ,i should like to    
call the attention of my readers to this
 disadvantageous aspect of the picture1 
and to make a couple of remedial        
suggestions1 if ,i may4  ,in the first  
place1 it would seem that to stimulate  
study1 and to increase the gelehrtes    
,publikum1 the class of highly educated 
men in our country1 is the only positive
 good1 and consequently the sole direct 
end at which our graduate schools1 with 
their diploma-giving powers1 should aim4
  ,if other results have developed they 
should be deemed secondary incidents1   
and if not desirable in themselves1 they
 should be carefully guarded against4   
,to interfere with the free development 
of talent1 to obstruct the natural play 

of supply and demand in the teaching    
profession1 to foster academic snobbery 
by the prestige of certain privileged   
institutions1 to transfer accredited    
value from essential manhood to an      
outward badge1 to blight hopes and      
promote invidious sentiments1 to divert 
the attention of aspiring youth from    
direct dealings with truth to the       
passing of examinations1--such          
consequences1 if they exist1 ought      
surely to be regarded as drawbacks to   
the system1 and an enlightened public   
consciousness ought to be keenly alive  
to the importance of reducing their     
amount4  ,candidates themselves do seem 
to be keenly conscious of some of these 
evils1 but outside of their ranks or in 
the general public no such              
consciousness1 so far as ,i can see1    
exists2 or if it does exist1 it fails to
 express itself aloud4  ,schools1       
,colleges1 and ,universities1 appear    
enthusiastic over the entire system1    
just as it stands1 and unanimously      

applaud all its developments4  ,i beg   
the reader to consider some of the      
secondary evils which ,i have           
enumerated4  ,first of all1 is not our  
growing tendency to appoint no          
instructors who are not also doctors an 
instance of pure sham8  ,will any one   
pretend for a moment that the doctor's  
degree is a guarantee that its possessor
 will be successful as a teacher8       
,notoriously his moral1 social and      
personal characteristics may utterly    
disqualify him for success in the       
class-room2 and of these characteristics
 his doctor's examination is unable to  
take any account whatever4  ,certain    
bare human beings will always be better 
candidates for a given place than all   
the doctor-applicants on hand2 and to   
exclude the former by a rigid rule1 and 
in the end to have to sift the latter by
 private inquiry into their personal    
peculiarities among those who know them1
 just as if they were not doctors at    
all1 is to stultify one's own procedure4

  ,you may say that at least you guard  
against ignorance of the subject by     
considering only the candidates who are 
doctors2 but how then about making      
doctors in one subject teach a different
 subject8 ,this happened in the instance
 by which ,i introduced this article1   
and it happens daily and hourly in all  
our colleges8  ,the truth is that the   
,doctor-,monopoly in teaching1 which is 
becoming so rooted an ,american custom1 
can show no serious grounds whatsoever  
for itself in reason4 ,as it actually   
prevails and grows in vogue among us1 it
 is due to childish motives exclusively4
  ,in reality it is but a sham1 a       
bauble1 a dodge1 whereby to decorate the
 catalogues of schools and colleges4    
,next1 let us turn from the general     
promotion of a spirit of academic       
snobbery to the particular damage done  
to individuals by the system4  ,there   
are plenty of individuals so well       
endowed by nature that they pass with   
ease all the ordeals with which life    

confronts them4  ,such persons are born 
for professional success4  ,examinations
 have no terrors for them1 and interfere
 in no way with their spiritual or      
worldly interests4  ,there are others1  
not so gifted who nevertheless rise to  
the challenge1 get a stimulus from the  
difficulty1 and become doctors1 not     
without some baleful nervous wear and   
tear and retardation of their purely    
inner life1 but on the whole            
successfully1 and with advantage4       
,these two classes form the natural     
,ph4,d4's for whom the degree is        
legitimately instituted4  ,to be sure1  
the degree is of no consequence one way 
or the other for the first sort of man1 
for in him the personal worth obviously 
outshines the title4  ,to the second set
 of persons1 however1 the doctor ordeal 
may contribute a touch of energy and    
solidity of scholarship which otherwise 
they might have lacked1 and were our    
candidates all drawn from these classes1
 no oppression would result from the    

institution4  ,but there is a third     
class of persons who are genuinely1 and 
in the most pathetic sense1 the         
institution's victims4  ,for this type  
of character the academic life may      
become1 after a certain point1 a        
virulent poison4  ,men without marked   
originality or native force1 but fond of
 truth and especially of books and      
study1 ambitious of reward and          
recognition1 poor often1 and needing a  
degree to get a teaching position1 weak 
in the eyes of their examiners1--among  
these we find the veritable chair  canon
 of the wars of learning1 the unfit in  
the academic struggle for existence4    
,there are individuals of this sort for 
whom to pass one degree after another   
seems the limit of earthly aspiration4  
,your private advice does not discourage
 them4  ,they will fail1 and go away to 
recuperate1 and then present themselves 
for another ordeal1 and sometimes       
prolong the process into middle life4   
,or else1 if they are less heroic       

morally they will accept the failure as 
a sentence of doom that they are not    
fit1 and are broken-spirited men        
thereafter4  ,we of the university      
faculties are responsible for           
deliberately creating this new class of 
,american social failures1 and heavy is 
the responsibility4  ,we advertise our  
schools and send out our                
degree-requirements1 knowing well that  
aspirants of all sorts will be          
attracted1 and at the same time we set a
 standard which intends to pass no man  
who has not native intellectual         
distinction4  ,we know that there is no 
test1 however absurd1 by which1 if a    
title or decoration1 a public badge or  
mark1 were to be won by it1 some weakly 
suggestible or hauntable persons would  
not feel challenged1 and remain unhappy 
if they went without it4  ,we dangle our
 three magic letters before the eyes of 
these predestined victims1 and they     
swarm to us like moths to an electric   
light4  ,they come at a time when       

failure can no longer be repaired easily
 and when the wounds it leaves are      
permanent2 and we say deliberately that 
mere work faithfully performed1 as they 
perform it1 will not by itself save     
them1 they must in addition put in      
evidence the one thing they have not    
got1 namely this quality of intellectual
 distinction4  ,occasionally1 out of    
sheer human pity1 we ignore our high and
 mighty standard and pass them4         
,usually1 however1 the standard1 and not
 the candidate1 commands our fidelity4  
,the result is caprice1 majorities of   
one on the jury1 and on the whole a     
confession that our pretensions about   
the degree cannot be lived up to        
consistently4  ,thus1 partiality in the 
favored cases2 in the unfavored1 blood  
on our hands2 and in both a bad         
conscience1--are the results of our     
administration4  ,the more widespread   
becomes the popular belief that our     
diplomas are indispensable hall-marks to
 show the sterling metal of their       

holders1 the more widespread these      
corruptions will become4  ,we ought to  
look to the future carefully1 for it    
takes generations for a national custom1
 once rooted1 to be grown away from4    
,all the ,european countries are seeking
 to diminish the check upon individual  
spontaneity which state examinations    
with their tyrannous growth have brought
 in their train4 ,we have had to        
institute state examinations too2 and it
 will perhaps be fortunate if some day  
hereafter our descendants1 comparing    
machine with machine1 do not sigh with  
regret for old times and ,american      
freedom1 and wish that the rgime of the 
dear old bosses might be reinstalled1   
with plain human nature1 the glad hand  
and the marble heart1 liking and        
disliking1 and man-to-man relations     
grown possible again4  ,meanwhile1      
whatever evolution our                  
state-examinations are destined to      
undergo1 our universities at least      
should never cease to regard themselves 

as the jealous custodians of personal   
and spiritual spontaneity4  ,they are   
indeed its only organized and recognized
 custodians in ,america to-day4 ,they   
ought to guard against contributing to  
the increase of officialism and snobbery
 and insincerity as against a           
pestilence2 they ought to keep truth and
 disinterested labor always in the      
foreground1 treat degrees as secondary  
incidents1 and in season and out of     
season make it plain that what they live
 for is to help men's souls1 and not to 
decorate their persons with diplomas4   
,there seem to be three obvious ways in 
which the increasing hold of the ,ph4,d4
 ,octopus upon ,american life can be    
kept in check4  ,the first way lies with
 the universities4  ,they can lower     
their fantastic standards 7which here at
 ,harvard we are so proud of7 and give  
the doctorate as a matter of course1    
just as they give the bachelor's degree1
 for a due amount of time spent in      
patient labor in a special department of

 learning1 whether the man be a         
brilliantly gifted individual or not4   
,surely native distinction needs no     
official stamp1 and should disdain to   
ask for one4  ,on the other hand1       
faithful labor1 however commonplace1 and
 years devoted to a subject1 always     
deserve to be acknowledged and requited4
  ,the second way lies with both the    
universities and colleges4  ,let them   
give up their unspeakably silly ambition
 to bespangle their lists of officers   
with these doctorial titles4  ,let them 
look more to substance and less to      
vanity and sham4  ,the third way lies   
with the individual student1 and with   
his personal advisers in the faculties4 
,every man of native power1 who might   
take a higher degree1 and refuses to do 
so1 because examinations interfere with 
the free following out of his more      
immediate intellectual aims1 deserves   
well of his country1 and in a rightly   
organized community1 would not be made  
to suffer for his independence4  ,with  

many men the passing of these extraneous
 tests is a very grievous interference  
indeed4  ,private letters of            
recommendation from their instructors1  
which in any event are ultimately       
needful1 ought1 in these cases1         
completely to offset the lack of the    
breadwinning degree2 and instructors    
ought to be ready to advise students    
against it upon occasion1 and to pledge 
themselves to back them later           
personally1 in the market-struggle which
 they have to face4  ,it is indeed odd  
to see this love of titles--and such    
titles--growing up in a country or which
 the recognition of individuality and   
bare manhood have so long been supposed 
to be the very soul4  ,the independence 
of the ,state1 in which most of our     
colleges stand1 relieves us of those    
more odious forms of academic politics  
which continental ,european countries   
present4  ,anything like the elaborate  
university machine of ,france1 with its 
throttling influences upon individuals  

is unknown here4  ,the spectacle of the 
,rath distinction in its innumerable    
spheres and grades1 with which all      
,germany is crawling to-day1 is         
displeasing to ,american eyes2 and      
displeasing also in some respects is the
 institution of knighthood in ,england1 
which1 aping as it does an aristocratic 
title1 enables one's wife as well as    
one's self so easily to dazzle the      
servants at the house of one's friends4 
,but are we ,americans ourselves        
destined after all to hunger after      
similar vanities on an infinitely more  
contemptible scale8  ,and is            
individuality with us also going to     
count for nothing unless stamped and    
licensed and authenticated by some      
title-giving machine8  ,let us pray that
 our ancient national genius may long   
preserve vitality enough to guard us    
from a future so unmanly and so         
unbeautiful6    #a ,published in the    
,harvard ,monthly1 ,march1 #aijc4       
,,ii4 ,,the ,,true ,,harvard#a  ,when a 

man gets a decoration from a foreign    
institution1 he may take it as an honor4
  ,coming as mine has come to-day1 ,i   
prefer to take it for that far more     
valuable thing1 a token of personal good
 will from friends4  ,recognizing the   
good will and the friendliness1 ,i am   
going to respond to the chairman's call 
by speaking exactly as ,i feel4  ,i am  
not an alumnus of the ,college4  ,i have
 not even a degree from the ,scientific 
,school1 in which ,i did some study     
forty years ago4  ,i have no right to   
vote for ,overseers1 and ,i have never  
felt until to-day as if ,i were a child 
of the house of ,harvard in the fullest 
sense4 ,harvard is many things in one--a
 school1 a forcing house for thought1   
and also a social club2 and the club    
aspect is so strong1 the family tie so  
close and subtle among our ,bachelors of
 ,arts that all of us here who are in my
 plight1 no matter how long we may have 
lived here1 always feel a little like   
outsiders on ,commencement day4  ,we    

have no class to walk with1 and we often
 stay away from the procession4  ,it may
 be foolish1 but it is a fact4  ,i don't
 believe that my dear friends ,shaler1  
,hollis1 ,lanman1 or ,royce ever have   
felt quite as happy or as much at home  
as my friend ,barrett ,wendell feels    
upon a day like this4  ,i wish to use my
 present privilege to say a word for    
these outsiders with whom ,i belong4    
,many years ago there was one of them   
from ,canada here--a man with a         
high-pitched voice1 who could n't fully 
agree with all the points of my         
philosophy4  ,at a lecture one day1 when
 ,i was in the full flood of my         
eloquence1 his voice rose above mine1   
exclaiming3 ,but1 doctor1 doctor6 to be 
serious for a moment 4 4 4 1 in so      
sincere a tone that the whole room burst
 out laughing4  ,i want you now to be   
serious for a moment while ,i say my    
little say4  ,we are glorifying         
ourselves to-day1 and whenever the name 
of ,harvard is emphatically uttered on  

such days1 frantic cheers go up4  ,there
 are days for affection1 when pure      
sentiment and loyalty come rightly to   
the fore4 ,but behind our mere animal   
feeling for old schoolmates and the     
,yard and the bell1 and ,memorial and   
the clubs and the river and the         
,soldiers' ,field1 there must be        
something deeper and more rational4     
,there ought at any rate to be some     
possible ground in reason for one's     
boiling over with joy that one is a son 
of ,harvard1 and was not1 by some       
unspeakably horrible accident of birth1 
predestined to graduate at ,yale or at  
,cornell4  ,any college can foster club 
loyalty of that sort4  ,the only        
rational ground for pre-eminent         
admiration of any single college would  
be its pre-eminent spiritual tone4  ,but
 to be a college man in the mere        
clubhouse sense--,i care not of what    
college--affords no guarantee of real   
superiority in spiritual tone4  ,the old
 notion that book learning can be a     

panacea for the vices of society lies   
pretty well shattered to-day4  ,i say   
this in spite of certain utterances of  
the ,president of this ,university to   
the teachers last year4  ,that          
sanguine-hearted man seemed then to     
think that if the schools would only do 
their duty better1 social vice might    
cease4  ,but vice will never cease4     
,every level of culture breeds its own  
peculiar brand of it as surely as one   
soil breeds sugar-cane1 and another soil
 breeds cranberries4  ,if we were asked 
that disagreeable question1 ,what are   
the bosom-vices of the level of culture 
which our land and day have reached8 we 
should be forced1 ,i think1 to give the 
still more disagreeable answer that they
 are swindling and adroitness1 and the  
indulgence of swindling and adroitness1 
and cant1 and sympathy with             
cant--natural fruits of that            
extraordinary idealization of success in
 the mere outward sense of getting      
there1 and getting there on as big a    

scale as we can1 which characterizes our
 present generation4  ,what was ,reason 
given to man for1 some satirist has     
said1 except to enable him to invent    
reasons for what he wants to do4  ,we   
might say the same of education4  ,we   
see college graduates on every side of  
every public question4  ,some of        
,tammany's stanchest supporters are     
,harvard men4 ,harvard men defend our   
treatment of our ,filipino allies as a  
masterpiece of policy and morals4       
,harvard men1 as journalists1 pride     
themselves on producing copy for any    
side that may enlist them4  ,there is   
not a public abuse for which some       
,harvard advocate may not be found4  ,in
 the successful sense1 then1 in the     
worldly sense1 in the club sense1 to be 
a college man1 even a ,harvard man1     
affords no sure guarantee for anything  
but a more educated cleverness in the   
service of popular idols and vulgar     
ends4  ,is there no inner ,harvard      
within the outer ,harvard which means   

definitively more than this--for which  
the outside men who come here in such   
numbers1 come8  ,they come from the     
remotest outskirts of our country1      
without introductions1 without school   
affiliations2 special students1         
scientific students1 graduate students1 
poor students of the ,college1 who make 
their living as they go4  ,they seldom  
or never darken the doors of the        
,pudding or the ,porcellian2 they hover 
in the background on days when the      
crimson color is most in evidence1 but  
they nevertheless are intoxicated and   
exultant with the nourishment they find 
here2 and their loyalty is deeper and   
subtler and more a matter of the inmost 
soul than the gregarious loyalty of the 
clubhouse pattern often is4  ,indeed1   
there is such an inner spiritual        
,harvard2 and the men ,i speak of1 and  
for whom ,i speak to-day1 are its true  
missionaries and carry its gospel into  
infidel parts4  ,when they come to      
,harvard1 it is not primarily because   

she is a club4  ,it is because they have
 heard of her persistently atomistic    
constitution1 of her tolerance of       
exceptionality and eccentricity1 of her 
devotion to the principles of individual
 vocation and choice4  ,it is because   
you cannot make single one-ideaed       
regiments of her classes4  ,it is       
because she cherishes so many vital     
ideals1 yet makes a scale of value among
 them2 so that even her apparently      
incurable second-rateness 7or only      
occasional first-rateness7 in           
intercollegiate athletics comes from her
 seeing so well that sport is but sport1
 that victory over ,yale is not the     
whole of the law and the prophets1 and  
that a popgun is not the crack of doom4 
,the true ,church was always the        
invisible ,church4  ,the true ,harvard  
is the invisible ,harvard in the souls  
of her more truth-seeking and           
independent and often very solitary     
sons4  ,thoughts are the precious seeds 
of which our universities should be the 

botanical gardens4 ,beware when ,god    
lets loose a thinker on the             
world--either ,carlyle or ,emerson said 
that--for all things then have to       
rearrange themselves4 ,but the thinkers 
in their youth are almost always very   
lonely creatures4  ,alone the great sun 
rises and alone spring the great        
streams4  ,the university most worthy of
 rational admiration is that one in     
which your lonely thinker can feel      
himself least lonely1 most positively   
furthered1 and most richly fed4  ,on an 
occasion like this it would be poor     
taste to draw comparisons between the   
colleges1 and in their mere clubhouse   
quality they cannot differ widely3--all 
must be worthy of the loyalties and     
affections they arouse4  ,but as a      
nursery for independent and lonely      
thinkers ,i do believe that ,harvard    
still is in the van4  ,here they find   
the climate so propitious that they can 
be happy in their very solitude4  ,the  
day when ,harvard shall stamp a single  

hard and fast type of character upon her
 children1 will be that of her downfall4
  ,our undisciplinables are our proudest
 product4  ,let us agree together in    
hoping that the output of them will     
never cease4    #a ,speech at the       
,harvard ,commencement ,dinner1 ,june   
#bd1 #aijc1 after receiving an ,,ll4,d4 
degree4  ,printed in the ,graduates'    
,magazine for ,september1 #aijc4        
,,iii4 ,,stanford',s ,,ideal ,,destiny#a
  ,foreigners1 commenting on our        
civilization1 have with great unanimity 
remarked the privileged position that   
institutions of learning occupy in      
,america as receivers of benefactions4  
,our typical men of wealth1 if they do  
not found a college1 will at least      
single out some college or university on
 which to lavish legacies or gifts4     
,all the more so1 perhaps1 if they are  
not college-bred men themselves4  ,johns
 ,hopkins ,university1 the ,university  
of ,chicago1 ,clark ,university1 are    
splendid examples of this rule4         

,steadily1 year by year1 my own         
university1 ,harvard1 receives from one 
to two and a half millions4  ,there is  
something almost pathetic in the way in 
which our successful business men seem  
to idealize the higher learning and to  
believe in its efficacy for salvation4  
,never having shared in its blessings1  
they do their utmost to make the youth  
of coming generations more fortunate4   
,usually there is little originality of 
thought in their generous foundations4  
,the donors follow the beaten track4    
,their good will has to be vague1 for   
they lack the inside knowledge4  ,what  
they usually think of is a new college  
like all the older colleges2 or they    
give new buildings to a university or   
help to make it larger1 without any     
definite idea as to the improvement of  
its inner form4  ,improvements in the   
character of our institutions always    
come from the genius of the various     
presidents and faculties4  ,the donors  
furnish means of propulsion1 the experts

 within the pale lay out the course and 
steer the vessel4  ,you all think of the
 names of ,eliot1 ,gilman1 ,hall and    
,harper as ,i utter these words--,i     
mention no name nearer home4  ,this is  
founders' day here at ,stanford--the day
 set apart each year to quicken and     
reanimate in all of us the consciousness
 of the deeper significance of this     
little university to which we           
permanently or temporarily belong4  ,i  
am asked to use my voice to contribute  
to this effect4  ,how can ,i do so      
better than by uttering quite simply and
 directly the impressions that ,i       
personally receive8  ,i am one among our
 innumerable ,american teachers1 reared 
on the ,atlantic coast but admitted for 
this year to be one of the family at    
,stanford4  ,i see things not wholly    
from without1 as the casual visitor     
does1 but partly from within4  ,i am    
probably a typical observer4  ,as my    
impressions are1 so will be the         
impressions of others4  ,and those      

impressions1 taken together1 will       
probably be the verdict of history on   
the institution which ,leland and ,jane 
,stanford founded4  ,where there is no  
vision1 the people perish4  ,mr4 and    
,mrs4 ,stanford evidently had a vision  
of the most prophetic sort4  ,they saw  
the opportunity for an absolutely unique
 creation1 they seized upon it with the 
boldness of great minds2 and the        
passionate energy with which ,mrs4      
,stanford after her husband's death1    
drove the original plans through in the 
face of every dismaying obstacle1 forms 
a chapter in the biography of heroism4  
,heroic also the loyalty with which in  
those dark years the president and      
faculty made the university's cause1    
their cause1 and shared the             
uncertainties and privations4  ,and what
 is the result to-day8  ,to-day the     
key-note is triumphantly struck4  ,the  
first step is made beyond recall4  ,the 
character of the material foundation is 
assured for all time as something unique

 and unparalleled4  ,it logically calls 
for an equally unique and unparalleled  
spiritual superstructure4  ,certainly   
the chief impression which the existing 
university must make on every visitor is
 of something unique and unparalleled4  
,its attributes are almost too familiar 
to you to bear recapitulation4  ,the    
classic scenery of its site1 reminding  
one of ,greece1 ,greek too in its       
atmosphere of opalescent fire1 as if the
 hills that close us in were bathed in  
ether1 milk and sunshine2 the great     
city1 near enough for convenience1 too  
far ever to become invasive2 the        
climate1 so friendly to work that every 
morning wakes one fresh for new amounts 
of work2 the noble architecture1 so     
generously planned that there room and  
to spare for every requirement2 the     
democracy of the life1 no one           
superfluously rich1 yet all sharing1 so 
far as their higher needs go1 in the    
common endowment--where could a genius  
devoted to the search for truth1 and    

unworldly as most geniuses are1 find on 
the earth's whole round a place more    
advantageous to come and work in8  ,die 
,luft der ,freiheit weht6 ,all the      
traditions are individualistic4  ,red   
tape and organization are at their      
minimum4  ,interruptions and perturbing 
distractions hardly exist4  ,eastern    
institutions look all dark and huddled  
and confused in comparison with this    
purity and serenity4  ,shall it not be  
auspicious8 ,surely the one destiny to  
which this happy beginning seems to call
 ,stanford is that it should become     
something intense and original1 not     
necessarily in point of wealth or       
extent1 but in point of spiritual       
quality4  ,the founders have1 as ,i     
said1 triumphantly struck the keynote1  
and laid the basis3 the quality of what 
they have already given is unique in    
character4  ,it rests with the officials
 of the present and future ,stanford1 it
 rests with the devotion and sympathetic
 insight of the growing body of         

graduates1 to prolong the vision where  
the founders' vision terminated1 and to 
insure that all the succeeding steps1   
like the first steps1 shall single out  
this university more and more as the    
university of quality peculiarly4  ,and 
what makes essential quality in a       
university8  ,years ago in ,new ,england
 it was said that a log by the roadside 
with a student sitting on one end of it1
 and ,mark ,hopkins sitting on the other
 end1 was a university4  ,it is the     
quality of its men that makes the       
quality of a university4  ,you may have 
your buildings1 you may create your     
committees and boards and regulations1  
you may pile up your machinery of       
discipline and perfect your methods of  
instruction1 you may spend money till no
 one can approach you2 yet you will add 
nothing but one more trivial specimen to
 the common herd of ,american colleges1 
unless you send into all this           
organization some breath of life1 by    
inoculating it with a few men1 at least1

 who are real geniuses4  ,and if you    
once have the geniuses1 you can easily  
dispense with most of the organization4 
,like a contagious disease1 almost1     
spiritual life passes from man to man by
 contact4  ,education in the long run is
 an affair that works itself out between
 the individual student and his         
opportunities4  ,methods of which we    
talk so much1 play but a minor part4    
,offer the opportunities1 leave the     
student to his natural reaction on them1
 and he will work out his personal      
destiny1 be it a high one or a low one4 
,above all things1 offer the opportunity
 of higher personal contacts4  ,a       
university provides these anyhow within 
the student body1 for it attracts the   
more aspiring of the youth of the       
country1 and they befriend and elevate  
one another4  ,but we are only beginning
 in this country1 with our extraordinary
 ,american reliance on organization1 to 
see that the alpha and omega in a       
university is the tone of it1 and that  

this tone is set by human personalities 
exclusively4  ,the world1 in fact1 is   
only beginning to see that the wealth of
 a nation consists more than in anything
 else in the number of superior men that
 it harbors4  ,in the practical realm it
 has always recognized this1 and known  
that no price is too high to pay for a  
great statesman or great captain of     
industry4  ,but it is equally so in the 
religious and moral sphere1 in the      
poetic and artistic sphere and in the   
philosophic and scientific sphere4      
,geniuses are ferments2 and when they   
come together as they have done in      
certain lands at certain times1 the     
whole population seems to share in the  
higher energy which they awaken4  ,the  
effects are incalculable and often not  
easy to trace in detail1 but they are   
pervasive and momentous4  ,who can      
measure the effects on the national     
,german soul of the splendid series of  
,german poets and ,german men of        
learning1 most of them academic         

personages8  ,from the bare economic    
point of view the importance of geniuses
 is only beginning to be appreciated4   
,how can we measure the cash-value to   
,france of a ,pasteur1 to ,england of a 
,kelvin1 to ,germany of an ,ostwald1 to 
us here of a ,burbank8  ,one main care  
of every country in the future ought to 
be to find out who its first-rate       
thinkers are and to help them4  ,cost   
here becomes something entirely         
irrelevant1 the returns are sure to be  
so incommensurable4  ,this is what wise 
men the world over are perceiving4  ,and
 as the universities are already a sort 
of agency providentially provided for   
the detection and encouragement of      
mental superiority1 it would seem as if 
that one among them that followed this  
line most successfully would quickest   
rise to a position of paramountcy and   
distinction4  ,why should not ,stanford 
immediately adopt this as her vital     
policy8 ,her position is one of         
unprecedented freedom4  ,not trammelled 

by the service of the state as other    
universities on this coast are          
trammelled1 independent of students'    
fees and consequently of numbers1       
,utopian in the material respects ,i    
have enumerated1 she only needs a       
boldness like that shown by her founders
 to become the seat of a glowing        
intellectual life1 sure to be admired   
and envied the world over4  ,let her    
claim her place2 let her espouse her    
destiny4  ,let her call great           
investigators from whatever lands they  
live in1 from ,england1 ,france1        
,germany1 ,japan1 as well as from       
,america4  ,she can do this without     
presumption1 for the advantages of this 
place for steady mental work are so     
unparalleled4  ,let these men1 following
 the happy traditions of the place1 make
 the university4  ,the original         
foundation had something eccentric in   
it2 let ,stanford not fear to be        
eccentric to the end1 if need be4  ,let 
her not imitate2 let her lead1 not      

follow4 ,especially let her not be bound
 by vulgar traditions as to the         
cheapness or dearness of professorial   
service4  ,the day is certainly about to
 dawn when some ,american university    
will break all precedents in the matter 
of instructors' salaries1 and will      
thereby immediately take the lead1 and  
reach the winning post for quality4  ,i 
like to think of ,stanford being that   
university4  ,geniuses are sensitive    
plants1 in some respects like prima     
donnas4  ,they have to be treated       
tenderly4 ,they don't need to live in   
superfluity2 but they need freedom from 
harassing care2 they need books and     
instruments2 they are always            
overworking1 so they need generous      
vacations2 and above all things they    
need occasionally to travel far and wide
 in the interests of their souls'       
development4  ,where quality is the     
thing sought after1 the thing of supreme
 quality is cheap1 whatever be the price
 one has to pay for it4  ,considering   

all the conditions1 the quality of      
,stanford has from the first been       
astonishingly good both in the faculty  
and in the student body4  ,can we not1  
as we sit here to-day1 frame a vision of
 what it may be a century hence1 with   
the honors of the intervening years all 
rolled up in its traditions8  ,not vast1
 but intense2 less a place for teaching 
youths and maidens than for training    
scholars2 devoted to truth2 radiating   
influence2 setting standards2 shedding  
abroad the fruits of learning2 mediating
 between ,america and ,asia1 and helping
 the more intellectual men of both      
continents to understand each other     
better4  ,what a history6 and how can   
,stanford ever fail to enter upon it8   
#a ,an ,address at ,stanford ,university
 on ,founders' ,day1 #aijf4  ,printed in
 ,science1 for ,may #be1 #aijf4     ,,xv
  ,a ,,pluralistic ,,mystic#a  ,not for 
the ignoble vulgar do ,i write this     
article1 but only for those             
dialectic-mystic souls who have an      

irresistible taste1 acquired or native1 
for higher flights of metaphysics4  ,i  
have always held the opinion that one of
 the first duties of a good reader is to
 summon other readers to the enjoyment  
of any unknown author of rare quality   
whom he may discover in his             
explorations4  ,now for years my own    
taste1 literary as well as philosophic1 
has been exquisitely titillated by a    
writer the name of whom ,i think must be
 unknown to the readers of this article2
 so ,i no longer continue silent about  
the merits of ,benjamin ,paul ,blood4   
,mr4 ,blood inhabits a city otherwise1  
,i imagine1 quite unvisited by the      
,muses1 the town called ,amsterdam1     
situated on the ,new ,york ,central     
,railroad4  ,what his regular or        
bread-winning occupation may be ,i know 
not1 but it can't have made him         
super-wealthy4  ,he is an author only   
when the fit strikes him1 and for short 
spurts at a time2 shy1 moreover1 to the 
point of publishing his compositions    

only as private tracts1 or in letters to
 such far-from-reverberant organs of    
publicity as the ,gazette or the        
,recorder of his native ,amsterdam1 or  
the ,utica ,herald or the ,albany       
,times4  ,odd places for such subtile   
efforts to appear in1 but creditable to 
,american editors in these degenerate   
days6  ,once1 indeed1 the lamented ,w4  
,t4 ,harris of the old ,journal of      
,speculative ,philosophy got wind of    
these epistles1 and the result was a    
revision of some of them for that review
 7,philosophic ,reveries1 #ahhi74  ,also
 a couple of poems were reprinted from  
their leaflets by the editor of         
,scribner's ,magazine 7,the ,lion of the
 ,nile1 #ahhh1 and ,nemesis1 #ahii74    
,but apart from these three dashes      
before the footlights1 ,mr4 ,blood has  
kept behind the curtain all his days4#b 
,the author's maiden adventure was the  
,anoesthetic ,revelation1 a pamphlet    
printed privately at ,amsterdam in      
#ahgd4  ,i forget how it fell into my   

hands1 but it fascinated me so weirdly  
that ,i am conscious of its having been 
one of the stepping-stones of my        
thinking ever since4 ,it gives the      
essence of ,blood's philosophy1 and     
shows most of the features of his       
talent--albeit one finds in it little   
humor and no verse4  ,it is full of     
verbal felicity1 felicity sometimes of  
precision1 sometimes of metaphoric      
reach2 it begins with dialectic         
reasoning1 of an extremely ,fichtean and
 ,hegelian type1 but it ends in a       
trumpet-blast of oracular mysticism1    
straight from the insight wrought by    
anaesthetics--of all things in the      
world--and unlike anything one ever     
heard before4  ,the practically         
unanimous tradition of regular mysticism
 has been unquestionably monistic2 and  
inasmuch as it is the characteristic of 
mystics to speak1 not as the scribes1   
but as men who have been there and seen 
with their own eyes1 ,i think that this 
sovereign manner must have made some    

other pluralistic-minded students       
hesitate1 as ,i confess that it has     
often given pause to me4  ,one cannot   
criticise the vision of a mystic--one   
can but pass it by1 or else accept it as
 having some amount of evidential       
weight4  ,i felt unable to do either    
with a good conscience until ,i met with
 ,mr4 ,blood4  ,his mysticism1 which    
may1 if one likes1 be understood as     
monistic in this earlier utterance1     
develops in the later ones a sort of    
left-wing voice of defiance1 and breaks 
into what to my ear has a radically     
pluralistic sound4  ,i confess that the 
existence of this novel brand of        
mysticism has made my cowering mood     
depart4  ,i feel now as if my own       
pluralism were not without the kind of  
support which mystical corroboration may
 confer4  ,morrison can no longer claim 
to be the only beneficiary of whatever  
right mysticism may possess to lend     
prestige4  ,this is my philosophic1 as  
distinguished from my literary1         

interest1 in introducing ,mr4 ,blood to 
this more fashionable audience3 his     
philosophy1 however mystical1 is in the 
last resort not dissimilar from my own4 
,i must treat him by extracting him1 and
 simplify--certainly all too            
violently--as ,i extract4  ,he is not   
consecutive as a writer1 aphoristic and 
oracular rather2 and being moreover     
sometimes dialectic1 sometimes poetic1  
and sometimes mystic in his manner2     
sometimes monistic and sometimes        
pluralistic in his matter1 ,i have to   
run my own risk in making him orate pro 
domo mea1 and ,i am not quite unprepared
 to hear him say1 in case he ever reads 
these pages1 that ,i have entirely      
missed his point4  ,no matter2 ,i will  
proceed4   ,i  ,i will separate his     
diverse phases and take him first as a  
pure dialectician4  ,dialectic thought  
of the ,hegelian type is a whirlpool    
into which some persons are sucked out  
of the stream which the straightforward 
understanding follows4  ,once in the    

eddy1 nothing but rotary motion can go  
on4  ,all who have been in it know the  
feel of its swirl--they know            
thenceforward that thinking unreturning 
on itself is but one part of reason1 and
 that rectilinear mentality1 in         
philosophy at any rate1 will never do4  
,though each one may report in different
 words of his rotational experience1 the
 experience itself is almost childishly 
simple1 and whosoever has been there    
instantly recognizes other authentic    
reports4  ,to have been in that eddy is 
a freemasonry of which the common       
password is a fie on all the operations 
of the simple popular understanding4    
,in ,hegel's mind the vortex was at its 
liveliest1 and any one who has dipped   
into ,hegel will recognize ,mr4 ,blood  
to be of the same tribe4 ,that ,hegel   
was pervaded by the great truth1 ,blood 
writes1 cannot be doubted4  ,the eyes of
 philosophy1 if not set directly on him1
 are set towards the region which he    
occupied4  ,though he may not be the    

final philosopher1 yet pull him out1 and
 all the rest will be drawn into his    
vacancy4  ,drawn into the same          
whirlpool1 ,mr4 ,blood means4           
,non-dialectic thought takes facts as   
singly given1 and accounts for one fact 
by another4  ,but when we think of all  
fact1 we see that nothing of the nature 
of fact can explain it1 for that were   
but one more added to the list of things
 to be accounted for4 4 4 4  ,the       
beginning of curiosity1 in the          
philosophic sense1 ,mr4 ,blood again    
writes1 is the stare ,transcriber's     
note3 state8 of being at itself1 in the 
wonder why anything is at all1 and what 
this being signifies4  ,naturally we    
first assume the void1 and then wonder  
how1 with no ground and no fertility1   
anything should come into it4  ,we treat
 it as a positive nihility1 a barrier   
from which all our batted balls of being
 rebound4  ,upon this idea ,mr4 ,blood  
passes the usual transcendentalist      
criticism4 ,there is no such separate   

opposite to being2 yet we never think of
 being as such--of pure being as        
distinguished from specific forms of    
being--save as what stands relieved     
against this imaginary background4      
,being has no outline but that which    
non-being makes1 and the two ideas form 
an inseparable pair4  ,each limits and  
defines the other4 ,either would be the 
other in the same position1 for here    
7where there is as yet no question of   
content1 but only of being itself7 the  
position is all and the content is      
nothing4  ,hence arose that paradox3    
',being is by nothing more real than    
not-being4'  ,popularly1 ,mr4 ,blood    
goes on1 we think of all that is as     
having got the better of non-being4  ,if
 all were not--that1 we think1 were     
easy3 there were no wonder then1 no tax 
on ingenuity1 nothing to be accounted   
for4  ,this conclusion is from the      
thinking which assumes all reality as   
immediately given assumes knowledge as a
 simple physical light1 rather than as a

 distinction involving light and        
darkness equally4  ,we assume that if   
the light were to go out1 the show would
 be ended 7and so it would72 but we     
forget that if the darkness were to go  
out1 that would be equally calamitous4  
,it were bad enough if the master had   
lost his crayon1 but the loss of the    
blackboard would be just as fatal to the
 demonstration4  ,without darkness light
 would be useless--universal light as   
blind as universal darkness4  ,universal
 thing and universal no-thing were      
indistinguishable4  ,why1 then1 assume  
the positive1 the immediately           
affirmative1 as alone the ingenious8    
,is not the mould as shapely as the     
model8  ,the original ingenuity does not
 show in bringing light out of darkness1
 nor in bringing things out of nothing1 
but in evolving1 through the just       
opposition of light and darkness1 this  
wondrous picture1 in which the black and
 white lines have equal significance--in
 evolving from life and death at once1  

the conscious spirit4 4 4 4  ,it is our 
habit to think of life as dear1 and of  
death as cheap 7though ,tithonus found  
them otherwise71 or1 continuing the     
simile of the picture1 that paper is    
cheap while drawing is expensive2 but   
the engraver had a different estimation 
in one sense1 for all his labor was     
spent on the white ground1 while he left
 untouched those parts of the block     
which make the lines in the picture4    
,if being and non-being are both        
necessary to the presence of either1    
neither shall claim priority or         
preference4  ,indeed1 we may fancy an   
intelligence which1 instead of regarding
 things as simply owning entity1 should 
regard chiefly their background as      
affected by the holes which things are  
making in it4 ,even so1 the paper-maker 
might see your picture as intrusive6    
,thus does the negation of being appear 
as indispensable in the making of it4   
,but to anyone who should appeal to     
particular forms of being to refute this

 paradox1 ,mr4 ,blood admits that to say
 that a picture1 or any other sensuous  
thing1 is the same as the want of it1   
were to utter nonsense indeed3 there is 
a difference equivalent to the whole    
stuff and merit of the picture2 but in  
so far as the picture can be there for  
thought1 as something either asserted or
 negated1 its presence or its absence   
are the same and indifferent4  ,by its  
absence we do not mean the absence of   
anything else1 nor absence in general2  
and how1 forsooth1 does its absence     
differ from these other absences1 save  
by containing a complete description of 
the picture8  ,the hole is as round as  
the plug2 and from our thought the      
'picture' cannot get away4  ,the        
negation is specific and descriptive1   
and what it destroys it preserves tor   
our conception4  ,the result is that1   
whether it be taken generally or taken  
specifically1 all that which either is  
or is not is or is not by distinction or
 opposition4  ,and observe the life1 the

 process1 through which this slippery   
doubleness endures4  ,let us suppose the
 present tense1 that gods and men and   
angels and devils march all abreast in  
this present instant1 and the only real 
time and date in the universe is now4   
,and what is this instant now8          
,whatever else1 it is process--becoming 
and departing2 with what between8       
,simply division1 difference2 the       
present has no breadth for if it had1   
that which we seek would be the middle  
of that breadth4  ,there is no          
precipitate1 as on a stationary         
platform1 of the process of becoming1 no
 residuum of the process of departing1  
but between the two is a curtain1 the   
apparition of difference1 which is all  
the world4  ,i am using my scissors     
somewhat at random on my author's       
paragraphs1 since one place is as good  
as another for entering a ring by1 and  
the expert reader will discern at once  
the authentic dialectic circling4 ,other
 paragraphs show ,mr4 ,blood as more    

,hegelian still1 and thoroughly         
idealistic3--  ,assume that knowing is  
distinguishing1 and that distinction is 
of difference2 if one knows a           
difference1 one knows it as of entities 
which afford it1 and which also he      
knows2 and he must know the entities and
 the difference apart1--one from the    
other4  ,knowing all this1 he should be 
able to answer the twin question1 ',what
 is the difference between sameness and 
difference8'  ,it is a 'twin' question1 
because the two terms are equal in the  
proposition1 and each is full of the    
other4 4 4 4  ,sameness has 'all the    
difference in the world'--from          
difference2 and difference is an entity 
as difference--it being identically     
that4  ,they are alike and different at 
once1 since either is the other when the
 observer would contrast it with the    
other2 so that the sameness and the     
difference are 'subjective1' are the    
property of the observer3 his is the    
'limit' in their unlimited field4 4 4 4 

,we are thus apprized that distinction  
involves and carries its own identity2  
and that ultimate                       
distinction--distinction in the last    
analysis--is self-distinction1          
'self-knowledge1' as we realize it      
consciously every day4  ,knowledge is   
self-referred3 to know is to know that  
you know1 and to be known as well4      
',ah6 but both in the same time8'       
inquires the logician4  ,a              
subject-object knowing itself as a      
seamless unit1 while yet its two items  
show a real distinction3 this passes all
 understanding4  ,but the whole of      
idealism goes to the proof that the two 
sides cannot succeed one another in a   
time-process4  ,to say you know1 and you
 know that you know1 is to add nothing  
in the last clause2 it is as idle as to 
say that you lie1 and you know that you 
lie1 for if you know it not you lie not4
  ,philosophy seeks to grasp totality1  
but the power of grasping or consenting 
to totality involves the power of       

thought to make itself its own object4  
,totality itself may indeed be taken by 
the nave intellect as an immediate      
topic1 in the sense of being just an    
object1 but it cannot be just that2 for 
the knower1 as other or opposite1 would 
still be within that totality4  ,the    
'universe' by definition must contain   
all opposition4  ,if distinction should 
vanish1 what would remain8  ,to what    
other could it change as a whole8  ,how 
can the loss of distinction make a      
difference8  ,any loss1 at its utmost1  
offers a new status with the old1 but   
obviously it is too late now to efface  
distinction by a change4  ,there is no  
possible conjecture1 but such as carries
 with it the subjective that holds it2  
and when the conjecture is of           
distinction in general1 the subjective  
fills the void with distinction of      
itself4  ,the ultimate1 ineffaceable    
distinction is self-distinction1        
self-consciousness4 4 4 4  ',thou art   
the unanswered question1 couldst see thy

 proper eye4' 4 4 4  ,the thought that  
must be is the very thought of our      
experience2 the ultimate opposition1 the
 to be and not to be1 is personality1   
spirit--somewhat that is in knowing that
 it is1 and is nothing else but this    
knowing in its vast relations4#c  ,here 
lies the bed-rock2 here the brain-sweat 
of twenty-five centuries crystallizes to
 a jewel five words long3 ',the         
,universe has ,no ,opposite4'  ,for     
there the wonder of that which is1 rests
 safe in the perception that all things 
are only through the opposition which is
 their only fear4  ,the inevitable      
generally1 in short1 is exactly and     
identically that which in point of fact 
is actually here4  ,this is the familiar
 nineteenth-century development of      
,kant's idealistic vision4  ,to me it   
sounds monistic enough to charm the     
monist in me unreservedly4  ,i listen to
 the felicitously-worded concept-music  
circling round itself1 as on some drowsy
 summer noon one listens under the pines

 to the murmuring of leaves and insects1
 and with as little thought of          
criticism4  ,but ,mr4 ,blood strikes a  
still more vibrant note3 ,no more can be
 than rationally is2 and this was always
 true4  ,there is no reason for what is 
not2 but for what there is reason1 that 
is and ever was4  ,especially is there  
no becoming of reason1 and hence no     
reason for becoming1 to a sufficient    
intelligence4  ,in the sufficient       
intelligence all things always are1 and 
are rational4  ,to say there is         
something yet to be which never was1 not
 even in the sufficient intelligence    
wherein the world is rational and not a 
blind and orphan waif1 is to ignore all 
reason4  ,aught that might be assumed as
 contingently coming to be could only   
have 'freedom' for its origin2 and      
'freedom' has not fertility or          
invention1 and is not a reason for any  
special thing1 but the very vacuity of a
 ground for anything in preference to   
its room4  ,neither is there in bare    

time any principle or originality where 
anything should come or go4 4 4 4  ,such
 idealism enures greatly to the dignity 
and repose of man4  ,no blind fate1     
prior to what is1 shall necessitate that
 all first be and afterward be known1   
but knowledge is first1 with fate in her
 own hands4 ,when we are depressed by   
the weight and immensity of the         
immediate1 we find in idealism a        
wondrous consolation4  ,the alien       
positive1 so vast and overwhelming by   
itself1 reduces its pretensions when the
 whole negative confronts it on our     
side4#d  ,it matters little for its     
greatness when an equal greatness is    
opposed4  ,when one remembers that the  
balance and motion of the planets are so
 delicate that the momentary scowl of an
 eclipse may fill the heavens with      
tempest1 and even affect the very bowels
 of the earth--when we see a balloon1   
that carries perhaps a thousand pounds1 
leap up a hundred feet at the discharge 
of a sheet of note paper--or feel it    

stand deathly still in a hurricane1     
because it goes with the hurricane1     
sides with it1 and ignores the rushing  
world below--we should realize that one 
tittle of pure originality would        
outweigh this crass objective1 and turn 
these vast masses into mere breath and  
tissue-paper show4 #e  ,but whose is the
 originality8  ,there is nothing in what
 ,i am treating as this phase of our    
author's thought to separate it from the
 old-fashioned rationalism4  ,there must
 be a reason for every fact2 and so much
 reason1 so fact4  ,the reason is always
 the whole foil and background and      
negation of the fact1 the whole         
remainder of reality4 ,a man may feel   
good only by feeling better4 4 4 4      
,pleasure is ever in the company and    
contrast of pain2 for instance1 in      
thirsting and drinking1 the pleasure of 
the one is the exact measure of the pain
 of the other1 and they cease precisely 
together--otherwise the patient would   
drink more4  ,the black and yellow      

gonfalon of ,lucifer is indispensable in
 any spiritual picture4  ,thus do       
truth's two components seem to balance1 
vibrating across the centre of          
indifference2 being and non-being have  
equal value and cost1 and mainly are    
convertible in their terms4 #f  ,this   
sounds radically monistic2 and monistic 
also is the first account of the        
,ether-revelation1 in which we read that
 thenceforth each is all1 in ,god4 4 4 4
  ,the ,one remains1 the many change and
 pass2 and every one of us is the ,one  
that remains4   ,,ii  ,it seems to me   
that any transcendental idealist who    
reads this article ought to discern in  
the fragmentary utterances which ,i have
 quoted thus far1 the note of what he   
considers the truer dialectic           
profundity4  ,he ought to extend the    
glad hand of fellowship to ,mr4 ,blood2 
and if he finds him afterwards          
palavering with the enemy1 he ought to  
count him1 not as a simple ignoramus or 
,philistine1 but as a renegade and      

relapse4 ,he cannot possibly be treated 
as one who sins because he never has    
known better1 or as one who walks in    
darkness because he is congenitally     
blind4  ,well1 ,mr4 ,blood1 explain it  
as one may1 does turn towards the       
darkness as if he had never seen the    
light4  ,just listen for a moment to    
such irrationalist deliverances on his  
part as these3--  ,reason is neither the
 first nor the last word in this world4 
,reason is an equation2 it gives but a  
pound for a pound4  ,nature is excess2  
she is evermore1 without cost or        
explanation4    ',is heaven so poor that
 justice     ,metes the bounty of the   
skies8   ,so poor that every blessing   
,fills the debit of a cost8   ,that all 
process is returning8     ,and all gain 
is of the lost8'  ,go back into reason1 
and you come at last to fact1 nothing   
more--a given-ness1 a something to      
wonder at and yet admit1 like your own  
will4 ,and all these tricks for         
logicizing originality1 self-relation1  

absolute process1 subjective            
contradiction1 will wither in the breath
 of the mystical tact2 they will swirl  
down the corridors before the besom of  
the everlasting ,yea4  ,or again3 ,the  
monistic notion of a oneness1 a centred 
wholeness1 ultimate purpose1 or         
climacteric result of the world1 has    
wholly given way4  ,thought evolves no  
longer a centred whole1 a ,one1 but     
rather a numberless many1 adjust it how 
we will4  ,or still again3 ,the         
pluralists have talked philosophy to a  
standstill--,nature is contingent1      
excessive and mystical essentially4     
,have we here contradiction simply1 a   
man converted from one faith to its     
opposite8  ,or is it only dialectic     
circling1 like the opposite points on   
the rim of a revolving disc1 one moving 
up1 one down1 but replacing one another 
endlessly1 while the whole disc never   
moves8  ,if it be this latter--,mr4     
,blood himself uses the image--the      
dialectic is too pure for me to catch3 a

 deeper man must mediate the monistic   
with the pluralistic ,blood4  ,let my   
incapacity be castigated1 if my ,subject
 ever reads this article1 but let me    
treat him from now onwards as the simply
 pluralistic mystic which my reading of 
the rest of him suggests4  ,i confess to
 some dread of my own fate at his hands4
 ,in making so far an ordinary          
transcendental idealist of him1 ,i have 
taken liberties1 running separate       
sentences together1 inverting their     
order1 and even altering single words1  
for all which ,i beg pardon2 but in     
treating my author from now onwards as a
 pluralist1 interpretation is easier1   
and my hands can be less stained 7if    
they are stained7 with exegetic blood4  
,i have spoken of his verbal felicity1  
and alluded to his poetry4 ,before      
passing to his mystic gospel1 ,i will   
refresh the reader 7doubtless now       
fatigued with so much dialectic7 by a   
sample of his verse4  ,the ,lion of the 
,nile is an allegory of the champion    

spirit of the world in its various      
incarnations4  ,thus it begins3--       
,whelped on the desert sands1 and desert
 bred   ,from dugs whose sustenance was 
blood alone--   ,a life translated out  
of other lives1   ,i grew the king of   
beasts2 the hurricane   ,leaned like a  
feather on my royal fell2   ,i took the 
,hyrcan tiger by the scruff   ,and tore 
him piecemeal2 my hot bowels laughed    
,and my fangs yearned for prey4  ,earth 
was my lair3   ,i slept on the red      
desert without fear3   ,i roamed the    
jungle depths with less design   ,than  
e'en to lord their solitude2 on crags   
,that cringe from lightning--black and  
blasted fronts   ,that crouch beneath   
the wind-bleared stars1 ,i told   ,my   
heart's fruition to the universe1   ,and
 all night long1 roaring my fierce defy1
   ,i thrilled the wilderness with aspen
 terrors1   ,and challenged death and   
life4 4 4 4   ,again3    ,naked ,i stood
 upon the raked arena   ,beneath the    
pennants of ,vespasian1   ,while seried 

thousands gazed--strangers from         
,caucasus1   ,men of the ,grecian       
,isles1 and ,barbary princes1   ,to see 
me grapple with the counterpart   ,of   
that ,i had been--the raptorial jaws1   
,the arms that wont to crush with       
strength alone1   ,the eyes that glared 
vindictive4--,fallen there1   ,vast     
wings upheaved me2 from the ,alpine     
peaks   ,whose avalanches swirl the     
valley mists   ,and whelm the helpless  
cottage1 to the crown   ,of ,chimborazo1
 on whose changeless jewels   ,the      
torrid rays recoil1 with ne'er a cloud  
,to swathe their blistered steps1 ,i    
rested not1   ,but preyed on all that   
ventured from the earth1   ,an outlaw of
 the heavens4--,but evermore   ,must    
death release me to the jungle shades2  
,and there like ,samson's grew my locks 
again   ,in the old walks and ways1 till
 scapeless fate   ,won me as ever to the
 haunts of men1   ,luring my lives with 
battle and with love4 4 4 4   ,i quote  
less than a quarter of the poem1 of     

which the rest is just as good1 and ,i  
ask3 ,who of us all handles his ,english
 vocabulary better than ,mr4 ,blood8#g  
,his proclamations of the mystic insight
 have a similar verbal power3--  ,there 
is an invariable and reliable condition 
7or uncondition7 ensuing about the      
instant of recall from anaesthetic      
stupor to 'coming to1' in which the     
genius of being is revealed4 4 4 4  ,no 
words may express the imposing certainty
 of the patient that he is realizing the
 primordial ,adamic surprise of ,life4  
,repetition of the experience finds it  
ever the same1 and as if it could not   
possibly be otherwise4  ,the subject    
resumes his normal consciousness only to
 partially and fitfully remember its    
occurrence1 and to try to formulate its 
baffling import1--with but this         
consolatory afterthought3 that he has   
known the oldest truth1 and that he has 
done with human theories as to the      
origin1 meaning1 or destiny of the race4
 ,he is beyond instruction in 'spiritual

 things4' 4 4 4  ,it is the instant     
contrast of this 'tasteless water of    
souls' with formal thought as we 'come  
to1' that leaves in the patient an      
astonishment that the awful mystery of  
,life is at last but a homely and a     
common thing1 and that aside from mere  
formality the majestic and the absurd   
are of equal dignity4  ,the astonishment
 is aggravated as at a thing of course1 
missed by sanity in overstepping1 as in 
too foreign a search1 or with too eager 
an attention3 as in finding one's       
spectacles on one's nose1 or in making  
in the dark a step higher than the      
stair4 ,my first experiences of this    
revelation had many varieties of        
emotion2 but as a man grows calm and    
determined by experience in general1 so 
am ,i now not only firm and familiar in 
this once weird condition1 but          
triumphant1 divine4  ,to minds of       
sanguine imagination there will be a    
sadness in the tenor of the mystery1 as 
if the key-note of the universe were    

low2 for no poetry1 no emotion known to 
the normal sanity of man1 can furnish a 
hint of its primeval prestige1 and its  
all-but appalling solemnity2 but for    
such as have felt sadly the instability 
of temporal things there is a comfort of
 serenity and ancient peace2 while for  
the resolved and imperious spirit there 
are majesty and supremacy unspeakable4  
,nor can it be long until all who enter 
the anaesthetic condition 7and there are
 hundreds every secular day7 will be    
taught to expect this revelation1 and   
will date from its experience their     
initiation into the ,secret of ,life4 4 
4 4  ,this has been my moral sustenance 
since ,i have known of it4  ,in my first
 printed mention of it ,i declared3     
',the world is no more the alien terror 
that was taught me4  ,spurning the      
cloud-grimed and still sultry           
battlements whence so lately ,jehovan   
thunders boomed1 my gray gull lifts her 
wing against the night fall1 and takes  
the dim leagues with a fearless eye4'   

,and now1 after twenty-seven years of   
this experience1 the wing is grayer1 but
 the eye is fearless still1 while ,i    
renew and doubly emphasize that         
declaration4  ,i know1 as having known1 
the meaning of ,existence2 the sane     
centre of the universe--at once the     
wonder and the assurance of the soul4   
,after this rather literary interlude ,i
 return to ,blood's philosophy again4   
,i spoke a while ago of its being an    
irrationalistic philosophy in its latest
 phase4  ,behind every fact rationalism 
postulates its reason4  ,blood parodizes
 this demand in true nominalistic       
fashion4  ,the goods are not enough1 but
 they must have the invoice with them4  
,there must be a name1 something to     
read4  ,i think of ,dickens's horse that
 always fell down when they took him out
 of the shafts2 or of the fellow who    
felt weak when naked1 but strong in his 
overcoat4  ,no bad mockery1 this1       
surely1 of rationalism's habit of       
explaining things by putting verbal     

doubles of them beneath them as their   
ground6  ,all that philosophy has sought
 as cause1 or reason1 he says1 pluralism
 subsumes in the status and the given   
fact1 where it stands as plausible as it
 may ever hope to stand4  ,there may be 
disease in the presence of a question as
 well as in the lack of an answer4  ,we 
do not wonder so strangely at an        
ingenious and well-set-up effect1 for we
 feel such in ourselves2 but a cause1   
reaching out beyond the verge of fact   
and dangling its legs in nonentity1 with
 the hope of a rational foothold1 should
 realize a strenuous life4  ,pluralism  
believes in truth and reason1 but only  
as mystically realized1 as lived in     
experience4 ,up from the breast of a    
man1 up to his tongue and brain1 comes a
 free and strong determination1 and he  
cries1 originally1 and in spite of his  
whole nature and environment1 ',i will4'
  ,this is the ,jovian fiat1 the pure   
cause4  ,this is reason2 this or nothing
 shall explain the world for him4  ,for 

how shall he entertain a reason bigger  
than himself8 4 4 4  ,let a man stand   
fast1 then1 as an axis of the earth2 the
 obsequious meridians will bow to him1  
and gracious latitudes will measure from
 his feet4  ,this seems to be ,blood's  
mystical answer to his own monistic     
statement which ,i quoted above1 that   
freedom has no fertility1 and is no     
reason for any special thing4#h         
,philosophy1 ,mr4 ,blood writes to me in
 a letter1 is past4  ,it was the long   
endeavor to logicize what we can only   
realize practically or in immediate     
experience4  ,i am more and more        
impressed that ,heraclitus insists on   
the equation of reason and unreason1 or 
chance1 as well as of being and         
not-being1 etc4  ,this throws the secret
 beyond logic1 and makes mysticism      
outclass philosophy4  ,the insight that 
mystery1--the ,mystery1 as such is      
final1 is the hymnic word4  ,if you use 
reason pragmatically1 and deny it       
absolutely1 you can't be beaten2 be     

assured of that4  ,but the ,fact        
remains1 and of course the ,mystery4 #i 
,the ,fact1 as ,i understand the writer 
here to mean it1 remains in its native  
disseminated shape4  ,from every        
realized amount of fact some other fact 
is absent1 as being uninvolved4  ,there 
is nowhere more of it consecutively1    
perhaps1 than appears upon this present 
page4  ,there is1 indeed1 to put it     
otherwise1 no more one all-enveloping   
fact than there is one all-enveloping   
spire in an endlessly growing spiral1   
and no more one all-generating fact than
 there is one central point in which an 
endlessly converging spiral ends4       
,hegel's bad infinite belongs to the    
eddy as well as to the line4  ,progress8
 writes our author4  ,and to what8      
,time turns a weary and a wistful face2 
has he not traversed an eternity8 and   
shall another give the secret up8  ,we  
have dreamed of a climax and a          
consummation1 a final triumph where a   
world shall burn en barbecue2 but there 

is not1 cannot be1 a purpose of         
eternity2 it shall pay mainly as it     
goes1 or not at all4  ,the show is on2  
and what a show1 if we will but give our
 attention6  ,barbecues1 bonfires1 and  
banners8  ,not twenty worlds a minute   
would keep up our bonfire of the sun2   
and what banners of our fancy could     
eclipse the meteor pennants of the pole1
 or the opaline splendors of the        
everlasting ice8 4 4 4  ,doubtless we   
are ostensibly progressing1 but there   
have been prosperity and highjinks      
before4  ,nineveh and ,tyre1 ,rome1     
,spain1 and ,venice also had their day4 
,we are going1 but it is a question of  
our standing the pace4  ,it would seem  
that the news must become less          
interesting or tremendously more so--'a 
breath can make us1 as a breath has     
made4'  ,elsewhere we read3 ,variety1   
not uniformity1 is more likely to be the
 key to progress4  ,the genius of being 
is whimsical rather than consistent4    
,our strata show broken bones of        

histories all forgotten4 ,how can it be 
otherwise8  ,there can be no purpose of 
eternity4  ,it is process all4  ,the    
most sublime result1 if it appeared as  
the ultimatum1 would go stale in an     
hour2 it could not be endured4  ,of     
course from an intellectual point of    
view this way of thinking must be       
classed as scepticism4  ,contingency    
forbids any inevitable history1 and     
conclusions are absurd4  ,nothing in    
,hegel has kept the planet from being   
blown to pieces4  ,obviously the        
mystical security1 the apodal           
sufficiency yielded by the anaesthetic  
revelation1 are very different moods of 
mind from aught that rationalism can    
claim to father--more active1 prouder1  
more heroic4  ,from his                 
ether-intoxication ,blood may feel      
towards ordinary rationalists as ,clive 
felt towards those millions of          
,orientals in whom honor had no part4   
,on page #f1 above1 ,i quoted from his  
,nemesis--,is heaven so poor that       

justice1 etc4  ,the writer goes on1     
addressing the goddess of compensation  
or rational balance2--    ,how shalt    
thou poise the courage     ,that covets 
all things hard8   ,how pay the love    
unmeasured     ,that could not brook    
reward8   ,how prompt self-loyal honor  
,supreme above desire1   ,that bids the 
strong die for the weak1     ,the       
martyrs sing in fire8   ,why do ,i droop
 in bower     ,and sigh in sacred hall8 
,why stifle under shelter8     ,yet     
where1 through forest tall1   ,the      
breath of hungry winter     ,in stinging
 spray resolves1   ,i sing to the north 
wind's fury     ,and shout with the     
coarse-haired wolves8        99      99 
99      99      99      99    ,what of  
thy priests' confuting1     ,of fate and
 form and law1   ,of being and essence  
and counterpoise1     ,of poles that    
drive and draw8   ,ever some            
compensation1     ,some pandering       
purchase still6   ,but the vehm of      
achieving reason     ,is the            

all-patrician ,will6   ,mr4 ,blood must 
manage to re-write the last two lines2  
but the contrast of the two securities1 
his and the rationalist's1 is plain     
enough4  ,the rationalist sees safe     
conditions4  ,but ,mr4 ,blood's         
revelation1 whatever the conditions be1 
helps him to stand ready for a life     
among them4  ,in this1 his attitude     
seems to resemble that of ,nietzsche's  
amor fati6 ,simply1 he writes to me1 we 
do not know4  ,but when we say we do not
 know1 we are not to say it weakly and  
meekly1 but with confidence and content4
 4 4 4  ,knowledge is and must ever be  
secondary1 a witness rather than a      
principal1 or a 'principle'6--in the    
case4 ,therefore mysticism for me6      
,reason1 he prints elsewhere1 is but an 
item in the duplex potency of the       
mystery1 and behind the proudest        
consciousness that ever reigned1 ,reason
 and ,wonder blushed face to face4  ,the
 legend sinks to burlesque if in that   
great argument which antedates man and  

his mutterings1 ,lucifer had not a      
fighting chance4 4 4 4  ,it is given to 
the writer and to others for whom he is 
permitted to speak--and we are grateful 
that it is the custom of gentlemen to   
believe one another--that the highest   
thought is not a milk-and-water equation
 of so much reason and so much          
result--'no school sum to be cast up4'  
,we have realized the highest divine    
thought of itself1 and there is in it as
 much of wonder as of certainty2        
inevitable1 and solitary and safe in one
 sense1 but queer and cactus-like no    
less in another sense1 it appeals       
unutterably to experience alone4  ,there
 are sadness and disenchantment for the 
novice in these inferences1 as if the   
keynote of the universe were low1 but   
experience will approve them4           
,certainty is the root of despair4  ,the
 inevitable stales1 while doubt and hope
 are sisters4  ,not unfortunately the   
universe is wild--game flavored as a    
hawk's wing4  ,nature is miracle all4   

,she knows no laws2 the same returns    
not1 save to bring the different4  ,the 
slow round of the engraver's lathe gains
 but the breadth of a hair1 but the     
difference is distributed back over the 
whole curve1 never an instant true--ever
 not quite4  ,ever not quite6--this     
seems to wring the very last panting    
word out of rationalistic philosophy's  
mouth4  ,it is fit to be pluralism's    
heraldic device4  ,there is no complete 
generalization1 no total point of view1 
no all-pervasive unity1 but everywhere  
some residual resistance to             
verbalization1 formulation1 and         
discursification1 some genius of reality
 that escapes from the pressure of the  
logical finger1 that says hands off1 and
 claims its privacy1 and means to be    
left to its own life4  ,in every moment 
of immediate experience is somewhat     
absolutely original and novel4  ,we are 
the first that ever burst into this     
silent sea4  ,philosophy must pass from 
words1 that reproduce but ancient       

elements1 to life itself1 that gives the
 integrally new4  ,the inexplicable1 the
 mystery1 as what the intellect1 with   
its claim to reason out reality1 thinks 
that it is in duty bound to resolve1 and
 the resolution of which ,blood's       
revelation would eliminate from the     
sphere of our duties1 remains2 but it   
remains as something to be met and dealt
 with by faculties more akin to our     
activities and heroisms and             
willingnesses1 than to our logical      
powers4  ,this is the anesthetic        
insight1 according to our author4  ,let 
my last word1 then1 speaking in the name
 of intellectual philosophy1 be his     
word4--,there is no conclusion4  ,what  
has concluded1 that we might conclude in
 regard to it8  ,there are no fortunes  
to be told1 and there is no advice to be
 given4--,farewell6    #a ,written      
during the early summer of #aiaj and    
published in the ,hibbert ,journal for  
,july of that year4  #b ,yes6  ,paul is 
quite a correspondent6 said a good      

citizen of ,amsterdam1 from whom ,i     
inquired the way to ,mr4 ,blood's       
dwelling many years ago1 after alighting
 from the train4  ,i had sought to      
identify him by calling him an author1  
but his neighbor thought of him only as 
a writer of letters to the journals ,i  
have named4  #c ,how shall a man know he
 is alive--since in thought the knowing 
constitutes the being alive1 without    
knowing that thought 7life7 from its    
opposite1 and so knowing both1 and so   
far as being is knowing1 being both8    
,each defines and relieves the other1   
each is impossible in thought without   
the other2 therefore each has no        
distinction save as presently           
contrasting with the other1 and each by 
itself is the same1 and nothing4        
,clearly1 then1 consciousness is neither
 of one nor of the other nor of both1   
but a knowing subject perceiving them   
and itself together and as one4 4 4 4   
,so1 in coming out of the anaesthetic   
exhilaration 4 4 4 we want to tell      

something2 but the effort instantly     
proves that something will stay back and
 do the telling--one must utter one's   
own throat1 one must eat one's own      
teeth1 to express the being that        
possesses one4  ,the result is ludicrous
 and astounding at once--astounding in  
the clear perception that this is the   
ultimate mystery of life1 and is given  
you as the old ,adamic secret1 which you
 then feel that all intelligence must   
sometime know or have known2 yet        
ludicrous in its familiar simplicity1 as
 somewhat that any man should always    
perceive at his best1 if his head were  
only level1 but which in our ordinary   
thinking has grown into a thousand      
creeds and theories dignified as        
religion and philosophy4  #d ,elsewhere 
,mr4 ,blood writes of the force of the  
negative thus3--,as when a faded lock of
 woman's hair shall cause a man to cut  
his throat in a bedroom at five o'clock 
in the morning2 or when ,albany resounds
 with legislation1 but a little         

henpecked judge in a dusty office at    
,herkimer or ,johnstown sadly writes    
across the page the word                
'unconstitutional'--the glory of the    
,capitol has faded4  #e ,elsewhere      
,blood writes3--,but what then1 in the  
name of common sense1 is the external   
world8  ,if a dead man could answer he  
would say ,nothing1 or as ,macbeth said 
of the air-drawn dagger1 'there is no   
such thing4'  ,but a live man's answer  
might be in this way3 ,what is the      
multiplication table when it is not     
written down8  ,it is a necessity of    
thought2 it was not created1 it cannot  
but be2 every intelligence which goes to
 it1 and thinks1 must think in that form
 or think falsely4  ,so the universe is 
the static necessity of reason2 it is   
not an object for any intelligence to   
find1 but it is half object and half    
subject2 it never cost anything as a    
whole2 it never was made1 but always is 
made1 in the ,logos1 or expression of   
reason--the ,word2 and slowly but surely

 it will be understood and uttered in   
every intelligence1 until he is one with
 ,god or reason itself4  ,as a man1 for 
all he knows1 or has known1 stands at   
any given instant the realization of    
only one thought1 while all the rest of 
him is invisibly linked to that in the  
necessary form and concatenation of     
reason1 so the man as a whole of        
exploited thoughts is a moment in the   
front of the concatenated reason of the 
universal whole2 and this whole is      
personal only as it is personally       
achieved4  ,this is the ,kingdom that is
 'within you1 and the ,god which 'no man
 hath seen at any time4'  #f ,there are 
passages in ,blood that sound like a    
well-known essay by ,emerson4  ,for     
instance3--,experience burns into us the
 fact and the necessity of universal    
compensation4  ,the philosopher takes it
 from ,heraclitus1 in the insight that  
everything exists through its opposite2 
and the bummer comforts himself for his 
morning headache as only the rough side 

of a square deal4  ,we accept readily   
the doctrine that pain and pleasure1    
evil and good1 death and life1 chance   
and reason1 are necessary               
equations--that there must be just as   
much of each as of its other4  ,it      
grieves us little that this great       
compensation cannot at every instant    
balance its beam on every individual    
centre1 and dispense with an under dog  
in every fight2 we know that the parts  
must subserve the whole2 we have faith  
that our time will come2 and if it comes
 not at all in this world1 our lack is a
 bid for immortality1 and the most      
promising argument for a world          
hereafter4  ',though ,he slay me1 yet   
will ,i trust in ,him4'  ,this is the   
faith that baffles all calamity1 and    
ensures genius and patience in the      
world4  ,let not the creditor hasten the
 settlement3 let not the injured man    
hurry toward revenge2 there is nothing  
that draws bigger interest than a wrong1
 and to 'get the best of it' is ever in 

some sense to get the worst4  #g ,or    
what thinks the reader of the verbiage  
of these verses8--addressed in a mood of
 human defiance to the cosmic ,gods--   
,whose lightnings tawny leap from       
furtive lairs1   ,to helpless murder1   
while the ships go down   ,swirled in   
the crazy stound1 and mariners' prayers 
,go up in noisome bubbles--such to      
them2--   ,or when they tramp about the 
central fires1   ,bending the strata    
with aeonian tread   ,till steeples     
totter1 and all ways are lost1--   ,deem
 they of wife or child1 or home or      
friend1   ,doing these things as the    
long years lead on   ,only to other     
years that mean no more1   ,that cure no
 ill1 nor make for use or proof--       
,destroying ever1 though to rear again4 
#h ,i subjoin a poetic apostrophe of    
,mr4 ,blood's to freedom3               
,let it ne'er be known4   ,if in some   
book of the ,inevitable1   ,dog-eared   
and stale1 the future stands engrossed  
,e'en as the past4  ,there shall be news

 in heaven1   ,and question in the      
courts thereof2 and chance   ,shall have
 its fling1 e'en at the ermined bench4  
99      99      99      99      99      
99      ,ah1 long ago1 above the ,indian
 ocean1   ,where wan stars brood over   
the dreaming ,east1   ,i saw1 white1    
liquid1 palpitant1 the ,cross2   ,and   
faint and far came bells of ,calvary    
,as planets passed1 singing that they   
were saved1   ,saved from themselves3   
but ever low ,orion--   ,for hunter too 
was ,i1 born of the wild1   ,and the    
game flavor of the infinite   ,tainted  
me to the bone--he waved me on1   ,on to
 the tangent field beyond all orbs1     
,where form nor order nor continuance   
,hath thought nor name2 there unity     
exhales   ,in want of confine1 and the  
protoplasm   ,may beat and beat1 in     
aimless vehemence1   ,through vagrant   
spaces1 homeless and unknown4        99 
99      99      99      99      99      
,there ends ,one's empire6--but so ends 
not all2   ,one knows not all2 my griefs

 at least are mine--   ,by me their     
measure1 and to me their lesson2   ,e'en
 ,i am one--7poor deuce to call the     
,ace67   ,and to the open bears my      
gonfalon1   ,mine aegis1 ,freedom6--,let
 me ne'er look back   ,accusing1 for the
 withered leaves and lives   ,the sated 
past hath strewn1 the shears of fate1   
,but forth to braver days4              
,o1 ,liberty1   ,burthen of every       
sigh6--thou gold of gold1   ,beauty of  
the beautiful1 strength of the strong6  
,my soul for ever turns agaze for thee4 
,there is no purpose of eternity   ,for 
faith or patience2 but thy buoyant torch
   ,still lighted from the ,islands of  
the ,blest1   ,o'erbears all present for
 potential heavens   ,which are not--ah1
 so more than all that are6   ,whose    
chance postpones the ennui of the skies6
   ,be thou my genius--be my hope in    
thee6   ,for this were heaven3 to be1   
and to be free4  #i ,in another letter  
,mr4 ,blood writes3--,i think we are    
through with 'the ,whole1' and with     

'causa sui1' and with the 'negative     
unity' which assumes to identify each   
thing as being what it lacks of         
everything else4  ,you can1 of course1  
build out a chip by modelling the sphere
 it was chipped from2--but if it was n't
 a sphere8  ,what a weariness it is to  
look back over the twenty odd volumes of
 the ',journal of ,speculative          
,philosophy' and see ,harris's mind     
wholly filled by that one conception of 
self-determination--everything to be    
thought as 'part of a system'--a 'whole'
 and 'causa sui4'--,i should like to see
 such an idea get into the head of      
,edison or ,george ,westinghouse4