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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 38091 ***
+
+
+
+
+THE LETTERS OF WILLIAM JAMES
+
+[Illustration: WILLIAM JAMES
+
+FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN ABOUT 1895]
+
+
+
+
+THE LETTERS OF
+WILLIAM JAMES
+
+EDITED BY HIS SON
+HENRY JAMES
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES
+
+VOLUME II
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS
+BOSTON
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
+HENRY JAMES
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+XI. 1893-1899 1-52
+
+_Turning to Philosophy--A Student's Impressions--Popular
+Lecturing--Chautauqua._
+
+LETTERS:--
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 17
+
+To Henry Holt 19
+
+To Henry James 20
+
+To Henry James 20
+
+To Mrs. Henry Whitman 20
+
+To G. H. Howison 22
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 23
+
+To his Daughter 25
+
+To E. L. Godkin 28
+
+To F. W. H. Myers 30
+
+To F. W. H. Myers 32
+
+To Henry Holt 33
+
+To his Class at Radcliffe College 33
+
+To Henry James 34
+
+To Henry James 36
+
+To Benjamin P. Blood 38
+
+To Mrs. James 40
+
+To Miss Rosina H. Emmet 44
+
+To Charles Renouvier 44
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 46
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 48
+
+To Henry James 51
+
+XII. 1893-1899 (Continued) 53-91
+
+_The Will to Believe--Talks to Teachers--Defense of Mental
+Healers--Excessive Climbing in the Adirondacks._
+
+LETTERS:--
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 53
+
+To Henry W. Rankin 56
+
+To Benjamin P. Blood 58
+
+To Henry James 60
+
+To Miss Ellen Emmet 62
+
+To E. L. Godkin 64
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 65
+
+To James J. Putnam 66
+
+To James J. Putnam 72
+
+To François Pillon 73
+
+To Mrs. James 75
+
+To G. H. Howison 79
+
+To Henry James 80
+
+To his Son Alexander 81
+
+To Miss Rosina H. Emmet 82
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 84
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 86
+
+To Henry Rutgers Marshall 86
+
+To Henry Rutgers Marshall 88
+
+To Mrs. Henry Whitman 88
+
+
+XIII. 1899-1902 92-170
+
+_Two Years of Illness in Europe--Retirement from Active Duty at
+Harvard--The First and Second Series of the Gifford Lectures._
+
+LETTERS:--
+
+To Miss Pauline Goldmark 95
+
+To Mrs. E. P. Gibbens 96
+
+To William M. Salter 99
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 102
+
+To Mrs. Henry Whitman 103
+
+To Thomas Davidson 106
+
+To John C. Gray 108
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 109
+
+To Mrs. Glendower Evans 112
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 115
+
+To Francis Boott 117
+
+To Hugo Münsterberg 119
+
+To G. H. Palmer 120
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 124
+
+To his Son Alexander 129
+
+To his Daughter 130
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 133
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 133
+
+To Josiah Royce 135
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 138
+
+To James Sully 140
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 142
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 142
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 143
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 146
+
+To Henry W. Rankin 148
+
+To Charles Eliot Norton 150
+
+To N. S. Shaler 153
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 155
+
+To Henry James 159
+
+To E. L. Godkin 159
+
+To E. L. Godkin 161
+
+To Miss Pauline Goldmark 162
+
+To H. N. Gardiner 164
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 164
+
+To Charles Eliot Norton 166
+
+To Mrs. Henry Whitman 167
+
+XIV. 1902-1905 171-218
+
+_The Last Period (I)--Statements of Religious Belief--Philosophical
+Writing._
+
+LETTERS:--
+
+To Henry L. Higginson 173
+
+To Miss Grace Norton 173
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 175
+
+To Henry L. Higginson 176
+
+To Henri Bergson 178
+
+To Mrs. Louis Agassiz 180
+
+To Henry L. Higginson 182
+
+To Henri Bergson 183
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 185
+
+To Henry James 188
+
+To his Daughter 192
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 193
+
+To Henry James 195
+
+To Henry W. Rankin 196
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 197
+
+To Mrs. Henry Whitman 198
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 200
+
+To Mrs. Henry Whitman 201
+
+To Henry James 202
+
+To François Pillon 203
+
+To Henry James 204
+
+To Charles Eliot Norton 206
+
+To L. T. Hobhouse 207
+
+To Edwin D. Starbuck 209
+
+To James Henry Leuba 211
+
+Answers to the Pratt Questionnaire on Religious Belief 212
+
+To Miss Pauline Goldmark 215
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 216
+
+To F. J. E. Woodbridge 217
+
+To Edwin D. Starbuck 217
+
+To F. J. E. Woodbridge 218
+
+
+XV. 1905-1907 219-282
+
+_The Last Period (II)--Italy and Greece--Philosophical Congress in
+Rome--Stanford University--The Earthquake--Resignation of
+Professorship._
+
+LETTERS:--
+
+To Mrs. James 221
+
+To his Daughter 223
+
+To Mrs. James 225
+
+To George Santayana 228
+
+To Mrs. James 229
+
+To Mrs. James 230
+
+To H. G. Wells 230
+
+To Henry L. Higginson 231
+
+To T. S. Perry 232
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 233
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 235
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 237
+
+To Daniel Merriman 238
+
+To Miss Pauline Goldmark 238
+
+To Henry James 239
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 241
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 245
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 247
+
+To Henry James and W. James, Jr. 250
+
+To W. Lutoslawski 252
+
+To John Jay Chapman 255
+
+To Henry James 258
+
+To H. G. Wells 259
+
+To Miss Theodora Sedgwick 260
+
+To his Daughter 262
+
+To Henry James and W. James, Jr. 263
+
+To Moorfield Storey 265
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 266
+
+To Charles A. Strong 268
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 270
+
+To Clifford W. Beers 273
+
+To William James, Jr. 275
+
+To Henry James 277
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 280
+
+
+XVI. 1907-1909 283-332
+
+_The Last Period (III)--Hibbert Lectures in Oxford--The Hodgson Report._
+
+LETTERS:--
+
+To Charles Lewis Slattery 287
+
+To Henry L. Higginson 288
+
+To W. Cameron Forbes 288
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 290
+
+To Henri Bergson 290
+
+To T. S. Perry 294
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 295
+
+To Miss Pauline Goldmark 296
+
+To W. Jerusalem 297
+
+To Henry James 298
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 300
+
+To Norman Kemp Smith 301
+
+To his Daughter 301
+
+To Henry James 302
+
+To Henry James 303
+
+To Miss Pauline Goldmark 303
+
+To Charles Eliot Norton 306
+
+To Henri Bergson 308
+
+To John Dewey 310
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 310
+
+To Shadworth H. Hodgson 312
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 313
+
+To Henri Bergson 315
+
+To H. G. Wells 316
+
+To Henry James 317
+
+To T. S. Perry 318
+
+To Hugo Münsterberg 320
+
+To John Jay Chapman 321
+
+To G. H. Palmer 322
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 322
+
+To Miss Theodora Sedgwick 324
+
+To F. C. S. Schiller 325
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 326
+
+To Shadworth H. Hodgson 328
+
+To John Jay Chapman 329
+
+To John Jay Chapman 330
+
+To John Jay Chapman 330
+
+To Dickinson S. Miller 331
+
+
+XVII. 1910 333-350
+
+_Final Months--The End._
+
+LETTERS:--
+
+To Henry L. Higginson 334
+
+To Miss Frances R. Morse 335
+
+To T. S. Perry 335
+
+To François Pillon 336
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 338
+
+To his Daughter 338
+
+To Henry P. Bowditch 341
+
+To François Pillon 342
+
+To Henry Adams 344
+
+To Henry Adams 346
+
+To Henry Adams 347
+
+To Benjamin P. Blood 347
+
+To Theodore Flournoy 349
+
+
+APPENDIX I. 353
+
+Three Criticisms for Students.
+
+APPENDIX II. 357
+
+Books by William James.
+
+INDEX 363
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+William James in middle life _Frontispiece_
+
+"Damn the Absolute": two snapshots of William
+James and Josiah Royce 135
+
+William James and Henry James posing for a
+kodak in 1900 161
+
+William James and Henry Clement at the "Putnam
+Shanty" in the Adirondacks (1907?) 315
+
+Facsimile of Post-card addressed to Henry Adams 347
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LETTERS OF WILLIAM JAMES
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+1893-1899
+
+ _Turning to Philosophy--A Student's Impressions--Popular
+ Lecturing--Chautauqua_
+
+
+When James returned from Europe, he was fifty-two years old. If he had
+been another man, he might have settled down to the intensive
+cultivation of the field in which he had already achieved renown and
+influence. He would then have spent the rest of his life in working out
+special problems in psychology, in deducing a few theories, in making
+particular applications of his conclusions, in administering a growing
+laboratory, in surrounding himself with assistants and disciples--in
+weeding and gathering where he had tilled. But the fact was that the
+publication of his two books on psychology operated for him as a welcome
+release from the subject.
+
+He had no illusion of finality about what he had written.[1] But he
+would have said that whatever original contribution he was capable of
+making to psychology had already been made; that he must pass on and
+leave addition and revision to others. He gradually disencumbered
+himself of responsibility for teaching the subject in the College. The
+laboratory had already been placed under Professor Münsterberg's charge.
+For one year, during which Münsterberg returned to Germany, James was
+compelled to direct its conduct; but he let it be known that he would
+resign his professorship rather than concern himself with it
+indefinitely.
+
+Readers of this book will have seen that the centre of his interest had
+always been religious and philosophical. To be sure, the currents by
+which science was being carried forward during the sixties and seventies
+had supported him in his distrust of conclusions based largely on
+introspection and _a priori_ reasoning. As early as 1865 he had said,
+apropos of Agassiz, "No one sees farther into a generalization than his
+own knowledge of details extends." In the spirit of that remark he had
+spent years on brain-physiology, on the theory of the emotions, on the
+feeling of effort in mental processes, in studying the measurements and
+exact experiments by means of which the science of the mind was being
+brought into quickening relation with the physical and biological
+sciences. But all the while he had been driven on by a curiosity that
+embraced ulterior problems. In half of the field of his consciousness
+questions had been stirring which now held his attention completely.
+Does consciousness really exist? Could a radically empirical conception
+of the universe be formulated? What is knowledge? What truth? Where is
+freedom? and where is there room for faith? Metaphysical problems
+haunted his mind; discussions that ran in strictly psychological
+channels bored him. He called psychology "a nasty little subject,"
+according to Professor Palmer, and added, "all one cares to know lies
+outside." He would not consider spending time on a revised edition of
+his textbook (the "Briefer Course") except for a bribe that was too
+great ever to be urged upon him. As time went on, he became more and
+more irritated at being addressed or referred to as a "psychologist." In
+June, 1903, when he became aware that Harvard was intending to confer an
+honorary degree on him, he went about for days before Commencement in a
+half-serious state of dread lest, at the fatal moment, he should hear
+President Eliot's voice naming him "Psychologist, psychical researcher,
+willer-to-believe, religious experiencer." He could not say whether the
+impossible last epithets would be less to his taste than "psychologist."
+
+Only along the borderland between normal and pathological mental states,
+and particularly in the region of "religious experience," did he
+continue to collect psychological data and to explore them.
+
+The new subjects which he offered at Harvard during the nineties are
+indicative of the directions in which his mind was moving. In the first
+winter after his return he gave a course on Cosmology, which he had
+never taught before and which he described in the department
+announcement as "a study of the fundamental conceptions of natural
+science with especial reference to the theories of evolution and
+materialism," and for the first time announced that his graduate
+"seminar" would be wholly devoted to questions in mental pathology
+"embracing a review of the principal forms of abnormal or exceptional
+mental life." In 1895 the second half of his psychological seminar was
+announced as "a discussion of certain theoretic problems, as
+Consciousness, Knowledge, Self, the relations of Mind and Body." In 1896
+he offered a course on the philosophy of Kant for the first time. In
+1898 the announcement of his "elective" on Metaphysics explained that
+the class would consider "the unity or pluralism of the world ground,
+and its knowability or unknowability; realism and idealism, freedom,
+teleology and theism."[2]
+
+But there is another aspect of the nineties which must be touched upon.
+After getting back "to harness" in 1893 James took up, not only his full
+college duties, but an amount of outside lecturing such as he had never
+done before. In so doing he overburdened himself and postponed the
+attainment of his true purpose; but the temptation to accept the
+requests which now poured in on him was made irresistible by practical
+considerations. He not only repeated some of his Harvard courses at
+Radcliffe College, and gave instruction in the Harvard Summer School in
+addition to the regular work of the term; but delivered lectures at
+teachers' meetings and before other special audiences in places as far
+from Cambridge as Colorado and California. A number of the papers that
+are included in "The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular
+Philosophy" (1897) and "Talks to Teachers and Students on Some of Life's
+Ideals" (1897) were thus prepared as lectures. Some of them were read
+many times before they were published. When he stopped for a rest in
+1899, he was exhausted to the verge of a formidable break-down.
+
+Even a glance at this period tempts one to wonder whether this record
+would not have been richer if it had been different. Might-have-beens
+can never be measured or verified; and yet sometimes it cannot be
+doubted that possibilities never realized were actual possibilities
+once. By 1893 James was inwardly eager, as has already been said, to
+devote all his thought and working time to metaphysical and religious
+questions. More than that--he had already conceived the important terms
+of his own _Welt-anschauung_. "The Will to Believe" was written by 1896.
+In the preface to the "Talks to Teachers" he said of the essay called "A
+Certain Blindness in Human Beings," "it connects itself with a definite
+view of the World and our Moral relations to the same.... I mean the
+pluralistic or individualistic philosophy." This was no more than a
+statement of a general philosophic attitude which had for some years
+been familiar to his students and to readers of his occasional papers.
+The lecture on "Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results,"
+delivered at the University of California in 1898, forecast "Pragmatism"
+and the "Meaning of Truth." If his time and energy had not been
+otherwise consumed, the nineties might well have witnessed the
+appearance of papers which were not written until the next decade. If he
+had been able to apply an undistracted attention to what his spirit was
+all the while straining toward, the disastrous breakdown of 1899-1902
+might not have happened. But instead, these best years of his maturity
+were largely sacrificed to the practical business of supporting his
+family. His salary as a Harvard professor was insufficient to his needs.
+On his salary alone he could not educate his four children as he wanted
+to, and make provision for his old age and their future and his wife's,
+except by denying himself movement and social and professional contacts
+and by withdrawing into isolation that would have been utterly
+paralyzing and depressing to his genius. He possessed private means, to
+be sure; but, considering his family, these amounted to no more than a
+partial insurance against accident and a moderate supplement to his
+salary. His books had not yet begun to yield him a substantial increase
+of income. It is true that he made certain lecture engagements serve as
+the occasion for casting philosophical conceptions in more or less
+popular form, and that he frequently paid the expenses of refreshing
+travels by means of these lectures. But after he had economized in every
+direction,--as for instance, by giving up horse and hired man at
+Chocorua,--the bald fact remained that for six years he spent most of
+the time that he could spare from regular college duties, and about all
+his vacations, in carrying the fruits of the previous fifteen years of
+psychological work into the popular market. His public reputation was
+increased thereby. Teachers, audiences, and the "general reader" had
+reason to be thankful. But science and philosophy paid for the gain. His
+case was no worse than that of plenty of other men of productive genius
+who were enmeshed in an inadequately supported academic system. It would
+have been much more distressing under the conditions that prevail today.
+So James took the limitations of the situation as a matter of course and
+made no complaint. But when he died, the systematic statement of his
+philosophy had not been "rounded out" and he knew that he was leaving it
+"too much like an arch built only on one side."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+James's appearance at this period is well shown by the frontispiece of
+this volume. Almost anyone who was at Harvard in the nineties can recall
+him as he went back and forth in Kirkland Street between the College and
+his Irving Street house, and can in memory see again that erect figure
+walking with a step that was somehow firm and light without being
+particularly rapid, two or three thick volumes and a note-book under
+one arm, and on his face a look of abstraction that used suddenly to
+give way to an expression of delighted and friendly curiosity. Sometimes
+it was an acquaintance who caught his eye and received a cordial word;
+sometimes it was an occurrence in the street that arrested him;
+sometimes the terrier dog, who had been roving along unwatched and
+forgotten, embroiled himself in an adventure or a fight and brought
+James out of his thoughts. One day he would have worn the Norfolk jacket
+that he usually worked in at home to his lecture-room; the next, he
+would have forgotten to change the black coat that he had put on for a
+formal occasion. At twenty minutes before nine in the morning he could
+usually be seen going to the College Chapel for the fifteen-minute
+service with which the College day began. If he was returning home for
+lunch, he was likely to be hurrying; for he had probably let himself be
+detained after a lecture to discuss some question with a few of his
+class. He was apt then to have some student with him whom he was
+bringing home to lunch and to finish the discussion at the family table,
+or merely for the purpose of establishing more personal relations than
+were possible in the class-room. At the end of the afternoon, or in the
+early evening, he would frequently be bicycling or walking again. He
+would then have been working until his head was tired, and would have
+laid his spectacles down on his desk and have started out again to get a
+breath of air and perhaps to drop in on a Cambridge neighbor.
+
+In his own house it seemed as if he was always at work; all the more,
+perhaps, because it was obvious that he possessed no instinct for
+arranging his day and protecting himself from interruptions. He managed
+reasonably well to keep his mornings clear; or rather he allowed his
+wife to stand guard over them with fair success. But soon after he had
+taken an essential after-lunch nap, he was pretty sure to be "caught" by
+callers and visitors. From six o'clock on, he usually had one or two of
+the children sitting, more or less subdued, in the library, while he
+himself read or dashed off letters, or (if his eyes were tired) dictated
+them to Mrs. James. He always had letters and post-cards to write. At
+any odd time--with his overcoat on and during a last moment before
+hurrying off to an appointment or a train--he would sit down at his desk
+and do one more note or card--always in the beautiful and flowing hand
+that hardly changed between his eighteenth and his sixty-eighth years.
+He seemed to feel no need of solitude except when he was reading
+technical literature or writing philosophy. If other members of the
+household were talking and laughing in the room that adjoined his study,
+he used to keep the door open and occasionally pop in for a word, or to
+talk for a quarter of an hour. It was with the greatest difficulty that
+Mrs. James finally persuaded him to let the door be closed up. He never
+struck an equilibrium between wishing to see his students and neighbors
+freely and often, and wishing not to be interrupted by even the most
+agreeable reminder of the existence of anyone or anything outside the
+matter in which he was absorbed.
+
+It was customary for each member of the Harvard Faculty to announce in
+the college catalogue at what hour of the day he could be consulted by
+students. Year after year James assigned the hour of his evening meal
+for such calls. Sometimes he left the table to deal with the caller in
+private; sometimes a student, who had pretty certainly eaten already and
+was visibly abashed at finding himself walking in on a second dinner,
+would be brought into the dining-room and made to talk about other
+things than his business.
+
+He allowed his conscience to be constantly burdened with a sense of
+obligation to all sorts of people. The list of neighbors, students,
+strangers visiting Cambridge, to whom he and Mrs. James felt responsible
+for civilities, was never closed, and the cordiality which animated his
+intentions kept him reminded of every one on it.
+
+And yet, whenever his wife wisely prepared for a suitable time and made
+engagements for some sort of hospitality otherwise than by hap-hazard,
+it was perversely likely to be the case, when the appointed hour
+arrived, that James was "going on his nerves" and in no mood for "being
+entertaining." The most comradely of men, nothing galled him like
+_having to be_ sociable. The "hollow mockery of our social conventions"
+would then be described in furious and lurid speech. Luckily the guests
+were not yet there to hear him. But they did not always get away without
+catching a glimpse of his state of mind. On one such occasion,--an
+evening reception for his graduate class had been arranged,--Mrs. James
+encountered a young man in the hall whose expression was so perturbed
+that she asked him what had happened to him. "I've come in again," he
+replied, "to get my hat. I was trying to find my way to the dining-room
+when Mr. James swooped at me and said, 'Here, Smith, you want to get out
+of this _Hell_, don't you? I'll show you how. There!' And before I could
+answer, he'd popped me out through a back-door. But, really, I do not
+want to go!"
+
+The dinners of a club to which allusions will occur in this volume, (in
+letters to Henry L. Higginson, T. S. Perry, and John C. Gray) were
+occasions apart from all others; for James could go to them at the last
+moment, without any sense of responsibility and knowing that he would
+find congenial company and old friends. So he continued to go to these
+dinners, even after he had stopped accepting all invitations to dine.
+The Club (for it never had any name) had been started in 1870. James had
+been one of the original group who agreed to dine together once a month
+during the winter. Among the other early members had been his brother
+Henry, W. D. Howells, O. W. Holmes, Jr., John Fiske, John C. Gray, Henry
+Adams, T. S. Perry, John C. Ropes, A. G. Sedgwick, and F. Parkman. The
+more faithful diners, who constituted the nucleus of the Club during the
+later years, included Henry L. Higginson, Sturgis Bigelow, John C.
+Ropes, John T. Morse, Charles Grinnell, James Ford Rhodes, Moorfield
+Storey, James W. Crafts, and H. P. Walcott.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Every little while James's sleep would "go to pieces," and he would go
+off to Newport, the Adirondacks, or elsewhere, for a few days. This
+happened both summer and winter. It was not the effect of the place or
+climate in which he was living, but simply that his dangerously high
+average of nervous tension had been momentarily raised to the snapping
+point. Writing was almost certain to bring on this result. When he had
+an essay or a lecture to prepare, he could not do it by bits. In order
+to begin such a task, he tried to seize upon a free day--more often a
+Sunday than any other. Then he would shut himself into his library, or
+disappear into a room at the top of the house, and remain hidden all
+day. If things went well, twenty or thirty sheets of much-corrected
+manuscript (about twenty-five hundred words in his free hand) might
+result from such a day. As many more would have gone into the
+waste-basket. Two or three successive days of such writing "took it out
+of him" visibly.
+
+Short holidays, or intervals in college lecturing, were often employed
+for writing in this way, the longer vacations of the latter nineties
+being filled, as has been said, with traveling and lecture engagements.
+In the intervals there would be a few days, or sometimes two or three
+whole weeks, at Chocorua. Or, one evening, all the windows of the
+deserted Irving Street house would suddenly be wide open to the night
+air, and passers on the sidewalk could see James sitting in his
+shirt-sleeves within the circle of the bright light that stood on his
+library table. He was writing letters, making notes, and skirmishing
+through the piles of journals and pamphlets that had accumulated during
+an absence.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The impression which he made on a student who sat under him in several
+classes shortly before the date at which this volume begins have been
+set down in a form in which they can be given here.
+
+"I have a vivid recollection" (writes Dr. Dickinson S. Miller) "of
+James's lectures, classes, conferences, seminars, laboratory interests,
+and the side that students saw of him generally. Fellow-manliness seemed
+to me a good name for his quality. The one thing apparently impossible
+to him was to speak _ex cathedra_ from heights of scientific erudition
+and attainment. There were not a few 'if's' and 'maybe's' in his
+remarks. Moreover he seldom followed for long an orderly system of
+argument or unfolding of a theory, but was always apt to puncture such
+systematic pretensions when in the midst of them with some entirely
+unaffected doubt or question that put the matter upon a basis of common
+sense at once. He had drawn from his laboratory experience in chemistry
+and his study of medicine a keen sense that the imposing formulas of
+science that impress laymen are not so 'exact' as they sound. He was
+not, in my time at least, much of a believer in lecturing in the sense
+of continuous exposition.
+
+"I can well remember the first meeting of the course in psychology in
+1890, in a ground-floor room of the old Lawrence Scientific School. He
+took a considerable part of the hour by reading extracts from Henry
+Sidgwick's Lecture against Lecturing, proceeding to explain that we
+should use as a textbook his own 'Principles of Psychology,' appearing
+for the first time that very week from the press, and should spend the
+hours in conference, in which we should discuss and ask questions, on
+both sides. So during the year's course we read the two volumes through,
+with some amount of running commentary and controversy. There were four
+or five men of previous psychological training in a class of (I think)
+between twenty and thirty, two of whom were disposed to take up cudgels
+for the British associational psychology and were particularly troubled
+by the repeated doctrine of the 'Principles' that a state of
+consciousness had no parts or elements, but was one indivisible fact. He
+bore questions that really were criticisms with inexhaustible patience
+and what I may call (the subject invites the word often) _human_
+attention; invited written questions as well, and would often return
+them with a reply penciled on the back when he thought the discussion
+too special in interest to be pursued before the class. Moreover, he
+bore with us with never a sign of impatience if we lingered after class,
+and even walked up Kirkland Street with him on his way home. Yet he was
+really not argumentative, not inclined to dialectic or pertinacious
+debate of any sort. It must always have required an effort of
+self-control to put up with it. He almost never, even in private
+conversation, contended for his own opinion. He had a way of often
+falling back on the language of perception, insight, sensibility, vision
+of possibilities. I recall how on one occasion after class, as I parted
+with him at the gate of the Memorial Hall triangle, his last words were
+something like these: 'Well, Miller, that theory's not a warm reality to
+me yet--still a cold conception'; and the charm of the comradely smile
+with which he said it! The disinclination to formal logical system and
+the more prolonged purely intellectual analyses was felt by some men as
+a lack in his classroom work, though they recognized that these analyses
+were present in the 'Psychology.' On the other hand, the very tendency
+to _feel_ ideas lent a kind of emotional or æsthetic color which
+deepened the interest.
+
+"In the course of the year he asked the men each to write some word of
+suggestion, if he were so inclined, for improvement in the method with
+which the course was conducted; and, if I remember rightly, there were
+not a few respectful suggestions that too much time was allowed to the
+few wrangling disputants. In a pretty full and varied experience of
+lecture-rooms at home and abroad I cannot recall another where the class
+was asked to criticize the methods of the lecturer.
+
+"Another class of twelve or fourteen, in the same year, on Descartes,
+Spinoza, and Leibnitz, met in one of the 'tower rooms' of Sever Hall,
+sitting around a table. Here we had to do mostly with pure metaphysics.
+And more striking still was the prominence of humanity and sensibility
+in his way of taking philosophic problems. I can see him now, sitting at
+the head of that heavy table of light-colored oak near the bow-window
+that formed the end of the room. My brother, a visitor at Cambridge,
+dropping in for an hour and seeing him with his vigorous air, bronzed
+and sanguine complexion, and brown tweeds, said, 'He looks more like a
+sportsman than a professor.' I think that the sporting men in college
+always felt a certain affinity to themselves on one side in the
+freshness and manhood that distinguished him in mind, appearance, and
+diction. It was, by the way, in this latter course that I first heard
+some of the philosophic phrases now identified with him. There was a
+great deal about the monist and pluralist views of the universe. The
+world of the monist was described as a 'block-universe' and the monist
+himself as 'wallowing in a sense of unbridled unity,' or something of
+the sort. He always wanted the men to write one or two 'theses' in the
+course of the year and to get to work early on them. He made a great
+deal of bibliography. He would say, 'I am no man for editions and
+references, no exact bibliographer.' But none the less he would put upon
+the blackboard full lists of books, English, French, German, and
+Italian, on our subject. His own reading was immense and systematic. No
+one has ever done justice to it, partly because he spoke with unaffected
+modesty of that side of his equipment.
+
+"Of course this knowledge came to the foreground in his 'seminar.' In my
+second year I was with him in one of these for both terms, the first
+half-year studying the psychology of pleasure and pain, and the second,
+mental pathology. Here each of us undertook a special topic, the reading
+for which was suggested by him. The students were an interesting group,
+including Professor Santayana, then an instructor, Dr. Herbert Nichols,
+Messrs. Mezes (now President of the City College, New York), Pierce
+(late Professor at Smith College), Angell (Professor of Psychology at
+Chicago, and now President of the Carnegie Corporation), Bakewell
+(Professor at Yale), and Alfred Hodder (who became instructor at Bryn
+Mawr College, then abandoned academic life for literature and politics).
+In this seminar I was deeply impressed by his judicious and often
+judicial quality. His range of intellectual experience, his profound
+cultivation in literature, in science and in art (has there been in our
+generation a more cultivated man?), his absolutely unfettered and
+untrammeled mind, ready to do sympathetic justice to the most
+unaccredited, audacious, or despised hypotheses, yet always keeping his
+own sense of proportion and the balance of evidence--merely to know
+these qualities, as we sat about that council-board, was to receive, so
+far as we were capable of absorbing it, in a heightened sense of the
+good old adjective, 'liberal' education. Of all the services he did us
+in this seminar perhaps the greatest was his running commentary on the
+students' reports on such authors as Lombroso and Nordau, and all
+theories of degeneracy and morbid human types. His thought was that
+there is no sharp line to be drawn between 'healthy' and 'unhealthy'
+minds, that all have something of both. Once when we were returning from
+two insane asylums which he had arranged for the class to visit, and at
+one of which we had seen a dangerous, almost naked maniac, I remember
+his saying, 'President Eliot might not like to admit that there is no
+sharp line between himself and the men we have just seen, but it is
+true.' He would emphasize that people who had great nervous burdens to
+carry, hereditary perhaps, could order their lives fruitfully and
+perhaps derive some gain from their 'degenerate' sensitiveness, whatever
+it might be. The doctrine is set forth with regard to religion in an
+early chapter of his 'Varieties of Religious Experience,' but for us it
+was applied to life at large.
+
+"In private conversation he had a mastery of words, a voice, a vigor, a
+freedom, a dignity, and therefore what one might call an authority, in
+which he stood quite alone. Yet brilliant man as he was, he never quite
+outgrew a perceptible shyness or diffidence in the lecture-room, which
+showed sometimes in a heightened color. Going to lecture in one of the
+last courses he ever gave at Harvard, he said to a colleague whom he met
+on the way, 'I have lectured so and so many years, and yet here am I on
+the way to my class in trepidation!'
+
+"Professor Royce's style of exposition was continuous, even, unfailing,
+composed. Professor James was more conversational, varied, broken, at
+times struggling for expression--in spite of what has been mentioned as
+his mastery of words. This was natural, for the one was deeply and
+comfortably installed in a theory (to be sure a great theory), and the
+other was peering out in quest of something greater which he did not
+distinctly see. James's method gave us in the classroom more of his own
+exploration and _aperçu_. We felt his mind at work.
+
+"Royce in lecturing sat immovable. James would rise with a peculiar
+suddenness and make bold and rapid strokes for a diagram on the
+black-board--I can remember his abstracted air as he wrestled with some
+idea, standing by his chair with one foot upon it, elbow on knee, hand
+to chin. A friend has described a scene at a little class that, in a
+still earlier year, met in James's own study. In the effort to
+illustrate he brought out a black-board. He stood it on a chair and in
+various other positions, but could not at once write upon it, hold it
+steady, and keep it in the class's vision. Entirely bent on what he was
+doing, his efforts resulted at last in his standing it on the floor
+while he lay down at full length, holding it with one hand, drawing with
+the other, and continuing the flow of his commentary. I can myself
+remember how, after one of his lectures on Pragmatism in the Horace Mann
+Auditorium in New York, being assailed with questions by people who came
+up to the edge of the platform, he ended by sitting on that edge
+himself, all in his frock-coat as he was, his feet hanging down, with
+his usual complete absorption in the subject, and the look of human and
+mellow consideration which distinguished him at such moments, meeting
+the thoughts of the inquirers, whose attention also was entirely
+riveted. If this suggests a lack of dignity, it misleads, for dignity
+never forsook him, such was the inherent strength of tone and bearing.
+In one respect these particular lectures (afterwards published as his
+book on Pragmatism) stand alone in my recollection. An audience may
+easily be large the first time, but if there is a change it usually
+falls away more or less on the subsequent occasions. These lectures were
+announced for one of the larger lecture-halls. This was so crowded
+before the lecture began, some not being able to gain admittance, that
+the audience had to be asked to move to the large 'auditorium' I have
+mentioned. But in it also the numbers grew, till on the last day it
+presented much the same appearance as the other hall on the first."
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Nov._ 19, 1893.
+
+MY DEAR MILLER,--I have found the work of recommencing teaching
+unexpectedly formidable after our year of gentlemanly irresponsibility.
+I seem to have forgotten everything, especially psychology, and the
+subjects themselves have become so paltry and insignificant-seeming that
+each lecture has appeared a ghastly farce. Of late things are getting
+more real; but the experience brings startlingly near to one the wild
+desert of old-age which lies ahead, and makes me feel like impressing on
+all chicken-professors like you the paramount urgency of providing for
+the time when you'll be old fogies, by laying by from your very first
+year of service a fund on which you may be enabled to "retire" before
+you're sixty and incapable of any cognitive operation that wasn't ground
+into you twenty years before, or of any emotion save bewilderment and
+jealousy of the thinkers of the rising generation.
+
+I am glad to hear that you have more writings on the stocks. I read your
+paper on "Truth and Error" with bewilderment and jealousy. Either it is
+Dr. Johnson _redivivus_ striking the earth with his stick and saying,
+"Matter exists and there's an end on 't," or it is a new David Hume,
+reincarnated in your form, and so subtle in his simplicity that a
+decaying mind like mine fails to seize any of the deeper import of his
+words. The trouble is, I can't tell which it is. But with the help of
+God I will go at it again this winter, when I settle down to my final
+bout with Royce's theory, which must result in my either _actively_
+becoming a propagator thereof, or actively its enemy and destroyer. It
+is high time that this more decisive attitude were generated in me, and
+it ought to take place this winter.
+
+I hardly see more of my colleagues this winter than I did last year.
+Each of us lies in his burrow, and we meet on the street. Münsterberg is
+going really _splendidly_ and the Laboratory is a bower of delight. But
+I do not work there. Royce is in powerful condition.... Yours ever,
+
+W. J.
+
+Although, in the next letter, James poked fun at reformed spelling, he
+was really in sympathy with the movement to which his correspondent was
+giving an outspoken support--as Mr. Holt of course understood. "Isn't it
+abominable"--Professor Palmer has quoted James as exclaiming--"that
+everybody is expected to spell the same way!" He lent his name to Mr.
+Carnegie's simplified spelling program, and used to wax honestly
+indignant when people opposed spelling reform with purely conservative
+arguments. He cared little about etymology, and saw clearly enough that
+mere accident and fashion have helped to determine orthography. But in
+his own writing he never put himself to great pains to reëducate his
+reflexes. He let his hand write _through_ as often as _thro'_ or _thru_,
+and only occasionally bethought him to write 'filosofy' and 'telefone.'
+When he published, the text of his books showed very few reforms.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry Holt._
+
+
+Cambridge, _March_ 27[1894].
+
+_Autographically written, and spelt spontaneously._
+
+DEAR HOLT,--The Introduction to filosofy is what I ment--I dont no the
+other book.
+
+I will try Nordau's Entartung this summer--as a rule however it duzn't
+profit me to read Jeremiads against evil--the example of a little good
+has more effect.
+
+A propo of kitchen ranges, I wish you wood remoov your recommendation
+from that Boynton Furnace Company's affair. We have struggld with it for
+five years--lost 2 cooks in consequens--burnt countless tons of extra
+coal, never had anything decently baikt, and now, having got rid of it
+for 15 dollars, are having a happy kitchen for the 1st time in our
+experience--all through your unprinsipld recommendation! You ought to
+hear my wife sware when she hears your name!
+
+I will try about a translator for Nordau--though the only man I can
+think of needs munny more than fame, and coodn't do the job for pure
+love of the publisher or author, or on an unsertainty.
+
+Yours affectionately,
+WILLIAM JAMES.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James_.
+
+
+PRINCETON, _Dec. 29, 1894_.
+
+DEAR H.,--I have been here for three days at my co-psychologist
+Baldwin's house, presiding over a meeting of the American Association of
+Psychologists, which has proved a very solid and successful affair.[3]
+Strange to say, we are getting to be veterans, and the brunt of the
+discussions was borne by former students of mine. It is a very healthy
+movement. Alice is with me, the weather is frosty clear and cold,
+touching zero this A.M. and the country robed in snow. Princeton is a
+beautiful place....
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 26, 1895_.
+
+...I have been reading Balfour's "Foundations of Belief" with immense
+gusto. It almost makes me a Liberal-Unionist! If I mistake not, it will
+have a profound effect eventually, and it is a pleasure to see old
+England coming to the fore every time with some big stroke. There is
+more real philosophy in such a book than in fifty German ones of which
+the eminence consists in heaping up subtleties and technicalities about
+the subject. The English genius makes the vitals plain by scuffing the
+technicalities away. B. is a great man....
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. Henry Whitman._
+
+
+SPRINGFIELD CENTRE, N.Y., _June 16, 1895_.
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,--About the 22nd! I will come if you command it; but
+reflect on my situation ere you do so. Just reviving from the addled and
+corrupted condition in which the Cambridge year has left me; just at the
+portals of that Adirondack wilderness for the breath of which I have
+sighed for years, unable to escape the cares of domesticity and get
+there; just about to get a little health into me, a little
+simplification and solidification and purification and sanification--things
+which will never come again if this one chance be lost; just filled to
+satiety with all the simpering conventions and vacuous excitements of
+so-called civilization; hungering for their opposite, the smell of the
+spruce, the feel of the moss, the sound of the cataract, the bath in its
+waters, the divine outlook from the cliff or hill-top over the unbroken
+forest--oh, Madam, Madam! do you know what medicinal things you ask me
+to give up? Alas!
+
+I aspire downwards, and really _am_ nothing, _not becoming_ a savage as
+I would be, and failing to be the civilizee that I really ought to be
+content with being! But I wish that _you_ also aspired to the
+wilderness. There are some nooks and summits in that Adirondack region
+where one can really "recline on one's divine composure," and, as long
+as one stays up there, seem for a while to enjoy one's birth-right of
+freedom and relief from every fever and falsity. Stretched out on such a
+shelf,--with thee beside me singing in the wilderness,--what babblings
+might go on, what judgment-day discourse!
+
+Command me to give it up and return, if you will, by telegram addressed
+"Adirondack Lodge, North Elba, N.Y." In any case I shall return before
+the end of the month, and later shall be hanging about Cambridge some
+time in July, giving lectures (for my sins) in the Summer School. I am
+staying now with a cousin on Otsego Lake, a dear old country-place that
+has been in their family for a century, and is rich and ample and
+reposeful. The Kipling visit went off splendidly--he's a regular little
+brick of a man; but it's strange that with so much sympathy with the
+insides of every living thing, brute or human, drunk or sober, he
+should have so little sympathy with those of a Yankee--who also is, in
+the last analysis, one of God's creatures. I have stopped at
+Williamstown, at Albany, at Amsterdam, at Utica, at Syracuse, and
+finally here, each time to visit human beings with whom I had business
+of some sort or other. The best was Benj. Paul Blood at Amsterdam, a son
+of the soil, but a man with extraordinary power over the English tongue,
+of whom I will tell you more some day. I will by the way enclose some
+clippings from his latest "effort." "Yes, Paul is quite a
+_correspondent_!" as a citizen remarked to me from whom I inquired the
+way to his dwelling. Don't you think "correspondent" rather a good
+generic term for "man of letters," from the point of view of the
+country-town newspaper reader?...
+
+Now, dear, noble, incredibly perfect Madam, you won't take ill my
+reluctance about going to Beverly, even to your abode, so soon. I am a
+badly mixed critter, and I experience a certain organic need for
+simplification and solitude that is quite imperious, and so vital as
+actually to be respectable even by others. So be indulgent to your ever
+faithful and worshipful,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To G. H. Howison._
+
+Cambridge, _July 17, 1895_.
+
+MY DEAR HOWISON,--How you _have_ misunderstood the application of my
+word "trivial" as being discriminatively applied to your pluralistic
+idealism! Quite the reverse--if there be a philosophy that I believe in,
+it's that. The word came out of one who is unfit to be a philosopher
+because at bottom he hates philosophy, especially at the beginning of a
+vacation, with the fragrance of the spruces and sweet ferns all soaking
+him through with the conviction that it is better to _be_ than to define
+your being. I am a victim of neurasthenia and of the sense of hollowness
+and unreality that goes with it. And philosophic literature _will_ often
+seem to me the hollowest thing. My word trivial was a general reflection
+exhaling from this mood, vile indeed in a supposed professor. Where it
+will end with me, I do not know. I wish I could give it all up. But
+perhaps it is a grand climacteric and will pass away. At present I am
+philosophizing as little as possible, in order to do it the better next
+year, if I can do it at all. And I envy you your stalwart and steadfast
+enthusiasm and faith. Always devotedly yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+GLENWOOD SPRINGS,
+COLORADO, _Aug. 13, 1895_.
+
+MY DEAR FLOURNOY,--Ever since last January an envelope addressed to you
+has been lying before my eyes on my library table. I mention this to
+assure you that you have not been absent from my thoughts; but I will
+waste no time or paper in making excuses. As the sage Emerson says, when
+you visit a man do not degrade the occasion with apologies for not
+having visited him before. Visit him now! Make him feel that the highest
+truth has come to see him in you its lowliest organ. I don't know about
+the highest truth transpiring through this letter, but I feel as if
+there were plenty of affection and personal gossip to express
+themselves. To begin with, your photograph and Mrs. Flournoy's were
+splendid. What we need now is the photographs of those fair
+_demoiselles_! I may say that one reason of my long silence has been the
+hope that when I wrote I should have my wife's photograph to send you.
+But alas! it has not been taken yet. She is well, very well, and is now
+in our little New Hampshire country-place with the children, living very
+quietly and happily. We have had a rather large _train de maison_
+hitherto, and this summer we are shrunken to our bare essentials--a very
+pleasant change.
+
+I, you see, am farther away from home than I have ever been before on
+this side of the Atlantic, namely, in the state of Colorado, and just
+now in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. I have been giving a course of
+six lectures on psychology "for teachers" at a so-called "summer-school"
+in Colorado Springs. I had to remain for three nights and three days in
+the train to get there, and it has made me understand the vastness of my
+dear native land better than I ever did before.... The trouble with all
+this new civilization is that it is based, not on saving, but on
+borrowing; and when hard times come, as they did come three years ago,
+everyone goes bankrupt. But the vision of the future, the dreams of the
+possible, keep everyone enthusiastic, and so the work goes on. Such
+conditions have never existed before on so enormous a scale. But I must
+not write you a treatise on national economy!--I got through the year
+very well in regard to health, and gave in the course of it, what I had
+never done before, a number of lectures to teachers in Boston and New
+York. I also repeated my course in Cosmology in the new woman's College
+which has lately been established in connection with our University. The
+consequence is that I laid by more than a thousand dollars, an
+absolutely new and proportionately pleasant experience for me. To make
+up for it, I haven't had an idea or written anything to speak of except
+the "presidential address" which I sent you, and which really contained
+nothing new....
+
+And now is not that enough gossip about ourselves? I wish I could, by
+telephone, at this moment, hear just where and how you all are, and what
+you are all doing. In the mountains somewhere, of course, and I trust
+all well; but it is perhaps fifteen or twenty years too soon for
+transatlantic telephone. My surroundings here, so much like those of
+Switzerland, bring you before me in a lively manner. I enclose a picture
+of one of the streets at Colorado Springs for Madame Flournoy, and
+another one of a "cowboy" for that one of the _demoiselles_ who is most
+_romanesque_. Alice, Blanche--but I have actually gone and been and
+forgotten the name of the magnificent third one, whose resplendent face
+I so well remember notwithstanding. _Dulcissima mundi nomina_, all of
+them; and I do hope that they are being educated in a thoroughly
+emancipated way, just like true American girls, with no laws except
+those imposed by their own sense of fitness. I am sure it produces the
+best results! How did the teaching go last year? I mean your own
+teaching. Have you started any new lines? And how is Chantre? and how
+Ritter? And how Monsieur Gowd? Please give my best regards to all round,
+especially to Ritter. Have you a copy left of your "Métaphysique et
+Psychologie"? In some inscrutable way my copy has disappeared, and the
+book is reported _épuisé_.
+
+With warmest possible regards to both of you, and to all five of the
+descendants, believe me ever faithfully yours,
+
+W. JAMES.
+
+
+
+
+_To his Daughter._
+
+
+EL PASO, COLO., _Aug. 8, 1895_.
+
+SWEETEST OF LIVING Pegs,--Your letter made glad my heart the day before
+yesterday, and I marveled to see what an improvement had come over your
+handwriting in the short space of six weeks. "Orphly" and "ofly" are
+good ways to spell "awfully," too. I went up a high mountain yesterday
+and saw all the kingdoms of the world spread out before me, on the
+illimitable prairie which looked like a map. The sky glowed and made the
+earth look like a stained-glass window. The mountains are bright red.
+All the flowers and plants are different from those at home. There is an
+immense mastiff in my house here. I think that even you would like him,
+he is so tender and gentle and mild, although fully as big as a calf.
+His ears and face are black, his eyes are yellow, his paws are
+magnificent, his tail keeps wagging _all_ the time, and he makes on me
+the impression of an angel hid in a cloud. He longs to do good.
+
+I must now go and hear two other men lecture. Many kisses, also to
+Tweedy, from your ever loving,
+
+DAD.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+On December 17, 1895, President Cleveland's Venezuela message startled
+the world and created a situation with which the next three letters are
+concerned. The boundary dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana had
+been dragging along for years. The public had no reason to suppose that
+it was becoming acute, or that the United States was particularly
+interested in it, and had, in fact, not been giving the matter so much
+as a thought. All at once the President sent a message to Congress in
+which he announced that it was incumbent upon the United States to "take
+measures to determine ... the true" boundary line, and then to "resist
+by every means in its power as a willful aggression upon its rights and
+interests" any appropriation by Great Britain of territory not thus
+determined to be hers. In addition he sent to Congress, and thus
+published, the diplomatic despatches which had already passed between
+Mr. Olney and Lord Salisbury. In these Mr. Olney had informed the
+representative of the Empire which was sovereign in British Guiana "that
+distance and three thousand miles of intervening ocean make any
+permanent political union between a European and an American state
+unnatural and inexpedient," and that "today the United States is
+practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the
+subjects to which it confines its interposition." Lord Salisbury had
+squarely declined to concede that the United States could, of its own
+initiative, assume to settle the boundary dispute. It was difficult to
+see how either Great Britain or the United States could with dignity
+alter the position which its minister had assumed.
+
+James was a warm admirer of the President, but this seemingly wanton
+provocation of a friendly nation horrified him. He considered that no
+blunder in statesmanship could be more dangerous than a premature appeal
+to a people's fighting pride, and that no perils inherent in the
+Venezuela boundary dispute were as grave as was the danger that popular
+explosions on one or both sides of the Atlantic would make it impossible
+for the two governments to proceed moderately. He was appalled at the
+outburst of Anglophobia and war-talk which followed the message. The
+war-cloud hung in the heavens for several weeks. Then, suddenly, a
+breeze from a strange quarter relieved the atmosphere. The Jameson raid
+occurred in Africa, and the Kaiser sent his famous message to President
+Kruger.[4] The English press turned its fire upon the Kaiser. The
+world's attention was diverted from Venezuela, and the boundary dispute
+was quietly and amicably disposed of.
+
+
+
+
+_To E. L. Godkin._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Christmas Eve [1895]_.
+
+DARLING OLD GODKIN,--The only Christmas present I can send you is a word
+of thanks and a _bravo bravissimo_ for your glorious fight against the
+powers of darkness. I swear it brings back the days of '61 again, when
+the worst enemies of our country were in our own borders. But now that
+defervescence has set in, and the long, long campaign of discussion and
+education is about to begin, you will have to bear the leading part in
+it, and I beseech you to be as non-expletive and patiently explanatory
+as you can, for thus will you be the more effective. Father, forgive
+them for they know not what they do! The insincere propaganda of
+jingoism as a mere weapon of attack on the President was diabolic. But
+in the rally of the country to the President's message lay that instinct
+of obedience to leaders which is the prime condition of all effective
+greatness in a nation. And after all, when one thinks that the only
+England most Americans are taught to conceive of is the bugaboo
+coward-England, ready to invade the Globe wherever there is no danger,
+the rally does not necessarily show savagery, but only ignorance. We are
+all ready to be savage in _some_ cause. The difference between a good
+man and a bad one is the choice of the cause.
+
+Two things are, however, _désormais_ certain: Three days of fighting
+mob-hysteria at Washington can at any time undo peace habits of a
+hundred years; and the only permanent safeguard against irrational
+explosions of the fighting instinct is absence of armament and
+opportunity. Since this country has absolutely nothing to fear, or any
+other country anything to gain from its invasion, it seems to me that
+the party of civilization ought immediately, at any cost of discredit,
+to begin to agitate against any increase of either army, navy, or coast
+defense. That is the one form of protection against the internal enemy
+on which we can most rely. We live and learn: the labor of civilizing
+ourselves is for the next thirty years going to be complicated with this
+other abominable new issue of which the seed was sown last week. _You_
+saw the new kind of danger, as you always do, before anyone else; but it
+grew gigantic much more suddenly than even you conceived to be possible.
+Olney's Jefferson Brick style makes of our Foreign Office a
+laughing-stock, of course. But why, oh why, couldn't he and Cleveland
+and Congress between them have left out the infernal war-threat and
+simply asked for $100,000 for a judicial commission to enable us to see
+exactly to what effect we ought, in justice, to exert our influence.
+That commission, if its decision were adverse, would have put England
+"in a hole," awakened allies for us in all countries, been a solemn step
+forward in the line of national righteousness, covered us with dignity,
+and all the rest. But no--_omnia ademit una dies infesta tibi tot præmia
+vitæ!_--Still, the campaign of education may raise us out of it all yet.
+Distrust of each other must not be suffered to go too far, for that way
+lies destruction.
+
+Dear old Godkin--I don't know whether you will have read more than the
+first page--I didn't expect to write more than one and a half, but the
+steam will work off. I haven't slept right for a week.
+
+I have just given my Harry, now a freshman, your "Comments and
+Reflections," and have been renewing my youth in some of its admirable
+pages. But why the dickens did you leave out some of the most delectable
+of the old sentences in the cottager and boarder essay?[5]
+
+Don't curse God and die, dear old fellow. Live and be patient and fight
+for us a long time yet in this new war. Best regards to Mrs. Godkin and
+to Lawrence, and a merry Christmas. Yours ever affectionately,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. W. H. Myers._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Jan. 1, 1896_.
+
+MY DEAR MYERS,--Here is a happy New Year to you with my presidential
+address for a gift.[6] _Valeat quantum._ The end could have been
+expanded, but probably this is enough to set the S. P. R. against a
+lofty _Kultur-historisch_ background; and where we have to do so much
+champing of the jaws on minute details of cases, that seems to me a good
+point in a president's address.
+
+In the first half, it has just come over me that what I say of one line
+of fact being "strengthened in the flank" by another is an "uprush" from
+my subliminal memory of words of Gurney's--but that does no harm....
+
+Well, our countries will soon be soaked in each other's gore. You will
+be disemboweling me, and Hodgson cleaving Lodge's skull. It will be a
+war of extermination when it comes, for neither side can tell when it is
+beaten, and the last man will bury the penultimate one, and then die
+himself. The French will then occupy England and the Spaniards America.
+Both will unite against the Germans, and no one can foretell the end.
+
+But seriously, all true patriots here have had a hell of a time. It has
+been a most instructive thing for the dispassionate student of history
+to see how near the surface in all of us the old fighting instinct lies,
+and how slight an appeal will wake it up. Once _really_ waked, there is
+no retreat. So the whole wisdom of governors should be to avoid the
+direct appeals. This your European governments know; but we in our
+bottomless innocence and ignorance over here know nothing, and Cleveland
+in my opinion, by his explicit allusion to war, has committed the
+biggest political crime I have ever seen here. The secession of the
+southern states had more excuse. There was absolutely no need of it. A
+commission solemnly appointed to pronounce justice in the Venezuela case
+would, if its decision were adverse to your country, have doubtless
+aroused the Liberal party in England to espouse the policy of
+arbitrating, and would have covered us with dignity, if no threat of war
+had been uttered. But as it is, who can see the way out?
+
+Every one goes about now saying war is not to be. But with these
+volcanic forces who can tell? I suppose that the offices of Germany or
+Italy might in any case, however, save us from what would be the worst
+disaster to civilization that our time could bring forth.
+
+The astounding thing is the latent Anglophobia now revealed. It is most
+of it directly traceable to the diabolic machinations of the party of
+protection for the past twenty years. They have lived by every sort of
+infamous sophistication, and hatred of England has been one of their
+most conspicuous notes....
+
+I hope _you'll_ read my address--unless indeed Gladstone will consent!!
+
+Ever thine--I hate to think of "embruing" my hands in (or with?) your
+blood.
+
+W. J.
+
+[S. P. R.] _Proceedings XXIX_ just in--hurrah for your 200-odd pages!
+
+I have been ultra non-committal as to our evidence,--thinking it to be
+good presidential policy,--but I may have overdone the impartiality
+business.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. W. H. Myers._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb. 5, 1896_.
+
+DEAR MYERS,--_Voici_ the proof! Pray _send me a revise_--Cattell wants
+to print it simultaneously _in extenso_ in "Science," which I judge to
+be a very good piece of luck for it. When will the next "Proceedings" be
+likely to appear?
+
+I hope your rich tones were those that rolled off its periods, and that
+you didn't flinch, but rather raised your voice, when your own genius
+was mentioned. I read it both in New York and Boston to full houses, but
+heard no comments on the spot....
+
+As for Venezuela, Ach! of that be silent! as Carlyle would have said. It
+is a sickening business, but some good may come out of it yet. Don't
+feel too badly about the Anglophobia here. It doesn't mean so much.
+Remember by what words the country was roused: "Supine submission to
+wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and
+honor."[7] If any other country's ruler had expressed himself with equal
+moral ponderosity wouldn't the population have gone twice as
+fighting-mad as ours? Of course it would; the wolf would have been
+aroused; and when the wolf once gets going, we know that there is no
+crime of which it doesn't sincerely begin to believe its oppressor, the
+lamb down-stream, to be guilty. The great proof that civilization _does_
+move, however, is the magnificent conduct of the British press. Yours
+everlastingly,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry Holt, Esq._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Jan. 19, 1896_.
+
+MY DEAR HOLT,--At the risk of displeasing you, I think I won't have my
+photograph taken, even at no cost to myself. I abhor this hawking about
+of everybody's phiz which is growing on every hand, and don't see why
+having written a book should expose one to it. I am sorry that you
+should have succumbed to the supposed trade necessity. In any case, I
+will stand on my rights as a free man. You may kill me, but you shan't
+publish my photograph. Put a blank "thumbnail" in its place. Very very
+sorry to displease a man whom I love so much. Always lovingly yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To his Class at Radcliffe College which had sent a potted azalea to
+him at Easter._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 6, 1896_.
+
+DEAR YOUNG LADIES,--I am deeply touched by your remembrance. It is the
+first time anyone ever treated me so kindly, so you may well believe
+that the impression on the heart of the lonely sufferer will be even
+more durable than the impression on your minds of all the teachings of
+Philosophy 2A. I now perceive one immense omission in my
+Psychology,--the deepest principle of Human Nature is the _craving to be
+appreciated_, and I left it out altogether from the book, because I had
+never had it gratified till now. I fear you have let loose a demon in
+me, and that all my actions will now be for the sake of such rewards.
+However, I will try to be faithful to this one unique and beautiful
+azalea tree, the pride of my life and delight of my existence. Winter
+and summer will I tend and water it--even with my tears. Mrs. James
+shall never go near it or touch it. If it dies, I will die too; and if I
+die, it shall be planted on my grave.
+
+Don't take all this too jocosely, but believe in the extreme pleasure
+you have caused me, and in the affectionate feelings with which I am and
+shall always be faithfully your friend,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+[Cambridge] _Apr. 17, 1896_.
+
+DEAR H.,--Too busy to live almost, lectures and laboratory, dentists and
+dinner-parties, so that I am much played out, but get off today for
+eight days' vacation _via_ New Haven, where I deliver an "address"
+tonight, to the Yale Philosophy Club. I shall make it the title of a
+small volume of collected things called "The Will to Believe, and Other
+Essays in Popular Philosophy," and then I think write no more addresses,
+of which the form takes it out of one unduly. If I do anything more, it
+will be a book on general Philosophy. I have been having a bad
+conscience about not writing to you, when your letter of the 7th came
+yesterday expressing a bad conscience of your own. You certainly do your
+duty best. I am glad to think of you in the country and hope it will
+succeed with you and make you thrive. I look forward with much
+excitement to the fruit of all this work.... Just a word of good-will
+and good wish. I think I shall go to the Hot Springs of Virginia for
+next week. The spring has burst upon us, hot and droughtily, after a
+glorious burly winter-playing March. Yours ever,
+
+W. J.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The next letter begins by acknowledging one which had alluded to the
+death of a Cambridge gentleman who had been run over in the street,
+almost under William James's eyes. Henry James had closed his allusion
+by exclaiming, "What melancholy, what terrible duties _vous incombent_
+when your neighbours are destroyed. And telling that poor man's
+wife!--Life _is_ heroic--however we 'fix' it! Even as I write these
+words the St. Louis horror bursts in upon me in the evening paper.
+Inconceivable--I can't try; and I _won't_. Strange how practically all
+one's sense of news from the U. S. here is huge Horrors and
+Catastrophes. It's a terrible country _not_ to live in." He would have
+exclaimed even more if he had witnessed the mescal experiment, that is
+briefly mentioned in the letter that follows. He might then have gone on
+to remark that the "fixing" of life seemed, in William's neighborhood,
+to be quite gratuitously heroic. William James and his wife and the
+youngest child were alone in the Chocorua cottage for a few days,
+picnicking by themselves without any servant. They had no horse; at that
+season of the year hours often went by without any one passing the
+house; there was no telephone, no neighbor within a mile, no good doctor
+within eighteen miles. It was quite characteristic of James that he
+should think such conditions ideal for testing an unknown drug on
+himself. There would be no interruptions. He had no fear. He was
+impatient to satisfy his curiosity about the promised hallucinations of
+color. But the effects of one dose were, for a while, much more alarming
+than his letter would give one to understand.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _June 11, 1896_.
+
+Your long letter of Whitsuntide week in London came yesterday evening,
+and was read by me aloud to Alice and Harry as we sat at tea in the
+window to get the last rays of the Sunday's [sun]. You have too much
+feeling of duty about corresponding with us, and, I imagine, with
+everyone. I think you have behaved most handsomely of late--and always,
+and though your letters are the great _fête_ of our lives, I won't be
+"on your mind" for worlds. Your general feeling of unfulfilled
+obligations is one that runs in the family--I at least am often
+afflicted by it--but it is "morbid." The horrors of _not_ living in
+America, as you so well put it, are not shared by those who do live
+here. All that the telegraph imparts are the shocks; the "happy homes,"
+good husbands and fathers, fine weather, honest business men, neat new
+houses, punctual meetings of engagements, etc., of which the country
+mainly consists, are never cabled over. Of course, the Saint Louis
+disaster is dreadful, but it will very likely end by "improving" the
+city. The really bad thing here is the silly wave that has gone over the
+public mind--protection humbug, silver, jingoism, etc. It is a case of
+"mob-psychology." Any country is liable to it if circumstances conspire,
+and our circumstances have conspired. It is very hard to get them out of
+the rut. It _may_ take another financial crash to get them out--which,
+of course, will be an expensive method. It is no more foolish and
+considerably less damnable than the Russophobia of England, which would
+seem to have been responsible for the Armenian massacres. That to me is
+the biggest indictment "of our boasted civilization"!! It _requires_
+England, I say nothing of the other powers, to maintain the Turks at
+that business. We have let our little place, our tenant arrives the day
+after tomorrow, and Alice and I and Tweedie have been here a week
+enjoying it and cleaning house and place. She has worked like a beaver.
+I had two days spoiled by a psychological experiment with _mescal_, an
+intoxicant used by some of our Southwestern Indians in their religious
+ceremonies, a sort of cactus bud, of which the U. S. Government had
+distributed a supply to certain medical men, including Weir Mitchell,
+who sent me some to try. He had himself been "in fairyland." It gives
+the most glorious visions of color--every object thought of appears in a
+jeweled splendor unknown to the natural world. It disturbs the stomach
+somewhat, but that, according to W. M., was a cheap price, etc. I took
+one bud three days ago, was violently sick for 24 hours, and had no
+other symptom whatever except that and the _Katzenjammer_ the following
+day. I will take the visions on trust!
+
+We have had three days of delicious rain--it all soaks into the sandy
+soil here and leaves no mud whatever. The little place is the most
+curious mixture of sadness with delight. The sadness of _things_--things
+every one of which was done either by our hands or by our planning, old
+furniture renovated, there isn't an object in the house that isn't
+associated with past life, old summers, dead people, people who will
+never come again, etc., and the way it catches you round the heart when
+you first come and open the house from its long winter sleep is most
+extraordinary.
+
+I have been reading Bourget's "Idylle Tragique," which he very kindly
+sent me, and since then have been reading in Tolstoy's "War and Peace,"
+which I never read before, strange to say. I must say that T. rather
+kills B., for my mind. B.'s moral atmosphere is anyhow so foreign to me,
+a lewdness so obligatory that it hardly seems as if it were part of a
+moral _donnée_ at all; and then his overlabored descriptions, and
+excessive explanations. But with it all an earnestness and enthusiasm
+for getting it said as well as possible, a richness of epithet, and a
+warmth of heart that makes you like him, in spite of the unmanliness of
+all the things he writes about. I suppose there is a stratum in France
+to whom it is all manly and ideal, but he and I are, as Rosina says, a
+bad combination....
+
+Tolstoy is immense!
+
+I am glad _you_ are in a writing vein again, to go still higher up the
+scale! I have abstained on principle from the "Atlantic" serial, wishing
+to get it all at once. I am not going abroad; I can't afford it. I have
+a chance to give $1500 worth of summer lectures here, which won't recur.
+I have a heavy year of work next year, and shall very likely _need_ to
+go the following summer, which will anyhow be after a more becoming
+interval than this, so, _somme toute_, it is postponed. If I went I
+should certainly enjoy seeing you at Rye more than in London, which I
+confess tempts me little now. I love to _see_ it, but staying there
+doesn't seem to agree with me, and only suggests constraint and
+money-spending, apart from seeing you. I wish you could see how
+comfortable our Cambridge house has got at last to be. Alice who is
+upstairs sewing whilst I write below by the lamp--a great wood fire
+hissing in the fireplace--sings out her thanks and love to you....
+
+
+
+
+_To Benjamin Paul Blood._
+
+
+CHATHAM, MASS., _June 28, 1896_.
+
+MY DEAR BLOOD,--Your letter was an "event," as anything always is from
+your pen--though of course I never expected any acknowledgment of my
+booklet. Fear of life in one form or other is the great thing to
+exorcise; but it isn't reason that will ever do it. Impulse without
+reason is enough, and reason without impulse is a poor makeshift. I take
+it that no man is educated who has never dallied with the thought of
+suicide. Barely more than a year ago I was sitting at your table and
+dallying with the thought of publishing an anthology of your works. But,
+like many other projects, it has been postponed in indefinition. The
+hour never came last year, and pretty surely will not come next.
+Nevertheless I shall work for your fame some time! Count on W. J.[8] I
+wound up my "seminary" in speculative psychology a month ago by reading
+some passages from the "Flaw in Supremacy"--"game flavored as a hawk's
+wing." "Ever not quite" covers a deal of truth--yet it seems a very
+simple thing to have said. "There is no _Absolute_" were my last words.
+Whereupon a number of students asked where they could get "that
+pamphlet" and I distributed nearly all the copies I had from you. I wish
+you would keep on writing, but I see you are a man of discontinuity and
+insights, and not a philosophic pack-horse, or pack-mule....
+
+I rejoice that ten hours a day of toil makes you feel so hearty. Verily
+Mr. Rindge says truly. He is a Cambridge boy, who made a fortune in
+California, and then gave a lot of public buildings to his native town.
+Unfortunately he insisted on bedecking them with "mottoes" of his own
+composition, and over the Manual Training School near my house one
+reads: "_Work is one of our greatest blessings. Every man should have an
+honest occupation_"--which, if not lapidary in style, is at least what
+my father once said. Swedenborg's writings were, viz., "insipid with
+veracity," as your case now again demonstrates. Have you read Tolstoy's
+"War and Peace"? I am just about finishing it. It is undoubtedly the
+greatest novel ever written--also insipid with veracity. The man is
+infallible--and the anesthetic revelation[9] plays a part as in no
+writer. You have very likely read it. If you haven't, sell all you have
+and buy the book, for I know it will speak to your very gizzard. Pray
+thank Mrs. Blood for her appreciation of my "booklet" (such things
+encourage a writer!), and believe me ever sincerely yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+In July, 1896, James delivered, in Buffalo and at the Chautauqua
+Assembly, the substance of the lectures that were later published as
+"Talks to Teachers." His impressions of Chautauqua were so
+characteristic and so lively that they must be included here, even
+though they duplicate in some measure a well-known passage in the essay
+called "A Certain Blindness in Human Beings."
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. James._
+
+
+CHAUTAUQUA, _July 23, 1896_.
+
+...The audience is some 500, in an open-air auditorium where (strange to
+say) everyone seems to hear well; and it is very good-looking--mostly
+teachers and women, but they make the best impression of any audience of
+that sort that I have seen except the Brooklyn one. So here I go
+again!...
+
+
+_July 24_, 9.30 P.M.
+
+...X---- departed after breakfast--a good inarticulate man, farmer's
+boy, four years soldier from private to major, business man in various
+States, great reader, editor of a "Handbook of Facts," full of swelling
+and bursting _Weltschmerz_ and religious melancholy, yet no more
+flexibility or self-power in his mind than in a boot-jack. Altogether,
+what with the teachers, him and others whom I've met, I'm put in conceit
+of college training. It certainly gives glibness and flexibility, if it
+doesn't give earnestness and depth. I've been meeting minds so earnest
+and helpless that it takes them half an hour to get from one idea to its
+immediately adjacent next neighbor, and that with infinite creaking and
+groaning. And when they've got to the next idea, they lie down on it
+with their whole weight and can get no farther, like a cow on a
+door-mat, so that you can get neither in nor out with them. Still,
+glibness is not all. Weight is something, even cow-weight. Tolstoy feels
+these things so--I am still in "Anna Karenina," volume I, a book almost
+incredible and supernatural for veracity. I wish we were reading it
+aloud together. It has rained at intervals all day. Young Vincent, a
+powerful fellow, took me over and into the whole vast college side of
+the institution this A.M. I have heard 4-1/2 lectures, including the one
+I gave myself at 4 o'clock, to about 1200 or more in the vast open
+amphitheatre, which seats 6000 and which has very good acoustic
+properties. I think my voice sufficed. I can't judge of the effect. Of
+course I left out all that gossip about my medical degree, etc. But I
+don't want any more sporadic lecturing--I must stick to more inward
+things.
+
+
+_July 26_, 12:30 P.M.
+
+...'T is the sabbath and I am just in from the amphitheatre, where the
+Rev.---- has been chanting, calling and bellowing his
+hour-and-a-quarter-long sermon to 6000 people at least--a sad audition.
+The music was bully, a chorus of some 700, splendidly drilled, with the
+audience to help. I have myself been asked to lead, or, if not to lead,
+at least to do something prominent--I declined so quick that I didn't
+fully gather what it was--in the exercise which I have marked on the
+program I enclose. Young Vincent, whom I take to be a splendid young
+fellow, told me it was the characteristically "Chautauquan" event of the
+day. I would give anything to have you here. I didn't write yesterday
+because there is no mail till tomorrow. I went to four lectures, in
+whole or in part. All to hundreds of human beings, a large proportion
+unable to get seats, who transport themselves from one lecture-room to
+another _en masse_. One was on bread-making, with practical
+demonstrations. One was on _walking_, by a graceful young Delsartian,
+who showed us a lot. One was on telling stories to children, the
+psychology and pedagogy of it. The audiences interrupt and ask questions
+occasionally in spite of their size. There is hardly a pretty woman's
+face in the lot, and they seem to have little or no humor in their
+composition. No _epicureanism_ of any sort!
+
+Yesterday was a beautiful day, and I sailed an hour and a half down the
+Lake again to "Celoron," "America's greatest pleasure resort,"--in other
+words popcorn and peep-show place. A sort of Midway-Pleasance in the
+wilderness--supported Heaven knows how, so far from any human habitation
+except the odd little Jamestown from which a tramway leads to it. Good
+monkeys, bears, foxes, etc. Endless peanuts, popcorn, bananas, and soft
+drinks; crowds of people, a ferris wheel, a balloon ascension, with a
+man dropping by a parachute, a theatre, a vast concert hall, and all
+sorts of peep-shows. I feel as if I were in a foreign land; even as far
+east as this the accent of everyone is terrific. The "Nation" is no more
+known than the London "Times." I see no need of going to Europe when
+such wonders are close by. I breakfasted with a Methodist parson with 32
+false teeth, at the X's table, and discoursed of demoniacal possession.
+The wife said she had my portrait in her bedroom with the words written
+under it, "I want to bring a balm to human lives"!!!!! Supposed to be a
+quotation from me!!! After breakfast an extremely interesting lady who
+has suffered from half-possessional insanity gave me a long account of
+her case. Life _is_ heroic indeed, as Harry wrote. I shall stay through
+tomorrow, and get to Syracuse on Tuesday....
+
+
+_July 27._
+
+...It rained hard last night, and today a part of the time. I took a
+lesson in roasting, in Delsarte, and I made with my own fair hands a
+beautiful loaf of graham bread with some rolls, long, flute-like, and
+delicious. I should have sent them to you by express, only it seemed
+unnecessary, since I can keep the family in bread easily after my return
+home. Please tell this, with amplifications, to Peggy and Tweedy....
+
+
+BUFFALO, N.Y., _July 29_.
+
+...The Chautauqua week, or rather six and a half days, has been a real
+success. I have learned a lot, but I'm glad to get into something less
+blameless but more admiration-worthy. The flash of a pistol, a dagger,
+or a devilish eye, anything to break the unlovely level of 10,000 good
+people--a crime, murder, rape, elopement, anything would do. I don't see
+how the younger Vincents stand it, because they are people of such
+spirit....
+
+
+SYRACUSE, N.Y., _July 31_.
+
+...Now for Utica and Lake Placid by rail, with East Hill in prospect for
+tomorrow. You bet I rejoice at the outlook--I long to escape from
+tepidity. Even an Armenian massacre, whether to be killer or killed,
+would seem an agreeable change from the blamelessness of Chautauqua as
+she lies soaking year after year in her lakeside sun and showers. Man
+wants to be _stretched_ to his utmost, if not in one way then in
+another!...
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Rosina H. Emmet._
+
+
+BURLINGTON, VT., _Aug. 2, 1896_.
+
+...I have seen more women and less beauty, heard more voices and less
+sweetness, perceived more earnestness and less triumph than I ever
+supposed possible. Most of the American nation (and probably all
+nations) is white-trash,--but Tolstoy has borne me up--and I say unto
+_you_: "_Smooth out your voices_ if you want to be saved"!!...
+
+
+
+
+_To Charles Renouvier._
+
+
+BURLINGTON, VT., _Aug. 4, 1896_.
+
+DEAR MR. RENOUVIER,--My wife announces to me from Cambridge the
+reception of two immense volumes from you on the Philosophy of History.
+I thank you most heartily for the gift, and am more and more amazed at
+your intellectual and moral power--physical power, too, for the nervous
+energy required for your work has to be extremely great.
+
+My own nervous energy is a small teacup-full, and is more than consumed
+by my duties of teaching, so that almost none is left over for writing.
+I sent you a "New World" the other day, however, with an article in it
+called "The Will to Believe," in which (if you took the trouble to
+glance at it) you probably recognized how completely I am still your
+disciple. In this point perhaps more fully than in any other; and this
+point is central!
+
+I have to lecture on general "psychology" and "morbid psychology," "the
+philosophy of nature" and the "philosophy of Kant," thirteen lectures a
+week for half the year and eight for the rest. Our University moreover
+inflicts a monstrous amount of routine business on one, faculty meetings
+and committees of every sort,[10] so that during term-time one can do no
+continuous reading at all--reading of books, I mean. When vacation
+comes, my brain is so tired that I can read nothing serious for a month.
+During the past month I have only read Tolstoy's two great novels,
+which, strange to say, I had never attacked before. I don't like his
+fatalism and semi-pessimism, but for infallible veracity concerning
+human nature, and absolute simplicity of method, he makes all the other
+writers of novels and plays seem like children.
+
+All this proves that I shall be slow in attaining to the reading of your
+book. I have not yet read Pillon's last _Année_ except some of the book
+notices and Danriac's article. How admirably clear P. is in style, and
+what a power of reading he possesses.
+
+I hope, dear Mr. Renouvier, that the years are not weighing heavily upon
+you, and that this letter will find you well in body and in mind. Yours
+gratefully and faithfully,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+LAKE GENEVA, WISCONSIN, _Aug. 30, 1896_.
+
+MY DEAR FLOURNOY,--You see the electric current of sympathy that binds
+the world together--I turn towards you, and the place I write from
+repeats the name of your Lake Leman. I was informed yesterday, however,
+that the lake here was named after Lake Geneva _in the State of New
+York_! and _that_ Lake only has Leman for its Godmother. Still you see
+how dependent, whether immediately or remotely, America is on Europe. I
+was at Niagara some three weeks ago, and bought a photograph as souvenir
+and addressed it to you after getting back to Cambridge. Possibly Madame
+Flournoy will deign to accept it. I have thought of you a great deal
+without writing, for truly, my dear Flournoy, there is hardly a human
+being with whom I feel as much sympathy of aims and character, or feel
+as much "at home," as I do with you. It is as if we were of the same
+stock, and I often mentally turn and make a remark to you, which the
+pressure of life's occupations prevents from ever finding its way to
+paper.
+
+I am hoping that you may have figured, or at any rate _been_, at the
+Munich "Congress"--that apparently stupendous affair. If they keep
+growing at this rate, the next Paris one will be altogether too heavy. I
+have heard no details of the meeting as yet. But whether you have been
+at Munich or not, I trust that you have been having a salubrious and
+happy vacation so far, and that Mrs. Flournoy and the young people are
+all well. I will venture to suppose that your illness of last year has
+left no bad effects whatever behind. I myself have had a rather busy and
+instructive, though possibly not very hygienic summer, making money (in
+moderate amounts) by lecturing on psychology to teachers at different
+"summer schools" in this land. There is a great fermentation in
+"pædagogy" at present in the U.S., and my wares come in for their share
+of patronage. But although I learn a good deal and become a better
+American for having all the travel and social experience, it has ended
+by being too tiresome; and when I give the lectures at Chicago, which I
+begin tomorrow, I shall have them stenographed and very likely published
+in a very small volume, and so remove from myself the temptation ever to
+give them again.
+
+Last year was a year of hard work, and before the end of the term came,
+I was in a state of bad neurasthenic fatigue, but I got through
+outwardly all right. I have definitely given up the laboratory, for
+which I am more and more unfit, and shall probably devote what little
+ability I may hereafter have to purely "speculative" work. My inability
+to read troubles me a good deal: I am in arrears of several years with
+psychological literature, which, to tell the truth, does grow now at a
+pace too rapid for anyone to follow. I was engaged to review Stout's new
+book (which I fancy is very good) for "Mind," and after keeping it two
+months had to back out, from sheer inability to read it, and to ask
+permission to hand it over to my colleague Royce. Have you seen the
+colossal Renouvier's two vast volumes on the philosophy of
+history?--that will be another thing worth reading no doubt, yet very
+difficult to read. I give a course in Kant for the first time in my life
+(!) next year, and at present and for many months to come shall have to
+put most of my reading to the service of that overgrown subject....
+
+Of course you have read Tolstoy's "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina." I
+never had that exquisite felicity before this summer, and now I feel as
+if I knew _perfection_ in the representation of human life. Life indeed
+seems less real than his tale of it. Such infallible veracity! The
+impression haunts me as nothing literary ever haunted me before.
+
+I imagine you lounging on some steep mountainside, with those
+demoiselles all grown too tall and beautiful and proud to think
+otherwise than with disdain of their elderly _commensal_ who spoke such
+difficult French when he took walks with them at Vers-chez-les-Blanc.
+But I hope that they are happy as they were then. Cannot we all pass
+some summer near each other again, and can't it next time be in Tyrol
+rather than in Switzerland, for the purpose of increasing in all of us
+that "knowledge of the world" which is so desirable? I think it would be
+a splendid plan. At any rate, wherever you are, take my most
+affectionate regards for yourself and Madame Flournoy and all of yours,
+and believe me ever sincerely your friend,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+LAKE GENEVA, WISCONSIN, _Aug. 30, 1896_.
+
+DEAR MILLER,--Your letter from Halle of June 22nd came duly, but
+treating of things eternal as it did, I thought it called for no reply
+till I should have caught up with more temporal matters, of which there
+has been no lack to press on my attention. To tell the truth, regarding
+you as my most penetrating critic and intimate enemy, I was greatly
+relieved to find that you had nothing worse to say about "The Will to
+Believe." You say you are no "rationalist," and yet you speak of the
+"sharp" distinction between beliefs based on "inner evidence" and
+beliefs based on "craving." I can find _nothing_ sharp (or susceptible
+of schoolmaster's codification) in the different degrees of "liveliness"
+in hypotheses concerning the universe, or distinguish _a priori_ between
+legitimate and illegitimate cravings. And when an hypothesis _is_ once a
+live one, one _risks_ something in one's practical relations towards
+truth and error, _whichever_ of the three positions (affirmation, doubt,
+or negation) one may take up towards it. _The individual himself is the
+only rightful chooser of his risk._ Hence respectful toleration, as the
+only law that logic can lay down.
+
+You don't say a word against my _logic_, which seems to me to cover your
+cases entirely in its compartments. I class you as one to whom the
+religious hypothesis is _von vornherein_ so dead, that the risk of error
+in espousing it now far outweighs for you the chance of truth, so you
+simply stake your money on the field as against it. If you _say_ this,
+of course I can, as logician, have no quarrel with you, even though my
+own choice of risk (determined by the irrational impressions,
+suspicions, cravings, senses of direction in nature, or what not, that
+make religion for me a more live hypothesis than for you) leads me to an
+opposite methodical decision.
+
+Of course if any one comes along and says that men at large don't need
+to have facility of faith in their inner convictions preached to them,
+[that] they have only too much readiness in that way already, and the
+one thing needful to preach is that they should hesitate with their
+convictions, and take their faiths out for an airing into the howling
+wilderness of nature, I should also agree. But my paper wasn't addressed
+to mankind at large but to a limited set of studious persons, badly
+under the ban just now of certain authorities whose simple-minded faith
+in "naturalism" also is sorely in need of an airing--and an airing, as
+it seems to me, of the sort I tried to give.
+
+But all this is unimportant; and I still await criticism of my
+_Auseinandersetzung_ of the _logical situation_ of man's mind
+_gegenüber_ the Universe, in respect to the risks it runs.
+
+I wish I could have been with you at Munich and heard the deep-lunged
+Germans roar at each other. I care not for the matters uttered, if I
+only could hear the voice. I hope you met [Henry] Sidgwick there. I sent
+him the American Hallucination-Census results, after considerable toil
+over them, but S. never acknowledges or answers anything, so I'll have
+to wait to hear from someone else whether he "got them off." I have had
+a somewhat unwholesome summer. Much lecturing to teachers and sitting up
+to talk with strangers. But it is instructive and makes one patriotic,
+and in six days I shall have finished the Chicago lectures, which begin
+tomorrow, and get straight to Keene Valley for the rest of September. My
+conditions just now are materially splendid, as I am the guest of a
+charming elderly lady, Mrs. Wilmarth, here at her country house, and in
+town at the finest hotel of the place. The political campaign is a bully
+one. Everyone outdoing himself in sweet reasonableness and persuasive
+argument--hardly an undignified note anywhere. It shows the deepening
+and elevating influence of a big topic of debate. It is difficult to
+doubt of a people part of whose life such an experience is. But imagine
+the country being saved by a McKinley! If only Reed had been the
+candidate! There have been some really splendid speeches and
+documents....
+
+Ever thine,
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+BURLINGTON, VT., _Sept. 28, 1896_.
+
+DEAR HENRY,--The summer is over! alas! alas! I left Keene Valley this
+A.M. where I have had three life-and-health-giving weeks in the forest
+and the mountain air, crossed Lake Champlain in the steamer, not a cloud
+in the sky, and sleep here tonight, meaning to take the train for Boston
+in the A.M. and read Kant's Life all day, so as to be able to lecture on
+it when I first meet my class. School begins on Thursday--this being
+Monday night. It has been a rather cultivating summer for me, and an
+active one, of which the best impression (after that of the Adirondack
+woods, or even before it) was that of the greatness of Chicago. It needs
+a Victor Hugo to celebrate it. But as you won't appreciate it without
+demonstration, and I can't give the demonstration (at least not now and
+on paper), I will say no more on that score! Alice came up for a week,
+but went down and through last night. She brought me up your letter of I
+don't remember now what date (after your return to London, about Wendell
+Holmes, Baldwin and Royalty, etc.) which was very delightful and for
+which I thank. But don't take your epistolary duties hard!
+Letter-writing becomes to me more and more of an affliction, I get so
+many business letters now. At Chicago, I tried a stenographer and
+type-writer with an alleviation that seemed almost miraculous. I think
+that I shall have to go in for one some hours a week in Cambridge. It
+just goes "whiff" and six or eight long letters are _done_, so far as
+you're concerned. I hear great reports of your "old things," and await
+the book. My great literary impression this summer has been Tolstoy. On
+the whole his atmosphere absorbs me into it as no one's else has ever
+done, and even his religious and melancholy stuff, his insanity, is
+probably more significant than the sanity of men who haven't been
+through that phase at all.
+
+But I am forgetting to tell you (strange to say, since it has hung over
+me like a cloud ever since it happened) of dear old Professor Child's
+death. We shall never see his curly head and thickset figure more. He
+had aged greatly in the past three years, since being thrown out of a
+carriage, and went to the hospital in July to be treated surgically. He
+never recovered and died in three weeks, after much suffering, his
+family not being called down from the country till the last days. He had
+a moral delicacy and a richness of heart that I never saw and never
+expect to see equaled.[1] The children bear it well, but I fear it will
+be a bad blow for dear Mrs. Child. She and Alice, I am glad to say, are
+great friends.... Good-night. _Leb' wohl!_
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+
+1893-1899 (CONTINUED)
+
+
+ _The Will to Believe--Talks to Teachers--Defense of Mental
+ Healers--Excessive Climbing in the Adirondacks_
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+[Dictated]
+
+Cambridge, _Dec. 7, 1896_.
+
+MY DEAR FLOURNOY,--Your altogether precious and delightful letter
+reached me duly, and you see I am making a not altogether too dilatory
+reply. In the first place, we congratulate you upon the new-comer, and
+think if she only proves as satisfactory a damsel as her charming elder
+sisters, you will never have any occasion to regret that she is not a
+boy. I hope that Madame Flournoy is by this time thoroughly strong and
+well, and that everything is perfect with the baby. I should like to
+have been at Munich with you; I have heard a good many accounts of the
+jollity of the proceedings there, but on the whole I did a more
+wholesome thing to stay in my own country, of which the dangers and dark
+sides are singularly exaggerated in Europe.
+
+Your lamentations on your cerebral state make me smile, knowing, as I
+do, under all your subjective feelings, how great your vigor is. Of
+course I sympathize with you about the laboratory, and advise you, since
+it seems to me you are in a position to make conditions rather than have
+them imposed on you, simply to drop it and teach what you prefer.
+Whatever the latter may be, it will be as good for the students as if
+they had something else from you in its place, and I see no need in this
+world, when there is someone provided somewhere to do everything, for
+anyone of us to do what he does least willingly and well.
+
+_I_ have got rid of the laboratory forever, and should resign my place
+immediately if they reimposed its duties upon me. The results that come
+from all this laboratory work seem to me to grow more and more
+disappointing and trivial. What is most needed is new ideas. For every
+man who has one of them one may find a hundred who are willing to drudge
+patiently at some unimportant experiment. The atmosphere of your mind is
+in an extraordinary degree sane and balanced on philosophical matters.
+That is where your forte lies, and where your University ought to see
+that its best interests lie in having you employed. Don't consider this
+advice impertinent. Your temperament is such that I think you need to be
+strengthened from without in asserting your right to carry out your true
+vocation.
+
+Everything goes well with us here. The boys are developing finely; both
+of them taller than I am, and Peggy healthy and well. I have just been
+giving a course of public lectures of which I enclose you a ticket to
+amuse you.[11] The audience, a thousand in number, kept its numbers to
+the last. I was careful not to tread upon the domains of psychical
+research, although many of my hearers were eager that I should do so. _I
+am teaching Kant for the first time in my life_, and it gives me much
+satisfaction. I am also sending a collection of old essays through the
+press, of which I will send you a copy as soon as they appear; I am sure
+of your sympathy in advance for much of their contents. But I am afraid
+that what you never will appreciate is their wonderful English style!
+Shakespeare is a little street-boy in comparison!
+
+Our political crisis is over, but the hard times still endure. Lack of
+confidence is a disease from which convalescence is not quick. I doubt,
+notwithstanding certain appearances, whether the country was ever
+morally in as sound a state as it now is, after all this discussion. And
+the very silver men, who have been treated as a party of dishonesty, are
+anything but that. They very likely are victims of the economic
+delusion, but their intentions are just as good as those of the other
+side....
+
+If you meet my friend Ritter, please give him my love. I shall write to
+you again ere long _eigenhändig_. Meanwhile believe me, with lots of
+love to you all, especially to _ces demoiselles_, and felicitations to
+their mother, Always yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+My wife wishes to convey to Madame Flournoy her most loving regards and
+hopes for the little one.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+James had already been invited to deliver a course of "Gifford Lectures
+on Natural Religion" at the University of Edinburgh. He had not yet
+accepted for a definite date; but he had begun to collect illustrative
+material for the proposed lectures. A large number of references to such
+material were supplied to him by Mr. Henry W. Rankin of East
+Northfield.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry W. Rankin._
+
+
+NEWPORT, R.I., _Feb. 1, 1897_.
+
+DEAR MR. RANKIN,--A pause in lecturing, consequent upon our midyear
+examinations having begun, has given me a little respite, and I am
+paying a three-days' visit upon an old friend here, meaning to leave for
+New York tomorrow where I have a couple of lectures to give. It is an
+agreeable moment of quiet and enables me to write a letter or two which
+I have long postponed, and chiefly one to you, who have given me so much
+without asking anything in return.
+
+One of my lectures in New York is at the Academy of Medicine before the
+Neurological Society, the subject being "Demoniacal Possession." I shall
+of course duly advertise the Nevius book.[12] I am not as positive as
+you are in the belief that the obsessing agency is really demonic
+individuals. I am perfectly willing to adopt that theory if the facts
+lend themselves best to it; for who can trace limits to the hierarchies
+of personal existence in the world? But the lower stages of mere
+automatism shade off so continuously into the highest supernormal
+manifestations, through the intermediary ones of imitative hysteria and
+"suggestibility," that I feel as if no _general theory_ as yet would
+cover all the facts. So that the most I shall plead for before the
+neurologists is the recognition of demon possession as a regular
+"morbid-entity" whose commonest homologue today is the "spirit-control"
+observed in test-mediumship, and which tends to become the more
+benignant and less alarming, the less pessimistically it is regarded.
+This last remark seems certainly to be true. Of course I shall not
+ignore the sporadic cases of old-fashioned malignant possession which
+still occur today. I am convinced that we stand with all these things
+at the threshold of a long inquiry, of which the end appears as yet to
+no one, least of all to myself. And I believe that the best theoretic
+work yet done in the subject is the beginning made by F. W. H. Myers in
+his papers in the S. P. R. Proceedings. The first thing is to start the
+medical profession out of its idiotically _conceited ignorance_ of all
+such matters--matters which have everywhere and at all times played a
+vital part in human history.
+
+You have written me at different times about conversion, and about
+miracles, getting as usual no reply, but not because I failed to heed
+your words, which come from a deep life-experience of your own
+evidently, and from a deep acquaintance with the experiences of others.
+In the matter of conversion I am quite willing to believe that a new
+truth may be supernaturally revealed to a subject when he really _asks_.
+But I am sure that in many cases of conversion it is less a new truth
+than a new power gained over life by a truth always known. It is a case
+of the conflict of two _self-systems_ in a personality up to that time
+heterogeneously divided, but in which, after the conversion-crisis, the
+higher loves and powers come definitively to gain the upper-hand and
+expel the forces which up to that time had kept them down in the
+position of mere grumblers and protesters and agents of remorse and
+discontent. This broader view will cover an enormous number of cases
+_psychologically_, and leaves all the _religious importance_ to the
+result which it has on any other theory.
+
+As to true and false miracles, I don't know that I can follow you so
+well, for in any case the notion of a miracle as a mere attestation of
+superior power is one that I cannot espouse. A miracle must in any case
+be an expression of personal purpose, but the demon-purpose of
+antagonizing God and winning away his adherents has never yet taken
+hold of my imagination. I prefer an open mind of inquiry, first _about
+the facts_, in all these matters; and I believe that the S. P. R.
+methods, if pertinaciously stuck to, will eventually do much to clear
+things up.--You see that, although religion is the great interest of my
+life, I am rather hopelessly non-evangelical, and take the whole thing
+too impersonally.
+
+But my College work is lightening in a way. Psychology is being handed
+over to others more and more, and I see a chance ahead for reading and
+study in other directions from those to which my very feeble powers in
+that line have hitherto been confined. I am going to give all the
+fragments of time I can get, after this year is over, to religious
+biography and philosophy. Shield's book, Steenstra's, Gratry's, and
+Harris's, I don't yet know, but can easily get at them.
+
+I hope your health is better in this beautiful winter which we are
+having. I am very well, and so is all my family. Believe me, with
+affectionate regards, truly yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Benjamin Paul Blood._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 28, 1897_.
+
+DEAR BLOOD,--Your letter is delectable. From your not having yet
+acknowledged the book,[13] I began to wonder whether you had got it, but
+this acknowledgment is almost too good. Your thought is
+obscure--lightning flashes darting gleams--but that's the way truth is.
+And altho' I "put pluralism in the place of philosophy," I do it only so
+far as philosophy means the articulate and the scientific. Life and
+mysticism exceed the articulable, and if there is a _One_ (and surely
+men will never be weaned from the idea of it), it must remain only
+mystically expressed.
+
+I have been roaring over and quoting some of the passages of your
+letter, in which my wife takes as much delight as I do. As for your
+strictures on my English, I accept them humbly. I have a tendency
+towards too great colloquiality, I know, and I trust your sense of
+English better than any man's in the country. I have a fearful job on
+hand just now: an address on the unveiling of a military statue. Three
+thousand people, governor and troops, etc. Why they fell upon me, God
+knows; but being challenged, I could not funk. The task is a mechanical
+one, and the result somewhat of a school-boy composition. If I thought
+it wouldn't bore you, I should send you a copy for you to go carefully
+over and correct or rewrite as to the English. I should probably adopt
+every one of your corrections. What do you say to this? Yours ever,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+_P.S._ Please don't betitle _me_!
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The "copy" which was offered for correction with so much humility was
+the "Oration" on the unveiling of St. Gaudens's monument to Colonel
+Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry (the first colored
+regiment). James was quite accustomed to lecturing from brief notes and
+to reading from a complete manuscript; but on this occasion he thought
+it necessary to commit his address to memory. He had never done this
+before and he never tried to do it again. He memorized with great
+difficulty, found himself placed in an entirely unfamiliar relation to
+his audience, and felt as much nervous trepidation as any inexperienced
+speaker.[14]
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+Cambridge, _June 5, 1897_.
+
+DEAR H.,--Alice wrote you (I think) a brief word after the crisis of
+last Monday. It took it out of me nervously a good deal, for it came at
+the end of the month of May, when I am always fagged to death; and for a
+week previous I had almost lost my voice with hoarseness. At nine
+o'clock the night before I ran in to a laryngologist in Boston, who
+sprayed and cauterized and otherwise tuned up my throat, giving me
+pellets to suck all the morning. By a sort of miracle I spoke for
+three-quarters of an hour without becoming perceptibly hoarse. But it is
+a curious kind of physical effort to fill a hall as large as Boston
+Music Hall, unless you are trained to the work. You have to shout and
+bellow, and you seem to yourself wholly unnatural. The day was an
+extraordinary occasion for sentiment. The streets were thronged with
+people, and I was toted around for two hours in a barouche at the tail
+end of the procession. There were seven such carriages in all, and I had
+the great pleasure of being with St. Gaudens, who is a most charming and
+modest man. The weather was cool and the skies were weeping, but not
+enough to cause any serious discomfort. They simply formed a harmonious
+background to the pathetic sentiment that reigned over the day. It was
+very peculiar, and people have been speaking about it ever since--the
+last wave of the war breaking over Boston, everything softened and made
+poetic and unreal by distance, poor little Robert Shaw erected into a
+great symbol of deeper things than he ever realized himself,--"the
+tender grace of a day that is dead,"--etc. We shall never have anything
+like it again. The monument is really superb, certainly one of the
+finest things of this century. Read the darkey [Booker T.] Washington's
+speech, a model of elevation and brevity. The thing that struck me most
+in the day was the faces of the old 54th soldiers, of whom there were
+perhaps about thirty or forty present, with such respectable old darkey
+faces, the heavy animal look entirely absent, and in its place the
+wrinkled, patient, good old darkey citizen.
+
+As for myself, I will never accept such a job again. It is entirely
+outside of my legitimate line of business, although my speech seems to
+have been a great success, if I can judge by the encomiums which are
+pouring in upon me on every hand. I brought in some mugwumpery at the
+end, but it was very difficult to manage it.... Always affectionately
+yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Letters to Ellen and Rosina Emmet, which now enter the series, will be
+the better understood for a word of reminder. "Elly" Temple, one of the
+Newport cousins referred to in the very first letters, had married, and
+gone with her husband, Temple Emmet, to California. But in 1887, after
+his death, she had returned to the East to place her daughters in a
+Cambridge school. In 1895 and 1896 Ellen and Rosina had made several
+visits to the house in Irving Street; and thus the comradely cousinship
+of the sixties had been maintained and reëstablished with the younger
+generation. At the date now reached, Ellen, or "Bay" as she was usually
+called, was studying painting. She and Rosina had been in Paris during
+the preceding winter. Now they and their mother were spending the summer
+on the south coast of England, at Iden, quite close to Rye, where Henry
+James was already becoming established.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Ellen Emmet (Mrs. Blanchard Rand)._
+
+
+BAR HARBOR, ME., _Aug. 11, 1897_.
+
+DEAR OLD BAY (and DEAR ROSINA),--For I have letters from both of you and
+my heart inclines to both so that I can't write to either without the
+other--I hope you are enjoying the English coast. A rumor reached me not
+long since that my brother Henry had given up his trip to the Continent
+in order to be near to you, and I hope for the sakes of all concerned
+that it is true. He will find in you both that eager and vivid artistic
+sense, and that direct swoop at the vital facts of human character from
+which I am sure he has been weaned for fifteen years at least. And I am
+sure it will rejuvenate him again. It is more Celtic than English, and
+when joined with those faculties of soul, conscience, or whatever they
+be that make England rule the waves, as they are joined in you, Bay,
+they leave no room for any anxiety about the creature's destiny. But
+Rosina, who is all senses and intelligence, alarms me by her recital of
+midnight walks on the Boulevard des Italiens with bohemian artists....
+You can't live by gaslight and excitement, nor can naked intelligence
+run a _jeune fille's_ life. Affections, pieties, and prejudices must
+play their part, and only let the intelligence get an occasional peep at
+things from the midst of their smothering embrace. That again is what
+makes the British nation so great. Intelligence doesn't flaunt itself
+there quite naked as in France.
+
+As for the MacMonnies Bacchante,[15] I only saw her faintly looming
+through the moon-light one night when she was _sub judice_, so can frame
+no opinion. The place certainly calls for a lightsome capricious figure,
+but the solemn Boston mind declared that anything but a solemn figure
+would be desecration. As to her immodesty, opinions got very hot. My
+knowledge of MacMonnies is confined to one statue, that of Sir Henry
+Vane, also in our Public Library, an impressionist sketch in bronze (I
+think), sculpture treated like painting--and I must say I don't admire
+the result _at all_. But you _know_; and I wish I could see other things
+of his also. How I wish I could _talk_ with Rosina, or rather hear her
+talk, about Paris, _talk in her French_ which I doubt not is by this
+time admirable. The only book she has vouchsafed news of having read, to
+me, is the d'Annunzio one, which I have ordered in most choice Italian;
+but of Lemaître, France, etc., she writes never a word. Nor of V. Hugo.
+She ought to read "La Légende des Siècles." For the picturesque pure and
+simple, go there! laid on with a trowel so generous that you really get
+your glut. But the things in French literature that I have gained most
+from--the next most to Tolstoy, in the last few years--are the whole
+cycle of Geo. Sand's life: her "Histoire," her letters, and now lately
+these revelations of the de Musset episode. The whole thing is beautiful
+and uplifting--an absolute "liver" harmoniously leading her own life and
+_neither_ obedient nor defiant to what others expected or thought.
+
+We are passing the summer very quietly at Chocorua, with our bare feet
+on the ground. Children growing up bullily, a pride to the parental
+heart.... Alice and I have just spent a rich week at North Conway, at a
+beautiful "place," the Merrimans'. I am now here at a really grand
+place, the Dorrs'--tell Rosina that I went to a domino party last night
+but was so afraid that some one of the weird and sinister sisters would
+speak to me that I came home at 12 o'clock, when it had hardly begun. I
+am so sensitive! Tell her that a lady from Michigan was recently shown
+the sights of Cambridge by one of my Radcliffe girls. She took her to
+the Longfellow house, and as the visitor went into the gate, said, "I
+will just wait here." To her surprise, the visitor went up to the house,
+looked in to one window after the other, then rang the bell, and the
+door closed upon her. She soon emerged, and said that the servant had
+shown her the house. "I'm so sensitive that at first I thought I would
+only peep in at the windows. But then I said to myself, 'What's the use
+of being so sensitive?' So I rang the bell."
+
+Pray be happy this summer. I see nothing more of Rosina's in the papers.
+How is that sort of thing going on?... As for your mother, give her my
+old-fashioned love. For some unexplained reason, I find it very hard to
+write to her--probably it is the same reason that makes it hard for her
+to write to me--so we can sympathize over so strange a mystery. Anyhow,
+give her my best love, and with plenty for yourself, old Bay, and for
+Rosina, believe me, yours ever,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To E. L. Godkin._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _Aug. 17, 1897_.
+
+DEAR GODKIN,--Thanks for your kind note _in re_ "Will to Believe." I
+suppose you expect as little a reply to it as I expected one from you to
+the book; but since you ask what I _du_ mean by Religion, and add that
+until I define that word my essay cannot be effective, I can't forbear
+sending you a word to clear up that point. I mean by religion for a man
+_anything_ that for _him_ is a live hypothesis in that line, altho' it
+may be a dead one for anyone else. And what I try to show is that
+whether the man believes, disbelieves, or doubts his hypothesis, the
+moment he does either, on principle and methodically, he runs a risk of
+one sort or the other from his own point of view. There is no escaping
+the risk; why not then admit that one's human function is to run it? By
+settling down on that basis, and respecting each other's choice of risk
+to run, it seems to me that we should be in a clearer-headed condition
+than we now are in, postulating as most all of us do a rational
+certitude which doesn't exist and disowning the semi-voluntary mental
+action by which we continue in our own severally characteristic
+attitudes of belief. Since our willing natures are active here, why not
+face squarely the fact without humbug and get the benefits of the
+admission?
+
+I passed a day lately with the [James] Bryces at Bar Harbor, and we
+spoke--not altogether unkindly--of you. I hope you are enjoying, both of
+you, the summer. All goes well with us. Yours always truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller_ [Corpus Christi, Oxford].
+
+
+Cambridge, _Oct. 23, 1897_.
+
+DEAR SCHILLER,--Did you ever hear of the famous international prize
+fight between Tom Sayers and Heenan the Benicia Boy, or were you too
+small a baby in 1857 [1860?] The "Times" devoted a couple of pages of
+report and one or more eulogistic editorials to the English champion,
+and the latter, brimming over with emotion, wrote a letter to the
+"Times" in which he touchingly said that he would live in future as one
+who had been once deemed worthy of commemoration in its leaders. After
+reading your review of me in the October "Mind" (which only reached me
+two days ago) I feel as the noble Sayers felt, and think I ought to
+write to Stout to say I will try to live up to such a character. My
+past has not deserved such words, but my future shall. Seriously, your
+review has given me the keenest possible pleasure. This philosophy must
+be thickened up most decidedly--your review represents it as something
+to rally to, so we must fly a banner and start a school. Some of your
+phrases are bully: "reckless rationalism," "pure science is pure bosh,"
+"infallible _a priori_ test of truth to screen us from the consequences
+of our choice," etc., etc. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!
+
+The enclosed document [a returned letter addressed to Christ Church]
+explains itself. The Church and the Body of Christ are easily confused
+and I haven't a scholarly memory. I wrote you a post-card recently to
+the same address, patting you on the back for your article on
+Immortality in the "New World." A staving good thing. I am myself to
+give the "Ingersoll Lecture on Human Immortality" here in November--the
+second lecturer on the foundation. I treat the matter very inferiorly to
+you, but use your conception of the brain as a sifting agency, which
+explains my question in the letter. Young [R. B.] Merriman is at Balliol
+and a really good fellow in all possible respects. Pray be good to him
+if he calls on you. I hope things have a peacock hue for you now that
+term has begun. They are all going well here. Yours always gratefully,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To James J. Putnam._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Mar. 2, 1898_.
+
+DEAR JIM,--On page 7 of the "Transcript" tonight you will find a
+manifestation of me at the State House, protesting against the proposed
+medical license bill.
+
+If you think I _enjoy_ that sort of thing you are mistaken. I never did
+anything that required as much moral effort in my life. My vocation is
+to treat of things in an all-round manner and not make _ex-parte_ pleas
+to influence (or seek to) a peculiar jury. _Aussi_, why do the medical
+brethren force an unoffending citizen like me into such a position?
+Legislative license is sheer humbug--mere abstract paper thunder under
+which every ignorance and abuse can still go on. Why this mania for more
+laws? Why seek to stop the really extremely important experiences which
+these peculiar creatures are rolling up?
+
+Bah! I'm sick of the whole business, and I well know how all my
+colleagues at the Medical School, who go only by the label, will view me
+and my efforts. But if Zola and Col. Picquart can face the whole French
+army, can't I face their disapproval?--Much more easily than that of my
+own conscience!
+
+You, I fancy, are not one of the fully disciplined demanders of more
+legislation. So I write to you, as on the whole my dearest friend
+hereabouts, to explain just what my state of mind is. Ever yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+James was not indulging in empty rhetoric when he said that his
+conscience drove him to face the disapproval of his medical colleagues.
+Some of them never forgave him, and to this day references to his
+"appearance" at the State House in Boston are marked by partisanship
+rather than understanding.
+
+What happened cannot be understood without recalling that thirty-odd
+years ago the licensing of medical practitioners was just being
+inaugurated in the United States. Today it is evident that everyone must
+be qualified and licensed before he can be permitted to write
+prescriptions, to sign statements upon which public records, inquests,
+and health statistics are to be based, and to go about the community
+calling himself a doctor. On the other hand, experience has proved that
+those people who do not pretend to be physicians, who do not use drugs
+or the knife, and who attempt to heal only by mental or spiritual
+influence, cannot be regulated by the clumsy machinery of the criminal
+law. But either because the whole question of medical registration was
+new, or because professional men are seldom masters of the science of
+lawmaking, the sponsors of the bills proposed to the Massachusetts
+Legislature in 1894 and 1898 ignored these distinctions. James did not
+name them, although his argument implied them and rested upon them. The
+bills included clauses which attempted to abolish the faith-curers by
+requiring them to become Doctors of Medicine. The "Spiritualists" and
+Christian Scientists were a numerous element in the population and
+claimed a religious sanction for their beliefs. The gentlemen who mixed
+an anti-spiritualist program in their effort to have doctors examined
+and licensed by a State Board were either innocent of political
+discretion or blind to the facts. For it was idle to argue that
+faith-curers would be able to continue in their own ways as soon as they
+had passed the medical examinations of the State Board, and that
+accordingly the proposed law could not be said to involve their
+suppression. Obviously, medical examinations were barriers which the
+faith-curers could not climb over. This was the feature of the proposed
+law which roused James to opposition, and led him to take sides for the
+moment with all the spokesmen of all the-isms and-opathies.
+
+"I will confine myself to a class of diseases" (he wrote to the Boston
+"Transcript" in 1894) "with which my occupation has made me somewhat
+conversant. I mean the diseases of the nervous system and the mind....
+Of all the new agencies that our day has seen, there is but one that
+tends steadily to assume a more and more commanding importance, and that
+is the agency of the patient's mind itself. Whoever can produce effects
+there holds the key of the situation in a number of morbid conditions of
+which we do not yet know the extent; for systematic experiments in this
+direction are in their merest infancy. They began in Europe fifteen
+years ago, when the medical world so tardily admitted the facts of
+hypnotism to be true; and in this country they have been carried on in a
+much bolder and more radical fashion by all those 'mind-curers' and
+'Christian Scientists' with whose results the public, and even the
+profession, are growing gradually familiar.
+
+"I assuredly hold no brief for any of these healers, and must confess
+that my intellect has been unable to assimilate their theories, so far
+as I have heard them given. But their _facts_ are patent and startling;
+and anything that interferes with the multiplication of such facts, and
+with our freest opportunity of observing and studying them, will, I
+believe, be a public calamity. The law now proposed will so interfere,
+simply because the mind-curers will not take the examinations....
+Nothing would please some of them better than such a taste of
+imprisonment as might, by the public outcry it would occasion, bring the
+law rattling down about the ears of the mandarins who should have
+enacted it.
+
+"And whatever one may think of the narrowness of the mind-curers, their
+logical position is impregnable. They are proving by the most brilliant
+new results that the therapeutic relation may be what we can at present
+describe only as a relation of one person to another person; and they
+are consistent in resisting to the uttermost any legislation that would
+make 'examinable' information the root of medical virtue, and hamper
+the free play of personal force and affinity by mechanically imposed
+conditions."
+
+James knew as well as anyone that in the ranks of the healers there were
+many who could fairly be described as preying on superstition and
+ignorance. "X---- personally is a rapacious humbug" was his privately
+expressed opinion of one of them who had a very large following. He had
+no reverence for the preposterous theories with which their minds were
+befogged; but "every good thing like _science_ in medicine," as he once
+said, "has to be imitated and grimaced by a rabble of people who would
+be at the required height; and the folly, humbug and mendacity is
+pitiful." Furthermore he saw a quackery quite as odious and much more
+dangerous than that of the "healers" in the patent-medicine business,
+which was allowed to advertise its lies and secret nostrums in the
+newspapers and on the bill-boards, and which flourished behind the
+counter of every apothecary and village store-keeper at that time. (The
+Federal Pure Food and Drug Act was still many years off.)
+
+The spokesmen of the medical profession were ignoring what he believed
+to be instructive phenomena. "What the real interests of medicine
+require is that mental therapeutics should _not_ be stamped out, but
+studied, and its laws ascertained. For that the mind-curers must at
+least be suffered to make their experiments. If they cannot interpret
+their results aright, why then let the orthodox M.D.'s follow up their
+facts, and study and interpret them? But to force the mind-curers to a
+State examination is to kill the experiments outright." But instead of
+the open-minded attitude which he thus advocated, he saw doctors who
+"had no more exact science in them than a fox terrier"[16] invoking the
+holy name of Science and blundering ahead with an air of moral
+superiority.
+
+"One would suppose," he exclaimed again in the 1898 hearing, "that any
+set of sane persons interested in the growth of medical truth would
+rejoice if other persons were found willing to push out their
+experiences in the mental-healing direction, and provide a mass of
+material out of which the conditions and limits of such therapeutic
+methods may at last become clear. One would suppose that our orthodox
+medical brethren might so rejoice; but instead of rejoicing they adopt
+the fiercely partisan attitude of a powerful trades-union, demanding
+legislation against the competition of the 'scabs.' ... The mind-curers
+and their public return the scorn of the regular profession with an
+equal scorn, and will never come up for the examination. Their movement
+is a religious or quasi-religious movement; personality is one condition
+of success there, and impressions and intuitions seem to accomplish more
+than chemical, anatomical or physiological information.... Pray do not
+fail, Mr. Chairman, to catch my point. You are not to ask yourselves
+whether these mind-curers do really achieve the successes that are
+claimed. It is enough for you as legislators to ascertain that a large
+number of our citizens, persons as intelligent and well-educated as
+yourself, or I, persons whose number seems daily to increase, are
+convinced that they do achieve them, are persuaded that a valuable new
+department of medical experience is by them opening up. Here is a purely
+medical question, regarding which our General Court, not being a
+well-spring and source of medical virtue, not having any private test of
+therapeutic truth, must remain strictly neutral under penalty of making
+the confusion worse.... Above all things, Mr. Chairman, let us not be
+infected with the Gallic spirit of regulation and reglementation for
+their own abstract sakes. Let us not grow hysterical about law-making.
+Let us not fall in love with enactments and penalties because they are
+so logical and sound so pretty, and look so nice on paper."[17]
+
+
+
+
+_To James J. Putnam._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Mar. [3?] 1898_.
+
+DEAR JIM,--Thanks for your noble-hearted letter, which makes me feel
+warm again. I am glad to learn that you feel positively _agin_ the
+proposed law, and hope that you will express yourself freely towards the
+professional brethren to that effect.
+
+Dr. Russell Sturgis has written me a similar letter.
+
+Once more, thanks!
+
+W. J.
+
+P.S. _March 3._ The "Transcript" report, I am sorry to say, was a good
+deal cut. I send you another copy, to keep and use where it will do most
+good. The rhetorical problem with me was to say things to the Committee
+that might neutralize the influence of their medical advisers, who, I
+supposed, had the inside track, and all the _prestige_. I being banded
+with the spiritists, faith-curers, magnetic healers, etc., etc. Strange
+affinities![18]
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To François Pillon._
+
+
+Cambridge, _June 15, 1898_.
+
+MY DEAR PILLON,--I have just received your pleasant letter and the
+_Année_, volume 8, and shall immediately proceed to read the latter,
+having finished reading my examinations yesterday, and being now free to
+enjoy the vacation, but excessively tired. I grieve to learn of poor
+Mrs. Pillon's continued ill health. How much patience both of you
+require. I think of you also as spending most of the summer in Paris,
+when the country contains so many more elements that are good for body
+and soul.
+
+How much has happened since I last heard from you! To say nothing of the
+Zola trial, we now have the Cuban War! A curious episode of history,
+showing how a nation's ideals can be changed in the twinkling of an eye,
+by a succession of outward events partly accidental. It is quite
+possible that, without the explosion of the Maine, we should still be at
+peace, though, since the _basis_ of the whole American attitude is the
+persuasion on the part of the people that the cruelty and misrule of
+Spain in Cuba call for her expulsion (so that in that sense our war is
+just what a war of "the powers" against Turkey for the Armenian
+atrocities would have been), it is hardly possible that peace could have
+been maintained indefinitely longer, unless Spain had gone out--a
+consummation hardly to be expected by peaceful means. The actual
+declaration of war by Congress, however, was a case of _psychologie des
+foules_, a genuine hysteric stampede at the last moment, which shows
+how unfortunate that provision of our written constitution is which
+takes the power of declaring war from the Executive and places it in
+Congress. Our Executive has behaved very well. The European nations of
+the Continent cannot believe that our pretense of humanity, and our
+disclaiming of all ideas of conquest, is sincere. It has been
+_absolutely_ sincere! The self-conscious feeling of our people has been
+entirely based in a sense of philanthropic duty, without which not a
+step would have been taken. And when, in its ultimatum to Spain,
+Congress denied any project of conquest in Cuba, it genuinely meant
+every word it said. But here comes in the psychologic factor: once the
+excitement of action gets loose, the taxes levied, the victories
+achieved, etc., the old human instincts will get into play with all
+their old strength, and the ambition and sense of mastery which our
+nation has will set up new demands. We shall never take Cuba; I imagine
+that to be very certain--unless indeed after years of unsuccessful
+police duty there, for that is what we have made ourselves responsible
+for. But Porto Rico, and even the Philippines, are not so sure. We had
+supposed ourselves (with all our crudity and barbarity in certain ways)
+a better nation morally than the rest, safe at home, and without the old
+savage ambition, destined to exert great international influence by
+throwing in our "moral weight," etc. Dreams! Human Nature is everywhere
+the same; and at the least temptation all the old military passions
+rise, and sweep everything before them. It will be interesting to see
+how it will end.
+
+But enough of this!--It all shows by what short steps progress is made,
+and it confirms the "criticist" views of the philosophy of history. I am
+going to a great popular meeting in Boston today where a lot of my
+friends are to protest against the new "Imperialism."
+
+In August I go for two months to California to do some lecturing. As I
+have never crossed the continent or seen the Pacific Ocean or those
+beautiful _parages_, I am very glad of the opportunity. The year after
+next (_i.e._ one year from now) begins a new year of absence from my
+college duties. I _may_ spend it in Europe again. In any case I shall
+hope to see you, for I am appointed to give the "Gifford Lectures" at
+Edinburgh during 1899-1901--two courses of 10 each on the philosophy of
+religion. A great honor.--I have also received the honor of an election
+as "Correspondent" of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques.
+Have I _your_ influence to thank for this? Believe me, with most
+sympathetic regards to Mrs. Pillon and affectionate greetings to
+yourself, yours most truly
+
+Wm. James.
+
+Before starting for California, James went to the Adirondack Lodge to
+snatch a brief holiday. One episode in this holiday can best be
+described by an extract from a letter to Mrs. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. James._
+
+
+ST. HUBERT'S INN,
+KEENE VALLEY, _July 9, 1898_.
+
+...I have had an eventful 24 hours, and my hands are so stiff after it
+that my fingers can hardly hold the pen. I left, as I informed you by
+post-card, the Lodge at seven, and five hours of walking brought us to
+the top of Marcy--I carrying 18 lbs. of weight in my pack. As usual, I
+met two Cambridge acquaintances on the mountain top--"Appalachians" from
+Beede's. At four, hearing an axe below, I went down (an hour's walk) to
+Panther Lodge Camp, and there found Charles and Pauline Goldmark, Waldo
+Adler and another schoolboy, and two Bryn Mawr girls--the girls all
+dressed in boys' breeches, and cutaneously desecrated in the extreme
+from seven of them having been camping without a male on Loon Lake to
+the north of this. My guide had to serve for the party, and quite
+unexpectedly to me the night turned out one of the most memorable of all
+my memorable experiences. I was in a wakeful mood before starting,
+having been awake since three, and I may have slept a little during this
+night; but I was not aware of sleeping at all. My companions, except
+Waldo Adler, were all motionless. The guide had got a magnificent
+provision of firewood, the sky swept itself clear of every trace of
+cloud or vapor, the wind entirely ceased, so that the fire-smoke rose
+straight up to heaven. The temperature was perfect either inside or
+outside the cabin, the moon rose and hung above the scene before
+midnight, leaving only a few of the larger stars visible, and I got into
+a state of spiritual alertness of the most vital description. The
+influences of Nature, the wholesomeness of the people round me,
+especially the good Pauline, the thought of you and the children, dear
+Harry on the wave, the problem of the Edinburgh lectures, all fermented
+within me till it became a regular Walpurgis Nacht. I spent a good deal
+of it in the woods, where the streaming moonlight lit up things in a
+magical checkered play, and it seemed as if the Gods of all the
+nature-mythologies were holding an indescribable meeting in my breast
+with the moral Gods of the inner life. The two kinds of Gods have
+nothing in common--the Edinburgh lectures made quite a hitch ahead. The
+intense significance of some sort, of the whole scene, if one could only
+_tell_ the significance; the intense inhuman remoteness of its inner
+life, and yet the intense _appeal_ of it; its everlasting freshness and
+its immemorial antiquity and decay; its utter Americanism, and every
+sort of patriotic suggestiveness, and you, and my relation to you part
+and parcel of it all, and beaten up with it, so that memory and
+sensation all whirled inexplicably together; it was indeed worth coming
+for, and worth repeating year by year, if repetition could only procure
+what in its nature I suppose must be all unplanned for and unexpected.
+It was one of the happiest lonesome nights of my existence, and I
+understand now what a poet is. He is a person who can feel the immense
+complexity of influences that I felt, and make some partial tracks in
+them for verbal statement. In point of fact, I can't find a single word
+for all that significance, and don't know what it was significant of, so
+there it remains, a mere boulder of _impression_. Doubtless in more ways
+than one, though, things in the Edinburgh lectures will be traceable to
+it.
+
+In the morning at six, I shouldered my undiminished pack and went up
+Marcy, ahead of the party, who arrived half an hour later, and we got in
+here at eight [P.M.] after 10-1/2 hours of the solidest walking I ever
+made, and I, I think, more fatigued than I have been after any walk. We
+plunged down Marcy, and up Bason Mountain, led by C. Goldmark, who had,
+with Mr. White, blazed a trail the year before;[19] then down again,
+away down, and up the Gothics, not counting a third down-and-up over an
+intermediate spur. It was the steepest sort of work, and, as one looked
+from the summits, seemed sheer impossible, but the girls kept up
+splendidly, and were all fresher than I. It was true that they had slept
+like logs all night, whereas I was "on my nerves." I lost my Norfolk
+jacket at the last third of the course--high time to say good-bye to
+that possession--and staggered up to the Putnams to find Hatty Shaw[20]
+taking me for a tramp. Not a soul was there, but everything spotless and
+ready for the arrival today. I got a bath at Bowditch's bath-house,
+slept in my old room, and slept soundly and well, and save for the
+unwashable staining of my hands and a certain stiffness in my thighs, am
+entirely rested and well. But I don't believe in keeping it up too long,
+and at the Willey House will lead a comparatively sedentary life, and
+cultivate sleep, if I can....
+
+W. J.
+
+The intense experience which James thus described had consequences that
+were not foreseen at the time. He had gone to the Adirondacks at the
+close of the college term in a much fatigued condition. He had been
+sleeping badly for some weeks, and when he started up Mount Marcy he had
+neuralgia in one foot; but he had characteristically determined to
+ignore and "bully" this ailment. Under such conditions the prolonged
+physical exertion of the two days' climb, aggravated by the fact that he
+carried a pack all the second day, was too much for a man of his years
+and sedentary occupations. As the summer wore on, pain or discomfort in
+the region of his heart became constant. He tried to persuade himself
+that it signified nothing and would pass away, and concealed it from his
+wife until mid-winter. To Howison--who was himself a confessed heart
+case--he wrote, "My heart has been kicking about terribly of late,
+stopping, and hurrying and aching and so forth, but I do not propose to
+give up to it too much." The fact was that the strain of the two days'
+climb had caused a valvular lesion that was irreparable, although not
+great enough seriously to curtail his activities if he had given heed
+to his general condition and avoided straining himself again.
+
+In August James went to California to give the lectures which have
+already been mentioned in a letter to Pillon. Again, these lectures were
+in substance the "Talks to Teachers." The next letter, written just
+before he left Cambridge, answers a request to him to address the
+Philosophical Club at the University of California.
+
+
+
+
+_To G. H. Howison._
+
+
+Cambridge, _July 24, 1898_.
+
+DEAR HOWISON,--Your kind letter greeted me on my arrival here three days
+ago--but I have waited to answer it in order to determine just what my
+lecture's title should be. I wanted to make something entirely popular,
+and as it were emotional, for technicality seems to me to spell
+"failure" in philosophy. But the subject in the margin of my
+consciousness failed to make connexion with the centre, and I have
+fallen back on something less vital, but still, I think, sufficiently
+popular and practical, which you can advertise under the rather
+ill-chosen title of "Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results,"
+if you wish.
+
+I am just back from a month of practical idleness in the Adirondacks,
+but such is the infirmity of my complexion that I am not yet in proper
+working trim. You ask me, like an angel, in what form I like to take my
+sociability. The spirit is willing to take it in any form, but the flesh
+is weak, and it runs to destruction of nerve-tissue and madness in me to
+go to big stand-up receptions where the people scream and breathe in
+each other's faces. But I know my duties; and one such reception I will
+gladly face. For the rest, I should infinitely prefer a chosen few at
+dinner. But this enterprise is going, my friend, to give you and Mrs.
+Howison a heap of trouble. My purpose is to arrive on the eve of the
+26th. I will telegraph you the hour and train. When the lectures to the
+teachers are over, I will make for the Yosemite Valley, where I want to
+spend a fortnight if I can, and come home.... Yours ever truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+OCCIDENTAL HOTEL,
+SAN FRANCISCO, _Aug. 11, 1898_.
+
+DEAR OLD HENRY,--You see I have worked my way across the Continent, and,
+full of the impressions of this queer place, I must overflow for a page
+or two to you. I saw some really grand and ferocious scenery on the
+Canadian Pacific, and wish I could go right back to see it again. But it
+doesn't mean much, on the whole, for human habitation, and the British
+Empire's investment in Canada is in so far forth but _scenic_. It is
+grand, though, in its vastness and simplicity. In Washington and Oregon
+the whole foreground consisted of desolation by fire. The magnificent
+coniferous forests burnt and burning, as they have been for years and
+years back. Northern California one pulverous earth-colored mass of
+hills and heat, with green spots produced by irrigation hardly showing
+on the background. I drove through a wheatfield at Harry's Uncle
+Christopher's on a machine, drawn by 26 mules, which cut a swathe 18
+feet wide through the wheat and threw it out in bags to be taken home,
+as fast as the leisurely mules could walk. It is like Egypt. Down here,
+splendid air, and a city so indescribably odd and unique in its
+suggestions that I have been saying to myself all day that _you_ ought
+to have taken it in when you were under 30 and added it to your
+portraits of places. So remote and terminal, so full of the sea-port
+nakedness, yet so new and American, with its queer suggestions of a
+history based on the fifties and the sixties. But at my age those
+impressions are curiously weak to what they once were, and the time to
+travel is between one's 20th and 30th year. This hotel--an old house
+cleaned into newness--is redolent of '59 or '60, when it must have been
+built. Hideous vast stuccoed thing, with long undulating balustrades and
+wells and lace curtains. The fare is very good, but the servants all
+Irish, who seem cowed in the dining-room, and go about as if they had
+corns on their feet and for that reason had given up the pick and
+shovel.... Tomorrow, in spite of drouth and dust, I leave for the
+Yosemite Valley, with a young Californian philosopher, named [Charles
+M.] Bakewell, as companion. On the whole I prefer the works of God to
+those of man, and the alternative, a trip down the coast, beauties as it
+would doubtless show, would include too much humanity....
+
+
+
+
+_To his Son Alexander._
+
+
+BERKELEY, CAL., _Aug. 28, 1898_.
+
+DARLING OLD CHERUBINI,--See how brave this girl and boy are in the
+Yosemite Valley![21] I saw a moving sight the other morning before
+breakfast in a little hotel where I slept in the dusty fields. The young
+man of the house had shot a little wolf called a coyote in the early
+morning. The heroic little animal lay on the ground, with his big furry
+ears, and his clean white teeth, and his jolly cheerful little body, but
+his brave little life was gone. It made me think how brave all these
+living things are. Here little coyote was, without any clothes or house
+or books or anything, with nothing but his own naked self to pay his
+way with, and risking his life so cheerfully--and losing it--just to
+see if he could pick up a meal near the hotel. He was doing his
+coyote-business like a hero, and you must do your boy-business, and I my
+man-business bravely too, or else we won't be worth as much as that
+little coyote. Your mother can find a picture of him in those green
+books of animals, and I want you to copy it. Your loving
+
+DAD.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Rosina H. Emmet._
+
+
+MONTEREY, _Sept. 9, 1898_.
+
+DEAR OLD ROSINA,--I have seen your native state and even been driven by
+dear, good, sweet Hal Dibblee (who is turning into a perfectly ideal
+fellow) through the charming and utterly lovable place in which you all
+passed your childhood. (How your mother must sometimes long for it
+again!) Of California and its greatness, the half can never be told. I
+have been on a ranch in the white, bare dryness of Siskiyou County, and
+reaped wheat with a swathe of 18 feet wide on a machine drawn by a
+procession of 26 mules. I've been to Yosemite, and camped for five days
+in the high Sierras; I've lectured at the two universities of the state,
+and seen the youths and maidens lounge together at Stanford in cloisters
+whose architecture is purer and more lovely than aught that Italy can
+show. I've heard Mrs. Dibblee read letter after letter from Anita
+concerning your life together; and even one letter to Anita from Bay,
+which the former enclosed. (Dear Bay!) All this, dear old Rosina, is a
+"summation of stimuli" which at last carries me over the dam that has so
+long obstructed all my epistolary efforts in your direction.
+
+Over and over again I have been on the point of writing to you, more
+than once I have actually written a page or two, but something has
+always checked the flow, and arrested the current of the soul. What is
+it? I think it is this: I naturally tend, when "familiar" with what the
+authors of the beginning of the century used to call "a refined female,"
+to indulge in chaffing personalities in writing to her. There is
+something in you that doubtfully enjoys the chaffing; and subtly feeling
+that, I stop. But some day, when experience shall have winnowed you with
+her wing; when the illusions and the hopes of youth alike are faded;
+when eternal principles of order are more to you than sensations that
+pass in a day, however exciting; when friends that know you and your
+roots and derivations are more satisfactory, however humdrum and hoary
+they be, than the handsome recent acquaintances that know nothing of you
+but the hour; when, in short, your being is mellowed, dulled and
+harmonized by time so as to be a grave, wise, deep, and discerning moral
+and intellectual unity (as mine is already from the height of my 40
+centuries!), then, Rosina, we two shall be the most perfect of
+combinations, and I shall write to you every week of my life and you
+will be utterly unable to resist replying. That will not be, however,
+before you are forty years old. You are sure to come to it! For you see
+the truth, irrespective of persons, as few people see it; and after all,
+you care for that more than for anything else--and that means a rare and
+unusual destiny, and ultimate salvation.--But here I am, chaffing, quite
+against my intentions and altogether in spite of myself. The ruling
+passion is irresistible. Let me stop!
+
+But still I must be personal, and not write merely of the climate and
+productions of California, as I have been doing to others for the past
+four weeks. How I do wish I could be dropped amongst you for but 24
+hours! What talk I should hear! What perceptions of truth from you and
+Bay (and probably young Leslie) would pour into my receptive soul. How
+I _should_ like to hear you hold forth about the French, their art,
+their literature, their nature, and all else about them! How I should
+like to hear you _talk_ French! How I should like to note the changes
+wrought in you by all this experience, and take all sorts of excursions
+in your company! Don't come home for one more year if you can help it.
+Stay and let the impressions set and tie themselves in with a hard knot,
+so that they will be worth something and definitive.
+
+I am so glad to hear that Bay is doing so well, and doubly glad (as Mrs.
+Dibblee tells me from Anita) that H. J. is going to sit to her for his
+portrait. I am a bit sorry that the youthful Harry didn't accept your
+invitation, but his time was after all so short that it has been perhaps
+good for him to get the massive English impression. What times we live
+in! Dreyfus, Cuba, and Khartoum!--I keep well, though fragile as a
+worker. You will have heard of my Edinburgh appointment and my election
+to the Institut de France as _Correspondant_. The latter is silly, but
+the former a serious scrape out of which I am praying all the gods to
+help me, as the time for preparation is so short. All Cambridge friends
+are well. You heard of dear Child's death, last summer, I suppose.
+Good-bye! Write to me, dear old Rosina. Kiss Bay and Leslie--even
+_effleurez_ your own cheek, for me. Give my best love to your mother,
+and believe me always your affectionate
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Dec. 3, 1898_.
+
+ILLUSTRIOUS FRIEND AND JOY OF MY LIVER,--I am much pleased to hear from
+you, for I have wished to know of your destinies, and Bakewell couldn't
+give me a very precise account. I congratulate you on getting your
+review of me off your hands--you must experience a relief similar to
+that of Christian when he lost his bag of sin. I imagine your account of
+its unsatisfactoriness is a little hyperæsthetic, and that what you have
+brooded over so long will, in spite of anything in the accidents of its
+production, prove solid and deep, and reveal _ex pede_ the Hercules. Of
+course, if you do not unconditionally subscribe to my "Will to Believe"
+essay, it shows that you still are groping in the darkness of
+misunderstanding either of my meaning or of the truth; for in spite of
+"the bludgeonings of fate," my head is "bloody but unbowed" as to the
+rightness of my contention there, in both its parts. But we shall see;
+and I hope you are now free for more distant flights.
+
+I am extremely sorry to hear you have been not well again, even though
+you say you are so much better now. You ought to be _entirely_ well and
+every inch a king. Remember that, _whenever_ you need a change, your bed
+is made in this house for as many weeks as you care to stay. I know
+there will come feelings of disconsolateness over you occasionally, from
+being so out of the academic swim. But that is nothing! And while this
+time is on, you should think exclusively of its unique characteristics
+of blessedness, which will be irrecoverable when you are in the harness
+again.
+
+I spent the first six weeks after term began in trying to clear my table
+of encumbering tasks, in order to get at my own reading for the Gifford
+lectures. In vain. Each day brought its cargo, and I never got at my own
+work, until a fortnight ago the brilliant resolve was communicated to
+me, by divine inspiration, of not doing anything for anybody else, not
+writing a letter or looking at a MS., on any day until I should have
+done at least one hour of work for _myself_. If you spend your time
+preparing to be ready, you _never_ will be ready. Since that wonderful
+insight into the truth, despair has given way to happiness. I do my hour
+or hour and a half of free reading; and don't care what extraneous
+interest suffers.... Good-night, dear old Miller. Your ever loving,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Jan. 31, 1899_.
+
+...Your account of Josiah Royce is adorable--we have both gloated over
+it all day. The best intellectual character-painting ever limned by an
+English pen! Since teaching the "Conception of God," I have come to
+perceive what I didn't trust myself to believe before, that looseness of
+thought is R.'s _essential_ element. He _wants_ it. There isn't a tight
+joint in his system; not one. And yet I thought that a mind that could
+talk me blind and black and numb on mathematics and logic, and whose
+favorite recreation is works on those subjects, must necessarily conceal
+closeness and exactitudes of ratiocination that I hadn't the wit to find
+out. But no! he is the Rubens of philosophy. Richness, abundance,
+boldness, color, but a sharp contour never, and never any _perfection_.
+But isn't fertility better than perfection? Deary me! Ever thine,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry Rutgers Marshall._
+
+
+Cambridge [_Feb. 7, 1899_?].
+
+DEAR MARSHALL,--I will hand your paper to Eliot, though I am sure that
+nothing will come of it in _this_ University.
+
+Moreover, it strikes me that no good will ever come to Art as such from
+the analytic study of Æsthetics--harm rather, if the abstractions could
+in any way be made the basis of practice. We should get stark things
+done on system with all the intangible personal _je ne sçais quaw_ left
+out. The difference between the first-and second-best things in art
+absolutely seems to escape verbal definition--it is a matter of a hair,
+a shade, an inward quiver of some kind--yet what miles away in point of
+preciousness! Absolutely the same verbal formula applies to the supreme
+success and to the thing that just misses it, and yet verbal formulas
+are all that your aesthetics will give.
+
+Surely imitation in the concrete is better for results than any amount
+of gabble in the abstract. Let the rest of us philosophers gabble, but
+don't mix us up with the interests of the art department as such! Them's
+my sentiments.
+
+Thanks for the "cudgels" you are taking up for the "Will to Believe."
+Miller's article seems to be based solely on my little catchpenny
+_title_. Where would he have been if I had called my article "a critique
+of pure faith" or words to that effect? As it is, he doesn't touch a
+_single_ one of my points, and slays a mere abstraction. I shall
+greedily read what you write.
+
+I have been too lazy and hard pressed to write to you about your
+"Instinct and Reason," which contains many good things in the way of
+psychology and morals, but which--I tremble to say it before you--on the
+whole _does_ disappoint me. The religious part especially seems to me to
+rest on too narrow a phenomenal base, and the formula to be too simple
+and abstract. But it is a good contribution to American scholarship all
+the same, and I hope the Philippine Islanders will be forced to study
+it.
+
+Forgive my brevity and levity. Yours ever,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry Rutgers Marshall._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb. 8 [1899]_.
+
+DEAR MARSHALL,--Your invitation was perhaps the finest "tribute" the
+Jameses have ever received, but it is plumb impossible that either of us
+should accept. Pinned down, by ten thousand jobs and duties, like two
+Gullivers by the threads of the Lilliputians.
+
+I should "admire" to see the Kiplings again, but it is no go. Now that
+by his song-making power he is the mightiest force in the formation of
+the "Anglo-Saxon" character, I wish he would hearken a bit more to his
+deeper human self and a bit less to his shallower jingo self. If the
+Anglo-Saxon race would drop its sniveling cant it would have a good deal
+less of a "burden" to carry. We're the most loathsomely canting crew
+that God ever made. Kipling knows perfectly well that our camps in the
+tropics are not college settlements or our armies bands of
+philanthropists, slumming it; and I think it a shame that he should
+represent us to ourselves in that light. I wish he would try a bit
+interpreting the savage _soul_ to us, as he _could_, instead of using
+such official and conventional phrases as "half-devil and half-child,"
+which leaves the whole insides out.
+
+Heigh ho!
+
+I have only had time to glance at the first 1/2 of your paper on Miller.
+I am delighted you are thus going for him. His whole paper is an
+_ignoratio elenchi_, and he doesn't touch a single one of my positions.
+
+Believe me with great regrets and thanks, yours ever,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. Henry Whitman._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _June 7, 1899_.
+
+DEAR MRS. WHITMAN,--I got your penciled letter the day before leaving.
+The R.R. train seems to be a great stimulus to the acts of the higher
+epistolary activity and correspondential amicality in you--a fact for
+which I have (occasional) reason to be duly grateful. So here, in the
+cool darkness of my road-side "sitting-room," with no pen in the house,
+with the soft tap of the carpenter's hammer and the pensive scrape of
+the distant wood-saw stealing through the open wire-netting door, along
+with the fragrant air of the morning woods, I get stimulus responsive,
+and send you penciled return. Yes, the daylight that now seems shining
+through the Dreyfus case is glorious, and if the President only gets his
+back up a bit, and mows down the whole gang of Satan, or as much of it
+as can be touched, it will perhaps be a great day for the distracted
+France. I mean it may be one of those moral crises that become starting
+points and high-water marks and leave traditions and rallying cries and
+new forces behind them. One thing is certain, that no other alternative
+form of government possible to France in this century could have stood
+the strain as this democracy seems to be standing it.
+
+Apropos of which, a word about Woodberry's book.[22] I didn't know him
+to be that kind of a creature at all. The essays are grave and noble in
+the extreme. I hail another American author. They can't be popular, and
+for cause. The respect of him for the Queen's English, the classic
+leisureliness and explicitness, which give so rare a dignity to his
+style, also take from it that which our generation seems to need, the
+sudden word, the unmediated transition, the flash of perception that
+makes reasonings unnecessary. Poor Woodberry, so high, so true, so good,
+so original in his total make-up, and yet so unoriginal if you take him
+spot-wise--and therefore so ineffective. His paper on Democracy is very
+fine indeed, though somewhat too abstract. I haven't yet read the first
+and last essays in the book, which I shall buy and keep, and even send a
+word of gratulation to the author for it.
+
+As for me, my bed is made: I am against bigness and greatness in all
+their forms, and with the invisible molecular moral forces that work
+from individual to individual, stealing in through the crannies of the
+world like so many soft rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water,
+and yet rending the hardest monuments of man's pride, if you give them
+time. The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal,
+the more mendacious is the life displayed. So I am against all big
+organizations as such, national ones first and foremost; against all big
+successes and big results; and in favor of the eternal forces of truth
+which always work in the individual and immediately unsuccessful way,
+under-dogs always, till history comes, after they are long dead, and
+puts them on the top.--You need take no notice of these ebullitions of
+spleen, which are probably quite unintelligible to anyone but myself.
+Ever your
+
+W. J.
+
+When the College term ended in June, 1899, the sailing date of the
+European steamer on which James had taken passage for his wife and
+daughter and himself was still three weeks away. He turned again to the
+Adirondack Lodge and there persuaded himself, to his intense
+satisfaction, that if he walked slowly and alone, so that there was no
+temptation to talk while walking, or to keep on when he felt like
+stopping, he could still spend several hours a day on the mountain sides
+without inconvenience to his heart. But one afternoon he took a wrong
+path and did not discover his mistake until he had gone so far that it
+seemed safer to go on than to turn back. So he kept on. But the "trail"
+he was following was not the one he supposed it to be and led him
+farther and farther. He fainted twice; it grew dark; but having neither
+food, coat, nor matches, he stumbled along until at last he came out on
+the Keene Valley road and, at nearly eleven o'clock at night, reached a
+house where he could get food and a conveyance.
+
+He ought to have avoided all exertion for weeks thereafter, but he tried
+again to make light of what had occurred, and, on getting back to
+Cambridge, spent a very active few days over final arrangements for his
+year of absence. When his boat had sailed and the stimulus which his
+last duties supplied had been withdrawn, he began to discover what
+condition he was in.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+1899-1902
+
+ _Two years of Illness in Europe--Retirement from Active Duty at
+ Harvard--The First and Second Series of the Gifford Lectures_
+
+
+WHEN James sailed for Hamburg on July 15, he planned quite definitely to
+devote the summer to rest and the treatment of his heart, then to write
+out the Gifford Lectures during the winter, and to deliver them by the
+following spring; and, happily, could not foresee that he was to spend
+nearly two years in exile and idleness. For nearly six years he had
+driven himself beyond the true limits of his strength. Now it became
+evident that the strain of his second over-exertion in the Adirondacks
+had precipitated a complete collapse. He had been advised during the
+winter to go to Nauheim for a course of baths. But when he got there,
+the eminent specialists who examined his heart ignored his nervous
+prostration. He was doubtless a difficult patient to diagnose or
+prescribe for. Matters went from bad to worse; little by little all his
+plans had to be abandoned. A year went by, and a return to regular work
+in Cambridge was unthinkable. He was no better in the summer of 1900
+than when he landed in Germany in July of 1899. His daughter had been
+sent to school in England. The three other children remained in America.
+He and Mrs. James moved about between England, Nauheim, the south of
+France, Switzerland and Rome, consulting a specialist in one place or
+trying the baths or the climate in another--with how much homesickness,
+and with how much courage none the less, the letters will indicate.
+
+His only systematic reading was a persistent, though frequently
+intermitted, exploration of religious biographies and the literature of
+religious conversion, in preparation for the Gifford Lectures. During
+the second year he managed to get one course of these lectures written
+out. Not until he had delivered them in Edinburgh, in May, 1901, did he
+know that he had turned the corner and feel as if he had begun to live
+again.
+
+Every letter that came to him from his family and friends at home was
+comforting beyond measure, and he poured out a stream of acknowledgment
+in long replies, which he dictated to Mrs. James. His own writing was
+usually limited to jottings in a note-book and to post-cards. He always
+had a fountain-pen and a few post-cards in his pocket, and often, when
+sitting in a chair in the open air, or at a little table in one of the
+outdoor restaurants that abound in Nauheim and in southern Europe, he
+would compress more news and messages into one of these little missives
+than most men ever get into a letter. A few of his friends at home
+divined his situation, and were at pains to write him regularly and
+fully. Letters that follow show how grateful he was for such devotion.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In this state of enforced idleness he browsed through newspapers and
+journals more than he had before or than he ever did again, and so his
+letters contained more comments on daily events. It will be clear that
+what was happening did not always please him. He was an individualist
+and a liberal, both by temperament and by reason of having grown up with
+the generation which accepted the doctrines of the _laissez-faire_
+school in a thoroughgoing way. The Philippine policy of the McKinley
+administration seemed to him a humiliating desertion of the principles
+that America had fought for in the Revolution and the War of
+Emancipation. The military occupation of the Philippines, described by
+the President as "benevolent assimilation," and what he once called the
+"cold pot-grease of McKinley's eloquence" filled him with loathing. He
+saw the Republican Party in the light in which Mr. Dooley portrayed it
+when he represented its leaders as praying "that Providence might remain
+under the benevolent influence of the present administration." When
+McKinley and Roosevelt were nominated by the Republicans in 1900, he
+called them "a combination of slime and grit, soap and sand, that ought
+to scour anything away, even the moral sense of the country." He was
+ready to vote for Bryan if there were no other way of turning out the
+administration responsible for the history of our first years in the
+Philippines, "although it would doubtless have been a premature victory
+of a very mongrel kind of reform." In the same way, the cant with which
+many of the supporters of England's program in South Africa extolled the
+Boer War in the British press provoked his irony. The uproar over the
+Dreyfus case was at its height. The "intellectuels," as they were called
+in France, the "Little Englanders" as they were nicknamed in England,
+and the Anti-Imperialists in his own country had his entire sympathy.
+The state of mind of a member of the liberal minority, observing the
+phase of history that was disclosing itself at the end of the century,
+is admirably indicated in his correspondence.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Miss Pauline Goldmark, next addressed, and her family were in the habit
+of spending their summers in Keene Valley, where they had a cottage that
+was not far from the Putnam Shanty. James had often joined forces with
+them for a day's climb when he was staying at the Shanty. The reader
+will recall that it was their party that he had joined on Mt. Marcy the
+year before.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Pauline Goldmark._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _Aug. 12, 1899_.
+
+MY DEAR PAULINE,--I am afraid we are stuck here till the latter half of
+September. Once a donkey, always a donkey; at the Lodge in June, after
+some slow walks which seemed to do me no harm at all, I drifted one day
+up to the top of Marcy, and then (thanks to the Trail Improvement
+Society!) found myself in the Johns Brook Valley instead of on the Lodge
+trail back; and converted what would have been a three-hours' downward
+saunter into a seven-hours' scramble, emerging in Keene Valley at 10.15
+P.M. This did me no good--quite the contrary; so I have come to Nauheim
+just in time. My carelessness was due to the belief that there was only
+one trail in the Lodge direction, so I didn't attend particularly, and
+when I found myself off the track (the trail soon stopped) I thought I
+was going to South Meadow, and didn't reascend. Anyhow I was an ass, and
+you ought to have been along to steer me straight. I fear we shall
+ascend no more acclivities together. "Bent is the tree that should have
+grown full straight!" You have no idea of the moral repulsiveness of
+this _Curort_ life. Everybody fairly revelling in disease, and
+abandoning themselves to it with a sort of _gusto_. "Heart," "heart,"
+"heart," the sole topic of attention and conversation. As a "phase,"
+however, one ought to be able to live through it, and the extraordinary
+nerve-rest, crawling round as we do, is beneficial. Man is never
+satisfied! Perhaps I shall be when the baths, etc., have had their
+effect. We go then straight to England.--I do hope that you are all
+getting what you wish in Switzerland, and that for all of you the entire
+adventure is proving golden. Mrs. James sends her love, and I am, as
+always, yours most affectionately,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. E. P. Gibbens._
+
+
+VILLA LUISE, BAD-NAUHEIM, _Aug. 22, 1899_.
+
+DARLING BELLE-MÈRE,--The day seems to have come for another letter to
+you, though my fingers are so cold that I can hardly write. We have had
+a most conveniently dry season--convenient in that it doesn't coop us up
+in the house--but a deal of cloud and cold. Today is sunny but
+frigid--like late October. Altogether the difference of weather is very
+striking. European weather is stagnant and immovable. It is as if it got
+stuck, and needed a kick to start it; and although it is doubtless
+better for the nerves than ours, I find my soul thinking most kindly
+from this distance of our glorious quick passionate American climate,
+with its transparency and its impulsive extremes. This weather is as if
+fed on solid pudding. We inhabit one richly and heavily furnished
+bedroom, 21 x 14, with good beds and a balcony, and are rapidly making
+up for all our estrangement, locally speaking, in the past. It is a
+great "nerve-rest," though the listlessness that goes with all
+nerve-rest makes itself felt. Alice seems very well.... The place has
+wonderful adaptation to its purposes in the possession of a vast park
+with noble trees and avenues and incessant benches for rest; restaurants
+with out-of-door tables everywhere in sight; music morning, afternoon
+and night; and charming points to go to out of town. Cab-fare is cheap.
+But nothing else.... The Gifford lectures are in complete abeyance. I
+have word from Seth that under the circumstances the Academic Senate
+will be sure to grant me any delay or indulgence I may ask for; so this
+relieves tension. I can make nothing out yet about my heart.... So I
+_try_ to take long views and not fuss about temporary feelings, though I
+dare say I keep dear Alice worried enough by the fuss I imagine myself
+_not_ to make. It is a loathsome world, this medical world; and I
+confess that the thought of another six weeks here next year doesn't
+exhilarate me, in spite of the decency of all our physical conditions. I
+still remain faithful to Irving St. (95 and 107),[23] Chocorua, Silver
+Lake, and Keene Valley!
+
+We get almost no syllable of American news, in spite of the fact that we
+take the London "Chronicle." Pray send the "Nation" and the "Literary
+Digest." _Don't_ send the "Sciences" as heretofore. Let them accumulate.
+I think that after reception of this you had better address us care of
+H. J., Rye, Sussex. We shall probably be off by the 10th or 12th of
+Sept. I hope that public opinion is gathering black against the
+Philippine policy--in spite of my absence! I hope that Salter will pitch
+in well in the fall. The still blacker nightmare of a Dreyfus case hangs
+over us; and there is little time in the day save for reading the
+"Figaro's" full reports of the trial. Like all French happenings, it is
+as if they were edited expressly for literary purpose. Every "witness"
+so-called has a power of statement equal to that of a first-class
+lawyer; and the various human types that succeed each other, exhibiting
+their several peculiarities in full blossom, make the thing like a
+novel. Esterhazy seems to me the _great_ hero. How Shakespeare would
+have enjoyed such a fantastic scoundrel,--knowing all the secrets,
+saying what he pleases, mystifying all Europe, leading the whole French
+army (except apparently Picquart) by the nose,--a regular Shakespearean
+type of villain, with an insane exuberance of rhetoric and fancy about
+his vanities and hatreds, that literature has never given yet. It would
+seem incredible that the Court-Martial should condemn. Henry was
+evidently the spy, employed by Esterhazy, and afterwards Du Paty helped
+their machinations, in order not to stultify his own record at the
+original trial--at least this seems the plausible theory. The older
+generals seem merely to have been passive connivers, stupidly and
+obstinately holding to the original official mistake rather than
+surrender under fire. And such is the prestige of caste-opinion, such
+the solidity of the professional spirit, that, incredible as it may
+seem, it is still quite probable that the officers will obey the lead of
+their superiors, and condemn Dreyfus again. The President, Jouaust, who
+was supposed to be impartial, is showing an apparently bad animus
+against Picquart. P. is a real _hero_--a precious possession for any
+country. He ought to be made Minister of War; though that would
+doubtless produce a revolution. I suppose that Loubet will pardon
+Dreyfus immediately if he is recondemned. Then Dreyfus, and perhaps
+Loubet, will be assassinated by some Anti-Semite, and who knows what
+will follow? But before you get this, you will know far more about the
+trial than I can tell you.
+
+We long for news from the boys--not a word from Billy since he left
+Tacoma. I am glad their season promises to be shorter! Enough is as good
+as a feast! What a scattered lot we are! I hope that Margaret will be
+happy in Montreal. As for you in your desolation, I could almost weep
+for you. My only advice is that you should cling to Aleck as to a
+life-preserver. I trust you got the $200 I told Higginson to send you. I
+am mortified beyond measure by that overdrawn bank account, and do not
+understand it at all.
+
+Oceans of love from your affectionate son,
+
+WILLIAM.
+
+
+
+
+_To William M. Salter._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _Sept. 11, 1899_.
+
+DEAR MACKINTIRE,--The incredible has happened, and Dreyfus, without one
+may say a single particle of _positive_ evidence that he was guilty, has
+been condemned again. The French Republic, which seemed about to turn
+the most dangerous corner in her career and enter on the line of
+political health, laying down the finest set of political precedents in
+her history to serve as standards for future imitation and habit, has
+slipped Hell-ward and all the forces of Hell in the country will proceed
+to fresh excesses of insolence. But I don't believe the game is lost.
+"Les intellectuels," thanks to the Republic, are now aggressively
+militant as they never were before, and will grow stronger and stronger;
+so we may hope. I have sent you the "Figaro" daily; but of course the
+reports are too long for you to have read through. The most grotesque
+thing about the whole trial is the pretension of awful holiness, of
+semi-divinity in the diplomatic documents and waste-paper-basket scraps
+from the embassies--a farce kept up to the very end--these same
+documents being, so far as they were anything (and most of them were
+nothing), mere records of treason, lying, theft, bribery, corruption,
+and every crime on the part of the diplomatic agents. Either the German
+and Italian governments will now publish or not publish all the details
+of their transactions--give the exact documents meant by the
+_bordereaux_ and the exact names of the French traitors. If they do not,
+there will be only two possible explanations: either Dreyfus's guilt,
+or the pride of their own sacrosanct etiquette. As it is scarcely
+conceivable that Dreyfus can have been guilty, their silences will be
+due to the latter cause. (Of course it can't be due to what they owe in
+honor to Esterhazy and whoever their other allies and servants may have
+been. E. is safe over the border, and a pension for his services will
+heal all his wounds. Any other person can quickly be put in similar
+conditions of happiness.) And they and Esterhazy will then be exactly on
+a par morally, actively conspiring to have an innocent man bear the
+burden of their own sins. By their carelessness with the documents they
+got Dreyfus accused, and now they abandon him, for the sake of their own
+divine etiquette.
+
+The breath of the nostrils of all these big institutions is crime--that
+is the long and short of it. We must thank God for America; and hold
+fast to every advantage of our position. Talk about our corruption! It
+is a mere fly-speck of superficiality compared with the rooted and
+permanent forces of corruption that exist in the European states. The
+only serious permanent force of corruption in America is party spirit.
+All the other forces are shifting like the clouds, and have no
+partnerships with any permanently organized ideal. Millionaires and
+syndicates have their immediate cash to pay, but they have no intrenched
+prestige to work with, like the church sentiment, the army sentiment,
+the aristocracy and royalty sentiment, which here can be brought to bear
+in favor of every kind of individual and collective crime--appealing not
+only to the immediate pocket of the persons to be corrupted, but to the
+ideals of their imagination as well.... My dear Mack, we "intellectuals"
+in America must all work to keep our precious birthright of
+individualism, and freedom from these institutions. _Every_ great
+institution is perforce a means of corruption--whatever good it may also
+do. Only in the free personal relation is full ideality to be found.--I
+have vomited all this out upon you in the hope that it may wake a
+responsive echo. One must do _something_ to work off the effect of the
+Dreyfus sentence.
+
+I rejoice immensely in the purchase [on our behalf] of the two pieces of
+land [near Chocorua], and pine for the day when I can get back to see
+them. If all the same to you, I wish that you would buy Burke's in your
+name, and Mother-in-law Forrest's in her name. But let this be exactly
+as each of you severally prefers.
+
+We leave here in a couple of days, I imagine. I am better; but I can't
+tell how much better for a few weeks yet. I hope that you will smite the
+ungodly next winter. What a glorious gathering together of the forces
+for the great fight there will be. It seems to me as if the proper
+tactics were to pound McKinley--put the whole responsibility on him. It
+is he who by his purely drifting "non-entanglement" policy converted a
+splendid opportunity into this present necessity of a conquest of
+extermination. It is he who has warped us from our continuous national
+habit, which, if we repudiate him, it will not be impossible to resume.
+
+Affectionately thine, Mary's, Aleck's, Dinah's, Augusta's,[24] and
+everyone's,
+
+W. J.
+
+P.S. Damn it, America doesn't know the meaning of the word corruption
+compared with Europe! Corruption is so permanently organized here that
+it isn't thought of as such--it is so transient and shifting in America
+as to make an outcry whenever it appears.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _Sept. 17, 1899_.
+
+...In two or three days more I shall be discharged (in very decent
+shape, I trust) and after ten days or so of rigorously prescribed
+"Nachkur" in the cold and rain of Switzerland (we have seen the sun only
+in short but entrancing glimpses since Sept. 1, and you know what bad
+weather is when it once begins in Europe), we shall pick up our Peggy at
+Vevey, and proceed to Lamb House, Rye, _über_ Paris, with all possible
+speed. God bless the American climate, with its transparent, passionate,
+impulsive variety and headlong fling. There are deeper, slower tones of
+earnestness and moral gravity here, no doubt, but ours is more like
+youth and youth's infinite and touching promise. God bless America in
+general! _Conspuez_ McKinley and the Republican party and the Philippine
+war, and the Methodists, and the voices, etc., as much as you please,
+but bless the innocence. Talk of corruption! We don't know what the word
+corruption means at home, with our improvised and shifting agencies of
+crude pecuniary bribery, compared with the solidly intrenched and
+permanently organized corruptive geniuses of monarchy, nobility, church,
+army, that penetrate the very bosom of the higher kind as well as the
+lower kind of people in all the European states (except Switzerland) and
+sophisticate their motives away from the impulse to straightforward
+handling of any simple case. _Temoin_ the Dreyfus case! But no matter!
+Of all the forms of mental crudity, that of growing earnest over
+international comparisons is probably the most childish. Every nation
+has its ideals which are a dead secret to other nations, and it has to
+develop in its own way, in touch with them. It can only be judged by
+itself. If each of us does as well as he can in his own sphere at home,
+he will do all he _can_ do; that is why I hate to remain so long
+abroad....
+
+We have been having a visit from an extraordinary Pole named
+Lutoslawski, 36 years old, author of philosophical writings in seven
+different languages,--"Plato's Logic," in English (Longmans) being his
+chief work,--and knower of several more, handsome, and to the last
+degree genial. He has a singular philosophy--the philosophy of
+friendship. He takes in dead seriousness what most people admit, but
+only half-believe, viz., that we are _Souls_ (Zoolss, he pronounces it),
+that souls are immortal, and agents of the world's destinies, and that
+the chief concern of a soul is to get ahead by the help of other souls
+with whom it can establish confidential relations. So he spends most of
+his time writing letters, and will send 8 sheets of reply to a
+post-card--that is the exact proportion of my correspondence with him.
+Shall I rope you in, Fanny? He has a great chain of friends and
+correspondents in all the countries of Europe. The worst of them is that
+they think a secret imparted to one may at his or her discretion become,
+_de proche en proche_, the property of all. He is a _wunderlicher
+Mensch_: abstractly his scheme is divine, but there is something on
+which I can't yet just lay my defining finger that makes one feel that
+there is some need of the corrective and critical and arresting judgment
+in his manner of carrying it out. These Slavs seem to be the great
+radical livers-out of their theories. Good-bye, dearest Fanny....
+
+Your affectionate
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. Henry Whitman._
+
+
+LAMB HOUSE, RYE, _Oct. 5, 1899_.
+
+DEAR MRS. WHITMAN,--You see where at last we have arrived, at the end of
+the first _étape_ of this pilgrimage--the second station of the cross,
+so to speak--with the Continent over, and England about to begin. The
+land is bathed in greenish-yellow light and misty drizzle of rain. The
+little town, with its miniature brick walls and houses and nooks and
+coves and gardens, makes a curiously vivid and quaint picture,
+alternately suggesting English, Dutch, and Japanese effects that one has
+seen in pictures--all exceedingly tiny (so that one wonders how
+_families_ ever could have been reared in most of the houses) and neat
+and _zierlich_ to the last degree. _Refinement_ in architecture
+certainly consists in narrow trim and the absence of heavy mouldings.
+Modern Germany is incredibly bad from that point of view--much worse,
+apparently, than America. But the German people are a good safe fact for
+great powers to be intrusted to--earnest and serious, and pleasant to be
+with, as we found them, though it was humiliating enough to find how
+awfully imperfect were one's powers of conversing in their language.
+French not much better. I remember nothing of this extreme mortification
+in old times, and am inclined to think that it is due less to loss of
+ability to speak, than to the fact that, as you grow older, you speak
+better English, and expect more of yourself in the way of
+accomplishment. I am sure _you_ spoke no such English as now, in the
+seventies, when you came to Cambridge! And how could I, as yet untrained
+by conversation with you?
+
+Seven mortal weeks did we spend at the _Curort_, Nauheim, for an
+infirmity of the heart which I contracted, apparently, not much more
+than a year ago, and which now must be borne, along with the rest of the
+white man's burden, until additional visits to Nauheim have removed it
+altogether for ordinary practical purposes. N. was a sweetly pretty
+spot, but I longed for more activity. A glorious week in Switzerland,
+solid in its sometimes awful, sometimes beefy beauty; two days in
+Paris, where I could gladly have stayed the winter out, merely for the
+fun of the sight of the intelligent and interesting streets; then
+hither, where H. J. has a real little _bijou_ of a house and garden, and
+seems absolutely adapted to his environment, and very well and contented
+in the leisure to write and to read which the place affords.
+
+In a few days we go almost certainly to the said H. J.'s apartment,
+still unlet, in London, where we shall in all probability stay till
+January, the world forgetting, by the world forgot, or till such later
+date as shall witness the completion of the awful Gifford job, at which
+I have not been able to write one line since last January. I long for
+the definitive settlement and ability to get to work. I am very glad
+indeed, too, to be in an English atmosphere again. Of course it will
+conspire better with my writing tasks, and after all it is more
+congruous with one's nature and one's inner ideals. Still, one loves
+America above all things, for her youth, her greenness, her plasticity,
+innocence, good intentions, friends, everything. Je veux que mes cendres
+reposent sur les bords du Charles, au milieu de ce bon peuple de Harvarr
+Squerre que j'ai tant aimé. That is what I say, and what Napoleon B.
+would have said, had his life been enriched by your and my educational
+and other experiences--poor man, he knew too little of life, had never
+even heard of us, whilst we have heard of him!
+
+Seriously speaking, though, I believe that international comparisons are
+a great waste of time--at any rate, international judgments and passings
+of sentence are. Every nation has ideals and difficulties and sentiments
+which are an impenetrable secret to one not of the blood. Let them
+alone, let each one work out its own salvation on its own lines. They
+talk of the decadence of France. The hatreds, and the _coups de gueule_
+of the newspapers there are awful. But I doubt if the better ideals were
+ever so aggressively strong; and I fancy it is the fruit of the much
+decried republican régime that they have become so. My brother
+represents English popular opinion as less cock-a-whoop for war than
+newspaper accounts would lead one to imagine; but I don't know that he
+is in a good position for judging. I hope if they do go to war that the
+Boers will give them fits, and I heartily emit an analogous prayer on
+behalf of the Philippinos.
+
+I have had pleasant news of Beverly, having had letters both from Fanny
+Morse and Paulina Smith. I hope that your summer has been a good one,
+that work has prospered and that Society has been less _énervante_ and
+more nutritious for the higher life of the Soul than it sometimes is.
+_We_ have met but one person of any accomplishments or interest all
+summer. But I have managed to read a good deal about religion, and
+religious people, and care less for accomplishments, except where (as in
+you) they go with a sanctified heart. Abundance of accomplishments, in
+an unsanctified heart, only make one a more accomplished devil.
+
+Good bye, angelic friend! We both send love and best wishes, both to you
+and Mr. Whitman, and I am as ever yours affectionately,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Thomas Davidson._
+
+
+34 DE VERE GARDENS,
+LONDON, _Nov. 2, 1899_.
+
+DEAR OLD T. D.,--A recent letter from Margaret Gibbens says that you
+have gone to New York in order to undergo a most "radical operation." I
+need not say that my thoughts have been with you, and that I have felt
+anxiety mixed with my hopes for you, ever since. I do indeed hope that,
+whatever the treatment was, it has gone off with perfect success, and
+that by this time you are in the durable enjoyment of relief, and nerves
+and everything upon the upward track. It has always seemed to me that,
+were I in a similar plight, I should choose a kill-or-cure operation
+rather than anything merely palliative--so poisonous to one's whole
+mental and moral being is the irritation and worry of the complaint. It
+would truly be a spectacle for the Gods to see you rising like a
+phoenix from your ashes again, and shaking off even the memory of
+disaster like dew-drops from a lion's mane, etc.--and I hope the
+spectacle will be vouchsafed to us men also, and that you will be
+presiding over Glenmore as if nothing had happened, different from the
+first years, save a certain softening of your native ferocity of heart,
+and gentleness towards the shortcomings of weaker people. Dear old East
+Hill![25] I shall never forget the beauty of the morning (it had rained
+the night before) when I took my bath in the brook, before driving down
+to Westport one day last June.
+
+We got your letter at Nauheim, a sweet safe little place, made for
+invalids, to which it took long to reconcile me on that account. But
+nous en avons vu bien d'autres depuis, and from my present retirement in
+my brother's still unlet flat (he living at Rye), Nauheim seems to me
+like New York for bustle and energy. My heart, in short, has gone back
+upon me badly since I was there, and my doctor, Bezley Thorne, the first
+specialist here, and a man who inspires me with great confidence, is
+trying to tide me over the crisis, by great quiet, in addition to a
+dietary of the strictest sort, and more Nauheim baths, _à domicile_.
+Provided I can only get safely out of the Gifford scrape, the deluge has
+leave to come.--Write, dear old T. D., and tell how you are, and let it
+be good news if possible. Give much love to the Warrens, and believe me
+always affectionately yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+The woman thou gavest unto me comes out strong as a nurse, and treats me
+much better than I deserve.
+
+
+
+
+_To John C. Gray._
+
+
+[Dictated to Mrs. James]
+
+LONDON, _Nov. 23, 1899_.
+
+DEAR JOHN,--A week ago I learnt from the "Nation"--strange to have heard
+it in no directer way!--that dear old John Ropes had turned his back on
+us and all this mortal tragi-comedy. No sooner does one get abroad than
+that sort of thing begins. I am deeply grieved to think of never seeing
+or hearing old J. C. R. again, with his manliness, good-fellowship, and
+cheeriness, and idealism of the right sort, and can't hold in any longer
+from expression. You, dear John, seem the only fitting person for me to
+condole with, for you will miss him most tremendously. Pray write and
+tell me some details of the manner of his death. I hope he didn't suffer
+much. Write also of your own personal and family fortunes and give my
+love to the members of our dining club collectively and individually,
+when you next meet.
+
+I have myself been shut up in a sick room for five weeks past, seeing
+hardly anyone but my wife and the doctor, a bad state of the heart being
+the cause. We shall be at West Malvern in ten days, where I hope to
+begin to mend.
+
+Hurrah for Henry Higginson and his gift[26] to the University! I think
+the Club cannot fail to be useful if they make it democratic enough.
+
+I hope that Roland is enjoying Washington, but not so far
+transubstantiated into a politician as to think that McKinley & Co. are
+the high-water mark of human greatness up to date.
+
+John Ropes, more than most men, seems as if he would be natural to meet
+again.
+
+Please give our love to Mrs. Gray, and believe me, affectionately yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+LAMB HOUSE, _Dec. 23, 1899_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--About a week ago I found myself thinking a good deal
+about you.
+
+I may possibly have begun by wondering how it came that, after showing
+such a spontaneous tendency towards that "clandestine correspondence"
+early in the season, you should recently, in spite of pathetic news
+about me, and direct personal appeals, be showing such great epistolary
+reserve. I went on to great lengths about you; and ended by realizing
+your existence, and its significance, as it were, very acutely. I
+composed a letter to you in my mind, whilst lying awake, dwelling in a
+feeling manner on the fact that human beings are born into this little
+span of life of which the best thing is its friendships and intimacies,
+and soon their places will know them no more, and yet they leave their
+friendships and intimacies with no cultivation, to grow as they will by
+the roadside, expecting them to "keep" by force of mere inertia; they
+contribute nothing empirical to the relation, treating it as something
+transcendental and metaphysical altogether; whereas in truth it
+deserves from hour to hour the most active care and nurture and
+devotion. "There's that Fanny," thought I, "the rarest and most
+precious, perhaps, of all the phenomena that enter into the circle of my
+experience. I take her for granted; I seldom see her--she _has never
+passed a night in our house!_[27] and yet of all things she is the one
+that probably deserves the closest and most unremitting attention on my
+part. This transcendental relation of persons to each other in the
+absolute won't do! I must write to Fanny and tell her, in spite of her
+deprecations, just how perfect and rare and priceless a fact I know her
+existence in this Universe eternally to be. This very morrow I will
+dictate such a letter to Alice." The morrow came, and several days
+succeeded, and brought each its impediment with it, so that letter
+doesn't get written till today. And now Alice, who had suddenly to take
+Peggy (who is with us for ten days) out to see a neighbor's little girl,
+comes in; so I will give the pen to her.
+
+[Remainder of letter dictated to Mrs. James]
+
+Sunday, 24th.
+
+Brother Harry and Peggy came in with Alice last evening, so my letter
+got postponed till this morning. What I was going to say was this. The
+day before yesterday we received in one bunch seven letters from you,
+dating from the 20th of October to the 8th of December, and showing that
+you, at any rate, had been alive to the duty of actively nourishing
+friendship by deeds.... Your letters were sent to Baring Brothers,
+instead of Brown, Shipley and Co., and it was a mercy that we ever got
+them at all. You are a great letter-writer inasmuch as your pen flows
+on, giving out easily such facts and feelings and thoughts as form the
+actual contents of your day, so that one gets a live impression of
+concrete reality. _My_ letters, I find, tend to escape into humorisms,
+abstractions and flights of fancy, which are not nutritious things to
+impart to friends thousands of miles away who wish to realize the facts
+of your private existence. We are now received into the shelter of H.
+J.'s "Lamb House," where we have been a week, having found West Malvern
+(where the doctor sent me after my course of baths) rather too bleak a
+retreat for the drear-nighted December. (Heaven be praised! we have just
+lived down the solstice after which the year always seems a brighter,
+hopefuller thing.) Harry's place is a most exquisite collection of
+quaint little stage properties, three quarters of an acre of
+brick-walled English garden, little brick courts and out-houses,
+old-time kitchen and offices, paneled chambers and tiled fire-places,
+but all very simple and on a small scale. Its host, soon to become its
+proprietor, leads a very lonely life but seems in perfect equilibrium
+therewith, placing apparently his interest more and more in the
+operations of his fancy. His health is good, his face calm, his spirits
+equable, and he will doubtless remain here for many years to come, with
+an occasional visit to London. He has spoken of you with warm affection
+and is grateful for the letters which you send him in spite of the lapse
+of years....
+
+I have resigned my Gifford lectureship, but they will undoubtedly grant
+me indefinite postponement. I have also asked for a second year of
+absence from Harvard, which of course will be accorded. If I improve, I
+may be able to give my first Gifford course next year. I can do no work
+whatsoever at present, but through the summer and half through the fall
+was able to do a good deal of reading in religious biography. Since
+July, in fact, my only companions have been saints, most excellent,
+though sometimes rather lop-sided company. In a general manner I can
+see my way to a perfectly bully pair of volumes, the first an objective
+study of the "Varieties of Religious Experience," the second, my own
+last will and testament, setting forth the philosophy best adapted to
+normal religious needs. I hope I may be spared to get the thing down on
+paper. So far my progress has been rather downhill, but the last couple
+of days have shown a change which possibly may be the beginning of
+better things. I mean to take great care of myself from this time on. In
+another week or two we hope to move to a climate (possibly near Hyères)
+where I may sit more out of doors. Gathering some strength there, I
+trust to make for Nauheim in May. If I am benefited there, we shall stay
+over next winter; otherwise we return by midsummer. Were Alice not
+holding the pen, I should celebrate her unselfish devotion, etc., and
+were I not myself dictating, I should celebrate my own uncomplaining
+patience and fortitude. As it is, I leave you to imagine both. Both are
+simply beautiful!
+
+...There, dear Fanny, this is all I can do today in return for your
+seven glorious epistles. Take a heartful of love and gratitude from both
+of us. Remember us most affectionately to your Mother and Mary. Write
+again soon, I pray you, but always to _Brown, Shipley and Co._ Stir up
+Jim Putnam to write when he can, and believe me, lovingly yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. Glendower Evans._
+
+
+[Dictated to Mrs. James]
+
+COSTEBELLE, HYÈRES, _Jan. 17, 1900_.
+
+DEAR BESSIE,--Don't think that this is the first time that my spirit has
+turned towards you since our departure. Away back in Nauheim I began
+meaning to write to you, and although that meaning was "fulfilled" long
+before you were born, in Royce's Absolute, yet there was a hitch about
+it in the finite which gave me perplexity. I think that the real reason
+why I kept finding myself able to dictate letters to other persons--not
+many, 't is true--and yet postponing ever until next time my letter unto
+you, was that my sense of your value was so much greater than almost
+anybody else's--though I wouldn't have anything in this construed
+prejudicial to Fanny Morse. Bowed as I am by the heaviest of matrimonial
+chains, ever dependent for expression on Alice here, how can my spirit
+move with perfect spontaneity, or "voice itself" with the careless
+freedom it would wish for in the channels of its choice? I am sure you
+understand, and under present conditions of communication anything more
+explicit might be imprudent.
+
+She has told you correctly all the outward facts. I feel within a week
+past as if I might really be taking a turn for the better, and I know
+you will be glad.
+
+I have, in the last days, gone so far as to read Royce's book[28] from
+cover to cover, a task made easy by the familiarity of the thought, as
+well as the flow of the style. It is a charming production--it is odd
+that the adjectives "charming" and "pretty" emerge so strongly to
+characterize my impression. R. has got himself much more organically
+together than he ever did before, the result being, in its _ensemble_, a
+highly individual and original _Weltanschauung_, well-fitted to be the
+storm-centre of much discussion, and to form a wellspring of suggestion
+and education for the next generation of thought in America. But it
+makes youthful anew the paradox of philosophy--so trivial and so
+ponderous at once. The book leaves a total effect on you like a
+picture--a summary impression of charm and grace as light as a breath;
+yet to bring forth that light nothing less than Royce's enormous organic
+temperament and technical equipment, and preliminary attempts, were
+required. The book consolidates an impression which I have never before
+got except by glimpses, that Royce's system is through and through to be
+classed as a light production. It is a charming, romantic sketch; and it
+is only by handling it after the manner of a sketch, keeping it within
+sketch technique, that R. can make it very impressive. In the few places
+where he tries to grip and reason close, the effect is rather
+disastrous, to my mind. But I do think of Royce now in a more or less
+settled way as primarily a sketcher in philosophy. Of course the
+sketches of some masters are worth more than the finished pictures of
+others. But stop! if this was the kind of letter I meant to write to
+you, it is no wonder that I found myself unable to begin weeks ago. My
+excuse is that I only finished the book two hours ago, and my mind was
+full to overflowing.
+
+Next Monday we are expecting to move into the neighboring Château de
+Carqueiranne, which my friend Professor Richet of Paris has offered
+conjointly to us and the Fred Myerses, who will soon arrive. A whole
+country house in splendid grounds and a perfect Godsend under the
+conditions. If I can only bear the talking to the Myerses without too
+much fatigue! But that also I am sure will come. Our present situation
+is enviable enough. A large bedroom with a balcony high up on the vast
+hotel façade; a terrace below it graveled with white pebbles containing
+beds of palms and oranges and roses; below that a downward sloping
+garden full of plants and winding walks and seats; then a wide hillside
+continuing southward to the plain below, with its gray-green olive
+groves bordered by great salt marshes with salt works on them, shut in
+from the sea by the causeways which lead to a long rocky island, perhaps
+three miles away, that limits the middle of our view due south, and
+beyond which to the East and West appears the boundless Mediterranean.
+But delightful as this is, there is no place like home; Otis Place is
+better than Languedoc and Irving Street than Provence. And I am sure,
+dear Bessie, that there is no maid, wife or widow in either of these
+countries that is half as good as you. But here I must absolutely stop;
+so with a good-night and a happy New Year to you, I am as ever,
+affectionately your friend,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+[Dictated to Mrs. James]
+
+HOTEL D' ALBION,
+COSTEBELLE, HYÈRES, _Jan. 18, 1900_.
+
+DARLING MILLER,--Last night arrived your pathetically sympathetic letter
+in comment on the news you had just received of my dropping out for the
+present from the active career. I want you to understand how deeply I
+value your unflagging feeling of friendship, and how much we have been
+touched by this new expression of it.... My strength and spirits are
+coming back to me with the open-air life, and I begin to feel quite
+differently towards the future. Even if this amelioration does not
+develop fast, it is a check to the deterioration, and shows that
+curative forces are still there. I look perfectly well at present, and
+that of itself is a very favorable sign. In a couple of weeks I mean to
+begin the Gifford lectures, writing, say, a page a day, and having all
+next year before me empty, am very likely to get, at any rate, the first
+course finished. A letter from Seth last night told me that the
+Committee [on the Gifford Lectureship] had refused my resignation and
+simply shoved my appointment forward by one year. So be of good cheer,
+Miller; we shall yet fight the good fight, sometimes side by side,
+sometimes agin one another, as merrily as if no interruption had
+occurred. Show this to Harry, to whom his mother will write today.
+
+We enjoyed Royce's visit very much, and yesterday I finished reading his
+book, which I find perfectly charming as a composition, though as far as
+cogent reasoning goes, it leaks at every joint. It is, nevertheless, a
+big achievement in the line of philosophic fancy-work, perhaps the most
+important of all except religious fancy-work. He has got himself
+together far more intricately than ever before, and ought, after this,
+to be recognized by the world according to the measure of his real
+importance. To me, however, the book has brought about a curious
+settlement in my way of classing Royce. In spite of the great technical
+freight he carries, and his extraordinary mental vigor, he belongs
+essentially among the lighter skirmishers of philosophy. A sketcher and
+popularizer, not a pile-driver, foundation-layer, or wall-builder.
+Within his class, of course, he is simply magnificent. It all goes with
+his easy temperament and rare good-nature in discussion. The subject is
+not really vital to him, it is just fancy-work. All the same I do hope
+that this book and its successor will prove a great ferment in our
+philosophic schools. Only with schools and living masters can philosophy
+_bloom_ in a country, in a generation.
+
+No more, dear Miller, but endless thanks. All you tell me of yourself
+deeply interests me. I am deeply sorry about the eyes. Are you sure it
+is not a matter for glasses? With much love from both of us. Your ever
+affectionate,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Francis Boott._
+
+
+[Dictated to Mrs. James]
+
+CHÂTEAU DE CARQUEIRANNE, _Jan. 31, 1900_.
+
+DEAR OLD FRIEND,--Every day for a month past I have said to Alice,
+"Today we must get off a letter to Mr. Boott"; but every day the
+available strength was less than the call upon it. Yours of the 28th
+December reached us duly at Rye and was read at the cheerful little
+breakfast table. I must say that you are the only person who has caught
+the proper tone for sympathizing with an invalid's feelings. Everyone
+else says, "We are glad to think that you are by this time in splendid
+condition, richly enjoying your rest, and having a great success at
+Edinburgh"--this, where what one craves is mere pity for one's unmerited
+sufferings! _You_ say, "it is a great disappointment, more I should
+think than you can well bear. I wish you could give up the whole affair
+and turn your prow toward home." That, dear Sir, is the proper note to
+strike--la voix du coeur qui seul au coeur arrive; and I thank you for
+recognizing that it is a case of agony and patience. I, for one, should
+be too glad to turn my prow homewards, in spite of all our present
+privileges in the way of simplified life, and glorious climate. What
+wouldn't I give at this moment to be partaking of one of your recherchés
+déjeuners à la fourchette, ministered to by the good Kate. From the bed
+on which I lie I can "sense" it as if present--the succulent roast pork,
+the apple sauce, the canned asparagus, the cranberry pie, the dates, the
+"To Kalon,"[29]--above all the _rire en barbe_ of the ever-youthful
+host. Will they ever come again?
+
+Don't understand me to be disparaging our present meals which, cooked by
+a broadbuilt sexagenarian Provençale, leave nothing to be desired.
+Especially is the fish good and the artichokes, and the stewed lettuce.
+Our _commensaux_, the Myerses, form a good combination. The house is
+vast and comfortable and the air just right for one in my condition,
+neither relaxing nor exciting, and floods of sunshine.
+
+Do you care much about the war? For my part I think Jehovah has run the
+thing about right, so far; though on utilitarian grounds it will be very
+likely better if the English win. When we were at Rye an interminable
+controversy raged about a national day of humiliation and prayer. I
+wrote to the "Times" to suggest, in my character of traveling American,
+that both sides to the controversy might be satisfied by a service
+arranged on principles suggested by the anecdote of the Montana settler
+who met a grizzly so formidable that he fell on his knees, saying, "O
+Lord, I hain't never yet asked ye for help, and ain't agoin' to ask ye
+for none now. But for pity's sake, O Lord, don't help the bear." The
+solemn "Times" never printed my letter and thus the world lost an
+admirable epigram. You, I know, will appreciate it.
+
+Mrs. Gibbens speaks with great pleasure of your friendly visits, and I
+should think you might find Mrs. Merriman good company. I hope you are
+getting through the winter without any bronchial trouble, and I hope
+that neither the influenza nor the bubonic plague has got to Cambridge
+yet. The former is devastating Europe. If you see dear Dr. Driver, give
+him our warmest regards. One ought to stay among one's own people. I
+seem to be mending--though very slowly, and the least thing knocks me
+down. This noon I am still in bed, a little too much talking with the
+Myerses yesterday giving me a strong pectoral distress which is not yet
+over. This dictation begins to hurt me, so I will stop. My spirits now
+are first-rate, which is a great point gained.
+
+Good-bye, dear old man! We both send our warmest love and are, ever
+affectionately yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Hugo Münsterberg._
+
+
+CARQUEIANNE, _March 13, 1900_.
+
+DEAR MÜNSTERBERG,--Your letter of the 7th "ult." was a most delightful
+surprise--all but the part of it which told of your being ill again--and
+of course the news of poor Solomons's death was a severe shock.... As
+regards Solomons, it is pathetically tragic, and I hope that you will
+send me full details. There was something so lonely and self-sustaining
+about poor little S., that to be snuffed out like this before he had
+fairly begun to live in the eyes of the world adds a sort of tragic
+dramatic unity to his young career. Certainly the _keenest_ intellect we
+ever had, and one of the loftiest characters! But there was always a
+mysterious side to me about his mind: he appeared so critical and
+destructive, and yet kept alluding all the while to ethical and
+religious ideals of his own which he wished to live for, and of which he
+never vouchsafed a glimpse to anyone else. He was the only student I
+have ever had of whose criticisms I felt afraid: and that was partly
+because I never quite understood the region from which they came, and
+with the authority of which he spoke. His surface thoughts, however, of
+a scientific order, were extraordinarily _treffend_ and clearly
+expressed; in fact, the way in which he went to the heart of a subject
+in a few words was masterly. Of course he must have left, apart from his
+thesis, a good deal of MS. fit for publication. I have not seen our
+philosophical periodicals since leaving home. Have any parts of his
+thesis already appeared? If not, the whole thing should be published as
+"Monograph Supplement" to the "Psychological Review," and his papers
+gone over to see what else there may be. An adequate obituary of him
+ought also to be written. Who knew him most intimately? I think the
+obituary and a portrait ought also to be posted in the laboratory. Can
+you send me the address of his mother?--I think his father is dead. I
+should also like to write a word about him to Miss S----, if you can
+give me her address. If we had foreseen this early end to poor little
+Solomons, how much more we should have made of him, and how considerate
+we should have been!
+
+It pleases me much to think of so many other good young fellows, as you
+report them, in the laboratory this year. How many candidates for Ph.D.?
+How glad I am to be clear of those examinations, certainly the most
+disagreeable part of the year's work....
+
+
+
+
+_To George H. Palmer._
+
+
+CARQUEIRANNE, _Apr. 2, 1900_.
+
+GLORIOUS OLD PALMER,--I had come to the point of feeling that my next
+letter _must_ be to you, when in comes your delightful "favor" of the
+18th, with all its news, its convincing clipping, and its enclosures
+from Bakewell and Sheldon. I have had many impulses to write to
+Bakewell, but they have all aborted--my powers being so small and so
+much _in Anspruch genommen_ by correspondence already under way. I judge
+him to be well and happy. What think you of his wife? I suppose she is
+no relation of yours. I shouldn't think any of your three candidates
+would do for that conventional Bryn Mawr. She stoneth the prophets, and
+I wish she would get X---- and get stung. He made a _deplorable_
+impression on me many years ago. The only comment _I_ heard when I gave
+my address there lately (the last one in my "Talks") was that A---- had
+hoped for something more technical and psychological! Nevertheless, some
+good girls seem to come out at Bryn Mawr. I am awfully sorry that Perry
+is out of place. Unless he gets something good, it seems to me that we
+ought to get him for a course in Kant. He is certainly the soundest,
+most normal all-round man of our recent production. Your list for next
+year interests me muchly. I am glad of Münsterberg's and Santayana's new
+courses, and hope they'll be good. I'm glad you're back in Ethics and
+glad that Royce has "Epistemology"--portentous name, and small result,
+in my opinion, but a substantive _discipline_ which ought, _par le temps
+qui court_, to be treated with due formality. I look forward with
+eagerness to his new volume.[30] What a colossal feat he has performed
+in these two years--all thrown in by the way, as it were.
+
+Certainly Gifford lectures are a good institution for stimulating
+production. They have stimulated me so far to produce two lectures of
+wishy-washy generalities. What is that for a "showing" in six months of
+absolute leisure? The second lecture used me up so that I must be off a
+good while again.
+
+No! dear Palmer, the best I can possibly hope for at Cambridge after my
+return is to be able to carry one half-course. So make all calculations
+accordingly. As for Windelband, how can I ascertain anything except by
+writing to him? I shall see no one, nor go to any University
+environment. My impression is that we must go in for budding genius, if
+we seek a European. If an American, we can get a _sommité_! But who? in
+either case? Verily there is room at the top. S---- seems to be the
+only Britisher worth thinking of. I imagine we had better train up our
+own men. A----, B----, C----, either would no doubt do, especially A----
+if his health improves. D---- is our last card, from the point of view
+of policy, no doubt, but from that of inner organization it seems to me
+that he may have too many points of coalescence with both Münsterberg
+and Royce, especially the latter.
+
+The great event in my life recently has been the reading of Santayana's
+book.[31] Although I absolutely reject the platonism of it, I have
+literally squealed with delight at the imperturbable perfection with
+which the position is laid down on page after page; and grunted with
+delight at such a thickening up of our Harvard atmosphere. If our
+students now could begin really to understand what Royce means with his
+voluntaristic-pluralistic monism, what Münsterberg means with his
+dualistic scientificism and platonism, what Santayana means by his
+pessimistic platonism (I wonder if he and Mg. have had any close
+mutually encouraging intercourse in this line?), what I mean by my crass
+pluralism, what you mean by your ethereal idealism, that these are so
+many religions, ways of fronting life, and worth fighting for, we should
+have a genuine philosophic universe at Harvard. The best condition of it
+would be an open conflict and rivalry of the diverse systems. (Alas!
+that I should be out of it, just as my chance begins!) The world might
+ring with the struggle, if we devoted ourselves exclusively to
+belaboring each other.
+
+I now understand Santayana, the man. I never understood him before. But
+what a perfection of rottenness in a philosophy! I don't think I ever
+knew the anti-realistic view to be propounded with so impudently
+superior an air. It is refreshing to see a representative of moribund
+Latinity rise up and administer such reproof to us barbarians in the
+hour of our triumph. I imagine Santayana's _style_ to be entirely
+spontaneous. But it has curious classic echoes. Whole pages of pure Hume
+in style; others of pure Renan. Nevertheless, how fantastic a
+philosophy!--as if the "world of values" _were_ independent of
+existence. It is only as _being_, that one thing is better than another.
+The idea of darkness is as good as that of light, as ideas. There is
+more value in light's _being_. And the exquisite consolation, when you
+have ascertained the badness of all fact, in knowing that badness is
+inferior to goodness, to the end--it only rubs the pessimism in. A man
+whose egg at breakfast turns out always bad says to himself, "Well, bad
+and good are not the same, anyhow." That is just the trouble! Moreover,
+when you come down to the facts, what do your harmonious and integral
+ideal systems prove to be? in the concrete? Always things burst by the
+growing content of experience. Dramatic unities; laws of versification;
+ecclesiastical systems; scholastic doctrines. Bah! Give me Walt Whitman
+and Browning ten times over, much as the perverse ugliness of the latter
+at times irritates me, and intensely as I have enjoyed Santayana's
+attack. The barbarians are in the line of mental growth, and those who
+do insist that the ideal and the real are dynamically continuous are
+those by whom the world is to be saved. But I'm nevertheless delighted
+that the other view, always existing in the world, should at last have
+found so splendidly impertinent an expression among ourselves. I have
+meant to write to Santayana; but on second thoughts, and to save myself,
+I will just ask you to send him this. It saves him from what might be
+the nuisance of having to reply, and on my part it has the advantage of
+being more free-spoken and direct. He is certainly an _extraordinarily
+distingué_ writer. Thank him for existing!
+
+As a contrast, read Jack Chapman's "Practical Agitation." The other pole
+of thought, and a style all splinters--but a gospel for our rising
+generation--I hope it will have its effect.
+
+Send me your Noble lectures. I don't see how you could risk it without a
+MS. If you did fail (which I doubt) you deserved to. Anyhow the printed
+page makes everything good.
+
+I can no more! Adieu! How is Mrs. Palmer this winter? I hope entirely
+herself again. You are impartially silent of her and of my wife! The
+"Transcript" continues to bless us. We move from this hospitable roof to
+the hotel at Costebelle today. Thence after a fortnight to Geneva, and
+in May to Nauheim once more, to be reëxamined and sentenced by Schott.
+Affectionately yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+COSTEBELLE, _Apr. 12, 1900_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--Your letters continue to rain down upon us with a
+fidelity which makes me sure that, however it may once have been, _now_,
+on the principle of the immortal Monsieur Perrichon, we must be firmly
+rooted in your affections. You can never "throw over" anybody for whom
+you have made such sacrifices. All qualms which I might have in the
+abstract about the injury we must be inflicting on so busy a Being by
+making her, through our complaints of poverty, agony, and exile, keep us
+so much "on her mind" as to tune us up every two or three days by a long
+letter to which she sacrifices all her duties to the family and state,
+disappear, moreover, when I consider the character of the letters
+themselves. They are so easy, the facts are so much the immediate
+out-bubblings of the moment, and the delicious philosophical reflexions
+so much like the spontaneous breathings of the soul, that the _effort_
+is manifestly at the zero-point, and into the complex state of affection
+which necessarily arises in you for the objects of so much loving care,
+there enter none of those curious momentary arrows of impatience and
+vengefulness which might make others say, if they were doing what you do
+for us, that they wished we were dead or in some way put beyond reach,
+so that our eternal "appeal" might stop. No, Fanny! we have no repinings
+and feel no responsibilities towards you, but accept you and your
+letters as the gifts you are. The infrequency of our answering proves
+this fact; to which you in turn must furnish the correlative, if the
+occasion comes. On the day when you temporarily hate us, or don't "feel
+like" the usual letter, don't let any thought of inconsistency with your
+past acts worry you about not taking up the pen. Let us go; though it be
+for weeks and months--I shall know you will come round again. "Neither
+heat nor frost nor thunder shall ever do away, I ween, the marks of that
+which once hath been." And to think that you should never have spent a
+night, and only once taken a meal, in our house! When we get back, we
+must see each other daily, and may the days of both of us be right long
+in the State of Massachusetts! Bless her!
+
+I got a letter from J. J. Chapman praising her strongly the other day.
+And sooth to say the "Transcript" and the "Springfield Republican," the
+reception of whose "weeklies" has become one of the solaces of my life,
+do make a first-rate showing for her civilization. One can't just say
+what "tone" consists in, but these papers hold their own excellently in
+comparison with the English papers. There is far less alertness of mind
+in the general make-up of the latter; and the "respectability" of the
+English editorial columns, though it shows a correcter literary drill,
+is apt to be due to a remorseless longitude of commonplace
+conventionality that makes them deadly dull. (The "Spectator" appears to
+be the only paper with a nervous system, in England--that of a
+_carnassier_ at present!) The English people seem to have positively a
+passionate hunger for this mass of prosy stupidity, never less than a
+column and a quarter long. The Continental papers of course are
+"nowhere." As for our yellow papers--every country has its criminal
+classes, and with us and in France, they have simply got into journalism
+as part of their professional evolution, and they must be got out. Mr.
+Bosanquet somewhere says that so far from the "dark ages" being over, we
+are just at the beginning of a new dark-age period. He means that
+ignorance and unculture, which then were merely brutal, are now
+articulate and possessed of a literary voice, and the fight is
+transferred from fields and castles and town walls to "organs of
+publicity"; but it is the same fight, of reason and goodness against
+stupidity and passions; and it must be fought through to the same kind
+of success. But it means the reëducating of perhaps twenty more
+generations; and by that time some altogether new kind of institutional
+opportunity for the Devil will have been evolved.
+
+_April_ 13th. I had to stop yesterday.... Six months ago, I shouldn't
+have thought it possible that a life deliberately founded on pottering
+about and dawdling through the day would be endurable or even possible.
+I have attained such skill that I doubt if my days ever at any time
+seemed to glide by so fast. But it corrodes one's soul nevertheless. I
+scribble a little in bed every morning, and have reached page 48 of my
+third Gifford lecture--though Lecture II, alas! must be rewritten
+entirely. The conditions don't conduce to an energetic grip of the
+subject, and I am afraid that what I write is pretty slack and not what
+it would be if my vital tone were different. The problem I have set
+myself is a hard one: _first_, to defend (against all the prejudices of
+my "class") "experience" against "philosophy" as being the real backbone
+of the world's religious life--I mean prayer, guidance, and all that
+sort of thing immediately and privately felt, as against high and noble
+general views of our destiny and the world's meaning; and _second_, to
+make the hearer or reader believe, what I myself invincibly do believe,
+that, although all the special manifestations of religion may have been
+absurd (I mean its creeds and theories), yet the life of it as a whole
+is mankind's most important function. A task well-nigh impossible, I
+fear, and in which I shall fail; but to attempt it is _my_ religious
+act.
+
+We got a visit the other day from [a Scottish couple here who have heard
+that I am to give the Gifford lectures]; and two days ago went to
+afternoon tea with them at their hotel, next door. _She_ enclosed a
+tract (by herself) in the invitation, and proved to be a [mass] of holy
+egotism and conceit based on professional invalidism and self-worship. I
+wish my sister Alice were there to "react" on her with a description!
+Her husband, apparently weak, and the slave of her. No talk but
+evangelical talk. It seemed assumed that a Gifford lecturer must be one
+of Moody's partners, and it gave me rather a foretaste of what the
+Edinburgh atmosphere may be like. Well, I shall enjoy sticking a knife
+into its gizzard--if atmospheres have gizzards? Blessed be
+Boston--probably the freest place on earth, that isn't merely heathen
+and sensual.
+
+I have been supposing, as one always does, that you "ran in" to the
+Putnams' every hour or so, and likewise they to No. 12. But your late
+allusion to the telephone and the rarity of your seeing Jim [Putnam]
+reminded me of the actual conditions--absurd as they are. (Really you
+and we are nearer together now at this distance than we have ever been.)
+Well, let Jim see this letter, if you care to, flattering him by saying
+that it is more written for him than for you (which it certainly has not
+been till this moment!), and thanking him for existing in this naughty
+world. His account of the Copernican revolution (studento-centric) in
+the Medical School is highly exciting, and I am glad to hear of the
+excellent little Cannon becoming so prominent a reformer. Speaking of
+reformers, do you see Jack Chapman's "Political Nursery"? of which the
+April number has just come. (I have read it and taken my bed-breakfast
+during the previous page of this letter, though you may not have
+perceived the fact.) If not, _do_ subscribe to it; it is awful fun. He
+just looks at things, and tells the truth about them--a strange thing
+even to _try_ to do, and he doesn't always succeed. Office 141 Broadway,
+$1.00 a year.
+
+Fanny, you won't be reading as far as this in this interminable letter,
+so I stop, though 100 pent-up things are seeking to be said. The weather
+has still been so cold whenever the sun is withdrawn that we have
+delayed our departure for Geneva to the 22nd--a week later. We make a
+short visit to our friends the Flournoys (a couple of days) and then
+proceed towards Nauheim _via_ Heidelberg, where I wish to consult the
+great Erb about the advisability of more baths in view of my nervous
+complications, before the great Schott examines me again. I do wish I
+could send for Jim for a consultation. Good-bye, dearest and best of
+Fannys. I hope your Mother is wholly well again. Much love to her and
+to Mary Elliot. It interested me to hear of Jack E.'s great operation.
+Yours ever,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To his Son Alexander._
+
+
+[GENEVA, _circa May 3, 1900_.]
+
+DEAR FRANÇOIS,--Here we are in Geneva, at the Flournoys'--dear people
+and splendid children. I wish Harry could marry Alice, Billy marry
+Marguerite, and you marry Ariane-Dorothée--the absolutely jolliest and
+beautifullest 3-year old I ever saw. I am trying to get you engaged! I
+enclose pictures of the dog. Ariane-Dorothée r-r-r-olls her r-r-r's like
+fury. I got your picture of the elephant--very good. Draw everything you
+see, no matter how badly, trying to notice how the lines run--one line
+every day!--just notice it and draw it, no matter how badly, and at the
+end of the year you'll be s'prised to see how well you can draw. Tell
+Billy to get you a big blank book at the Coöp., and every day take one
+page, just drawing down on it some _thing_, or _dog_, or _horse_, or
+_man_ or _woman_, or _part_ of a man or woman, which you have looked at
+that day just for the purpose, to see how the lines run. I bet the last
+page of that book will be better than the first! Do this for my sake.
+Kiss your dear old Grandma. P'r'aps, we shall get home this summer after
+all. In two or three days I shall see a doctor and know more about
+myself. Will let you know. Keep motionless and listen as much as you
+can. Take in things without speaking--it'll make you a better man. Your
+Ma thinks you'll grow up into a filosopher like me and write books. It
+is easy enuff, all but the writing. You just get it out of other books,
+and write it down. Always your loving,
+
+DAD.
+
+At this time James's thirteen-year-old daughter was living with family
+friends--the Joseph Thatcher Clarkes--in Harrow, and was going to an
+English school with their children. She had been passing through such
+miseries as a homesick child often suffers, and had written letters
+which evoked the following response.
+
+
+
+
+_To his Daughter._
+
+
+VILLA LUISE,
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _May 26, 1900_.
+
+DARLING PEG,--Your letter came last night and explained sufficiently the
+cause of your long silence. You have evidently been in a bad state of
+spirits again, and dissatisfied with your environment; and I judge that
+you have been still more dissatisfied with the inner state of trying to
+consume your own smoke, and grin and bear it, so as to carry out your
+mother's behests made after the time when you scared us so by your
+inexplicable tragic outcries in those earlier letters. Well! I believe
+you have been trying to do the manly thing under difficult
+circumstances, but one learns only gradually to do the _best_ thing; and
+the best thing for you would be to write at least weekly, if only a
+post-card, and say just how things are going. If you are in bad spirits,
+there is no harm whatever in communicating that fact, and defining the
+character of it, or describing it as exactly as you like. The bad thing
+is to pour out the _contents_ of one's bad spirits on others and leave
+them with it, as it were, on their hands, as if it was for them to do
+something about it. That was what you did in your other letter which
+alarmed us so, for your shrieks of anguish were so excessive, and so
+unexplained by anything you told us in the way of facts, that we didn't
+know but what you had suddenly gone crazy. That is the _worst_ sort of
+thing you can do. The middle sort of thing is what you do this
+time--namely, keep silent for more than a fortnight, and when you do
+write, still write rather mysteriously about your sorrows, not being
+quite open enough.
+
+Now, my dear little girl, you have come to an age when the inward life
+develops and when some people (and on the whole those who have most of a
+destiny) find that all is not a bed of roses. Among other things there
+will be waves of terrible sadness, which last sometimes for days; and
+dissatisfaction with one's self, and irritation at others, and anger at
+circumstances and stony insensibility, etc., etc., which taken together
+form a melancholy. Now, painful as it is, this is sent to us for an
+enlightenment. It always passes off, and we learn about life from it,
+and we ought to learn a great many good things if we react on it
+rightly. [_From margin._] (For instance, you learn how good a thing your
+home is, and your country, and your brothers, and you may learn to be
+more considerate of other people, who, you now learn, may have their
+inner weaknesses and sufferings, too.) Many persons take a kind of
+sickly delight in hugging it; and some sentimental ones may even be
+proud of it, as showing a fine sorrowful kind of sensibility. Such
+persons make a regular habit of the luxury of woe. That is the worst
+possible reaction on it. It is usually a sort of disease, when we get it
+strong, arising from the organism having generated some poison in the
+blood; and we mustn't submit to it an hour longer than we can help, but
+jump at every chance to attend to anything cheerful or comic or take
+part in anything active that will divert us from our mean, pining inward
+state of feeling. When it passes off, as I said, we know more than we
+did before. And we must try to make it last as short a time as possible.
+The worst of it often is that, while we are in it, we don't _want_ to
+get out of it. We hate it, and yet we prefer staying in it--that is a
+part of the disease. If we find ourselves like that, we must make
+ourselves do something different, go with people, speak cheerfully, set
+ourselves to some hard work, make ourselves sweat, etc.; and that is the
+good way of reacting that makes of us a valuable character. The disease
+makes you think of _yourself_ all the time; and the way out of it is to
+keep as busy as we can thinking of _things_ and of _other people_--no
+matter what's the matter with our self.
+
+I have no doubt you are doing as well as you know how, darling little
+Peg; but we have to learn everything, and I also have no doubt that
+you'll manage it better and better if you ever have any more of it, and
+soon it will fade away, simply leaving you with more experience. The
+great thing for you _now_, I should suppose, would be to enter as
+friendlily as possible into the interest of the Clarke children. If you
+like them, or acted as if you liked them, you needn't trouble about the
+question of whether they like you or not. They probably will, fast
+enough; and if they don't, it will be their funeral, not yours. But this
+is a great lecture, so I will stop. The great thing about it is that it
+is all true.
+
+The baths are threatening to disagree with me again, so I may stop them
+soon. Will let you know as quick as anything is decided. Good news from
+home: the Merrimans have taken the Irving Street house for another year,
+and the Wambaughs (of the Law School) have taken Chocorua, though at a
+reduced rent. The weather here is almost continuously cold and sunless.
+Your mother is sleeping, and will doubtless add a word to this when she
+wakes. Keep a merry heart--"time and the hour run through the roughest
+day"--and believe me ever your most loving
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+[Post-card]
+
+ALTDORF, LAKE LUZERN, _July 20, [1900]_.
+
+Your last letter was, if anything, a more unmitigated blessing than its
+predecessors; and I, with my curious inertia to overcome, sit _thinking
+of letters_, and of the soul-music with which they might be filled if my
+tongue could only utter the thoughts that arise in me to youward, the
+beauty of the world, the conflict of life and death and youth and age
+and man and woman and righteousness and evil, etc., and Europe and
+America! but it stays all caked within and gets no articulation, the
+power of speech being so non-natural a function of our race. We are
+staying above Luzern, near a big spruce wood, at "Gutsch," and today
+being hot and passivity advisable, we came down and took the boat, for a
+whole day on the Lake. The works both of Nature and of Man in this
+region seem too perfect to be credible almost, and were I not a bitter
+Yankee, I would, without a moment's hesitation, be a Swiss, and probably
+then glad of the change. The _goodliness_ of this land is one of the
+things I ache to utter to you, but can't. Some day I will write, also to
+Jim P. My condition baffles me. I have lately felt better, but been bad
+again, and altogether can _do_ nothing without repentance afterwards. We
+have just lunched in this bowery back verandah, water trickling,
+beautiful old convent sleeping up the hillside. Love to you all!
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _Sept. 16, 1900_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,-- ...Here I am having a little private picnic all by
+myself, on this effulgent Sunday morning--real American September
+weather, by way of a miracle. I ordered my bath-chair man to wheel me
+out to the "Hochwald," where, he having been dismissed for three hours,
+until two o'clock, I am lying in the said luxurious throne, writing this
+on my knee, with nothing between but a number of Kuno Fischer's "Hegel's
+Leben, Werke und Lehre," now in process of publication, and the
+flexibility of which accounts for the poor handwriting. I am alone, save
+for the inevitable restaurant which hovers on the near horizon, in a
+beautiful grove of old oak trees averaging some 16 or 18 feet apart,
+through whose leaves the sunshine filters and dapples the clear ground
+or grass that lies between them. Alice is still in England, having
+finally at my command had to give up her long-cherished plan of a run
+home to see her mother, the children, you, and all the other _dulcissima
+mundi nomina_ that make of life a thing worth living for. I _funked_ the
+idea of being alone so long when I came to the point. It is not that I
+am worse, but there will be cold weather in the next couple of months;
+and, unable to sit out of doors then, as here and now, I shall probably
+either have to over-walk or over-read, and both things will be bad for
+me.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration: "Damn the Absolute!"
+
+Chocorua, September, 1903. One morning James and Royce strolled into the
+road and sat down on a wall in earnest discussion. When James heard the
+camera click, as his daughter took the upper snap-shot, he cried,
+"Royce, you're being photographed! Look, out! I say _Damn the
+Absolute_!"]
+
+As things are _now_, I get on well enough, for the bath business
+(especially the "bath-chair") carries one through a good deal of the
+day. The great Schott has positively forbidden me to go to England as I
+did last year; so, early in October, our faces will be turned towards
+Italy, and by Nov. 1 we shall, I hope, be ensconced in a _pension_ close
+to the Pincian Garden in Rome, to see how long _that_ resource will
+last. I confess I am in the mood of it, and that there is a suggestion
+of more richness about the name of Rome than about that of Rye, which,
+until Schott's veto, was the plan. How the Gifford lectures will fare,
+remains to be seen. I have felt strong movings towards home this
+fall, but reflection says: "Stay another winter," and I confess that now
+that October is approaching, it feels like the home-stretch and as if
+the time were getting short and the limbs of "next summer" in America
+burning through the veil which seems to hide them in the shape of the
+second European winter months. Who knows? perhaps I may be spry and
+active by that time! I have still one untried card up my sleeve, that
+may work wonders. All I can say of this third course of baths is that so
+far it seems to be doing me no harm. That it will do me any substantial
+good, after the previous experiences, seems decidedly doubtful. But one
+must suffer some inconvenience to please the doctors! Just as in most
+women there is a wife that craves to suffer and submit and be bullied,
+so in most men there is a _patient_ that needs to have a doctor and obey
+his orders, whether they be believed in or not....
+
+Don't take the Malwida book[32] too seriously. I sent it _faute de
+mieux_. I don't think I ever told you how much I enjoyed hearing the
+Lesley volume[33] read aloud by Alice. We were just in the exactly right
+condition for enjoying that breath of old New England. Good-bye, dearest
+Fanny. Give my love to your mother, Mary, J. J. P., and all your circle.
+_Leb' wohl_ yourself, and believe me, your ever affectionate,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Josiah Royce._
+
+
+NAUHEIM, _Sept. 26, 1900_.
+
+BELOVED ROYCE,--Great was my, was _our_ pleasure in receiving your long
+and delightful letter last night. Like the lioness in Æsop's fable, you
+give birth to one young one only in the year, but that one is a lion. I
+give birth mainly to guinea-pigs in the shape of post-cards; but despite
+such diversities of epistolary expression, the heart of each of us is in
+the right place. I need not say, my dear old boy, how touched I am at
+your expressions of affection, or how it pleases me to hear that you
+have missed me. I too miss you profoundly. I do not find in the hotel
+waiters, chambermaids and bath-attendants with whom my lot is chiefly
+cast, that unique mixture of erudition, originality, profundity and
+vastness, and human wit and leisureliness, by accustoming me to which
+during all these years you have spoilt me for inferior kinds of
+intercourse. You are still the centre of my gaze, the pole of my mental
+magnet. When I write, 'tis with one eye on the page, and one on you.
+When I compose my Gifford lectures mentally, 'tis with the design
+exclusively of overthrowing your system, and ruining your peace. I lead
+a parasitic life upon you, for my highest flight of ambitious ideality
+is to become your conqueror, and go down into history as such, you and I
+rolled in one another's arms and silent (or rather loquacious still) in
+one last death-grapple of an embrace. How then, O my dear Royce, can I
+forget you, or be contented out of your close neighborhood? Different as
+our minds are, yours has nourished mine, as no other social influence
+ever has, and in converse with you I have always felt that my life was
+being lived importantly. Our minds, too, are not different in the
+_Object_ which they envisage. It is the whole paradoxical
+physico-moral-spiritual Fatness, of which most people single out some
+skinny fragment, which we both cover with our eye. We "aim at him
+generally"--and most others don't. I don't believe that we shall dwell
+apart forever, though our formulas may.
+
+Home and Irving Street look very near when seen through these few winter
+months, and tho' it is still doubtful what I may be able to do in
+College, for social purposes I shall be available for probably numerous
+years to come. I haven't got at work yet--only four lectures of the
+first course written (strange to say)--but I am decidedly better today
+than I have been for the past ten months, and the matter is all ready in
+my mind; so that when, a month hence, I get settled down in Rome, I
+think the rest will go off fairly quickly. The second course I shall
+have to resign from, and write it out at home as a book. It must seem
+strange to you that the way from the mind to the pen should be as
+intraversable as it has been in this case of mine--you in whom it always
+seems so easily pervious. But Miller will be able to tell you all about
+my condition, both mental and physical, so I will waste no more words on
+that to me decidedly musty subject.
+
+I fully understand your great aversion to letters and other off-writing.
+You have done a perfectly Herculean amount of the most difficult
+productive work, and I believe you to be much more tired than you
+probably yourself suppose or know. Both mentally and physically, I
+imagine that a long vacation, in other scenes, with no sense of duty,
+would do you a world of good. I don't say the full fifteen months--for I
+imagine that one summer and one academic half-year would perhaps do the
+business better--you could preserve the relaxed and desultory condition
+as long as that probably, whilst later you'd begin to chafe, and _then_
+you'd better be back in your own library. If _my_ continuing abroad is
+hindering this, my sorrow will be extreme. Of course I must some time
+come to a definite decision about my own relations to the College, but I
+am reserving that till the end of 1900, when I shall write to Eliot in
+full. There is still a therapeutic card to play, of which I will say
+nothing just now, and I don't want to commit myself before that has been
+tried.
+
+You say nothing of the second course of Aberdeen lectures, nor do you
+speak at all of the Dublin course. Strange omissions, like your not
+sending me your Ingersoll lecture! I assume that the publication of
+[your] Gifford Volume II will not be very long delayed. I am eager to
+read them. I can read philosophy now, and have just read the first three
+_Lieferungen_ of K. Fischer's "Hegel." I must say I prefer the original
+text. Fischer's paraphrases always flatten and dry things out; and he
+gives no rich sauce of his own to compensate. I have been sorry to hear
+from Palmer that he also has been very tired. One can't keep going
+forever! P. has been like an archangel in his letters to me, and I am
+inexpressibly grateful. Well! everybody has been kinder than I
+deserve....
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+ROME, _Dec. 25, 1900_.
+
+...Rome is simply the most satisfying lake of picturesqueness and guilty
+suggestiveness known to this child. Other places have single features
+better than anything in Rome, perhaps, but for an _ensemble_ Rome seems
+to beat the world. Just a FEAST for the eye from the moment you leave
+your hotel door to the moment you return. Those who say that beauty is
+all made up of suggestion are well disproved here. For the things the
+eyes most gloat on, the inconceivably corrupted, besmeared and ulcerated
+surfaces, and black and cavernous glimpses of interiors, have no
+suggestions save of moral horror, and their "tactile values," as
+Berenson would say, are pure gooseflesh. Nevertheless the sight of them
+delights. And then there is such a geologic stratification of history! I
+dote on the fine equestrian statue of Garibaldi, on the Janiculum,
+quietly bending his head with a look half-meditative, half-strategical,
+but wholly victorious, upon Saint Peter's and the Vatican. What luck for
+a man and a party to have opposed to it an enemy that stood up for
+_nothing_ that was ideal, for _everything_ that was mean in life.
+Austria, Naples, and the Mother of harlots here, were enough to deify
+anyone who defied them. What glorious things are some of these Italian
+inscriptions--for example on Giordano Bruno's statue:--
+
+A BRUNO
+
+_il secolo da lui divinato
+qui
+dove il rogo arse_.
+
+--"here, where the faggots burned." It makes the tears come, for the
+poetic justice; though I imagine B. to have been a very pesky sort of a
+crank, worthy of little sympathy had not the "rogo" done its work on
+him. Of the awful corruptions and cruelties which this place suggests
+there is no end.
+
+Our neighbors in rooms and _commensaux_ at meals are the J. G.
+Frazers--he of the "Golden Bough," "Pausanias," and other three-and
+six-volume works of anthropological erudition, Fellow of Trinity
+College, Cambridge, and a sucking babe of humility, unworldliness and
+molelike sightlessness to everything except _print_.... He, after Tylor,
+is the greatest authority now in England on the religious ideas and
+superstitions of primitive peoples, and he knows nothing of psychical
+research and thinks that the trances, etc., of savage soothsayers,
+oracles and the like, are all _feigned_! Verily science is amusing! But
+he is conscience incarnate, and I have been stirring him up so that I
+imagine he will now proceed to put in big loads of work in the morbid
+psychological direction.
+
+Dear Fanny ... I can write no more this morning. I hope your Christmas
+is "merry," and that the new year will be "happy" for you all. Pray take
+our warmest love, give it to your mother and Mary, and some of it to the
+brothers. I will write better soon. Your ever grateful and affectionate
+
+W. J.
+
+Don't let up on your own writing, so say we both! Your letters are pure
+blessings.
+
+
+
+
+_To James Sully._
+
+
+ROME, _Mar. 3, 1901_.
+
+DEAR SULLY,--Your letter of Feb. 8th arrived duly and gave me much
+pleasure _qua_ epistolary manifestation of sympathy, but less _qua_
+revelation of depression on your own part. I have been so floundering up
+and down, now above and now below the line of bad nervous prostration,
+that I have written no letters for three weeks past, hoping thereby the
+better to accomplish certain other writing; but the other writing had to
+be stopped so letters and post-cards may begin.
+
+I see you take the war still very much to heart, and I myself think that
+the blundering way in which the Colonial Office drove the Dutchmen into
+it, with no conception whatever of the psychological situation, is only
+outdone by our still more anti-psychological blundering in the
+Philippines. Both countries have lost their moral prestige--we far more
+completely than you, because for our conduct there is literally _no_
+excuse to be made except _absolute_ stupidity, whilst you can make out a
+very fair case, as such cases go. But we can, and undoubtedly shall,
+draw back, whereas that for an Empire like yours seems politically
+impossible. Empire anyhow is half crime by necessity of Nature, and to
+see a country like the United States, lucky enough to be born outside of
+it and its fatal traditions and inheritances, perversely rushing to
+wallow in the mire of it, shows how strong these ancient race instincts
+be. And that is my consolation! We are no worse than the best of men
+have ever been. We are simply not superhuman; and the loud reaction
+against the brutal business, in both countries, shows how the _theory_
+of the matter has really advanced during the last century.
+
+Yes! H. Sidgwick is a sad loss, with all his remaining philosophic
+wisdom unwritten. I feel greatly F. W. H. Myers's loss also. He suffered
+terribly with suffocation, but bore it stunningly well. He died in this
+very hotel, where he had been not more than a fortnight. I don't know
+_how_ tolerant (or intolerant) you are towards his pursuits and
+speculations. I regard them as fragmentary and conjectural--of course;
+but as most laborious and praiseworthy; and knowing how much
+psychologists as a rule have counted him out from their profession, I
+have thought it my duty to write a little tribute to his service to
+psychology to be read on March 8th, at a memorial meeting of the S. P.
+R. in his honor. It will appear, whether read or not, in the
+Proceedings, and I hope may not appear to you exaggerated. I seriously
+believe that the general problem of the subliminal, as Myers propounds
+it, promises to be one of the _great_ problems, possibly even the
+greatest problem, of psychology....
+
+We leave Rome in three days, booked for Rye the first of April. I _must_
+get into the _country!_ If I do more than just pass through London, I
+will arrange for a meeting. My Edinburgh lectures begin early in
+May--after that I shall have freedom. Ever truly yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+[Post-card]
+
+FLORENCE, _March 18, 1901_.
+
+Thus far towards home, thank Heaven! after a week at Perugia and Assisi.
+Glorious air, memorable scenes. Made acquaintance of Sabatier, author of
+St. Francis's life--very jolly. Best of all, made acquaintance with
+Francis's retreat in the mountain. _Navrant!_--it makes one see medieval
+Christianity face to face. The lair of the individual wild animal, and
+that animal the saint! I hope you saw it. Thanks for your last letter to
+Alice. Lots of love.
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller._
+
+
+RYE, _April 13, 1901_.
+
+DEAR SCHILLER,--You are showering benedictions on me. I return the bulky
+ones, keeping the lighter weights. I think the parody on Bradley
+amazingly good--if I had his book here I would probably revive my memory
+of his discouraged style and scribble a marginal contribution of my own.
+He is, really, an extra humble-minded man, I think, but even more
+humble-minded about his reader than about himself, which gives him that
+false air of arrogance. How you concocted those epigrams, _à la_ preface
+of B., I don't see. In general I don't see how an epigram, being a pure
+bolt from the blue, with no introduction or cue, ever gets itself writ.
+On the Limericks, as you call them, I set less store, much less. If
+everybody is to come in for a share of allusion, I am willing, but I
+don't want my name to figure in the ghostly ballet with but few
+companions. Royce wrote a _very_ funny thing in pedantic German some
+years ago, purporting to be the proof by a distant-future professor that
+I was an habitual drunkard, based on passages culled from my writings.
+He may have it yet. If I ever get any animal spirits again, I may get
+warmed up, by your example, into making jokes, and may then contribute.
+But I beg you let this thing mull till you get a _lot_ of matter--and
+then _sift_. It's the only way. But Oxford seems a better climate for
+epigram than is the rest of the world.
+
+I shall stay here--I find myself much more comfortable thoracically
+already than when I came--until my Edinburgh lectures begin on May 16th,
+though I shall have to run up to London towards the end of the month to
+get some clothes made, and to meet my son who arrives from home. I much
+regret that it will be quite impossible for me to go either to Oxford or
+Cambridge--though, if things took an unexpectedly good turn, I might
+indeed do so after June 18th, when my lecture course ends. Do you
+meanwhile keep hearty and "funny"! I stopped at Gersau half a day and
+found it a sweet little place. Fondly yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+ROXBURGHE HOTEL,
+EDINBURGH, _May 15, 1901_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--You see where we are! I give _you_ the first news of
+life's journey being so far advanced! It is a deadly enterprise, I'm
+afraid, with the social entanglements that lie ahead, and I feel a cake
+of ice in my epigastrium at the prospect, but _le vin est versé, il faut
+le boire_, and from the other point of view, that it is real life
+beginning once more, it is perfectly glorious, and I feel as if
+yesterday in leaving London I had said good-bye to a rather dreadful
+and death-bound segment of life. As regards the sociability, it is
+fortunately a time of year in which only the medical part of the
+University is present. The professors of the other faculties are already
+in large part scattered, I think,--at least the two Seths (who are the
+only ones I directly know) are away, and I have written to the Secretary
+of the Academic Senate, Sir Ludovic Grant of the Law Faculty, that I am
+unable to "dine out" or attend afternoon receptions, so we may be pretty
+well left alone. I always hated lecturing except as regular instruction
+to students, of whom there will probably be none now in the audience.
+But to compensate, there begins next week a big convocation here of all
+ministers in Scotland, and there will doubtless be a number of them
+present, which, considering the matter to be offered, is probably
+better.
+
+We had a splendid journey yesterday in an American (almost!) train,
+first-class, and had the pleasure of some talk with our Cambridge
+neighbor, Mrs. Ole Bull, on her way to Norway to the unveiling of a
+monument to her husband. She was accompanied by an extraordinarily fine
+character and mind--odd way of expressing myself!--a young Englishwoman
+named Noble, who has Hinduized herself (converted by Vivekananda to his
+philosophy) and lives now for the Hindu people. These free individuals
+who live their own life, no matter what domestic prejudices have to be
+snapped, are on the whole a refreshing sight to me, who can do nothing
+of the kind myself. And Miss Noble[34] is a most deliberate and balanced
+person--no frothy enthusiast in point of character, though I believe her
+philosophy to be more or less false. Perhaps no more so than anyone
+else's!
+
+We are in one of those deadly respectable hotels where you have to ring
+the front-door-bell. Give me a cheerful, blackguardly place like the
+Charing Cross, where we were in London. The London tailor and
+shirtmaker, it being in the height of the Season, didn't fulfill their
+promises; and as I sloughed my ancient cocoon at Rye, trusting to pick
+up my iridescent wings the day before yesterday in passing through the
+metropolis, I am here with but two _chemises_ at present (one of them
+now in the wash) and fear that tomorrow, in spite of tailors' promises
+to send, I may have to lecture in my pyjamas--that would give a cachet
+of American originality. The weather is fine--we have just finished
+breakfast.
+
+Our son Harry ... and his mother will soon sally out to explore the
+town, whilst I lie low till about noon, when I shall report my presence
+and receive instructions from my boss, Grant, and prepare to meet the
+storm. It is astonishing how pusillanimous two years of invalidism can
+make one. Alice and Harry both send love, and so do I in heaps and
+steamer-loads, dear Fanny, begging your mother to take of it as much as
+she requires for her share. I will write again--doubtless--tomorrow.
+
+_May 17._
+
+It proved quite impossible to write to you yesterday, so I do it the
+first thing this morning. I have made my plunge and the foregoing chill
+has given place to the warm "reaction." The audience was more numerous
+than had been expected, some 250, and exceedingly sympathetic, laughing
+at everything, even whenever I used a polysyllabic word. I send you the
+"Scotsman," with a skeleton report which might have been much worse
+made. I am all right this morning again, so have no doubts of putting
+the job through, if only I don't have too much sociability. I have got
+a week free of invitations so far, and all things considered, fancy
+that we shan't be persecuted.
+
+Edinburgh is surely the noblest city ever built by man. The weather has
+been splendid so far, and cold and bracing as the top of Mount
+Washington in early April. Everyone here speaks of it however as "hot."
+One needs fires at night and an overcoat out of the sun. The full-bodied
+air, half misty and half smoky, holds the sunshine in that way which one
+sees only in these islands, making the shadowy side of everything quite
+black, so that all perspectives and vistas appear with objects cut
+blackly against each other according to their nearness, and plane rising
+behind plane of flat dark relieved against flat light in ever-receding
+gradation. It is magnificent.
+
+But I mustn't become a Ruskin!--the purpose of this letter being merely
+to acquaint you with our well-being and success so far. We have found
+bully lodgings, spacious to one's heart's content, upon a cheerful
+square, and actually with a book-shelf fully two feet wide and two
+stories high, upon the wall, the first we have seen for two years!
+(There were of course book-cases enough at Lamb House, but all tight
+packed already.) We now go out to take the air. I feel as if a decidedly
+bad interlude in the journey of my life were closed, and the real honest
+thing gradually beginning again. Love to you all! Your ever affectionate
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+EDINBURGH, _May 30, 1901_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,-- ...Beautiful as the spring is here, the words you so
+often let drop about American weather make me homesick for that article.
+It is blasphemous, however, to pine for anything when one is in
+Edinburgh in May, and takes an open drive every afternoon in the
+surrounding country by way of a constitutional. The green is of the
+vividest, splendid trees and acres, and the air itself an _object_,
+holding watery vapor, tenuous smoke, and ancient sunshine in solution,
+so as to yield the most exquisite minglings and gradations of silvery
+brown and blue and pearly gray. As for the city, its vistas are
+magnificent.
+
+We are _comblés_ with civilities, which Harry and Alice are to a certain
+extent enjoying, though I have to hang back and spend much of the time
+between my lectures in bed, to rest off the aortic distress which that
+operation gives. I call it aortic because it feels like that, but I can
+get no information from the Drs., so I won't swear I'm right. My heart,
+under the influence of that magical juice, tincture of digitalis,--only
+6 drops daily,--is performing _beautifully_ and gives no trouble at all.
+The audiences grow instead of dwindling, and in spite of rain, being
+about 300 and just crowding the room. They sit as still as death and
+then applaud magnificently, so I am sure the lectures are a success.
+Previous Gifford lectures have had audiences beginning with 60 and
+dwindling to 15. In an hour and a half (I write this in bed) I shall be
+beginning the fifth lecture, which will, when finished, put me half way
+through the arduous job. I know you will relish these details, which
+please pass on to Jim P. I would send you the reports in the "Scotsman,"
+but they distort so much by their sham continuity with vast omission
+(the reporters get my MS.), that the result is caricature. Edinburgh is
+_spiritually_ much like Boston, only stronger and with more temperament
+in the people. But we're all growing into much of a sameness everywhere.
+
+I have dined out once--an almost fatal experiment! I was introduced to
+Lord Somebody: "How often do you lecture?"--"Twice a week."--"What do
+you do between?--play golf?" Another invitation: "Come at 6--the dinner
+at 7.30--and we can walk or play bowls till dinner so as not to fatigue
+you"--I having pleaded my delicacy of constitution.
+
+I rejoice in the prospect of Booker W.'s[35] book, and thank your mother
+heartily. My mouth had been watering for just that volume.
+Autobiographies take the cake. I mean to read nothing else. Strange to
+say, I am now for the first time reading Marie Bashkirtseff. It takes
+hold of me tremenjus. I feel as if I had lived inside of her, and in
+spite of her hatefulness, esteem and even like her for her incorruptible
+way of telling the truth. I have not seen Huxley's life yet. It must be
+delightful, only I can't agree to what seems to be becoming the
+conventionally accepted view of him, that he possessed the exclusive
+specialty of living for the truth. A good deal of humbug about that!--at
+least when it becomes a professional and heroic attitude.
+
+Your base remark about Aguinaldo is clean forgotten, if ever heard. I
+know you wouldn't harm the poor man, who, unless Malay human nature is
+weaker than human nature elsewhere, has pretty surely some surprises up
+his sleeve for us yet. Best love to you all. Your affectionate
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry W. Rankin._
+
+
+EDINBURGH, _June 16, 1901_.
+
+DEAR MR. RANKIN,--I have received all your letters and missives,
+inclusive of the letter which you think I must have lost, some months
+back. I professor-ed you because I had read your name printed with that
+title in a newspaper letter from East Northfield, and supposed that, by
+courtesy at any rate, that title was conferred on you by a public
+opinion to which I liked to conform.
+
+I have given nine of my lectures and am to give the tenth tomorrow. They
+have been a success, to judge by the numbers of the audience (300-odd)
+and their non-diminution towards the end. No previous "Giffords" have
+drawn near so many. It will please you to know that I am stronger and
+tougher than when I began, too; so a great load is off my mind. You have
+been so extraordinarily brotherly to me in writing of your convictions
+and in furnishing me ideas, that I feel ashamed of my churlish and chary
+replies. You, however, have forgiven me. Now, at the end of this first
+course, I feel my "matter" taking firmer shape, and it will please you
+less to hear me say that I believe myself to be (probably) permanently
+incapable of believing the Christian scheme of vicarious salvation, and
+wedded to a more continuously evolutionary mode of thought. The reasons
+you from time to time have given me, never better expressed than in your
+letter before the last, have somehow failed to convince. In these
+lectures the ground I am taking is this: The mother sea and
+fountain-head of all religions lie in the mystical experiences of the
+individual, taking the word mystical in a very wide sense. All
+theologies and all ecclesiasticisms are secondary growths superimposed;
+and the experiences make such flexible combinations with the
+intellectual prepossessions of their subjects, that one may almost say
+that they have no proper _intellectual_ deliverance of their own, but
+belong to a region deeper, and more vital and practical, than that which
+the intellect inhabits. For this they are also indestructible by
+intellectual arguments and criticisms. I attach the mystical or
+religious consciousness to the possession of an extended subliminal
+self, with a thin partition through which messages make irruption. We
+are thus made convincingly aware of the presence of a sphere of life
+larger and more powerful than our usual consciousness, with which the
+latter is nevertheless continuous. The impressions and impulsions and
+emotions and excitements which we thence receive help us to live, they
+found invincible assurance of a world beyond the sense, they melt our
+hearts and communicate significance and value to everything and make us
+happy. They do this for the individual who has them, and other
+individuals follow him. Religion in this way is absolutely
+indestructible. Philosophy and theology give their conceptual
+interpretations of this experiential life. The farther margin of the
+subliminal field being unknown, it can be treated as by Transcendental
+Idealism, as an Absolute mind with a part of which we coalesce, or by
+Christian theology, as a distinct deity acting on us. Something, not our
+immediate self, does act on our life! So I seem doubtless to my audience
+to be blowing hot and cold, explaining away Christianity, yet defending
+the more general basis from which I say it proceeds. I fear that these
+brief words may be misleading, but let them go! When the book comes out,
+you will get a truer idea.
+
+Believe me, with profound regards, your always truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Charles Eliot Norton._
+
+
+RYE, _June 26, 1901_.
+
+DEAR CHARLES NORTON,--Your delightful letter of June 1st has added one
+more item to my debt of gratitude to you; and now that the Edinburgh
+strain is over, I can sit down and make you a reply a little more
+adequate than heretofore has been possible. The lectures went off most
+successfully, and though I got tired enough, I feel that I am
+essentially tougher and stronger for the old familiar functional
+activity. My _tone_ is changed immensely, and that is the main point. To
+be actually earning one's salt again, after so many months of listless
+waiting and wondering whether such a thing will ever again become
+possible, puts a new heart into one, and I now look towards the future
+with aggressive and hopeful eyes again, though perhaps not with quite
+the cannibalistic ones of the youth of the new century.
+
+Edinburgh is great. A strong broad city, and, in its spiritual essence,
+almost exactly feeling to me like old Boston, _nuclear_ Boston, though
+on a larger, more important scale. People were very friendly, but we had
+to dodge invitations--_hoffentlich_ I may be able to accept more of them
+next year. The audience was extraordinarily attentive and reactive--I
+never had an audience so keen to catch every point. I flatter myself
+that by blowing alternately hot and cold on their Christian prejudices I
+succeeded in baffling them completely till the final quarter-hour, when
+I satisfied their curiosity by showing more plainly my hand. Then, I
+think, I permanently dissatisfied both extremes, and pleased a mean
+numerically quite small. _Qui vivra verra_. London seemed curiously
+profane and free-and-easy, not exactly _shabby_, but go-as-you-please,
+in aspect, as we came down five days ago. Since then I spent a day with
+poor Mrs. Myers.... I mailed you yesterday a notice I wrote in Rome of
+him.[36] He "looms" upon me after death more than he did in life, and I
+think that his forthcoming book about "Human Personality" will probably
+rank hereafter as "epoch-making."
+
+At London I saw Theodora [Sedgwick] and the W. Darwins. Theodora was as
+good and genial as ever, and Sara [Darwin] looked, I thought,
+wonderfully "distinguished" and wonderfully little changed considering
+the length of intervening years and the advance of the Enemy. I was too
+tired to look up Leslie Stephen, or anyone else save Mrs. John Bancroft
+when in London, although I wanted much to see L. S. The first volume of
+his "Utilitarians" seems to me a wonderfully spirited performance--I
+haven't yet got at the other two.
+
+I am hoping to get off to Nauheim tomorrow, leaving Alice and Harry to
+follow a little later. I confess that the Continent "draws" me again. I
+don't know whether it be the essential identity of soul that expresses
+itself in English things, and makes them seem known by heart already and
+intellectually dead and unexciting, or whether it is the singular lack
+of visible _sentiment_ in England, and absence of "charm," or the
+oppressive ponderosity and superfluity and prominence of the
+unnecessary, or what it is, but I'm blest if I ever wish to be in
+England again. Any continental country whatever stimulates and refreshes
+vastly more, in spite of so much strong picturesqueness here, and so
+beautiful a Nature. England is ungracious, unamiable and heavy; whilst
+the Continent is everywhere light and amiably quaint, even where it is
+ugly, as in many elements it is in Germany. To tell the truth, I long to
+steep myself in America again and let the broken rootlets make new
+adhesions to the native soil. A man coquetting with too many countries
+is as bad as a bigamist, and loses his soul altogether.
+
+I suppose you are at Ashfield and I hope surrounded, or soon to be so,
+by more children than of late, and all well and happy. Don't feel too
+bad about the country. We've thrown away our old privileged and
+prerogative position among the nations, but it only showed we were less
+sincere about it than we supposed we were. The eternal fight of
+liberalism has now to be fought by us on much the same terms as in the
+older countries. We have still the better chance in our freedom from all
+the corrupting influences from on top from which they suffer.--Good-bye
+and love from both of us, to you all. Yours ever faithfully,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Nathaniel S. Shaler._
+
+
+[1901?]
+
+DEAR SHALER,--Being a man of methodical sequence in my reading, which in
+these days is anyhow rather slower than it used to be, I have only just
+got at your book.[37] Once begun, it slipped along "like a novel," and I
+must confess to you that it leaves a good taste behind; in fact a sort
+of _haunting_ flavor due to its individuality, which I find it hard to
+explain or define.
+
+To begin with, it doesn't seem exactly like you, but rather like some
+quiet and conscientious old passive contemplator of life, not bristling
+as you are with "points," and vivacity. Its light is dampened and
+suffused--and all the better perhaps for that. Then it is essentially a
+confession of faith and a religious attitude--which one doesn't get so
+much from you upon the street, although even there 'tis clear that you
+have that within which passeth show. The optimism and healthy-mindedness
+are yours through and through, so is the wide imagination. But the
+moderate and non-emphatic way of putting things is not; nor is the
+absence of any "American humor." So I don't know just when or where or
+how you wrote it. I can't place it in the Museum or University Hall.
+Probably it was in Quincy Street, and in a sort of Piperio-Armadan
+trance! Anyhow it is a sincere book, and tremendously impressive by the
+gravity and dignity and peacefulness with which it suggests rather than
+proclaims conclusions on these eternal themes. No more than you can I
+believe that death is due to selection; yet I wish you had framed some
+hypothesis as to the physico-chemical necessity thereof, or discussed
+such hypotheses as have been made. I think you deduce a little too
+easily from the facts the existence of a general guiding tendency toward
+ends like those which our mind sets. We never know what ends may have
+been kept from realization, for the dead tell no tales. The surviving
+witness would in any case, and whatever he were, draw the conclusion
+that the universe was planned to make him and the like of him succeed,
+for it actually did so. But your argument that it is millions to one
+that it didn't do so by chance doesn't apply. It would apply if the
+witness had preëxisted in an independent form and framed his scheme, and
+then the world had realized it. Such a coincidence would prove the world
+to have a kindred mind to his. But there has been no such coincidence.
+The world has come but once; the witness is there after the fact and
+simply approves, dependently. As I understand improbability, it only
+exists where independents coincide. Where only one fact is in question,
+there is no relation of "probability" at all. I think, therefore, that
+the excellences we have reached and now approve may be due to no general
+design but merely to a succession of the short designs we actually know
+of, taking advantage of opportunity, and adding themselves together from
+point to point. We are all you say we are, as heirs; we are a mystery of
+condensation, and yet of extrication and individuation, and we must
+worship the soil we have so wonderfully sprung from. Yet I don't think
+we are necessitated to worship it as the Theists do, in the shape of one
+all-inclusive and all-operative designing power, but rather like
+polytheists, in the shape of a collection of beings who have each
+contributed and are now contributing to the realization of ideals more
+or less like those for which we live ourselves. This more pluralistic
+style of feeling seems to me both to allow of a warmer sort of loyalty
+to our past helpers, and to tally more exactly with the mixed condition
+in which we find the world as to its ideals. What if we did come where
+we are by chance, or by mere fact, with no one general design? What is
+gained, is gained, all the same. As to what may have been lost, who
+knows of it, in any case? or whether it might not have been much better
+than what came? But if it might, that need not prevent _us_ from
+building on what _we_ have.
+
+There are lots of impressive passages in the book, which certainly will
+live and be an influence of a high order. Chapters 8, 10, 14, 15 have
+struck me most particularly.
+
+I gave at Edinburgh two lectures on "The Religion of
+Healthy-Mindedness," contrasting it with that of "the sick soul." I
+shall soon have to quote your book as a healthy-minded document of the
+first importance, though I believe myself that the sick soul must have
+its say, and probably carries authority too.... Ever yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+NAUHEIM, _July 10, 1901_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--Your letter of June 28th comes just as I was working
+myself up to a last European farewell to you, anyhow, the which has far
+more instigative spur now, with your magnificent effusion in my hands.
+Dear Fanny, whatever you do, don't _die_ before our return! In these
+two short years so many of my best friends have been mown down, that I
+feel uncertainty everywhere, and gasp till the interval is over. John
+Ropes, Henry Sidgwick, F. Myers, T. Davidson, Carroll Everett, Edward
+Hooper, John Fiske, all intimate and valuable, some of them extremely
+so, and the circle grows ever smaller and will grow so to the end of
+one's own life. Now comes Whitman, whom I never knew very well, but whom
+I always liked thoroughly, and wish I had known better.... It will be
+interesting to know what new turn it will give to S. W.'s existence. I
+haven't the least idea how it will affect her outward life. Doubtless
+she will be freer to come abroad; but I hope and trust she will not be
+taking to staying any time in London or Paris, in the brutal cynical
+atmosphere of which places her little eagerness and efflorescences and
+cordialities would receive no such sympathetic treatment as they do with
+us, until she had stayed long enough for people to know her thoroughly
+and conquered a position by living down the first impression. Nothing so
+_anti-English_ as S. W.'s whole "sphere." So keep her at home--with
+occasional sallies abroad; and if she must ever winter abroad, let it be
+in delightful slipshod old Rome! All which, as you perceive, is somewhat
+confidential. I trust that the present failure of health with her is
+something altogether transient, and that she will keep swimming long
+after everyone else has put into shore.
+
+Which simile reminds me of Mrs. Holmes's panel, with its superb
+inscription.[38] What a sense she has for such things! and how I thank
+you for quoting it! With your and her permission, I shall make a vital
+use of it in a future book. It sums up the attitude towards life of a
+good philosophic pluralist, and that is what, in my capacity of author
+of that book, I am to be. I thank you also for the reference to I
+Corinthians, 1, 28, etc.[39] I had never expressly noticed that text;
+but it will make the splendidest motto for Myers's two posthumous
+volumes, and I am going to write to Mrs. Myers to suggest the same. I
+thank you also for your sympathetic remarks about my paper on Myers.
+Fifty or a hundred years hence, people will know better than now whether
+his instinct for truth was a sound one; and perhaps will then pat me on
+the back for backing him. At present they give us the cold shoulder. We
+are righter, in any event, than the Münsterbergs and Jastrows are,
+because we don't undertake, as a condition of our investigating
+phenomena, to bargain with them that they shan't upset our
+"presuppositions."
+
+It is a beautiful summer morning, and I write under an awning on the
+high-perched corner balcony of the bedroom in which we live, of a corner
+house on the edge of the little town, with houses on the west of us and
+the fertile country spreading towards the east and south. A lovely
+region, though a climate terribly _flat_. I expect to take my last bath
+today, and to get my absolution from the terrible Schott; whereupon we
+shall leave tomorrow morning for Strassburg and the Vosges, for a week
+of touring up in higher air, and thence, _über_ Paris, as straight as
+may be for Rye. I keep in a state of subliminal excitement over our
+sailing on the 31st. It seems too good to be really possible. Yet the
+ratchet of time will work along its daily cogs, and doubtless bring it
+safe within our grasp. Last year I felt no distinctly beneficial effect
+from the baths. This year it is distinct. I have, in other words,
+continued pretty steadily getting better for four months past; so it is
+evident that I am in a genuinely ameliorative phase of my existence, of
+which the acquired momentum may carry me beyond any living man of my
+age. At any rate, I set no limits now!
+
+When we return I shall go straight up to Chocorua to the Salters'. What
+I _crave_ most is some wild American country. It is a curious
+organic-feeling need. One's social relations with European landscape are
+entirely different, everything being so fenced or planted that you can't
+lie down and sprawl. Kipling, alluding to the "bleeding raw" appearance
+of some of our outskirt settlements, says, "Americans don't mix much
+with their landscape as yet." But we mix a darned sight more than
+Europeans, so far as our individual organisms go, with our camping and
+general wild-animal personal relations. Thank Heaven that our Nature is
+so much less "redeemed"!...
+
+You see, Fanny, that we are in good spirits on the whole, although my
+poor dear Alice has long sick-headaches that consume a good many
+days--she is just emerging from a bad one. Happiness, I have lately
+discovered, is no positive feeling, but a negative condition of freedom
+from a number of restrictive sensations of which our organism usually
+seems to be the seat. When they are wiped out, the clearness and
+cleanness of the contrast is happiness. This is why anesthetics make us
+so happy. But don't you take to drink on that account! Love to your
+mother, Mary, and all. Write to us no more. How happy _that_
+responsibility gone must make you! We both send warmest love,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+[Post-card]
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _July 11, [1901]_.
+
+Your letter and paper, with the shock of John Fiske's death, came
+yesterday. It is too bad, for he had lots of good work in him yet, and
+is a loss to American letters as well as to his family. Singularly
+simple, solid, honest creature, he will be hugely missed by many!
+Everybody seems to be going! _We_ stay. Life here is absolutely
+monotonous, but very sweet. The country is so innocently pretty. I sit
+up here on a terrace-restaurant, looking down on park and town, with the
+leaves playing in the warm breeze above me, and the little Gothic town
+of Friedberg only a mile off, in the midst of the great fertile plain
+all chequer-boarded with the different tinted crops and framed in a
+far-off horizon of low hills and woods. Alice and Harry, kept in by the
+heat, come later. He went for a distant walk yesterday P.M. and, not
+returning till near eleven, we thought he might have got lost in the
+woods. Yale beat the University race, _but_ Bill's four[-oared crew]
+beat the Yale four. On such things is human contentment based. The baths
+stir up my aortic feeling and make me depressed, but I've had 6 of them,
+and the rest will pass quickly. Love.
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To E. L. Godkin._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _July 25, 1901_.
+
+DEAR GODKIN,--Yours of the 9th, which came duly, gave me great pleasure,
+first because it showed that your love for me had not grown cold, and,
+second, because it seemed to reveal in you tendencies towards
+sociability at large which are incompatible with a very alarming
+condition of health. Nothing can give us greater pleasure than to come
+and see you before we sail. We shall stick here, probably, for a
+fortnight longer, then go for a week to the Hartz mountains to brace up
+a little--the baths being very debilitating and the air of Nauheim
+sedative. Then straight to Rye until we sail--on August 31st. I hope
+that you enjoy the "New Forest"--the "Children" thereof, by Capt. Mayne
+Reid, I think, was one of my most mysteriously impressive books about
+the age of ten. But I fear that there is not much primeval forest to be
+seen there nowadays. Nauheim is a sweet little place. One never sees a
+soldier and wouldn't know that _Militarismus_ existed. There are two
+policemen, one of them an old fellow of 70 who shuffles along to keep
+his weak knees from giving way. I went on business to the police office
+t' other day. The building stood in a fine cabbage garden, and over the
+first door one met on entering stood the word _Küche_[40] in large
+letters. Quite like the old idyllic pre-Sadowan German days. My heart is
+getting _well_! I made an excursion to Homburg yesterday, with J. B.
+Warner of Cambridge, counsellor at law, and general disputant. For about
+six hours we discussed the Philippine question, he damning the
+anti-Imperialists--yet my thoracic contents remained as solid as if cast
+in Portland cement. Six months ago I should have had the wildest
+commotion there. Congratulate me! Kindest regards to you both, in which
+my wife joins. Yours ever affectionately,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+It should perhaps be explained that E. L. Godkin had had a cerebral
+hemorrhage the year before. It had left him clear in mind, but a
+permanent invalid, with little power of locomotion. James spent several
+days with him at Castle Malwood near Stony Cross before he sailed for
+home; and when he was in England again the next year, he repeated the
+visit.
+
+[Illustration: William James and Henry James posing for a Kodak in
+1900.]
+
+
+
+_To E. L. Godkin._
+
+
+LAMB HOUSE, _Aug. 29, 1901_.
+
+MY DEAR GODKIN,--Just a line to bid you both farewell! We leave for
+London tomorrow morning and at four on Saturday we shall be ploughing
+the deep. All goes well, save that the wife has sprained her ankle, and
+with the "firmness" that characterizes her lovely sex insists on
+hobbling about and doing all the packing. I shan't be aisy till I see
+her in her berth.
+
+After all, in spite of you and Henry, and all Americo-phobes, I'm glad
+I'm going back to my own country again. Notwithstanding its
+"humble"ness, its fatigues, and its complications, there's no place like
+home--though I think the New Forest might come near it as a substitute.
+England in general is too padded and cushioned for my rustic taste.
+
+The most elevating _moral_ thing I've seen during these two years
+abroad, after Myers's heroic exit from this world at Rome last winter,
+has been the gentleness and cheerful spirit with which you are still
+able to remain in it after such a blow as you have received. Who could
+suppose so much public ferocity to cover so much private sweetness?
+Seriously speaking, it is more edifying to us others, dear Godkin, than
+you yourself can understand it to be, and I for one have learned by the
+example. I pray that your winter problems may gradually solve themselves
+without perplexity, and that next spring may find you relieved of all
+this helplessness. It is a very slow progress, with many steps
+backwards, but if the length of the forward steps preponderates, one
+may be well content. Good-bye and bless you both. Affectionately yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+James returned to America in early September, in advance of the
+beginning of the College term. But from this time on he limited his
+teaching to one half-course during the year. His intention was to
+husband his strength for writing. The course which he offered during the
+first half of the College year was accordingly announced as a course on
+"The Psychological Elements of Religious Life." By the end of the
+winter, the second series of Gifford lectures, constituting the last
+half of the "Varieties," had been written out.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Pauline Goldmark._
+
+
+SILVER LAKE, N. H., _Sept. 14, 1901_.
+
+DEAR PAULINE,--Your kind letter (excuse pencil--pen won't write) appears
+to have reached London after our departure and has just followed us
+hither. I had hoped for a word from you, first at Nauheim, then on the
+steamer, then at Cambridge; but this makes everything right. How good to
+think of you as the same old loveress of woods and skies and waters, and
+of your Bryn-Mawr friends. May none of the lot of you ever grow
+insufficient or forsake each other! The sight of you sporting in
+Nature's bosom once lifted me into a sympathetic region, and made a
+better boy of me in ways which it would probably amuse and surprise you
+to learn of, so strangely are characters useful to each other, and so
+subtly are destinies intermixed. But with you on the mountain-tops of
+existence still, and me apparently destined to remain grubbing in the
+cellar, we seem far enough apart at present and may have to remain so.
+Alas! how brief is life's glory, at the best. I can't get to Keene
+Valley this year, and [may] possibly never get there. Give a kindly
+thought, my friend, to the spectre who once for a few times trudged by
+your side, and who would do so again if he could. I'm a "motor," and
+morally ill-adapted to the game of patience. I have reached home in
+pretty poor case, but I think it's mainly "nerves" at present, and
+therefore remediable; so I live on the future, but keep my expectations
+modest. Two years away has been too long, and the "strangeness" which I
+dreaded (from past experience of it) covers all things American as with
+a veil. Pathetic and poverty-stricken is all I see! This will pass away,
+but I don't want good things to pass away also, so I beseech you,
+Pauline, to sit down and write me a good intimate letter telling me what
+your life and interest were in New York last winter.
+
+I am very sorry to hear of your sister Susan's illness, and pray that
+the summer will set her right. Did you see much of Miller this summer? I
+hate to think of his having grown so delicate! Did you see Perry again?
+He was at the Putnam Camp? How is Adler after his _Cur_?--or is he not
+yet back? What have you read? What have you cared for? Be indulgent to
+me, and write to me here--I stay for 10 days longer--the family--all
+well--remain in Cambridge. I find letters a great thing to keep one from
+slipping out of life.
+
+Love to you all! Your
+
+W. J.
+
+The next letter was written across the back of a circular invitation to
+join the American Philosophical Association, then being formed, of which
+Professor Gardiner was Secretary.
+
+
+
+
+_To H. N. Gardiner._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Nov. 14, 1901_.
+
+DEAR GARDINER,--I am still pretty poorly and can't "jine" anything--but,
+apart from that, I don't foresee much good from a Philosophical Society.
+Philosophical discussion proper only succeeds between intimates who have
+learned how to converse by months of weary trials and failure. The
+philosopher is a lone beast dwelling in his individual burrow.--Count me
+_out_!--I hope all goes well with you. I expect to get well, but it
+needs _patience_.
+
+Wm. James.
+
+On April 1, 1902, James sailed for England, to deliver the second
+"course" of his series of Gifford Lectures in Edinburgh.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller._
+
+
+HATLEY ST. GEORGE,
+TORQUAY, _Apr. 20, 1902_.
+
+MY DEAR SCHILLER,--I could shed tears that you should have been so near
+me and yet been missed. I got your big envelope on Thursday at the
+hotel, and your two other missives here this morning. Of the Axioms
+paper I have only read a sheet and a half at the beginning and the
+superb conclusion which has just arrived. I shall fairly _gloat_ upon
+the whole of it, and will write you my impressions and criticisms, if
+criticisms there be. It is an uplifting thought that truth is to be told
+at last in a radical and attention-compelling manner. I think I know,
+though, how the attention of many will find a way not to be
+compelled--their will is so set on having a technically and artificially
+and _professionally_ expressed system, that all talk carried on as yours
+is on principles of common-sense activity is as remote and little
+worthy of being listened to as the slanging each other of boys in the
+street as we pass. Men disdain to notice that. It is only after our
+(_i.e._ your and my) general way of thinking gets organized enough to
+become a regular part of the _bureaucracy_ of philosophy that we shall
+get a serious hearing. Then, I feel inwardly convinced, our day will
+have come. But then, you may well say, the brains will be out and the
+man will be dead. Anyhow, _vive_ the Anglo-Saxon amateur, disciple of
+Locke and Hume, and _pereat_ the German professional!
+
+We are here for a week with the Godkins--poor old G., once such a power,
+and now an utter wreck after a stroke of paralysis three years ago.
+Beautiful place, southeast gale, volleying rain and streaming panes and
+volumes of soft sea-laden wind.
+
+I hope you are not serious about an Oxford degree for your humble
+servant. If you are, pray drop the thought! I am out of the race for all
+such vanities. Write me a degree on parchment and send it yourself--in
+any case it would be but your award!--and it will be cheaper and more
+veracious. I _had_ to take the Edinburgh one, and accepted the Durham
+one to please my wife. Thank you, no coronation either! I am a poor New
+Hampshire rustic, in bad health, and long to get back, after four
+summers' absence, to my own cottage and children, and never come away
+again for lectures or degrees or anything else. It all depends on a
+man's age; and after sixty, if ever, one feels as if one ought to come
+to some sort of equilibrium with one's native environment, and by means
+of a regular life get one's small message to mankind on paper. That
+nowadays is my only aspiration. The Gifford lectures are all facts and
+no philosophy--I trust that you may receive the volume by the middle of
+June.
+
+When, oh, when is your volume to appear? The sheet you send me leaves
+off just at the point where Boyle-Gibson begins to me to be most
+interesting! Ever fondly yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+Your ancient President, Schurman, was also at Edinburgh getting LL.D'd.
+He is conducting a campaign in favor of Philippino independence with
+masterly tactics, which reconcile me completely to him, laying his
+finger on just the right and telling points.
+
+
+
+
+_To Charles Eliot Norton._
+
+
+LAMB HOUSE, RYE, _May 4, 1902_.
+
+DEAR NORTON,--I hear with grief and concern that you have had a bad
+fall. In a letter received this morning you are described as better, so
+I hope it will have had no untoward consequences beyond the immediate
+shock. We need you long to abide with us in undiminished vigor and
+health. Our voyage was smooth, though cloudy, and we found Miss Ward a
+very honest and lovable girl. Henry D. Lloyd, whose name you know as
+that of a state-socialist writer, sat opposite to us, and proved one of
+the most "winning" men it was ever my fortune to know.
+
+We went to Stratford for the first time. The absolute extermination and
+obliteration of every record of Shakespeare save a few sordid material
+details, and the general suggestion of narrowness and niggardliness
+which ancient Stratford makes, taken in comparison with the way in which
+the spiritual quantity "Shakespeare" has mingled into the soul of the
+world, was most uncanny, and I feel ready to believe in almost any
+mythical story of the authorship. In fact a visit to Stratford now seems
+to me the strongest appeal a Baconian can make. The country round about
+was exquisite. Still more so the country round about Torquay, where we
+stayed with the Godkins for eight days--he holding his own, as it seemed
+to me, but hardly improving, she earning palms of glory by her strength
+and virtue. A regular little trump! They have taken for the next two
+months the most beautiful country place I ever saw, occupying an elbow
+of the Dart, and commanding a view up and down. We are here for but a
+week, my lectures beginning on the 13th. H. J. seems tranquil and happy
+in his work, though he has been much pestered of late by gout.
+
+I suppose you are rejoicing as much as I in the public interest finally
+aroused in the Philippine conquest. A personal scandal, it seems, is
+really the only thing that will wake the ordinary man's attention up. It
+should be the first aim of every good leader of opinion to rake up one
+on the opposite side. It should be introduced among our Faculty methods!
+
+Don't think, dear Norton, that you must answer this letter, which only
+your accident has made me write. We shall be home so soon that I shall
+see you face to face. The wife sends love, as I do, to you all. No warm
+weather whatever as yet--I am having chilblains!! Ever affectionately
+yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. Henry Whitman._
+
+
+R.M.S. IVERNIA, _June 18, 1902_.
+
+DEAR MRS. WHITMAN,--We ought to be off Boston tonight. After a cold and
+wet voyage, including two days of head-gale and heavy sea, and one of
+unbroken fog with lugubriously moo-ing fog-horn, the sun has risen upon
+American weather, a strong west wind like champagne, blowing out of a
+saturated blue sky right in our teeth, the sea all effervescing and
+sparkling with white caps and lace, the strong sun lording it in the
+sky, and hope presiding in the heart. What more natural than to report
+all this happy turn of affairs to you, buried as you probably still are
+in the blankets of the London atmosphere, beautiful opalescent blankets
+though they be, and (when one's vitals once are acclimated) yielding
+more wonderful artistic effects than anything to be seen in America.
+"C'est le pays de la couleur," as my brother is fond of saying in the
+words of Alphonse Daudet! But no matter for international comparisons,
+which are the least profitable of human employments. Christ died for us
+all, so let us all be as we are, save where we want to reform ourselves.
+(The only unpardonable crime is that of wanting to reform _one another_,
+after the fashion of the U. S. in the Philippines.) ... Your sweet
+letter of several dates reached us just before we left Edinburgh--excuse
+the insipid adjective "sweet," which after all does express something
+which less simple vocables may easily miss--and gave an impression of
+harmony and inner health which it warms the heart to become sensible of.
+I understand your temptation to stay over, but I also understand your
+temptation to get back; and I imagine that more and more you will solve
+the problem by a good deal of alternation in future years. It is curious
+how utterly distinct the three countries of England, Ireland and
+Scotland are, which we so summarily lump together--Scotland so
+democratic and so much like New England in many respects. But it would
+be a waste of time for you to go there. Keep to the South and spend one
+winter in Rome, before you die, and a spring in the smaller Italian
+cities!
+
+I hope that Henry will have managed to get you and Miss Tuckerman to Rye
+for a day--it is so curiously quaint and characteristic. I had a bad
+conscience about leaving him, for I think he feels lonely as he grows
+old, and friends pass over to the majority. He and I are so utterly
+different in all our observances and springs of action, that we can't
+rightly judge each other. I even feel great shrinking from urging him to
+pay us a visit, fearing it might yield him little besides painful
+shocks--and, after all, what besides pain and shock _is_ the right
+reaction for anyone to make upon our vocalization and pronunciation? The
+careful consonants and musical cadences of the Scotchwomen were such a
+balm to the ear! I wish that you and poor Henry could become really
+intimate. He is at bottom a very tender-hearted and generous being! No
+more paper! so I cross! I wish when we once get settled again at
+Chocorua that we might enclose you under our roof, even if only for one
+night, on your way to or from the Merrimans. I should like to show you
+true simplicity.
+
+[_No signature_.]
+
+The Gifford Lectures were published as "The Varieties of Religious
+Experience, a Study in Human Nature," in June, 1902. The immediate
+"popularity" of this psychological survey of man's religious
+propensities was great; and the continued sales of the book contributed
+not a little to relieve James of financial anxiety during the last years
+of his life.
+
+The cordiality with which theological journals and private
+correspondents of many creeds greeted the "Varieties," as containing a
+fair treatment of facts which other writers had approached with a
+sectarian or anti-theological bias, was striking. James was amused at
+being told that the book had "supplied the protestant pulpits with
+sermons for a twelve-month." Regarding himself as "a most protestant
+protestant," as he once said, he was especially pleased by the manner in
+which it was received by Roman Catholic reviewers.
+
+Certain philosophical conclusions were indicated broadly in the
+"Varieties" without being elaborated. The book was a survey, an
+examination, of the facts. James had originally conceived of the Gifford
+appointment as giving him "an opportunity for a certain amount of
+psychology and a certain amount of metaphysics," and so had thought of
+making the first series of lectures descriptive of man's religious
+propensities and the second series a metaphysical study of their
+satisfaction through philosophy. The psychological material had grown to
+unforeseen dimensions, and it ended by filling the book. The
+metaphysical study remained to be elaborated; and to such work James now
+turned.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+1902-1905
+
+_The Last Period (I)--Philosophical Writing--Statements of Religious
+Relief_
+
+
+JAMES now limited his teaching in Harvard University, as has been said,
+to half a course a year and tried to devote his working energies to
+formulating a statement of his philosophical conceptions. For two years
+he published almost nothing; then the essays which were subsequently
+collected in the volumes called "Pragmatism," "The Pluralistic
+Universe," "The Meaning of Truth," and "Essays in Radical Empiricism,"
+began to appear in the philosophic journals, or were delivered as
+special lectures. Whenever he accepted invitations to lecture outside
+the College, as he still did occasionally, it was with the purpose of
+getting these conceptions expressed and of throwing them into the arena
+of discussion. But demands which correspondents and callers from all
+parts of the globe now made on his time and sympathy were formidable,
+for he could not rid himself of the habit of treating the most trivial
+of these with consideration, or acquire the habit of using a secretary.
+In this way there continued to be a constant drain on his strength. "It
+is probably difficult [thus he wrote wearily to Mr. Lutoslawski, who had
+begged him to collaborate with him on a book in 1904] for a man whose
+cerebral machine works with such facility as yours does to imagine the
+kind of consciousness of men like Flournoy and myself. The background of
+my consciousness, so far as my own achievements go, is composed of a
+_sense of impossibility_--a sense well warranted by the facts. For
+instance, two years ago, the 'Varieties' being published, I decided
+that everything was cleared and that my duty was immediately to begin
+writing my metaphysical system. Up to last October, when the academic
+year began, I had written some 200 pages of _notes_, _i.e._ disconnected
+_brouillons_. I hoped this year to write 400 or 500 pages of straight
+composition, and could have done so without the interruptions. As a
+matter of fact, with the best will in the world, I have written exactly
+32 pages! For an academic year's work, that is not brilliant! You see
+that, when I refuse your request, it is, after a fashion, in order to
+save my own life. My working day is anyhow, _at best_, only three hours
+long--by working I mean writing and reading philosophy." This estimate
+of his "notes" was, as always, self-deprecatory; but there was no
+denying a great measure of truth to the statement. Frequently his health
+made it necessary for him to escape from Cambridge and his desk. These
+incidents will be noted separately wherever the context requires.
+
+Yet in spite of these difficulties and notwithstanding his complaints of
+constant frustration, the spirit with which James still did his work
+emerges from the essays of this time as well as from his letters. It was
+as if the years that had preceded had been years of preparation for just
+what he was now doing. At the age of sixty-three he turned to the
+formulation of his empirical philosophy with the eagerness of a
+schoolboy let out to play. Misunderstanding disturbed him only
+momentarily, opposition stimulated him, he rejoiced openly in the
+controversies which he provoked, and engaged in polemics with the good
+humor and vigor that were the essence of his genius. His "truth" must
+prevail! the Absolute should suffer its death-blow! Flournoy, Bergson,
+Schiller, Papini, and others too were "on his side." He made merry at
+the expense of his critics, or bewailed the perversity of their
+opposition; but he always encouraged them to "lay on." The imagery of
+contest and battle appeared in the letters which he threw off, and he
+expressed himself as freely as only a man can who has outgrown the
+reserves of his youth.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry L. Higginson._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _July 3, 1902_.
+
+DEAR HENRY,--Thanks for your letter of the other day, etc. Alice tells
+me of a queer conversation you and she had upon the cars. I am not
+anxious about money, beyond wishing not to live on capital.... As I have
+frequently said, I mean to support you in your old age. In fact the hope
+of that is about all that I now live for, being surfeited with the glory
+of academic degrees just escaped, like this last one which, in the
+friendliness of its heart, your [Harvard] Corporation designed sponging
+upon me at Commencement.[41] Boil it and solder it up from the microbes,
+and it may do for another year, if I am not in prison! The friendliness
+of such recognition is a delightful thing to a man about to graduate
+from the season of his usefulness. "La renommé vient," as I have heard
+John La Farge quote, "à ceux qui ont la patience d'attendre, et
+s'accroit à raison de leur imbecillité." Best wishes to you all. Yours
+ever,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Grace Norton._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _Aug. 29, 1902_.
+
+MY DEAR GRACE,--Will you kindly let me know, by the method of
+effacement, on the accompanying post-card, whether the box from Germany
+of which I wrote you some time ago has or has not yet been left at your
+house. I paid the express, over twenty dollars, on it three weeks ago,
+directing it to be left with you.
+
+The ice being thus broken, let me ramble on! How do-ist thou? And how is
+the moist and cool summer suiting thee? I hope, well! It has certainly
+been a boon to most people. Our house has been full of company of which
+tomorrow the last boys will leave, and I confess I shall enjoy the
+change to no responsibility. The scourge of life is _responsibility_--always
+there with its scowling face, and when it ceases to someone else, it
+begins to yourself, or to your God, if you have one. Consider the
+lilies, how free they are from it, and yet how beautiful the expression
+of their face. Especially should those emerging from "nervous
+prostration" be suffered to be without it--they have trouble enough in
+any case. I am getting on famously, but for that drawback, on which my
+temper is liable to break; but I _walk_ somewhat as in old times, and
+that is the main corner to have turned. The country seems as beautiful
+as ever--it is good that, when age takes away the zest from so many
+things, it seems to make no difference at all in one's capacity for
+enjoying landscape and the aspects of Nature. We are all well, and shall
+very soon be buzzing about Irving Street as of yore. Keep well yourself,
+dear Grace; and believe me ever your friend,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+To this word about enjoying the aspects of nature may be added a few
+lines from a letter to his son William, which James wrote from Europe in
+1900:--
+
+"Scenery seems to wear in one's consciousness better than any other
+element in life. In this year of much solemn and idle meditation, I
+have often been surprised to find what a predominant part in my own
+spiritual experience it has played, and how it stands out as almost the
+only thing the memory of which I should like to carry over with me
+beyond the veil, unamended and unaltered. From the midst of every thing
+else, almost, _surgit amari aliquid_; but from the days in the open air,
+never any bitter whiff, save that they are gone forever."
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+STONEHURST,
+INTERVALE, N. H., _Sept. 18, 1902_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--How long it is since we have exchanged salutations and
+reported progress! Happy the country which is without a history! _I_
+have had no history to communicate, and I hope that you have had none
+either, and that the summer has glided away as happily for you as it has
+for us. Now it begins to fade towards the horizon over which so many
+ancient summers have slipped, and our household is on the point of
+"breaking up" just when the season invites one most imperiously to stay.
+_Dang_ all schools and colleges, say I. Alice goes down tomorrow (I
+being up here with the Merrimans only for one day) to start Billy for
+Europe--he will spend the winter at Geneva University--and to get "the
+house" ready for our general reception on the 26th. I may possibly make
+out to stay up here till the Monday following, and spend the interval of
+a few days by myself among the mountains, having stuck to the domestic
+hearth unusually tight all summer....
+
+We have had guests--too many of them, rather, at one time, for me--and a
+little reading has been done, mostly philosophical technics, which, by
+the strange curse laid upon Adam, certain of his descendants have been
+doomed to invent and others, still more damned, to learn. But I've also
+read Stevenson's letters, which everybody ought to read just to know how
+charming a human being can be, and I've read a good part of Goethe's
+_Gedichte_ once again, which are also to be read, so that one may
+realize how absolutely healthy an organization may every now and then
+eventuate into this world. To have such a lyrical gift and to treat it
+with so little solemnity, so that most of the output consists of mere
+escape of the over-tension into bits of occasional verse, irresponsible,
+unchained, like smoke-wreaths!--it _du_ give one a great impression of
+personal power. In general, though I'm a traitor for saying so, it seems
+to me that the German race has been a more massive organ of expression
+for the travail of the Almighty than the Anglo-Saxon, though we did seem
+to have something more like it in Elizabethan times. Or are clearness
+and dapperness the absolutely final shape of creation? Good-bye! dear
+Fanny--you see how mouldy I am temporarily become. The moment I take my
+pen, I can write in no other way. Write thou, and let me know that
+things are greener and more vernal where you are. Alice would send much
+love to you, were she here. Give mine to your mother, brother, and
+sister-in-law, and all. Your loving,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry L. Higginson._
+
+
+CAMBRIDGE, MASS., _Nov. 1, 1902_.
+
+DEAR HENRY,--I am emboldened to the step I am taking by the
+consciousness that though we are both at least sixty years old and have
+known each other from the cradle, I have never but once (or possibly
+twice) traded on your well-known lavishness of disposition to swell any
+"subscription" which I was trying to raise.
+
+Now the doomful hour has struck. The altar is ready, and I take the
+victim by the ear. I choose you for a victim because you still have some
+undesiccated human feeling about you and can think in terms of pure
+charity--for the love of God, without ulterior hopes of returns from the
+investment.
+
+The subject is a man of fifty who can be recommended to no other kind of
+a benefactor. His story is a long one, but it amounts to this, that
+Heaven made him with no other power than that of thinking and writing,
+and he has proved by this time a truly pathological inability to keep
+body and soul together. He is abstemious to an incredible degree, is the
+most innocent and harmless of human beings, isn't propagating his kind,
+has never had a dime to spend except for vital necessities, and never
+has had in his life an hour of what such as _we_ call freedom from care
+or of "pleasure" in the ordinary exuberant sense of the term. He is
+refinement itself mentally and morally; and his writings have all been
+printed in first-rate periodicals, but are too scanty to "pay." There's
+no excuse for him, I admit. But God made him; and after kicking and
+cuffing and prodding him for twenty years, I have now come to believe
+that he ought to be treated in charity pure and simple (even though that
+be a vice) and I want to guarantee him $350 a year as a pension to be
+paid to the Mills Hotel in Bleecker Street, New York, for board and
+lodging and a few cents weekly over and above. I will put in $150. I
+have secured $100 more. Can I squeeze £50 a year out of you for such a
+non-public cause? If not, don't reply and forget this letter. If "ja"
+and you think you really can afford it, and it isn't wicked, let me
+know, and I will dun you regularly every year for the $50. Yours as
+ever,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+It is a great compliment that I address you. Most men say of such a
+case, "Is the man deserving?" Whereas the real point is, "Does he need
+us?" What is deserving nowadays?
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The beneficiary of this appeal was that same unfulfilled promise of a
+metaphysician who appeared as "X" on page 292 of the first volume--a man
+upon whom, in Cicero's phrase, none but a philosopher could look without
+a groan. There were more parallels to X's case than it would be
+permissible to cite here. James did not often appeal to others to help
+such men with money, but he did things for them himself, even after it
+had become evident that they could give nothing to the world in return,
+and even when they had exhausted his patience. "Damn your
+half-successes, your imperfect geniuses!" he exclaimed of another who
+shall be called Z. "I'm tired of making allowances for them and propping
+them up.... Z has never constrained himself in his life. Selfish,
+conceited, affected, a monster of desultory intellect, he has become now
+a seedy, almost sordid, old man without even any intellectual residuum
+from his work that can be called a finished construction; only
+'suggestions' and a begging old age." But Z, too, was helped to the end.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henri Bergson._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Dec. 14, 1902_.
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I read the copy of your "Matière et Mémoire" which you so
+kindly sent me, immediately on receiving it, four years ago or more. I
+saw its great originality, but found your ideas so new and vast that I
+could not be sure that I fully understood them, although the _style_,
+Heaven knows, was lucid enough. So I laid the book aside for a second
+reading, which I have just accomplished, slowly and carefully, along
+with that of the "Données Immédiates," etc.
+
+I think I understand the main lines of your system very well at
+present--though of course I can't yet trace its proper relations to the
+aspects of experience of which you do not treat. It needs much building
+out in the direction of Ethics, Cosmology and Cosmogony, Psychogenesis,
+etc., before one can apprehend it fully. That I should take it in so
+much more easily than I did four years ago shows that even at the age of
+sixty one's mind can grow--a pleasant thought.
+
+It is a work of exquisite genius. It makes a sort of Copernican
+revolution as much as Berkeley's "Principles" or Kant's "Critique" did,
+and will probably, as it gets better and better known, open a new era of
+philosophical discussion. It fills _my_ mind with all sorts of new
+questions and hypotheses and brings the old into a most agreeable
+liquefaction. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
+
+The _Hauptpunkt_ acquired for me is your conclusive demolition of the
+dualism of object and subject in perception. I believe that the
+"transcendency" of the object will not recover from your treatment, and
+as I myself have been working for many years past on the same line, only
+with other general conceptions than yours, I find myself most agreeably
+corroborated. My health is so poor now that work goes on very slowly;
+but I am going, if I live, to write a general system of metaphysics
+which, in many of its fundamental ideas, agrees closely with what you
+have set forth and the agreement inspires and encourages me more than
+you can well imagine. It would take far too many words to attempt any
+detail, but some day I hope to send you the book.[42]
+
+How good it is sometimes simply to _break away_ from all old categories,
+deny old worn-out beliefs, and restate things _ab initio_, making the
+lines of division fall into entirely new places!
+
+I send you a little popular lecture of mine on immortality,[43]--no
+positive theory but merely an _argumentum ad hominem_ for the ordinary
+cerebralistic objection,--in which it may amuse you to see a formulation
+like your own that the brain is an organ of _filtration_ for spiritual
+life.
+
+I also send you my last book, the "Varieties of Religious Experience,"
+which may some time beguile an hour. Believe, dear Professor Bergson,
+the high admiration and regard with which I remain, always sincerely
+yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. Louis Agassiz._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Dec. 15, 1902_.
+
+DEAR MRS. AGASSIZ,--I never dreamed of your replying to that note of
+mine (of Dec. 5th). If you are replying to all the notes you received on
+that eventful day, it seems to me a rather heavy penalty for becoming an
+octogenarian.[44] But glad I am that you replied to mine, and so
+beautifully. Indeed I do remember the meeting of those two canoes, and
+the dance, over the river from Manaos; and many another incident and
+hour of that wonderful voyage.[45] I remember your freshness of
+interest, and readiness to take hold of everything, and what a blessing
+to me it was to have one civilized lady in sight, to keep the memory of
+cultivated conversation from growing extinct. I remember my own folly in
+wishing to return home after I came out of the hospital at Rio; and my
+general greenness and incapacity as a naturalist afterwards, with my
+eyes gone to pieces. It was all because my destiny was to be a
+"philosopher"--a fact which then I didn't know, but which only means, I
+think, that, if a man is good for nothing else, he can at least teach
+philosophy. But I'm going to write one book worthy of you, dear Mrs.
+Agassiz, and of the Thayer expedition, if I am spared a couple of years
+longer.
+
+I hope you were not displeased at the _applause_ the other night, as you
+went out. _I_ started it; if I hadn't, someone else would a moment
+later, for the tension had grown intolerable.
+
+How delightful about the Radcliffe building!
+
+Well, once more, dear Mrs. Agassiz, we both thank you for this beautiful
+and truly affectionate letter. Your affectionate,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+E. L. Godkin had recently died, and at the date of the next letter a
+movement was on foot to raise money for a memorial in commemoration of
+his public services. The money was soon subscribed and the Memorial took
+shape in the endowment of the Godkin Lectureship at Harvard. James had
+started discussion of the project at a meeting of the dinner Club and
+Henry L. Higginson had continued it in a letter to which the following
+replied.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry L. Higginson._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb. 8, 1903_.
+
+DEAR HENRY,--I am sorry to have given a wrong impression, and made you
+take the trouble of writing--nutritious though your letters be to
+receive. My motive in mentioning the Godkin testimonial was pure
+curiosity, and not desire to promote it. We were ten "liberals"
+together, and I wanted to learn how many of us had been alienated from
+Godkin by his temper in spite of having been influenced by his writing.
+I found that it was just about half and half. I never said--Heaven bear
+me witness--that I had learned more from G. than from anyone. I said I
+had got more _political_ education from him. You see the "Nation" took
+me at the age of 22--you were already older and wickeder. If you follow
+my advice now, you don't subscribe a cent to this memorial. _I_ shall
+subscribe $100, for mixed reasons. Godkin's "home life" was very
+different from his life against the world. When a man differed in type
+from him, and consequently reacted differently on public matters; he
+thought him a preposterous monster, pure and simple, and so treated him.
+He couldn't imagine a different kind of creature from himself in
+politics. But in private relations he was simplicity and sociability and
+affectionateness incarnate, and playful as a young opossum. I never knew
+his first wife well, but I admire the pluck and fidelity of the second,
+and I note your chivalrous remarks about the sex, including Mrs. W. J.,
+to whom report has been made of them, making her blush with pleasure.
+
+Don't subscribe, dear Henry. I am not trying to raise subscriptions. You
+left too early Friday eve. Ever affectionately yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+James's college class finished its work at the end of the first half of
+the academic year, and in early February he turned for a few days to the
+thought of a Mediterranean voyage, as a vacation and a means of escape
+from Cambridge during the bad weather of March. While considering this
+plan, he cabled M. Bergson to inquire as to the possibility of a meeting
+in Paris or elsewhere.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henri Bergson._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb. 25, 1903_.
+
+DEAR PROFESSOR BERGSON,--Your most obliging cablegram (with 8 words
+instead of four!) arrived duly a week ago, and now I am repenting that I
+ever asked you to send it, for I have been feeling so much less fatigued
+than I did a month ago, that I have given up my passage to the
+Mediterranean, and am seriously doubting whether it will be necessary to
+leave home at all. I _ought_ not to, on many grounds, unless my health
+imperatively requires it. Pardon me for having so frivolously stirred
+you up, and permit me at least to pay the cost (as far as I can
+ascertain it) of the despatch which you were so liberal as to send.
+
+There is still a bare possibility (for I am so strongly tempted) that I
+may, after the middle of March, take a cheaper vessel direct to England
+or to France, and spend ten days or so in Paris and return almost
+immediately. In that case, we could still have our interview. I think
+there must be great portions of your philosophy which you have not yet
+published, and I want to see how well they combine with mine. _Writing_
+is too long and laborious a process, and I would not inflict on you the
+task of answering my questions by letter, so I will still wait in the
+hope of a personal interview some time.
+
+I am convinced that a philosophy of _pure experience_, such as I
+conceive yours to be, can be made to work, and will reconcile many of
+the old inveterate oppositions of the schools. I think that your radical
+denial (the manner of it at any rate) of the notion that the brain can
+be in any way the _causa fiendi_ of consciousness, has introduced a very
+sudden clearness, and eliminated a part of the idealistic paradox. But
+your unconscious or subconscious permanence of memories is in its turn a
+notion that offers difficulties, seeming in fact to be the equivalent of
+the "soul" in another shape, and the manner in which these memories
+"insert" themselves into the brain action, and in fact the whole
+conception of the difference between the outer and inner worlds in your
+philosophy, still need to me a great deal of elucidation. But behold me
+challenging you to answer me _par écrit_!
+
+I have read with great delight your article in the "Revue de
+Métaphysique" for January, agree thoroughly with all its critical part,
+and wish that I might see in your _intuition métaphysique_ the full
+equivalent for a philosophy of concepts. _Neither_ seems to be a full
+equivalent for the other, unless indeed the intuition becomes completely
+mystical (and that I am willing to believe), but I don't think that that
+is just what _you_ mean. The _Syllabus_[46] which I sent you the other
+day is (I fear), from its great abbreviation, somewhat unintelligible,
+but it will show you the sort of lines upon which I have been working. I
+think that a normal philosophy, like a science, must live by
+hypotheses--I think that the indispensable hypothesis in a philosophy of
+pure experience is that of many kinds of other experience than ours,
+
+ { co-consciousness }
+that the question of { } (its conditions, etc.)
+ { conscious synthesis }
+
+becomes a most urgent question, as does also the question of the
+relations of what is possible only to what is actual, what is past or
+future to what is present. These are all urgent matters in your
+philosophy also, I imagine. How exquisitely you do _write_! Believe me,
+with renewed thanks for the telegram, yours most sincerely,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 30, 1903_.
+
+MY DEAR FLOURNOY,--I forget whether I wrote you my applause or not, on
+reading your chapter on religious psychology in the "Archives." I
+thought it a splendid thing, and well adapted to set the subject in the
+proper light before students. Abauzit has written to me for
+authorization to translate my book, and both he and W. J., Junior, have
+quoted you as assured of his competency. I myself feel confident of it,
+and have given him the authorization required. Possibly you may supply
+him with as much of your own translation as you have executed, so that
+the time you have spent on the latter may not be absolutely lost.
+"Billy" also says that you have executed a review of Myers's book,[47]
+finding it a more difficult task than you had anticipated. I am highly
+curious to see what you have found to say. I, also, wrote a notice of
+the volumes, and found it exceeding difficult to know how to go at the
+job. At last I decided just to skeletonize the points of his reasoning,
+but on correcting the proof just now, what I have written seems deadly
+flat and unprofitable and makes me wish that I had stuck to my original
+intention of refusing to review the book at all. The fact is, such a
+book need not be _criticized_ at all at present. It is obviously too
+soon for it to be either refuted or established by mere criticism. It
+is a hypothetical construction of genius which must be kept hanging up,
+as it were, for new observations to be referred to. As the years
+accumulate these in a more favorable or in a more unfavorable sense, it
+will tend to stand or to fall. I confess that reading the volumes has
+given me a higher opinion than ever of Myers's constructive gifts, but
+on the whole a lower opinion of the objective solidity of the system. So
+many of the facts which form its pillars are still dubious.[48]
+
+Bill says that you were again convinced by Eusapia,[49] but that the
+conditions were not satisfactory enough (so I understood) to make the
+experiments likely to convince absent hearers. Forever baffling is all
+this subject, and I confess that I begin to lose my interest. Believe
+me, in whatever difficulties your review of Myers may have occasioned
+you, you have my fullest sympathy!
+
+Bill has had a perfectly splendid winter in Geneva, thanks almost
+entirely to your introductions, and to the generous manner in which you
+took him into your own family. I wish we could ever requite you by
+similar treatment of Henri, or of _ces demoiselles_. He seems to labor
+under an apprehension of not being able to make you all believe how
+appreciative and grateful he is, and he urges me to "Make you understand
+it" when I write. I imagine that you understand it anyhow, so far as he
+is concerned, so I simply assure you that _our_ gratitude here is of the
+strongest and sincerest kind. I imagine that this has been by far the
+most profitable and educative winter of his life, and I rejoice
+exceedingly that he has obtained in so short a time so complete a sense
+of being at home in, and so lively an affection for, the Swiss people
+and country. (As for _your_ family he has written more than once that
+the Flournoy family seems to be "the finest family" he has ever seen in
+his life.)
+
+His experience is a good measure of the improvement in the world's
+conditions. Thirty years ago _I_ spent nine months in Geneva--but in how
+inferior an "Academy," and with what inferior privileges and
+experiences! Never inside a private house, and only after three months
+or more familiar enough with other students to be admitted to
+Zofingue.[50] Ignorant of 1000 things which have come to my son and
+yours in the course of education. It _is_ a more evolved world, and no
+mistake.
+
+I find myself very tired and unable to work this spring, but I think it
+will depart when I get to the country, as we soon shall. I am neither
+writing nor lecturing, and reading nothing heavy, only Emerson's works
+again (divine things, some of them!) in order to make a fifteen-minute
+address about him on his centennial birthday. What I want to get at, and
+let no interruptions interfere, is (at last) my _system of tychistic and
+pluralistic philosophy of pure experience_.
+
+I wish, and even more ardently does Alice wish, that you and Mrs.
+Flournoy, and all the children, or any of them, might pay us a visit. I
+don't _urge_ you, for there is so little in America that pays one to
+come, except sociological observation. But in the big slow steamers, the
+voyage is always interesting--and once here, how happy we should be to
+harbor you. In any case, perhaps Henri and one of his sisters will come
+and spend a year. From the point of view of education, Cambridge is
+first-rate. Love to you all from us both.
+
+Wm. James.
+
+Late in April came a letter from Henry James in which he spoke, as if
+with many misgivings, of returning to America for a six months' visit.
+"I should wish," he said, "to write a book of 'impressions' and to that
+end get quite away from Boston and New York--really _see_ the country at
+large. On the other hand I don't see myself prowling alone in Western
+cities and hotels or finding my way about by myself, and it is all
+darksome and tangled. Some light may break--but meanwhile next Wednesday
+(awful fact) is my 60th birthday." He had not been in America for more
+than twenty years, and had never known anything of the country outside
+of New England and New York.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+Cambridge, _May 3, 1903_.
+
+...Your long and _inhaltsvoll_ letter of April 10th arrived duly, and
+constituted, as usual, an "event." Theodora had already given us your
+message of an intended visit to these shores; and your letter made Alice
+positively overflow with joyous anticipations. On my part they are less
+unmixed, for I feel more keenly a good many of the _désagréments_ to
+which you will inevitably be subjected, and imagine the sort of physical
+loathing with which many features of our national life will inspire you.
+It takes a long time to notice such things no longer. One thing, for
+example, which would reconcile _me_ most easily to abandoning my native
+country forever would be the certainty of immunity, when traveling, from
+the sight of my fellow beings at hotels and dining-cars having their
+boiled eggs brought to them, broken by a negro, two in a cup, and eaten
+with butter. How irrational this dislike is, is proved both by logic,
+and by the pleasure taken in the custom by the élite of mankind over
+here.... Yet of such irrational sympathies and aversions (quite
+conventional for the most part) does our pleasure in a country depend,
+and in your case far more than in that of most men. The _vocalization_
+of our countrymen is really, and not conventionally, so ignobly awful
+that the process of hardening oneself thereto is very slow, and would in
+your case be impossible. It is simply incredibly loathsome. I should
+hate to have you come and, as a result, feel that you had now _done_
+with America forever, even in an ideal and imaginative sense, which
+after a fashion you can still indulge in. As far as your copyright
+interests go, couldn't they be even more effectually and just as cheaply
+or more cheaply attended to by your [engaging an agent] over here. Alice
+foresees Lowell [Institute] lectures; but lectures have such an awful
+side (when not academic) that I myself have foresworn them--it is a sort
+of prostitution of one's person. This is rather a throwing of cold
+water; but it is well to realize both sides, and I think I can realize
+certain things for you better than the sanguine and hospitable Alice
+does.
+
+Now for the other side, there are things in the American out-of-door
+nature, as well as comforts indoors that can't be beat, and from which
+_I_ get an infinite pleasure. If you avoided the _banalité_ of the
+Eastern cities, and traveled far and wide, to the South, the Colorado,
+over the Canadian Pacific to that coast, possibly to the Hawaiian
+Islands, etc., you would get some reward, at the expense, it is true, of
+a considerable amount of cash. I think you ought to come in March or
+April and stay till the end of October or into November. The hot summer
+months you could pass in an absolutely quiet way--if you wished to--at
+Chocorua with us, where you could do as much writing as you liked,
+continuous, and undisturbed, and would (I am sure) grow fond of, as you
+grew more and more intimate with, the sweet rough country there. After
+June, 1904, _I_ shall be free, to go and come as I like, for I have
+fully decided to resign, and nothing would please me so well (if I found
+then that I could afford it) as to do some of that proposed traveling
+along with you. I could take you into certain places that perhaps you
+wouldn't see alone. Don't come therefore, if you do come, before the
+spring of 1904!
+
+I have been doing nothing in the way of work of late, and consequently
+have kept my fatigue somewhat at bay. The reading of the divine Emerson,
+volume after volume, has done me a lot of good, and, strange to say, has
+thrown a strong practical light on my own path. The incorruptible way in
+which he followed his own vocation, of seeing such truths as the
+Universal Soul vouchsafed to him from day to day and month to month, and
+reporting them in the right literary form, and thereafter kept his
+limits absolutely, refusing to be entangled with irrelevancies however
+urging and tempting, knowing both his strength and its limits, and
+clinging unchangeably to the rural environment which he once for all
+found to be most propitious, seems to me a moral lesson to all men who
+have any genius, however small, to foster. I see now with absolute
+clearness, that greatly as I have been helped and enlarged by my
+University business hitherto, the time has come when the remnant of my
+life must be passed in a different manner, contemplatively namely, and
+with leisure and simplification for the one remaining thing, which is to
+report in one book, at least, such impression as my own intellect has
+received from the Universe. This I mean to stick to, and am only sorry
+that I am obliged to stay in the University one other year. It is giving
+up the inessentials which have grown beyond one's powers, for the sake
+of the duties which, after all, are most essentially imposed on one by
+the nature of one's powers.
+
+Emerson is exquisite! I think I told you that I have to hold forth in
+praise of him at Concord on the 25th--in company with Senator Hoar, T.
+W. Higginson, and Charles Norton--quite a _vieille garde_, to which I
+now seem to belong. You too have been leading an Emersonian life--though
+the environment differs to suit the needs of the different
+psychophysical organism which you present.
+
+I have but little other news to tell you. Charles Peirce is lecturing
+here--queer being.... Boott is in good spirits, and as sociable as ever.
+Grace Norton ditto. I breakfasted this Sunday morning, as of yore, with
+Theodora [Sedgwick], who had a bad voyage in length but not in quality,
+though she lay in her berth the whole time. I can hardly conceive of
+being willing to travel under such conditions. Otherwise we are well
+enough, except Peggy, whose poor condition I imagine to result from
+influenza. Aleck has been regenerated through and through by "bird
+lore," happy as the day is long, and growing acquainted with the country
+all about Boston. All in consequence of a neighboring boy on the street,
+14 years old and an ornithological genius, having taken him under his
+protection. Yesterday, all day long in the open air, from seven to
+seven, at Wayland, spying and listening to birds, counting them, and
+writing down their names!
+
+I shall go off tomorrow or next day to the country again, by myself,
+joining Henry Higginson and a colleague at the end of the week, and
+returning by the 14th for Ph.D. examinations which I hate profoundly. H.
+H. has bought some five miles of the shore of Lake Champlain adjoining
+his own place there, and thinks of handing it over to the University for
+the surveying, engineering, forestry and mining school. He is as
+liberal-hearted a man as the Lord ever walloped entrails into....
+
+What a devil of a bore your forced purchase of the unnecessary
+neighboring land must have been. _I_ am just buying 150 acres more at
+Chocorua, to round off our second estate there. Keep well and
+prolific--everyone speaks praise of your "Better Sort," which I am
+keeping for the country....
+
+
+
+
+_To his Daughter._
+
+
+FABYANS, N. H., _May 6, 1903_.
+
+SWEET MARY,--Although I wrote to thy mother this P.M. I can't refrain
+from writing to thee ere I go up to bed. I left Intervale at 3.30 under
+a cloudy sky and slight rain, passing through the gloomy Notch to
+Crawford's and then here, where I am lodged in a house full of working
+men, though with a good clean bedroom. I write this in the office, with
+an enormous air-tight stove, a parrot and some gold-fish as my
+companions. I took a slow walk of an hour and a half before supper over
+this great dreary mountain plateau, pent in by hills and woods still
+free from buds. Although it is only 1500 feet high, the air is real
+mountain air, soft and strong at once. I wish that you could have taken
+that four-hour drive with Topsy[51] and me this morning. You would
+already be well--it had so healing an influence. Poverty-stricken this
+New Hampshire country may be--weak in a certain sense, shabby, thin,
+pathetic--say all that, yet, like "Jenny," it _kissed_ me; and it is not
+_vulgar_--even H. J. can't accuse it of that--or of "stodginess,"
+especially at this emaciated season. It remains pure, and clear and
+distinguished--Bless it! Once more, would thou hadst been along! I have
+just been reading Emerson's "Representative Men." What luminous truths
+he communicates about their home-life--for instance: "Nature never
+sends a Great Man into the planet without confiding the secret to
+another soul"--namely your mother's! How he hits her off, and how I
+recognized whom he meant immediately. Kiss the dear tender-hearted
+thing.
+
+Common men also have their advantages. I have seen all day long such a
+succession of handsome, stalwart, burnt-faced, out-of-door workers as
+made me glad to be, however degenerate myself, one of their tribe.
+Splendid, honest, good-natured fellows.
+
+Good-night! I'm now going to bed, to read myself to sleep with a tiptop
+novel sent me by one Barry, an old pupil of mine. 'T is called "A
+Daughter of Thespis." Is this the day of your mother's great and noble
+lunch? If so, I pray that it may have gone off well. Kisses to her, and
+all. Your loving
+
+PAPA.
+
+The next letter describes the Emerson Centenary at Concord. The Address
+which James delivered was published in the special volume commemorative
+of the proceedings, and also in "Memories and Studies."
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+Cambridge, _May 26, 1903_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--On Friday I called at your house and to my sorrow found
+the blinds all down. I had not supposed that you would leave so soon,
+though I might well have done so if I had reflected. It has been a
+sorrow to me to have seen so little of you lately, but so goes the
+_train du monde_. Collapsed condition, absences, interruptions of all
+sorts, have made the year end with most of the desiderata postponed to
+next year. I meant to write to you on Friday evening, then on Saturday
+morning. But I went to Lincoln on Saturday P.M. and stayed over the
+Emerson racket, without returning home, and have been packing and
+winding up affairs all day in order to get off to Chocorua tomorrow at
+7.30. These windings up of unfinished years continue till the unfinished
+life winds up.
+
+I wish that you had been at Concord. It was the most harmoniously
+æsthetic or æsthetically harmonious thing! The weather, the beauty of
+the village, the charming old meeting-house, the descendants of the
+grand old man in such profusion, the mixture of Concord and Boston
+heads, so many of them of our own circle, the allusions to great
+thoughts and things, and the old-time New England rusticity and
+rurality, the silver polls and ancient voices of the _vieille garde_ who
+did the orating (including this 'yer child), all made a matchless
+combination, took one back to one's childhood, and made that rarely
+realized marriage of reality with ideality, that usually only occurs in
+fiction or poetry.
+
+It was a sweet and memorable day, and I am glad that I had an active
+share in it. I thank you for your sweet words to Alice about my address.
+I let R. W. E. speak for himself, and I find now, hearing so much from
+others of him, that there are only a few things that _can_ be said of
+him; he was so squarely and simply himself as to impress every one in
+the same manner. Reading the whole of him over again continuously has
+made me feel his real greatness as I never did before. He's really a
+critter to be thankful for. Good-night, dear Fanny. I shall be back here
+by Commencement, and somehow we must see you at Chocorua this summer.
+
+Love to your mother as well as to yourself, from your ever affectionate
+
+Wm. James.
+
+The letter of May 3rd drew from Henry James a long reply which may be
+found in the "Letters of Henry James," under date of May 24th; the
+reply, in its turn, elicited this response:--
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _June 6, 1903_.
+
+DEAREST HENRY,--Your long and excitingly interesting type-written letter
+about coming hither arrived yesterday, and I hasten to retract all my
+dampening remarks, now that I understand the motives fully. The only
+ones I had imagined, blindling that I am, were fraternal piety and
+patriotic duty. Against those I thought I ought to proffer the thought
+of "eggs" and other shocks, so that when they came I might be able to
+say that you went not unwarned. But the moment it appears that what you
+crave is millions of just such shocks, and that a new lease of artistic
+life, with the lamp of genius fed by the oil of twentieth-century
+American life, is to be the end and aim of the voyage, all my stingy
+doubts wither and are replaced by enthusiasm that you are still so
+young-feeling, receptive and hungry for more raw material and
+experience. It cheers me immensely, and makes me feel more so myself. It
+is pathetic to hear you talk so about your career and its going to seed
+without the contact of new material; but feeling as you do about the new
+material, I augur a great revival of energy and internal effervescence
+from the execution of your project. Drop your English ideas and take
+America and Americans as they take themselves, and you will certainly
+experience a rejuvenation. This is all I have to say _today_--merely to
+let you see how the prospect exhilarates us.
+
+August, 1904, will be an excellent time to begin. I should like to go
+South with you,--possibly to Cuba,--but as for California, I fear the
+expense. I am sending you a decidedly moving book by a mulatto
+ex-student of mine, Du Bois, professor of history at Atlanta (Georgia)
+negro College.[52] Read Chapters VII to XI for local color, etc.
+
+We have been up here for ten days; the physical luxury of the
+simplification is something that money can't buy. Every breath is a
+pleasure--this in spite of the fact that the whole country is drying up
+and burning up--it makes one ashamed that one can be so happy. The smoke
+here has been so thick for five days that the opposite shore [of the
+Lake] is hidden. We have a first-rate hired man, a good cow, nice horse,
+dog, cook, second-girl, etc. Come up and see us in August, 1904! Your
+ever loving
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry W. Rankin._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _June 10, 1903_.
+
+MY DEAR RANKIN,--Once more has my graphophobia placed me heavily in your
+debt. Your two long letters, though unanswered, were and are
+appreciated, in spite of the fact that, as you know, I do not (and I
+fear cannot) follow the gospel scheme as you do, and that the Bible
+itself, in both its testaments (omitting parts of John and the
+Apocalypse) seems to me, by its intense naturalness and humanness, the
+most fatal document that one can read against the orthodox theology, in
+so far as the latter claims the words of the Bible to be its basis. I
+myself believe that the orthodox theology contains elements that are
+permanently true, and that such writers as Emerson, by reason of their
+extraordinary healthy-mindedness and "once-born"-ness, are incapable of
+appreciating. I believe that they will have to be expressed in any
+ultimately valid religious philosophy; and I see in the temper of
+friendliness of such a man as you for such writings as Emerson's and
+mine (_magnus comp. parvo_) a foretaste of the day when the abstract
+essentials of belief will be the basis of communion more than the
+particular forms and concrete doctrines in which they articulate
+themselves. Your letter about Emerson seemed to me so admirably written
+that I was on the point of sending it back to you, thinking it might be
+well that you should publish it somewhere. I will still do so, if you
+ask me. I have myself been a little scandalized at the non-resisting
+manner in which orthodox sheets have celebrated his anniversary. An
+"Emerson number" of "Zion's Herald" strikes me as _tant soit peu_ of an
+anomaly, and yet I am told that such a number appeared. Rereading him
+_in extenso_, almost _in toto_, lately, has made him loom larger than
+ever to me as a human being, but I feel the distinct lack in him of too
+little understanding of the morbid side of life.
+
+I have been in the country two weeks, delicious in spite of drought and
+smoke, and still more delicious now that rain has come, and I cannot
+bear to think of you still lingering in Brooklyn. Perhaps you are
+already at Northfield. Indeed I hope so, and that the long Brooklyn
+winter will have put you in a condition for its better enjoyment, and
+for better cooperation with its work.
+
+I shall get at Shields some day--but I'm slow in getting round! Yours
+ever faithfully,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Aug. 18, 1903_.
+
+DEAR M.,-- ...I am in good condition, but in somewhat of a funk about my
+lectures,[53] now that the audience draws near. I have got my mind
+working on the infernal old problem of mind and brain, and how to
+construct the world out of pure experiences, and feel foiled again and
+inwardly sick with the fever. But I verily believe that it is only work
+that makes one sick in that way that has any chance of breaking old
+shells and getting a step ahead. It is a sort of madness however when it
+is on you. The total result is to make me admire "Common Sense" as
+having done by far the biggest stroke of genius ever made in philosophy
+when it reduced the chaos of crude experience to order by its luminous
+_Denkmittel_ of the stable "thing," and its dualism of thought and
+matter.
+
+I find Strong's book charming and a wonderful piece of clear and
+thorough work--quite classical in fact, and surely destined to renown.
+The Clifford-Prince-Strong theory has now full rights to citizenship.
+
+Nevertheless, in spite of his so carefully blocking every avenue which
+leads sideways from his conclusion, he has not convinced me yet. But I
+can[not] say briefly why.... Yours in haste,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. Henry Whitman._
+
+
+HOTEL ----,
+PORT HENRY, N.Y., _Aug. 22, 1903_.
+
+DEAR FRIEND,--Obliged to "stop over" for the night at this loathsome
+spot, for lack of train connexion, what is more natural than that I
+should seek to escape the odious actual by turning to the distant
+Ideal--by which term you will easily recognize _Yourself_. I didn't
+write the conventional letter to you after leaving your house in June,
+preferring to wait till the tension should accumulate, and knowing your
+indulgence of my unfashionable ways. I haven't heard a word about you
+since that day, but I hope that the times have treated you kindly, and
+that you have not been "overdoing" in your usual naughty way. I, with
+the exception of six days lately with the Merrimans, have been sitting
+solidly at home, and have found myself in much better condition than I
+was in last summer, and consequently better than for several years. It
+is pleasant to find that one's organism has such reparative capacities
+even after sixty years have been told out. But I feel as if the
+remainder couldn't be very long, at least for "creative" purposes, and I
+find myself eager to get ahead with work which unfortunately won't allow
+itself to be done in too much of a hurry. I am convinced that the desire
+to formulate truths is a virulent disease. It has contracted an alliance
+lately in me with a feverish personal ambition, which I never had
+before, and which I recognize as an unholy thing in such a connexion. I
+actually dread to die until I have settled the Universe's hash in one
+more book, which shall be _epoch-machend_ at last, and a title of honor
+to my children! Childish idiot--as if formulas about the Universe could
+ruffle its majesty, and as if the common-sense world and its duties were
+not eternally the really real!--I am on my way from Ashfield, where I
+was a guest at the annual dinner, to _feu_ Davidson's "school" at
+Glenmore, where, in a sanguine hour, I agreed to give five discourses.
+Apparently they are having a good season there. Mrs. Booker Washington
+was the hero of the Ashfield occasion--a big hearty handsome natural
+creature, quite worthy to be her husband's mate. Fred Pollock made a
+tip-top speech.... Charles Norton appeared to great advantage as a
+benignant patriarch, and the place was very pretty. Have you read Loti's
+"Inde sans les Anglais"? If not, then begin. I seem to myself to have
+been doing some pretty good reading this summer, but when I try to
+recall it, nothing but philosophic works come up. Good-bye! and Heaven
+keep you! Yours affectionately,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _Sept. 24, 1903_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--It is so long since we have held communion that I think
+it is time to recommence. Our summer is ending quietly enough, not only
+you, but Theodora and Mary Tappan, having all together conspired to
+leave us in September solitude, and some young fellows, companions of
+Harry and Billy, having just gone down. The cook goes tomorrow for a
+fortnight of vacation, but Alice and I, and probably both the older
+boys, hope to stay up here more or less until the middle of October. My
+"seminary" begins on Friday, October 2nd, and for the rest of the year
+Friday is my only day with a college exercise in it--an arrangement
+which leaves me extraordinarily free, and of which I intend to take
+advantage by making excursions. Hitherto, during the entire 30 years of
+my College service, I have had a midday exercise every day in the week.
+This has always kept me tied too tight to Cambridge. I am _vastly_
+better in nervous tone than I was a year ago, my work is simplified down
+to the exact thing I want to do, and I ought to be happy in spite of the
+lopping off of so many faculties of activity. The only thing to do, as
+with the process of the suns one finds one's faculties dropping away one
+by one, is to be good-natured about it, remember that the next
+generation is as young as ever, and try to live and have a sympathetic
+share in their activities. I spent three days lately (only three, alas!)
+at the "Shanty" [in Keene Valley], and was moved to admiration at the
+foundation for a consciousness that was being laid in the children by
+the bare-headed and bare-legged existence "close to nature" of which the
+memory was being stored up in them in these years. They lay around the
+camp-fire at night at the feet of their elders, in every attitude of
+soft recumbency, heads on stomachs and legs mixed up, happy and dreamy,
+just like the young of some prolific carnivorous species. The coming
+generation ought to reap the benefit of all this healthy animality. What
+wouldn't I give to have been educated in it!...
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. Henry Whitman._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Oct. 29, 1903_.
+
+MY DEAR "S. W.,"--On inquiry at your studio last Monday I was told that
+you would be in the country for ten days or a fortnight more. I confess
+that this pleased me much for it showed you both happy and prudent.
+Surely the winter is long enough, however much we cut off of this
+end--the city winter I mean; and the country this month has been little
+short of divine.
+
+We came down on the 16th, and I have to get mine (my country, I mean)
+from the "Norton Woods." But they are very good indeed,--indeed, indeed!
+
+I am better, both physically and morally, than for years past. The whole
+James family thrives; and were it not for one's "duties" one could be
+happy. But that things should give pain proves that something is being
+_effected_, so I take that consolation. I have the duty on Monday of
+reporting at a "Philosophical Conference" on the Chicago School of
+Thought. Chicago University has during the past six months given birth
+to the fruit of its ten years of gestation under John Dewey. The result
+is wonderful--a _real school_, and _real Thought_. Important thought,
+too! Did you ever hear of such a city or such a University? Here we
+have thought, but no school. At Yale a school, but no thought. Chicago
+has both.... But this, dear Madam, is not intended as a letter--only a
+word of greeting and congratulation at your absence. I don't know why it
+makes me so happy to hear of anyone being in the country. I suppose
+_they_ must be happy.
+
+Your last letter went to the right spot--but I don't expect to hear from
+you now until I see you. Ever affectionately yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+NEWPORT, _Jan. 20, 1904_.
+
+...I came down here the night before last, to see if a change of air
+might loosen the grip of my influenza, now in its sixth week and me
+still weak as a baby, almost, from its virulent effects.... Yesterday
+A.M. the thermometer fell to 4 below zero. I walked as far as Tweedy's
+(I am staying at a boarding-house, Mrs. Robinson's, Catherine St., close
+to Touro Avenue, Daisy Waring being the only other boarder)--the snow
+loudly creaking under foot and under teams however distant, the sky
+luminously white and dazzling, no distance, everything equally near to
+the eye, and the architecture in the town more huddled, discordant,
+cheap, ugly and contemptible than I had ever seen it. It brought back
+old times so vividly. So it did in the evening, when I went after sunset
+down Kay Street to the termination. That low West that I've so often fed
+on, with a sombre but intense crimson vestige smouldering close to the
+horizon-line, economical but profound, and the western well of sky
+shading upward from it through infinite shades of transparent luminosity
+in darkness to the deep blue darkness overhead. It was purely American.
+You never see that western sky anywhere else. Solemn and wonderful. I
+should think you'd like to see it again, if only for the sake of
+shuddering at it!...
+
+
+
+
+_To François Pillon._
+
+
+Cambridge, _June 12, 1904_.
+
+DEAR PILLON,--Once more I get your faithful and indefatigable "Année"
+and feel almost ashamed of receiving it thus from you, year after year,
+when I make nothing of a return! So you are 75 years old--I had no idea
+of it, but thought that you were much younger. I am only(!) 62, and wish
+that I could expect another 13 years of such activity as you have shown.
+I fear I cannot. My arteries are senile, and none of my ancestors, so
+far as I know of them, have lived past 72, many of them dying much
+earlier. This is my last day in Cambridge; tomorrow I get away into the
+country, where "the family" already is, for my vacation. I shall take
+your "Année" with me, and shall be greatly interested in both Danriac's
+article and yours. What a mercy it is that your eyes, in spite of
+cataract-operations, are still good for reading. I have had a very bad
+winter for work--two attacks of influenza, one very long and bad, three
+of gout, one of erysipelas, etc., etc. I expected to have written at
+least 400 or 500 pages of my magnum opus,--a general treatise on
+philosophy which has been slowly maturing in my mind,--but I have
+written only 32 pages! That tells the whole story. I resigned from my
+professorship, but they would not accept my resignation, and owing to
+certain peculiarities in the financial situation of our University just
+now, I felt myself obliged in honor to remain.
+
+My philosophy is what I call a radical empiricism, a pluralism, a
+"tychism," which represents order as being gradually won and always in
+the making. It is theistic, but not _essentially_ so. It rejects all
+doctrines of the Absolute. It is finitist; but it does not attribute to
+the question of the Infinite the great methodological importance which
+you and Renouvier attribute to it. I fear that you may find my system
+too _bottomless_ and romantic. I am sure that, be it in the end judged
+true or false, it is essential to the evolution of clearness in
+philosophic thought that _someone_ should defend a pluralistic
+empiricism radically. And all that I fear is that, with the impairment
+of my working powers from which I suffer, the Angel of Death may
+overtake me before I can get my thoughts on to paper. Life here in the
+University consists altogether of _interruptions_.
+
+I thought much of you at the time of Renouvier's death, and I wanted to
+write; but I let that go, with a thousand other things that had to go.
+What a life! and what touching and memorable last words were those which
+M. Pratt published in the "Revue de Métaphysique"--memorable, I mean
+from the mere fact that the old man could dictate them at all. I have
+left unread his last publications, except for some parts of the
+"Monadologie" and the "Personalisme." He will remain a great figure in
+philosophic history; and the sense of his absence must make a great
+difference to your consciousness and to that of Madame Pillon. My own
+wife and children are well.... Ever affectionately yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+Cambridge, _June 28, 1904_.
+
+DEAR H.,--I came down from Chocorua yesterday A.M. to go to--
+
+Mrs. Whitman's funeral!
+
+She had lost ground steadily during the winter. The last time I saw her
+was five weeks ago, when at noon I went up to her studio thinking she
+might be there.... She told me that she was to go on the following day
+to the Massachusetts General Hospital, for a cure of rest and seclusion.
+There she died last Friday evening, having improved in her cardiac
+symptoms, but pneumonia supervening a week ago. It's a great mercy that
+the end was so unexpectedly quick. What I had feared was a slow
+deterioration for a year or more to come, with all the nameless
+misery--peculiarly so in her case--of death by heart disease. As it was,
+she may be said to have died standing, a thing she always wished to do.
+She went to every dinner-party and evening party last winter, had an
+extension, a sort of ball-room, built to her Mount Vernon house, etc.
+The funeral was beautiful both in Trinity Church and at the grave in Mt.
+Auburn. I was one of the eight pall-bearers--the others of whom you
+would hardly know. The flowers and greenery had been arranged in
+absolutely Whitmanian style by Mrs. Jack Gardner, Mrs. Henry Parkman,
+and Sally Fairchild. The scene at the grave was _beautiful_. She had no
+blood relatives, and all Boston--I mean the few whom we know--had gone
+out, and seemed swayed by an overpowering emotion which abolished all
+estrangement and self-consciousness. It was the sort of ending that
+would please her, could she know of it. An extraordinary and indefinable
+creature! I used often to feel coldly towards her on account of her way
+of taking people as a great society "business" proceeding, but now that
+her agitated life of tip-toe reaching in so many directions, of
+genuinest amiability, is over, pure tenderness asserts its own. Against
+that dark background of natural annihilation she seems to have been a
+pathetic little slender worm, writhing and curving blindly through its
+little day, expending such intensities of consciousness to terminate in
+that small grave.
+
+She was a most peculiar person. I wish that you had known her whole life
+here more intimately, and understood its significance. You might then
+write a worthy article about her. For me, it is impossible to define
+her. She leaves a dreadful vacuum in Boston. I have often wondered
+whether I should survive her--and here it has come in the night, without
+the sound of a footstep, and the same world is here--but without her as
+its witness....
+
+
+
+
+_To Charles Eliot Norton._
+
+
+Cambridge, _June 30, 1904_.
+
+DEAR CHARLES,--I have just read the July "Atlantic," and am so moved by
+your Ruskin letters that I can't refrain from overflowing. They seem to
+me immortal documents--as the clouds clear away he will surely take his
+stable place as one of the noblest of the sons of men. Mere sanity is
+the most philistine and (at bottom) unimportant of a man's attributes.
+The chief "cloud" is the bulk of "Modern Painters" and the other
+artistic writings, which have made us take him primarily as an
+art-connoisseur and critic. Regard all that as inessential, and his
+inconsistencies and extravagances fall out of sight and leave the Great
+Heart alone visible.
+
+Do you suppose that there are many other correspondents of R. who will
+yield up their treasures in our time to the light? I wish that your
+modesty had not suppressed certain passages which evidently expressed
+too much regard for yourself. The point should have been _his_
+expression of that sort of thing--no matter to whom addressed! I
+understand and sympathize fully with his attitude about our war. Granted
+him and his date, that is the way he ought to have felt, and I revere
+him perhaps the more for it....
+
+S. W.'s sudden defection is a pathetic thing! It makes one feel like
+closing the ranks.
+
+Affectionately--to all of you--including Theodora,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To L. T. Hobhouse._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _Aug. 12, 1904_.
+
+DEAR BROTHER HOBHOUSE,--Don't you think it a _tant soit peu_ scurvy
+trick to play on me ('tis true that you don't name me, but to the
+informed reader the reference is transparent--I say nothing of poor
+Schiller's case) to print in the "Aristotelian Proceedings" (pages 104
+_ff_.)[54] a beautiful duplicate of my own theses in the "Will to
+Believe" essay (which should have been called by the less unlucky title
+the _Right_ to Believe) in the guise of an _alternative and substitute_
+for my doctrine, for which latter you, in the earlier pages of your
+charmingly written essay, _substitute a travesty_ for which I defy any
+candid reader to find a single justification in my text? My essay hedged
+the license to indulge in private over-beliefs with so many restrictions
+and signboards of danger that the outlet was narrow enough. It made of
+tolerance the essence of the situation; it defined the permissible
+cases; it treated the faith-attitude as a necessity for individuals,
+because the total "evidence," which only the race can draw, has to
+include their experiments among its data. It tended to show only that
+faith could not be absolutely _vetoed_, as certain champions of
+"science" (Clifford, Huxley, etc.) had claimed it ought to be. It was a
+function that might lead, and probably does lead, into a wider world.
+You say identically the same things; only, from your special polemic
+point of view, you emphasize more the dangers; while I, from _my_
+polemic point of view, emphasized more the right to run their risk.
+
+Your essay, granting that emphasis and barring the injustice to me,
+seems to me exquisite, and, taking it as a unit, I subscribe
+unreservedly to almost every positive word.--I say "positive," for I
+doubt whether you have seen enough of the extraordinarily invigorating
+effect of mind-_cum_-philosophy on certain people to justify your
+somewhat negative treatment of that subject; and I say "almost" because
+your distinction between "spurious" and "genuine" courage (page 91)
+reminds me a bit too much of "true" and "false" freedom, and other
+sanctimonious come-offs.--Could you not have made an equally sympathetic
+reading of _me_?
+
+I shouldn't have cared a copper for the misrepresentation were it not a
+"summation of stimuli" affair. I have just been reading Bradley on
+Schiller in the July "Mind," and A. E. Taylor on the Will to Believe in
+the "McGill Quarterly" of Montreal. Both are vastly worse than you; and
+I cry to Heaven to tell me of what insane root my "leading
+contemporaries" have eaten, that they are so smitten with blindness as
+to the meaning of printed texts. Or are we others absolutely incapable
+of making our meaning clear?
+
+I imagine that there is neither insane root nor unclear writing, but
+that in these matters each man writes from out of a field of
+consciousness of which the bogey in the background is the chief object.
+Your bogey is superstition; my bogey is desiccation; and each, for his
+contrast-effect, clutches at any text that can be used to represent the
+enemy, regardless of exegetical proprieties.
+
+In my essay the evil shape was a vision of "Science" in the form of
+abstraction, priggishness and sawdust, lording it over all. Take the
+sterilest scientific prig and cad you know, compare him with the
+richest religious intellect you know, and you would not, any more than I
+would, give the former the exclusive right of way. But up to page 104 of
+your essay he will deem you altogether on his side.
+
+Pardon the familiarity of this epistle. I like and admire your theory of
+Knowledge so much, and you re-duplicate (I _don't_ mean _copy_) my views
+so beautifully in this article, that I hate to let you go unchidden.
+
+Believe me, with the highest esteem (plus some indignation, for you
+ought to know better!), Yours faithfully,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Edwin D. Starbuck._
+
+
+SALISBURY, CONN. _Aug, 24, 1904_.
+
+DEAR STARBUCK,-- ...Of the strictures you make [in your review of my
+"Varieties"], the first one (undue emphasis on extreme case) is, I find,
+almost universally made; so it must in some sense be correct. Yet it
+would never do to study the passion of love on examples of ordinary
+liking or friendly affection, or that of homicidal pugnacity on examples
+of our ordinary impatiences with our kind. So here it must be that the
+extreme examples let us more deeply into the secrets of the religious
+life, explain why the tamer ones value their religion so much, tame
+though it be, because it is so continuous with a so much acuter ideal.
+But I have long been conscious that there is on this matter something to
+be said which neither my critics have said, nor I can say, and which I
+must therefore commit to the future.
+
+The second stricture (in your paragraph 4 on pages 104 _ff_.) is of
+course deeply important, if true. At present I can see but vaguely just
+what sort of outer relations our inner organism might respond to, which
+our feelings and intellect interpret by religious thought. You ought to
+work your program for all it is worth in the way of growth in
+definiteness. I look forward with great eagerness to your forthcoming
+book, and meanwhile urge strongly that you should publish the advance
+article you speak of in Hall's new Journal. I can't see any possible
+risk. It will objectify a part of your material for you, and possibly,
+by arousing criticism, enable you to strengthen your points.
+
+Your third stricture, about Higher Powers, is also very important, and I
+am not at all sure that you may not be right. I have frankly to confess
+that my "Varieties" carried "theory" as far as I could then carry it,
+and that I can carry it no farther today. I can't see clearly over that
+edge. Yet I am sure that tracks have got to be made there--I think that
+the fixed point with me is the conviction that our "rational"
+consciousness touches but a portion of the real universe and that our
+life is fed by the "mystical" region as well. I have no mystical
+experience of my own, but just enough of the germ of mysticism in me to
+recognize the region from which their voice comes when I hear it.
+
+I was much disappointed in Leuba's review of my book in the
+"International Journal of Ethics." ... I confess that the way in which
+he stamps out all mysticism whatever, using the common pathological
+arguments, seemed to me unduly crude. I wrote him an expostulatory
+letter, which evidently made no impression at all, and which he possibly
+might send you if you had the curiosity to apply.
+
+I am having a happy summer, feeling quite hearty again. I congratulate
+you on being settled, though I know nothing of the place. I congratulate
+you and Mrs. Starbuck also on airy fairy Lilian, who makes, I believe,
+the third. Long may they live and make their parents proud. With best
+regards to you both, I am yours ever truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+The "expostulatory" letter to Professor Leuba began with a series of
+objections to statements which he had made, and continued with the
+passage which follows.
+
+
+
+
+_To James Henry Leuba._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 17, 1904_.
+
+...My personal position is simple. I have no living sense of commerce
+with a God. I envy those who have, for I know the addition of such a
+sense would help me immensely. The Divine, for my _active_ life, is
+limited to abstract concepts which, as ideals, interest and determine
+me, but do so but faintly, in comparison with what a feeling of God
+might effect, if I had one. It is largely a question of intensity, but
+differences of intensity may make one's whole centre of energy shift.
+Now, although I am so devoid of _Gottesbewustsein_ in the directer and
+stronger sense, yet there is _something in me_ which _makes response_
+when I hear utterances made from that lead by others. I recognize the
+deeper voice. Something tells me, "_thither lies truth_"--and I am
+_sure_ it is not old theistic habits and prejudices of infancy. Those
+are Christian; and I have grown so out of Christianity that entanglement
+therewith on the part of a mystical utterance has to be abstracted from
+and overcome, before I can listen. Call this, if you like, my mystical
+_germ_. It is a very common germ. It creates the rank and file of
+believers. As it withstands in my case, so it will withstand in most
+cases, all purely atheistic criticism, but _interpretative_ criticism
+(not of the mere "hysteria" and "nerves" order) it can energetically
+combine with. Your criticism seems to amount to a pure _non possumus_:
+"Mystical deliverances must be infallible revelations in every
+particular, or nothing. Therefore they are _nothing_, for anyone else
+than their owner." Why may they not be _something_, although not
+everything?
+
+Your only consistent position, it strikes me, would be a dogmatic
+atheistic naturalism; and, without any mystical germ in us, that, I
+believe, is where we all should _unhesitatingly_ be today.
+
+Once allow the mystical germ to influence our beliefs, and I believe
+that we are in my position. Of course the "subliminal" theory is an
+inessential hypothesis, and the question of pluralism or monism is
+equally inessential.
+
+I am letting loose a deluge on you! Don't reply at length, or at all.
+_I_ hate to reply to anybody, and will sympathize with your silence. But
+I had to restate my position more clearly. Yours truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+The following document is not a letter, but a series of answers to a
+questionnaire upon the subject of religious belief, which was sent out
+in 1904 by Professor James B. Pratt of Williams College, and to which
+James filled out a reply at an unascertained date in the autumn of that
+year.
+
+
+ QUESTIONNAIRE[55]
+
+
+ It is being realized as never before that religion, as one of the
+ most important things in the life both of the community and of the
+ individual, deserves close and extended study. Such study can be of
+ value only if based upon the personal experiences of many
+ individuals. If you are in sympathy with such study and are willing
+ to assist in it, will you kindly write out the answers to the
+ following questions and return them with this questionnaire, as
+ soon as you conveniently can, to JAMES B. PRATT, 20 Shepard Street,
+ Cambridge, Mass.
+
+ Please answer the questions at length and in detail. Do not give
+ philosophical generalizations, but your own personal experience.
+
+ 1. What does religion mean to you personally? Is it
+
+ (1) A belief that something exists? _Yes._
+
+ (2) An emotional experience? _Not powerfully so, yet a_ social
+ _reality_.
+
+ (3) A general attitude of the will toward God or toward
+ righteousness! _It involves these._
+
+ (4) Or something else?
+
+ If it has several elements, which is for you the most important?
+ _The social appeal for corroboration, consolation, etc., when
+ things are going wrong with my causes (my truth denied)_, etc.
+
+
+ 2. What do you mean by God? _A combination of Ideality and (final)
+ efficacity._
+
+ (1) Is He a person--if so, what do you mean by His being a person?
+ _He must be cognizant and responsive in some way._
+
+ (2) Or is He only a Force? _He must_ do.
+
+ (3) Or is God an attitude of the Universe toward you? _Yes, but
+ more conscious. "God" to me, is not the only spiritual reality to
+ believe in. Religion means primarily a universe of spiritual
+ relations surrounding the earthly practical ones, not merely
+ relations of "value," but agencies and their activities. I suppose
+ that the chief premise for my hospitality towards the religious
+ testimony of others is my conviction that "normal" or "sane"
+ consciousness is so small a part of actual experience. What e'er be
+ true, it is not true exclusively, as philistine scientific opinion
+ assumes. The other kinds of consciousness bear witness to a much
+ wider universe of experiences, from which our belief selects and
+ emphasizes such parts as best satisfy our needs._
+
+How do you apprehend his relation to mankind }
+ and to you personally? }
+ } _Uncertain._
+If your position on any of these matters is uncertain, }
+ please state the fact. }
+
+
+ 3. Why do you believe in God? Is it
+
+ (1) From some argument? _Emphatically, no._
+
+ Or (2) Because you have experienced His presence? _No, but rather
+ because I need it so that it "must" be true._
+
+ Or (3) From authority, such as that of the Bible or of some
+ prophetic person? _Only the whole tradition of religious people, to
+ which something in me makes admiring response._
+
+ Or (4) From any other reason? _Only for the social reasons._
+
+If from several of these reasons, please indicate carefully the order of
+their importance.
+
+
+4. Or do you not so much _believe_ in God as want to _use_ Him? _I can't
+use him very definitely, yet I believe._ Do you accept Him not so much
+as a real existent Being, but rather as an ideal to live by? _More as a
+more powerful ally of my own ideals._ If you should become thoroughly
+convinced that there was no God, would it make any great difference in
+your life--either in happiness, morality, or in other respects? _Hard to
+say. It would surely make some difference._
+
+
+5. Is God very real to you, as real as an earthly friend, though
+different? _Dimly [real]; not [as an earthly friend]._
+
+Do you feel that you have experienced His presence? If so, please
+describe what you mean by such an experience. _Never._
+
+How vague or how distinct is it? How does it affect you mentally and
+physically?
+
+If you have had no such experience, do you accept the testimony of
+others who claim to have felt God's presence directly? Please answer
+this question with special care and in as great detail as possible.
+_Yes! The whole line of testimony on this point is so strong that I am
+unable to pooh-pooh it away. No doubt there is a germ in me of something
+similar that makes response._
+
+
+6. Do you pray, and if so, why? That is, is it purely from habit, and
+social custom, or do you really believe that God hears your prayers? _I
+can't possibly pray--I feel foolish and artificial._
+
+Is prayer with you one-sided or two-sided--_i.e._, do you sometimes feel
+that in prayer you receive something--such as strength or the divine
+spirit--from God? Is it a real communion?
+
+
+7. What do you mean by "spirituality"? _Susceptibility to ideals, but
+with a certain freedom to indulge in imagination about them. A certain
+amount of "other worldly" fancy. Otherwise you have mere morality, or
+"taste."_
+
+Describe a typical spiritual person. _Phillips Brooks._
+
+
+8. Do you believe in personal immortality? _Never keenly; but more
+strongly as I grow older._ If so, why? _Because I am just getting fit to
+live._
+
+
+9. Do you accept the Bible as _authority_ in religious matters? Are your
+religious faith and your religious life based on it? If so, how would
+your belief in God and your life toward Him and your fellow men be
+affected by loss of faith in the _authority_ of the Bible? _No. No. No.
+It is so human a book that I don't see how belief in its divine
+authorship can survive the reading of it._
+
+10. What do you mean by a "religious experience"? _Any moment of life
+that brings the reality of spiritual things more "home" to one._
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Pauline Goldmark._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _Sept. 21, 1904_.
+
+DEAR PAULINE,--Alice went off this morning to Cambridge, to get the
+house ready for the advent of the rest of us a week hence--viz.,
+Wednesday the 28th. Having breakfasted at 6:30 to bid her God speed, the
+weather was so lordly fine (after a heavy rain in the night) that I
+trudged across lots to our hill-top, which you never saw, and now lie
+there with my back against a stone, scribbling you these lines at
+half-past nine. The vacation has run down with an appalling rapidity,
+but all has gone well with us, and I have been extraordinarily well and
+happy, and mean to be a good boy all next winter, to say nothing of
+remoter futures. My brother Henry stayed a delightful fortnight, and
+seemed to enjoy nature here intensely--found so much _sentiment_ and
+feminine delicacy in it all. It is a pleasure to be with anyone who
+takes in things through the eyes. Most people don't. The two "savans"
+who were here noticed _absolutely nothing_, though they had never been
+in America before.
+
+Naturally I have wondered what things your eyes have been falling on.
+Many views from hill-tops? Many magic dells and brooks? I hope so, and
+that it has all done you endless good. Such a green and gold and scarlet
+morn as this would raise the dead. I hope that your sister Susan has
+also got great good from the summer, and that the fair Josephine is glad
+to be at home again, and your mother reconciled to losing you. Perhaps
+even now you are preparing to go down. I have only written as a
+_Lebenszeichen_ and to tell you of our dates. I expect no reply, till
+you write a word to say when you are to come to Boston. Unhappily we
+can't ask you to Irving St, being mortgaged three deep to foreigners.
+Ever yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+It will be recalled that the St. Louis Exposition had occurred shortly
+before the date of the last letter and had led a number of learned and
+scientific associations to hold international congresses in America.
+James kept away from St. Louis, but asked several foreign colleagues to
+visit him at Chocorua or in Cambridge before their return to Europe.
+Among them were Dr. Pierre Janet of Paris and his wife, Professor C.
+Lloyd Morgan of Bristol, and Professor Harold Höffding of Copenhagen.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Oct. 26, 1904_.
+
+DEAR SCHILLER,-- ...Last night the Janets left us--a few days previous,
+Lloyd Morgan. I am glad to possess my soul for a while alone. Make much
+of dear old Höffding, who is a good pluralist and irrationalist. I took
+to him immensely and so did everybody. Lecturing to my class, he told
+against the Absolutists an anecdote of an "American" child who asked his
+mother if God made the world in six days. "Yes."--"The whole of
+it?"--"Yes."--"Then it is finished, all done?"--"Yes."--"Then in what
+business now is God?" If he tells it in Oxford you must reply: "Sitting
+for his portrait to Royce, Bradley, and Taylor."
+
+Don't return the "McGill Quarterly"!--I have another copy. Good-bye!
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. J. E. Woodbridge._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb. 6, 1905_.
+
+DEAR WOODBRIDGE,--I appear to be growing into a graphomaniac. Truth
+boils over from my organism as muddy water from a Yellowstone Geyser.
+Here is another contribution to my radical empiricism, which I send hot
+on the heels of the last one. I promise that, with the possible
+exception of one post-scriptual thing, not more than eight pages of MS.
+long, I shall do no more writing this academic year. So if you accept
+this,[56] you have not much more to fear.... I think, on the whole, that
+though the present article directly hitches on to the last words of my
+last article, "The Thing and Its Relations," the article called the
+"Essence of Humanism" had better appear before it.... Always truly yours
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Edwin D. Starbuck._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb. 12, 1905_.
+
+DEAR STARBUCK,--I have read your article in No. 2 of Hall's Journal with
+great interest and profit. It makes me eager for the book, but pray take
+great care of your style in that--it seems to me that this article is
+less well written than your "Psychology of Religion" was, less clear,
+more involved, more technical in language--probably the result of
+rapidity. Our American philosophic literature is dreadful from a
+literary point of view. Pierre Janet told me he thought it was much
+worse than German stuff--and I begin to believe so; technical and
+semi-technical language, half-clear thought, fluency, and no
+composition! Turn your face resolutely the other way! But I didn't start
+to say this. Your thought in this article is both important and
+original, and ought to be worked out in the clearest possible manner....
+Your thesis needs to be worked out with great care, and as concretely as
+possible. It is a difficult one to put successfully, on account of the
+vague character of all its terms. One point you should drive home is
+that the anti-religious attitudes (Leuba's, Huxley's, Clifford's), so
+far as there is any "pathos" in them, obey exactly the same logic. The
+real crux is when you come to define objectively the ideals to which
+feeling reacts. "God is a Spirit"--_darauf geht es an_--on the last
+available definition of the term Spirit. It may be very abstract.
+
+Love to Mrs. Starbuck. Yours always truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. J. E. Woodbridge._
+
+
+[_Feb. 22, 1905._]
+
+DEAR WOODBRIDGE,--Here's another! But I solemnly swear to you that this
+shall be my very last offense for some months to come. This is the
+"postscriptual" article[57] of which I recently wrote you, and I have
+now cleaned up the pure-experience philosophy from all the objections
+immediately in sight.... Truly yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+1905-1907
+
+ _The Last Period (II)--Italy and Greece--Philosophical Congress in
+ Rome--Stanford University--The Earthquake--Resignation of
+ Professorship_
+
+
+In the spring of 1905 an escape from influenza, from Cambridge duties,
+and from correspondents, became imperative. James had long wanted to see
+Athens with his own eyes, and he sailed on April 3 for a short southern
+holiday. During the journey he wrote letters to almost no one except his
+wife. On his way back from Athens he stopped in Rome with the purpose of
+seeing certain young Italian philosophers. A Philosophical Congress was
+being held there at the time; and James, though he had originally
+declined the invitation to attend it, inevitably became involved in its
+proceedings and ended by seizing the occasion to discuss his theory of
+consciousness. It was obvious that the appropriate language in which to
+address a full meeting of the Congress would be French, and so he shut
+himself up in his hotel and composed "La Notion de Conscience." His
+experience in writing this paper threw an instructive sidelight on his
+process of composition. Ordinarily--when he was writing in
+English--twenty-five sheets of manuscript, written in a large hand and
+corrected, were a maximum achievement for one day. The address in Rome
+was not composed in English and then translated, but was written out in
+French. When he had finished the last lines of one day's work, James
+found to his astonishment that he had completed and corrected over forty
+pages of manuscript. The inhibitions which a habit of careful attention
+to points of style ordinarily called into play were largely inoperative
+when he wrote in a language which presented to his mind a smaller
+variety of possible expressions, and thus imposed limits upon his
+self-criticism.
+
+In the following year (1906), James took leave of absence from Harvard
+in January and accepted an invitation from Stanford University to give a
+course during its spring term. He planned the course as a general
+introduction to Philosophy. Had he not been interrupted by the San
+Francisco earthquake, he would have rehearsed much of the projected
+"Introductory Textbook of Philosophy," in which he meant to outline his
+metaphysical system. But the earthquake put an end to the Stanford
+lectures in April, as the reader will learn more fully. In the ensuing
+autumn and winter (1907), James made the same material the basis of a
+half-year's work with his last Harvard class.
+
+In November, 1906, the lectures which compose the volume called
+"Pragmatism" were written out and delivered in November at the Lowell
+Institute in Boston. In January, 1907, they were repeated at Columbia
+University, and then James published them in the spring.
+
+The time had now come for him to stop regular teaching altogether. He
+had been continuing to teach, partly in deference to the wishes of the
+College; but it had become evident that he must have complete freedom to
+use his strength and time for writing when he could write, for special
+lectures, like the series on Pragmatism, when such might serve his ends,
+and for rest and change when recuperation became necessary. So, in
+February, 1907, he sent his resignation to the Harvard Corporation. The
+last meeting of his class ended in a way for which he was quite
+unprepared. His undergraduate students presented him with a silver
+loving-cup, the graduate students and assistants with an inkwell. There
+were a couple of short speeches, and words were spoken by which he was
+very much moved. Unfortunately there was no record of what was said.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. James._
+
+
+AMALFI, _Mar. 30, 1905_.
+
+...It is good to get something in full measure, without haggling or
+stint, and today I have had the picturesque ladled out in buckets full,
+heaped up and running over. I never realized the beauties of this shore,
+and forget (in my habit of never noticing proper names till I have been
+there) whether you have ever told me of the drive from Sorrento to this
+place. Anyhow, I wish that you could have taken it with me this day.
+"Thank God for this day!" We came to Sorrento by steamer, and at 10:30
+got away in a carriage, lunching at the half-way village of Positano;
+and proceeding through Amalfi to Ravello, high up on the mountain side,
+whence back here in time for a 7:15 o'clock dinner. Practically six
+hours driving through a scenery of which I had never realized the
+beauty, or rather the interest, from previous descriptions. The
+lime-stone mountains are as _strong_ as anything in Switzerland, though
+of course much smaller. The road, a _Cornice_ affair cut for the most
+part on the face of cliffs, and crossing little ravines (with beaches)
+on the side of which nestle hamlets, is positively ferocious in its
+grandeur, and on the side of it the azure sea, dreaming and blooming
+like a bed of violets. I didn't look for such Swiss strength, having
+heard of naught but beauty. It seems as if this were a race such that,
+when anyone wished to express an emotion of any kind, he went and built
+a bit of stone-wall and limed it onto the rock, so that now, when they
+have accumulated, the works of God and man are inextricably mixed, and
+it is as if mankind had been a kind of immemorial coral insect. Every
+possible square yard is terraced up, reclaimed and planted, and the
+human dwellings are the fiercest examples of cliff-building,
+cave-habitation, staircase and foot-path you can imagine. How I do wish
+that you could have been along today....
+
+
+_Mar. 31, 1905_.
+
+From half-past four to half-past six I walked alone through the _old_
+Naples, hilly streets, paved from house to house and swarming with the
+very poor, vocal with them too (their voices carry so that every child
+seems to be calling to the whole street, goats, donkeys, chickens, and
+an occasional cow mixed in), and no light of heaven getting indoors. The
+street floor composed of cave-like shops, the people doing their work on
+chairs in the street for the sake of light, and in the black inside,
+beds and a stove visible among the implements of trade. Such light and
+shade, and grease and grime, and swarm, and apparent amiability would be
+hard to match. I have come here too late in life, when the picturesque
+has lost its serious reality. Time was when hunger for it haunted me
+like a passion, and such sights would have then been the solidest of
+mental food. I put up then with such inferior substitutional suggestions
+as Geneva and Paris afforded--but these black old Naples streets are not
+suggestions, they are the reality itself--full orchestra. I have got
+such an impression of the essential sociability of this race, especially
+in the country. A smile will go so far with them--even without the
+accompanying copper. And the children are so sweet. Tell Aleck to drop
+his other studies, learn _Italian_ (real Italian, not the awful
+gibberish I try to speak), cultivate his beautiful smile, learn a
+sentimental song or two, bring a tambourine or banjo, and come down
+here and fraternize with the common people along the coast--he can go
+far, and make friends, and be a social success, even if he should go
+back to a clean hotel of some sort for sleep every night....
+
+
+
+
+_To his Daughter._
+
+
+On board S.S. Orénogne, approaching
+PIRÆUS, GREECE, _Apr. 3, 1905_.
+
+DARLING PEG,--Your loving Dad is surely in luck sailing over this almost
+oily sea, under the awning on deck, past the coast of Greece (whose
+snow-capped mountains can be seen on the horizon), towards the Piræus,
+where we are due to arrive at about two. I had some misgivings about the
+steamer from Marseilles, but she has turned out splendid, and the voyage
+perfect. A 4000-ton boat, bran new as to all her surface equipment,
+stateroom all to myself, by a happy stroke of luck (the boat being
+full), clean absolutely, large open window, sea like Lake Champlain,
+with the color of Lake Leman, about a hundred and twenty first-class
+passengers of the most interesting description, one sixth English
+archeologists, one sixth English tourists, one third French
+archeologists, etc.,--an international archeological congress opens at
+Athens this week,--the rest Dagoes _quelconques_, many distinguished
+men, almost all educated and pronounced individualities, and so much
+acquaintance and sociability, that the somewhat small upper deck on
+which I write resounds with conversation like an afternoon tea. The
+meals are tip-top, and the whole thing almost absurdly ideal in its
+kind. I only wish your mother could be wafted here for one hour, to sit
+by my side and enjoy the scene. The best feature of the boat is little
+Miss Boyd, the Cretan excavatress, from Smith College, a perfect little
+trump of a thing, who has been through the Greco-Turkish war as nurse
+(as well as being nurse at Tampa during our Cuban war), and is the
+simplest, most generally intelligent little thing, who knows Greece by
+heart and can smooth one's path beautifully. Waldstein of Cambridge is
+on board, also M. Sylvain of the Théâtre Français, and his
+daughter--going to recite prologues or something at the representation
+of Sophocles's "Antigone," which is to take place--he looking just like
+your uncle Henry--both eminent comedians--I mean the two Sylvains. On
+the bench opposite me is the most beautiful woman on board, a sort of
+Mary Salter translated into French, though she is with rather common
+men. Well, now I will stop, and use my Zeiss glass on the land, which is
+getting nearer. My heart wells over with love and gratitude at having
+such a family--meaning Alice, you, Harry, Bill, Aleck, and
+Mother-in-law--and resolutions to live so as to be more worthy of them.
+I will finish this on land.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+Well, dear family,--We got in duly in an indescribable _embrouillement_
+of small boats (our boatman, by the way, when Miss Boyd asked him his
+name, replied "Dionysos"; our wine-bottle was labelled "John Solon and
+Co."), sailing past the Island of Ægina and the Bay of Salamis, with the
+Parthenon visible ahead--a worthy termination to a delightful voyage. We
+drove the three miles from the Piræus in a carriage, common and very
+dusty country road, also close by the Parthenon, through the cheap
+little town to this hotel, after which George Putnam and I, washing our
+hands, strolled forth to see what we could, the first thing being Mrs.
+Sam Hoar at the theatre of Bacchus. Then the rest of the Acropolis,
+which is all and more than all the talk. There is a mystery of
+_rightness_ about that Parthenon that I cannot understand. It sets a
+standard for other human things, showing that absolute rightness is not
+out of reach. But I am not in descriptive mood, so I spare you. Suffice
+it that I couldn't keep the tears from welling into my eyes. "J'ai vu la
+beauté parfaite." Santayana is in a neighboring hotel, but we have
+missed each other thrice. The Forbeses are on the Peloponnesus, but
+expected back tomorrow. Well, dear ones all, good-night! Thus far, and
+no farther! Hence I turn westward again. The Greek lower orders seem far
+less avid and rapacious than the Southern Italians. God bless you all. I
+must get to another hotel, and be more to myself. Good and dear as the
+Putnams are and extremely helpful as they've been, it keeps me too much
+in company. Good-night again. Your loving father, _respective_ husband,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. James._
+
+
+ROME, _Apr. 25, 1905_.
+
+...Strong telegraphed me yesterday from Lausanne that he ... expected to
+be at Cannes on the 4th of May. I was glad of this, for I had been
+feeling more and more as if I ought to stay here, and it makes
+everything square out well. This morning I went to the meeting-place of
+the Congress to inscribe myself definitely, and when I gave my name, the
+lady who was taking them almost fainted, saying that all Italy loved me,
+or words to that effect, and called in poor Professor de Sanctis, the
+Vice President or Secretary or whatever, who treated me in the same
+manner, and finally got me to consent to make an address at one of the
+general meetings, of which there are four, in place of Sully, Flournoy,
+Richet, Lipps, and Brentano, who were announced but are not to come. I
+fancy they have been pretty unscrupulous with their program here,
+printing conditional futures as categorical ones. So I'm in for it
+again, having no power to resist flattery. I shall try to express my
+"Does Consciousness Exist?" in twenty minutes--and possibly in the
+French tongue! Strange after the deep sense of nothingness that has been
+besetting me the last two weeks (mere fatigue symptom) to be told that
+_my_ name was attracting many of the young professors to the Congress!
+
+Then I went to the Museum in the baths of Diocletian or whatever it is,
+off there by the R. R., then to the Capitol, and then to lunch off the
+Corso, at a restaurant, after buying a French book whose author says in
+his preface that Sully, W. J., and Bergson are his masters. And I am
+absolute 0 in my own home!...
+
+
+_Apr. 30, 1905._ 7 P.M.
+
+...If you never had a tired husband, at least you've got one now! The
+_ideer_ of being in such delightful conditions and interesting
+surroundings, and being conscious of nothing but one's preposterous
+physical distress, is too ridiculous! I have just said good-bye to my
+circle of admirers, relatively youthful, at the hotel door, under the
+pretext (a truth until this morning) that I had to get ready to go to
+Lausanne tonight, and I taper off my activity by subsiding upon you.
+Yesterday till three, and the day before till five, I was writing my
+address, which this morning I gave--in French. I wrote it carefully and
+surprised myself by the ease with which I slung the Gallic accent and
+intonation, being excited by the occasion.[58] Janet expressed himself
+as _stupéfait_, from the linguistic point of view. The thing lasted 40
+minutes, and was followed by a discussion which showed that the critics
+with one exception had wholly failed to catch the point of view; but
+that was quite _en régle_, so I don't care; and I have given the thing
+to Claparède to print in Flournoy's "Archives." The Congress was far
+too vast, but filled with strange and interesting creatures of all
+sorts, and socially _very_ nutritious to anyone who can stand
+sociability without distress. A fête of some sort every day--this P.M. I
+have just returned from a great afternoon tea given us by some
+"Minister" at the Borghese Palace--in the Museum. (The King, you know,
+has bought the splendid Borghese park and given it to the City of Rome
+as a democratic possession _in perpetuo_. A splendid gift.) The pictures
+too! Tonight there is a great banquet with speeches, to which of course
+I can't go. I lunched at the da Vitis,--a big table full, she very
+simple and nice,--and I have been having this afternoon a very good and
+rather intimate talk with the little band of "pragmatists," Papini,
+Vailati, Calderoni, Amendola, etc., most of whom inhabit Florence,
+publish the monthly journal "Leonardo" at their own expense, and carry
+on a very serious philosophic movement, apparently _really_ inspired by
+Schiller and myself (I never could believe it before, although Ferrari
+had assured me), and show an enthusiasm, and also a literary swing and
+activity that I know nothing of in our own land, and that probably our
+damned academic technics and Ph.D.-machinery and university organization
+prevents from ever coming to a birth. These men, of whom Ferrari is one,
+are none of them _Fach-philosophers_, and few of them teachers at all.
+It has given me a certain new idea of the way in which truth ought to
+find its way into the world.
+
+I have seen such a lot of _important_-looking faces,--probably
+everything in the stock in the shop-window,--and witnessed such
+charmingly gracious manners, that it is a lesson. The woodenness of our
+Anglo-Saxon social ways! I had a really splendid audience for quality
+this A.M. (about 200), even though they didn't understand....
+
+
+
+
+_To George Santayana._
+
+
+ORVIETO, _May 2, 1905_.
+
+DEAR SANTAYANA,--I came here yesterday from Rome and have been enjoying
+the solitude. I stayed at the exquisite Albergo de Russie, and didn't
+shirk the Congress--in fact they stuck me for a "general" address, to
+fill the vacuum left by Flournoy and Sully, who had been announced and
+came not (I spoke _agin_ "consciousness," but nobody understood) and I
+got _fearfully tired_. On the whole it was an agreeable
+nightmare--agreeable on account of the perfectly charming _gentillezza_
+of the bloody Dagoes, the way they caress and flatter you--"il piu grand
+psicologo del mondo," etc., and of the elaborate provisions for general
+entertainment--nightmare, because of my absurd bodily fatigue. However,
+these things are "neither here nor there." What I really write to you
+for is to tell you to send (if not sent already) your "Life of Reason"
+to the "Revue de Philosophie," or rather to its editor, M. Peillaube,
+Rue des Revues 160, and to the editor of "Leonardo" (the great little
+Florentine philosophical journal), Sig. Giovanni Papini, 14 Borgo
+Albizi, Florence. The most interesting, and in fact genuinely edifying,
+part of my trip has been meeting this little _cénacle_, who have taken
+my own writings, _entre autres, au grand sérieux_, but who are carrying
+on their philosophical mission in anything but a technically serious
+way, inasmuch as "Leonardo" (of which I have hitherto only known a few
+odd numbers) is devoted to good and lively literary form. The sight of
+their belligerent young enthusiasm has given me a queer sense of the
+gray-plaster temperament of our bald-headed young Ph.D.'s, boring each
+other at seminaries, writing those direful reports of literature in the
+"Philosophical Review" and elsewhere, fed on "books of reference," and
+never confounding "Æsthetik" with "Erkentnisstheorie." Faugh! I shall
+never deal with them again--on _those_ terms! Can't you and I, who in
+spite of such divergence have yet so much in common in our
+_Weltanschauung_, start a systematic movement at Harvard against the
+desiccating and pedantifying process? I have been cracking you up
+greatly to both Peillaube and Papini, and quoted you twice in my speech,
+which was in French and will be published in Flournoy's "Archives de
+Psychologie." I hope you're enjoying the Eastern Empire to the full, and
+that you had some Grecian "country life." Münsterberg has been called to
+Koenigsberg and has refused. Better be America's ancestor than Kant's
+successor! Ostwald, to my great delight, is coming to us next year, not
+as your replacer, but in exchange with Germany for F. G. Peabody. I go
+now to Cannes, to meet Strong, back from his operation. Ever truly
+yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. James._
+
+
+CANNES, _May 13, 1905_.
+
+...I came Sunday night, and this is Saturday. The six days have been
+busy ones in one sense, but have rested me very much in another. No
+sight-seeing fatigues, but more usual, and therefore more normal
+occupations.... I have written some 25 letters, long and short, to
+European correspondents since being here, have walked and driven with
+Strong, and have had philosophy hot and heavy with him almost all the
+time. I never knew such an unremitting, untiring, monotonous addiction
+as that of his mind to truth. He goes by points, pinning each one
+definitely, and has, I think, the very clearest mind I ever knew. Add to
+it his absolute sincerity and candor and it is no wonder that he is a
+"growing" man. I suspect that he will outgrow us all, for his rate
+accelerates, and he never stands still. He is an admirable philosophic
+figure, and I am glad to say that in most things he and I are fully in
+accord. He gains a great deal from such talks, noting every point down
+afterwards, and I gain great stimulation, though in a vaguer way. I
+shall be glad, however, on Monday afternoon, to relax....
+
+
+
+
+_To Mrs. James._
+
+
+[Post-card]
+
+GENEVA, _May 17, 1905_.
+
+So far, thank Heaven, on my way towards home! A rather useful time with
+the superior, but sticky X----, at Marseilles, and as far as Lyons in
+the train, into which an hour beyond Lyons there came (till then I was
+alone in my compartment) a Spanish bishop, canon and "familar," an aged
+holy woman, sister of the bishop, a lay-brother and sister, a dog, and
+more baggage than I ever saw before, including a feather-bed. They spoke
+no French--the bishop about as much Italian as I, and the lay-sister as
+much of English as I of Spanish. They took out their rosaries and began
+mumbling their litanies forthwith, whereon I took off my hat, which
+seemed to touch them so, when they discovered I was a Protestant, that
+we all grew very affectionate and I soon felt ashamed of the way in
+which I had at first regarded their black and superstitious invasion of
+my privacy. Good, saintly people on their way to Rome. I go now to our
+old haunts and to the Flournoys'....
+
+W.
+
+
+
+
+_To H. G. Wells._
+
+
+S. S. CEDRIC, _June 6, 1905_.
+
+MY DEAR MR. WELLS,--I have just read your "Utopia" (given me by F. C. S.
+Schiller on the one day that I spent in Oxford on my way back to
+Cambridge, Mass., after a few weeks on the Continent), and
+"Anticipations," and "Mankind in the Making" having duly preceded,
+together with numerous other lighter volumes of yours, the "summation of
+stimuli" reaches the threshold of discharge and I can't help overflowing
+in a note of gratitude. You "have your faults, as who has not?" but your
+virtues are unparalleled and transcendent, and I believe that you will
+prove to have given a shove to the practical thought of the next
+generation that will be amongst the greatest of its influences for good.
+All in the line of the English genius too, no wire-drawn French
+doctrines, and no German shop technicalities inflicted in an
+_unerbittlich consequent_ manner, but everywhere the sense of the full
+concrete, and the air of freedom playing through all the joints of your
+argument. You have a tri-dimensional human heart, and to use your own
+metaphor, don't see different levels projected on one plane. In this
+last book you beautifully soften cocksureness by the penumbra of the
+outlines--in fact you're a trump and a jewel, and for human perception
+you beat Kipling, and for hitting off a thing with the right word, you
+are unique. Heaven bless and preserve you!--You are now an eccentric;
+perhaps 50 years hence you will figure as a classic! Your Samurai
+chapter is magnificent, though I find myself wondering what developments
+in the way of partisan politics those same Samurai would develop, when
+it came to questions of appointment and running this or that man in.
+_That_ I believe to be human nature's ruling passion. Live long! and
+keep writing; and believe me, yours admiringly and sincerely,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry L. Higginson._
+
+
+Cambridge, _July 18 [1905]_.
+
+DEAR H.,--You asked me how rich I was getting by my own (as
+distinguished from _your_) exertions....
+
+I find on reaching home today a letter from Longmans, Green & Co. with a
+check ... which I have mailed to your house in State Street....
+
+This ought to please you slightly; but don't reply! Instead, think of
+the virtues of Roosevelt, either as permanent sovereign of this great
+country, or as President of Harvard University. I've been having a
+discussion with Fanny Morse about him, which has resulted in making me
+his faithful henchman for life, Fanny was so violent. Think of the
+mighty good-will of him, of his enjoyment of his post, of his power as a
+preacher, of the number of things to which he gives his attention, of
+the safety of his second thoughts, of the increased courage he is
+showing, and above all of the fact that he is an open, instead of an
+underground leader, whom the voters can control once in four years, when
+he runs away, whose heart is in the right place, who is an enemy of red
+tape and quibbling and everything that in general the word "politician"
+stands for. That significance of him in the popular mind is a great
+national asset, and it would be a shame to let it run to waste until it
+has done a lot more work for us. His ambitions are not selfish--he wants
+to do good only! Bless him--and damn all his detractors like you and F.
+M.![59]
+
+Don't reply, but vote! Your affectionately
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To T. S. Perry._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Aug. 24, 1905_.
+
+DEAR THOS!--You're a _philosophe sans le savoir_ and, when you write
+your treatise against philosophy, you will be classed as the
+arch-metaphysician. Every philosopher (W. J., _e.g._) pretends that all
+the others are metaphysicians against whom he is simply defending the
+rights of common sense. As for Nietzsche, the worst break of his I
+recall was in a posthumous article in one of the French reviews a few
+months back. In his high and mighty way he was laying down the law about
+all the European countries. Russia, he said, is "the only one that has
+any possible future--and that she owes to the strength of the principle
+of autocracy to which she alone remains faithful," Unfortunately one
+can't appeal to the principle of democracy to explain Japan's recent
+successes.
+
+I am very glad you've done something about poor dear old John Fiske, and
+I should think that you would have no difficulty in swelling it up to
+the full "Beacon Biography" size. If you want an extra anecdote, you
+might tell how, when Chauncey Wright, Chas. Peirce, St. John Green,
+Warner and I appointed an evening to discuss the "Cosmic Philosophy,"
+just out, J. F. went to sleep under our noses.
+
+I hope that life as a farmer agrees with you, and that your "womenkind"
+wish nothing better than to be farmers' wives, daughters or other
+relatives. Unluckily we let our farm this summer; so I am here in
+Cambridge with Alice, both of us a prey to as bad an attack of grippe as
+the winter solstice ever brought forth. Today, the 10th day, I am weaker
+than any kitten. Don't ever let _your_ farm! Affectionately,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Nov. 10, 1905_.
+
+DEAR MILLER,--W. R. Warren has just been here and says he has just seen
+you; the which precipitates me into a letter to you which has long hung
+fire. I hope that all goes well. You must be in a rather cheerful
+quarter of the City. Do you go home Sundays, or not? I hope that the
+work is congenial. How do you like your students as compared with those
+here? I reckon you get more out of your colleagues than you did
+here--barring of course _der Einzige_. We are all such old stories to
+each other that we say nothing. Santayana is the only [one] about whom
+we had any curiosity, and he has now quenched that. Perry and Holt have
+some ideas in reserve.... The fact is that the classroom exhausts our
+powers of speech. Royce has never made a syllable of reference to all
+the stuff I wrote last year--to me, I mean. He may have spoken of it to
+others, if he has read, it, which I doubt. So we live in parallel
+trenches and hardly show our heads.
+
+Santayana's book[60] is a great one, if the inclusion of opposites is a
+measure of greatness. I think it will probably be reckoned great by
+posterity. It has no _rational_ foundation, being merely one man's way
+of viewing things: so much of experience admitted and no more, so much
+criticism and questioning admitted and no more. He is a paragon of
+Emersonianism.--declare your intuitions, though no other man share them;
+and the integrity with which he does it is as fine as it is rare. And
+his naturalism, materialism, Platonism, and atheism form a combination
+of which the centre of gravity is, I think, very deep. But there is
+something profoundly alienating in his unsympathetic tone, his
+"preciousness" and superciliousness. The book is Emerson's first rival
+and successor, but how different the reader's feeling! The same things
+in Emerson's mouth would sound entirely different. E. receptive,
+expansive, as if handling life through a wide funnel with a great
+indraught; S. as if through a pin-point orifice that emits his cooling
+spray outward over the universe like a nose-disinfectant from an
+"atomizer." ... I fear that the real originality of the book will be
+lost on nineteen-twentieths of the members of the Philosophical and
+Psychological Association!! The enemies of Harvard will find lots of
+blasphemous texts in him to injure us withal. But it is a great feather
+in our cap to harbor such an absolutely free expresser of individual
+convictions. But enough!
+
+"Phil. 9" is going well. I think I _lecture_ better than I ever did; in
+fact I know I do. But this professional evolution goes with an
+involution of all miscellaneous faculty. I am well, and efficient
+enough, but purposely going slow so as to keep efficient into the Palo
+Alto summer, which means that I have written nothing. I am pestered by
+doubts as to whether to put my resignation through this year, in spite
+of opposition, or to drag along another year or two. I think it is
+inertia against energy, energy in my case meaning being my own man
+absolutely. American philosophers, young and old, seem scratching where
+the wool is short. Important things are being published; but all of them
+too technical. The thing will never clear up satisfactorily till someone
+writes out its resultant in decent English....
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The reader will have understood "the Palo Alto summer" to refer to the
+lectures to be delivered at Stanford University during the coming
+spring. The Stanford engagement was again in James's mind when he spoke,
+in the next letter, of "dreading the prospect of lecturing till
+mid-May."
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Dec. 6, 1905_.
+
+DEAR MILLER,-- ...You seem to take radical empiricism more simply than I
+can. What I mean by it is the thesis that there is no fact "not
+actually experienced to be such." In other words, the concept of "being"
+or "fact" is not wider than or prior to the concept "content of
+experience"; and you can't talk of _experiences being_ this or that, but
+only of _things experienced as being_ this or that. But such a thesis
+would, it seems to me, if literally taken, force one to drop the notion
+that in point of fact one experience is _ex_ another, so long as the
+_ex_-ness is not itself a "content" of experience. In the matter of two
+minds not having the same content, it seems to me that your view commits
+you to an assertion _about their experiences_; and such an assertion
+assumes a realm in which the experiences lie, which overlaps and
+surrounds the "content" of them. This, it seems to me, breaks down
+radical empiricism, which I hate to do; and I can't yet clearly see my
+way out of the quandary. I am much boggled and muddled; and the total
+upshot with me is to see that all the hoary errors and prejudices of man
+in matters philosophical are based on something pretty inevitable in the
+structure of our thinking, and to distrust summary executions by
+conviction of contradiction. I suspect your execution of being too
+summary; but I have copied the last paragraph of the sheets (which I
+return with heartiest thanks) for the extraordinarily neat statement....
+
+I dread the prospect of lecturing till mid-May, but the wine being
+ordered, I must drink it. I dislike lecturing more and more. Have just
+definitely withdrawn my candidacy for the Sorbonne job, with great
+internal relief, and wish I could withdraw from the whole business, and
+get at writing.[61] Not a line of writing possible this year--except of
+course occasional note-making. All the things that one is really
+concerned with are too nice and fine to use in lectures. You remember
+the definition of T. H. Greene's student: "The universe is a thick
+complexus of intelligible relations." Yesterday I got _my_ system
+similarly defined in an examination-book, by a student whom I appear to
+have converted to the view that "the Universe is a vague pulsating mass
+of next-to-next movement, always feeling its way along to a good
+purpose, or trying to." That is about as far as lectures can carry them.
+I particularly like the "trying to."
+
+I wish I could have been at your recent discussion. I am getting
+impatient with the awful abstract rigmarole in which our American
+philosophers obscure the truth. It will be fatal. It revives the palmy
+days of Hegelianism. It means utter relaxation of intellectual duty, and
+God will smite it. If there's anything he hates, it is that kind of oozy
+writing.
+
+I have just read Busse's book, in which I find a lot of reality by the
+way, but a pathetic waste of work on side issues--for against the
+Strong-Heymans view of things, it seems to me that he brings no solid
+objection whatever. Heymans's book is a wonder.[62] Good-bye, dear
+Miller. _Come to us_, if you can, as soon as your lectures are over.
+
+Your affectionate
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+[Post-card]
+
+Cambridge, _Dec. 9. 1905_.
+
+"My idea of Algebra," says a non-mathematically-minded student, "is that
+it is a sort of form of low cunning."
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Daniel Merriman._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Dec. 9, 1905_.
+
+No, dear Merriman, not "e'en for thy sake." After an unblemished record
+of declining to give addresses, successfully maintained for four years
+(I have certainly declined 100 in the past twelve-month), I am not going
+to break down now, for Abbot Academy, and go dishonored to my grave. It
+is better, as the "Bhagavat-Gita" says, to lead your own life, however
+bad, than to lead another's, however good. Emerson teaches the same
+doctrine, and I live by it as bad and congenial a life as I can. If
+there is anything that God despises more than a man who is constantly
+making speeches, it is another man who is constantly accepting
+invitations. What must he think, when they are both rolled into one? Get
+thee behind me, Merriman,--I 'm sure that your saintly partner would
+never have sent me such a request,--and believe me, as ever, fondly
+yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Pauline Goldmark._
+
+
+EL TOVAR,
+GRAND CANYON, ARIZONA, _Jan. 3, 1906_.
+
+DEAR PAOLINA,--I am breaking my journey by a day here, and it seems a
+good place from which to date my New Year's greeting to you. But we
+correspond so rarely that when it comes to the point of tracing actual
+words with the pen, the last impressions of one's day and the more
+permanent interest of one's life block the way for each other. I think,
+however, that a word about the Canyon may fitly take precedence. It
+certainly is equal to the brag; and, like so many of the more stupendous
+freaks of nature, seems at first-sight smaller and more manageable than
+one had supposed. But it grows in immensity as the eye penetrates it
+more intimately. It is so entirely alone in character, that one has no
+habits of association with "the likes" of it, and at first it seems a
+foreign curiosity; but already in this one day I am feeling myself grow
+nearer, and can well imagine that, with greater intimacy, it might
+become the passion of one's life--so far as "Nature" goes. The
+conditions have been unfavorable for intimate communion. Three degrees
+above zero, and a spring overcoat, prevent that forgetting of "self"
+which is said to be indispensable to absorption in Beauty. Moreover, I
+have kept upon the "rim," seeing the Canyon from several points some
+miles apart. I meant to go down, having but this day; but they couldn't
+send me or any one today; and I confess that, with my precipice-disliking
+soul, I was relieved, though it very likely would have proved less
+uncomfortable than I have been told. (I resolved to go, in order to be
+worthy of being your correspondent.) As Chas. Lamb says, there is
+nothing so nice as doing good by stealth and being found out by
+accident, so I now say it is even nicer to make heroic decisions and to
+be prevented by "circumstances beyond your control" from even trying to
+execute them. But if ever I get here in summer, I shall go straight down
+and live there. I'm sure that it is indispensable. But it is vain to
+waste descriptive words on the wondrous apparition, with its symphonies
+of architecture and of color. I have just been watching its peaks blush
+in the setting sun, and slowly lose their fire. Night nestling in the
+depths. Solemn, solemn! And a unity of design that makes it seem like an
+individual, an animated being. Good-night, old chasm!...
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+STANFORD UNIVERSITY, _Feb. 1, 1906_.
+
+BELOVED H.,--Verily 'tis long since I have written to thee, but I have
+had many and mighty things to do, and lately many business letters to
+write, so I came not at it. Your last was your delightful reply to my
+remarks about your "third manner," wherein you said that you would
+consider your bald head dishonored if you ever came to pleasing _me_ by
+what you wrote, so shocking was my taste.[63] Well! only write _for_ me,
+and leave the question of pleasing open! I have to admit that in "The
+Golden Bowl" and "The Wings of the Dove," you have succeeded _in getting
+there_ after a fashion, in spite of the perversity of the method and its
+_longness_, which I am not the only one to deplore.
+
+But enough! let me tell you of my own fortunes!
+
+I got here (after five pestilentially close-aired days in the train, and
+one entrancing one off at the Grand Canyon of the Colorado) on the 8th,
+and have now given nine lectures, to 300 enrolled students and about 150
+visitors, partly colleagues. I take great pains, prepare a printed
+syllabus, very fully; and really feel for the first time in my life, as
+if I were lecturing _well_. High time, after 30 years of practice! It
+earns me $5000, if I can keep it up till May 27th; but apart from that,
+I think it is a bad way of expending energy. I ought to be writing my
+everlastingly postponed book, which this job again absolutely adjourns.
+I can't write a line of it while doing this other thing. (A propos to
+which, I got a telegram from Eliot this A.M., asking if I would be
+Harvard Professor for the first half of next year at the University of
+Berlin. I had no difficulty in declining that, but I probably shall not
+decline _Paris_, if they offer it to me year after next.) I am expecting
+Alice to arrive in a fortnight. I have got a very decent little second
+story, just enough for the two of us, or rather amply enough, sunny,
+good fire-place, bathroom, little kitchen, etc., on one of the three
+residential streets of the University land, and with a boarding-house
+for meals just opposite, we shall have a sort of honeymoon picnic time.
+And, sooth to say, Alice must need the simplification....
+
+You've seen this wonderful spot, so I needn't describe it. It is really
+a miracle; and so simple the life and so benign the elements, that for a
+young ambitious professor who wishes to leave his mark on Pacific
+civilization while it is most plastic, or for _any one_ who wants to
+teach and work under the most perfect conditions for eight or nine
+months, and _who is able to get to the East, or Europe, for the
+remaining three_, I can't imagine anything finer. It is Utopian.
+Perfection of weather. Cold nights, though above freezing. Fire pleasant
+until 10 o'clock A.M., then unpleasant. In short, the "simple life" with
+all the essential higher elements thrown in as communal possessions. The
+drawback is, of course, the great surrounding human vacuum--the historic
+silence fairly rings in your ears when you listen--and the social
+insipidity. I'm glad I came, and with God's blessing I may pull through.
+One calendar month is over, anyway. Do you know aught of G. K.
+Chesterton? I've just read his "Heretics." A tremendously strong writer
+and true thinker, despite his mannerism of paradox. Wells's "Kipps" is
+good. Good-bye. Of course you 're breathing the fog of London while I am
+bathed in warmest lucency. Keep well. Your loving,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+STANFORD UNIVERSITY, _Feb. 9, 1906_.
+
+DEAR FLOURNOY.--Your post-card of Jan. 22nd arrives and reminds me how
+little I have communicated with you during the past twelve months....
+
+Let me begin by congratulating Mlle. Alice, but more particularly Mr.
+Werner, on the engagement which you announce. Surely she is a splendid
+prize for anyone to capture. I hope that it has been a romantic
+love-affair, and will remain so to the end. May her paternal and
+maternal example be the model which their married life will follow! They
+could find no better model. You do not tell the day of the
+wedding--probably it is not yet appointed.
+
+Yes! [Richard] Hodgson's death was ultra-sudden. He fell dead while
+playing a violent game of "hand-ball." He was tremendously athletic and
+had said to a friend only a week before that he thought he could
+reasonably count on twenty-five years more of life. None of his work was
+finished, vast materials amassed, which no one can ever get acquainted
+with as he had gradually got acquainted; so now good-bye forever to at
+least two unusually solid and instructive books which he would have soon
+begun to write on "psychic" subjects. As a _man_, Hodgson was splendid,
+a real man; as an investigator, it is my private impression that he
+lately got into a sort of obsession about Mrs. Piper, cared too little
+for other clues, and continued working with her when all the sides of
+her mediumship were amply exhibited. I suspect that our American Branch
+of the S.P.R. will have to dissolve this year, for lack of a competent
+secretary. Hodgson was our only worker, except Hyslop, and _he_ is
+engaged in founding an "Institute" of his own, which will employ more
+popular methods. To tell the truth, I 'm rather glad of the prospect of
+the Branch ending, for the Piper-investigation--and nothing else--had
+begun to bore me to extinction....
+
+To change the subject--you ought to see this extraordinary little
+University. It was founded only fourteen years ago in the absolute
+wilderness, by a pair of rich Californians named Stanford, as a memorial
+to their only child, a son who died at 16. Endowed with I know not how
+many square miles of land, which some day will come into the market and
+yield a big income, it has already funds that yield $750,000 yearly, and
+buildings, of really _beautiful_ architecture, that have been paid for
+out of income, and have cost over $5,000,000. (I mention the cost to let
+you see that they must be solid.) There are now 1500 students of both
+sexes, who pay nothing for tuition, and a town of 15,000 inhabitants has
+grown up a mile away, beyond the gates. The landscape is exquisite and
+classical, San Francisco only an hour and a quarter away by train; the
+climate is one of the most perfect in the world, life is absolutely
+simple, no one being rich, servants almost unattainable (most of the
+house-work being done by students who come in at odd hours), many of
+them Japanese, and the professors' wives, I fear, having in great
+measure to do their own cooking. No social excesses or complications
+therefore. In fact, nothing but essentials, and _all_ the essentials.
+Fine music, for example, every afternoon, in the Church of the
+University. There couldn't be imagined a better environment for an
+intellectual man to teach and work in, for eight or nine months in the
+year, if he were then free to spend three or four months in the crowded
+centres of civilization--for the social insipidity is great here, and
+the historic vacuum and silence appalling, and one ought to be free to
+change.
+
+Unfortunately the authorities of the University seem not to be gifted
+with imagination enough to see its proper rôle. Its geographical
+environment and material basis being unique, they ought to aim at unique
+quality all through, and get _sommités_ to come here to work and teach,
+by offering large stipends. They might, I think, thus easily build up
+something very distinguished. Instead of which, they pay small sums to
+young men who chafe at not being able to travel, and whose wives get
+worn out with domestic drudgery. The whole thing _might_ be Utopian; it
+_is_ only half-Utopian. A characteristic American affair! But the
+half-success is great enough to make one see the great advantages that
+come to this country from encouraging public-spirited millionaires to
+indulge their freaks, however eccentric. In what the Stanfords have
+already done, there is an assured potentiality of great things of _some_
+sort for all future time. My coming here is an exception. They have had
+psychology well represented from the first by Frank Angell and Miss
+Martin; but no philosophy except for a year at a time. I start a new
+régime--next year they will have two good professors.
+
+I lecture three times a week to 400 listeners, printing a syllabus
+daily, and making them read Paulsen's textbook for examinations. I find
+it hard work,[64] and only pray that I may have strength to run till
+June without collapsing. The students, though rustic, are very earnest
+and wholesome.
+
+I am pleased, but also amused, by what you say of Woodbridge's Journal:
+"la palme est maintenant à l'Amérique." It is true that a lot of
+youngsters in that Journal are doing some real thinking, but of all the
+_bad writing_ that the world has seen, I think that our American writing
+is getting to be the worst. X----'s ideas have unchained formlessness of
+expression that beats the bad writing of the Hegelian epoch in Germany.
+I can hardly believe you sincere when you praise that journal as you do.
+I am so busy teaching that I do no writing and but little reading this
+year. I have declined to go to Paris next year, and also declined an
+invitation to Berlin, as "International Exchange" [Professor]. The year
+after, if asked, I _may_ go to Paris--but never to Berlin. We have had
+Ostwald, a most delightful human _Erscheinung_, as international
+exchange at Harvard this year. But I don't believe in the system....
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller._
+
+
+HOTEL DEL MONTE,
+MONTEREY, CAL., _Apr. 7, 1906_.
+
+...What I really want to write about is Papini, the concluding chapter
+of his "Crepuscolo dei Filosofi," and the February number of the
+"Leonardo." Likewise Dewey's "Beliefs and Realities," in the
+"Philosophical Review" for March. I must be very damp powder, slow to
+burn, and I must be terribly respectful of other people, for I confess
+that it is only after reading these things (in spite of all you have
+written to the same effect, and in spite of your tone of announcing
+judgment to a sinful world), that I seem to have grasped the full import
+for life and regeneration, the _great_ perspective of the programme, and
+the renovating character for _all things_, of Humanism; and the
+outwornness as of a scarecrow's garments, simulating life by flapping in
+the wind of nightfall, of all intellectualism, and the blindness and
+deadness of all who worship intellectualist idols, the Royces and
+Taylors, and, worse than all, their followers, who, with no inward
+excuse of nature (being too unoriginal really to _prefer_ anything),
+just blunder on to the wrong scent, when it is so easy to catch the
+right one, and then stick to it with the fidelity of inorganic matter.
+Ha! ha! would that I were young again with this inspiration! Papini is a
+jewel! To think of that little Dago putting himself ahead of every one
+of us (even of you, with his _Uomo-Dio_) at a single stride. And what a
+writer! and what fecundity! and what courage (careless of nicknames, for
+it is so easy to call him now the Cyrano de Bergerac of Philosophy)! and
+what humor and what truth! Dewey's powerful stuff seems also to ring the
+death-knell of a sentenced world. Yet none of _them_ will see it--Taylor
+will still write his refutations, etc., etc., when the living world will
+all be drifting after _us_. It is queer to be assisting at the
+_éclosion_ of a great new mental epoch, life, religion, and philosophy
+in one--I wish I didn't have to lecture, so that I might bear some part
+of the burden of writing it all out, as we must do, pushing it into all
+sort of details. But I must for one year longer. We don't get back till
+June, but pray tell Wells (whose address _fehlt mir_) to make our house
+his headquarters if he gets to Boston and finds it the least convenient
+to do so. Our boys will hug him to their bosoms. Ever thine,
+
+W. J.
+
+The San Francisco earthquake occurred at about five o'clock in the
+morning on April 18. Rumors of the destruction wrought in the city
+reached Stanford within a couple of hours and were easily credited, for
+buildings had been shaken down at Stanford. Miss L. J. Martin, a member
+of the philosophical department, was thrown into great anxiety about
+relatives of hers who were in the city, and James offered to accompany
+her in a search for them, and left Stanford with her by an early morning
+train. He also promised Mrs. Wm. F. Snow to try to get her news of her
+husband. Miss Martin found her relatives, and James met Dr. Snow early
+in the afternoon, and then spent several hours in wandering about the
+stricken city. He subsequently wrote an account of the disaster, which
+may be found in "Memories and Studies."[65]
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+STANFORD UNIVERSITY, _Apr. 22, 1906_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--Three letters from you and nary one from us in all these
+weeks! Well, I have been heavily burdened, and although disposed to
+write, have kept postponing; and with Alice--cooking, washing dishes and
+doing housework, as well as keeping up a large social life--it has been
+very much the same. All is now over, since the earthquake; I mean that
+lectures and syllabuses are called off, and no more exams to be held
+("ill-wind," etc.), so one can write. We shall get East again as soon as
+we can manage it, and tell you face to face. We can now pose as experts
+on Earthquakes--pardon the egotistic form of talking about the latter,
+but it makes it more real. The last thing Bakewell said to me, while I
+was leaving Cambridge, was: "I hope they'll treat you to a little bit of
+an earthquake while you're there. It's a pity you shouldn't have that
+local experience." Well, when I lay in bed at about half-past five that
+morning, wide-awake, and the room began to sway, my first thought was,
+"Here's Bakewell's earthquake, after all"; and when it went crescendo
+and reached fortissimo in less than half a minute, and the room was
+shaken like a rat by a terrier, with the most vicious expression you can
+possibly imagine, it was to my mind absolutely an _entity_ that had been
+waiting all this time holding back its activity, but at last saying,
+"Now, _go_ it!" and it was impossible not to conceive it as animated by
+a will, so vicious was the temper displayed--everything _down_, in the
+room, that could go down, bureaus, etc., etc., and the shaking so rapid
+and vehement. All the while no fear, only admiration for the way a
+wooden house could prove its elasticity, and glee over the vividness of
+the manner in which such an "abstract idea" as "earthquake" could verify
+itself into sensible reality. In a couple of minutes everybody was in
+the street, and then we saw, what I hadn't suspected in my room, the
+extent of the damage. Wooden houses almost all intact, but every chimney
+down but one or two, and the higher University buildings largely piles
+of ruins. Gabble and babble, till at last automobiles brought the
+dreadful news from San Francisco.
+
+I boarded the only train that went to the City, and got out in the
+evening on the only train that left. I shouldn't have done it, but that
+our co-habitant here, Miss Martin, became obsessed by the idea that she
+_must_ see what had become of her sister, and I had to stand by her. Was
+very glad I did; for the spectacle was memorable, of a whole population
+in the streets with what baggage they could rescue from their houses
+about to burn, while the flames and the explosions were steadily
+advancing and making everyone move farther. The fires most beautiful in
+the effulgent sunshine. Every vacant space was occupied by trunks and
+furniture and people, and thousands have been sitting by them now for
+four nights and will have to longer. The fire seems now controlled, but
+the city is practically wiped out (thank Heaven, as to much of its
+architecture!). The order has been wonderful, even the criminals struck
+solemn by the disaster, and the military has done great service.
+
+But you will know all these details by the papers better than I know
+them now, before this reaches you, and in three weeks we shall be back.
+
+I am very glad that Jim's [Putnam] lectures went off so well. He wrote
+me himself a good letter--won't you, by the way, send him this one as a
+partial answer?--and his syllabus was first-rate and the stuff must have
+been helpful. It is jolly to think of both him and Marian really getting
+off together to enjoy themselves! But between Vesuvius and San Francisco
+enjoyment has small elbow-room. Love to your mother, dearest Fanny, to
+Mary and the men folks, from us both. Your ever affectionate,
+
+W. J.
+
+A few days after the earthquake, train-service from Stanford to the East
+was reëstablished and James and his wife returned to Cambridge. The
+reader will infer correctly from the next letter that Henry James (and
+William James, Jr., who was staying with him in Rye) had been in great
+anxiety and had been by no means reassured by the brief cablegram which
+was the only personal communication that it was possible to send them
+during the days immediately following the disaster.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James and William James, Jr._
+
+
+Cambridge, _May 9, 1906_.
+
+DEAREST BROTHER AND SON,--Your cablegram of response was duly received,
+and we have been also "joyous" in the thought of your being together. I
+knew, of course, Henry, that you would be solicitous about us in the
+earthquake, but didn't reckon at all on the extremity of your anguish as
+evinced by your frequent cablegrams home, and finally by the letter to
+Harry which arrived a couple of days ago and told how you were unable to
+settle down to any other occupation, the thought of our mangled forms,
+hollow eyes, starving bodies, minds insane with fear, haunting you so.
+We never reckoned on this extremity of anxiety on your part, I say, and
+so never thought of cabling you direct, as we might well have done from
+Oakland on the day we left, namely April 27th. I much regret this
+callousness on our part. For _all_ the anguish was yours; and in general
+this experience only rubs in what I have always known, that in battles,
+sieges and other great calamities, the pathos and agony is in general
+solely felt by those at a distance; and although physical pain is
+suffered most by its immediate victims, those at the _scene of action_
+have no _sentimental_ suffering whatever. Everyone at San Francisco
+seemed in a good hearty frame of mind; there was work for every moment
+of the day and a kind of uplift in the sense of a "common lot" that took
+away the sense of loneliness that (I imagine) gives the sharpest edge to
+the more usual kind of misfortune that may befall a man. But it was a
+queer sight, on our journey through the City on the 26th (eight days
+after the disaster), to see the inmates of the houses of the quarter
+left standing, all cooking their dinners at little brick camp-fires in
+the middle of the streets, the chimneys being condemned. If such a
+disaster had to happen, somehow it couldn't have chosen a better place
+than San Francisco (where everyone knew about camping, and was familiar
+with the creation of civilizations out of the bare ground), and at
+five-thirty in the morning, when few fires were lighted and everyone,
+after a good sleep, was in bed. Later, there would have been great loss
+of life in the streets, and the more numerous foci of conflagration
+would have burned the city in one day instead of four, and made things
+vastly worse.
+
+In general you may be sure that when any disaster befalls our country it
+will be _you_ only who are wringing of hands, and we who are smiling
+with "interest or laughing with gleeful excitement." I didn't hear one
+pathetic word uttered at the scene of disaster, though of course the
+crop of "nervous wrecks" is very likely to come in a month or so.
+
+Although we have been home six days, such has been the stream of broken
+occupations, people to see, and small urgent jobs to attend to, that I
+have written no letter till now. Today, one sees more clearly and begins
+to rest. "Home" looks extraordinarily pleasant, and though damp and
+chilly, it is the divine budding moment of the year. Not, however, the
+lustrous light and sky of Stanford University....
+
+I have just read your paper on Boston in the "North American Review." I
+am glad you threw away the scabbard and made your critical remarks so
+straight. What you say about "pay" here being the easily won "salve" for
+privations, in view of which we cease to "mind" them, is as true as it
+is strikingly pat. _Les intellectuels_, wedged between the millionaires
+and the handworkers, are the really pinched class here. They feel the
+frustrations and they can't get the salve. _My_ attainment of so much
+pay in the past few years brings home to me what an all-benumbing salve
+it is. That whole article is of your best. We long to hear from W., Jr.
+No word yet. Your ever loving,
+
+W. J.
+
+In "The Energies of Men" there is a long quotation from an unnamed
+European correspondent who had been subjecting himself to Yoga
+disciplinary exercise. What follows is a comment written upon the first
+receipt of the report quoted in the "Energies."
+
+
+
+
+_To W. Lutoslawski._
+
+
+Cambridge, _May 6, 1906_.
+
+...Your long and beautiful letter about Yoga, etc., greets me on my
+return from California. It is a most precious human document, and some
+day, along with that sketch of your religious evolution and other
+shorter letters of yours, it must see the light of day. What strikes me
+first in it is the evidence of improved moral "tone"--a calm, firm,
+sustained joyousness, hard to describe, and striking a new note in your
+epistles--which is already a convincing argument of the genuineness of
+the improvement wrought in you by Yoga practices....
+
+You are mistaken about my having tried Yoga discipline--I never meant to
+suggest that. I have read several books (A. B., by the way, used to be a
+student of mine, but in spite of many noble qualities, he always had an
+unbalanced mind--obsessed by certain morbid ideas, etc.), and in the
+slightest possible way tried breathing exercises. These go terribly
+against the grain with me, are extremely disagreeable, and, even when
+tried this winter (somewhat perseveringly), to put myself asleep, after
+lying awake at night, failed to have any soporific effect. What
+impresses me most in your narrative is the obstinate strength of will
+shown by yourself and your chela in your methodical abstentions and
+exercises. When could I hope for such will-power? I find, when my
+general energy is _in Anspruch genommen_ by hard lecturing and other
+professional work, that then particularly what little _ascetic_ energy I
+have has to be remitted, because the exertion of inhibitory and
+stimulative will required increases my general fatigue instead of
+"tonifying" me.
+
+But your sober experience gives me new hopes. Your whole narrative
+suggests in me the wonder whether the Yoga discipline may not be, after
+all, in all its phases, simply a methodical way of _waking up deeper
+levels of will-power than are habitually used_, and thereby increasing
+the individual's vital tone and energy. I have no doubt whatever that
+most people live, whether physically, intellectually or morally, in a
+very restricted circle of their potential being. They _make use_ of a
+very small portion of their possible consciousness, and of their soul's
+resources in general, much like a man who, out of his whole bodily
+organism, should get into a habit of using and moving only his little
+finger. Great emergencies and crises show us how much greater our vital
+resources are than we had supposed. Pierre Janet discussed lately some
+cases of pathological impulsion or obsession in what he has called the
+"psychasthenic" type of individual, bulimia, exaggerated walking, morbid
+love of feeling pain, and explains the phenomenon as based on the
+underlying _sentiment d'incomplétude_, as he calls it, or _sentiment de
+l'irréel_ with which these patients are habitually afflicted, and which
+they find is abolished by the violent appeal to some exaggerated
+activity or other, discovered accidentally perhaps, and then used
+habitually. I was reminded of his article in reading your descriptions
+and prescriptions. May the Yoga practices not be, after all, methods of
+getting at our deeper functional levels? And thus only be substitutes
+for entirely different crises that may occur in other individuals,
+religious crises, indignation-crises, love-crises, etc.?
+
+What you say of diet is in striking accordance with the views lately
+made popular by Horace Fletcher--I dare say you have heard of them. You
+see I am trying to generalize the Yoga idea, and redeem it from the
+pretension that, for example, there is something intrinsically holy in
+the various grotesque postures of Hatha Yoga. I have spoken with various
+Hindus, particularly with three last winter, one a Yogi and apostle of
+Vedanta; one a "Christian" of scientific training; one a Bramo-Somaj
+professor. The former made great claims of increase of "power," but
+admitted that those who had it could in no way demonstrate it _ad
+oculos_, to outsiders. The other two both said that Yoga was less and
+less frequently practised by the more intellectual, and that the
+old-fashioned _Guru_ was becoming quite a rarity.
+
+I believe with you, fully, that the so-called "normal man" of commerce,
+so to speak, the healthy philistine, is a mere extract from the
+potentially realizable individual whom he represents, and that we all
+have reservoirs of life to draw upon, of which we do not dream. The
+practical problem is "how to get at them." And the answer varies with
+the individual. Most of us never can, or never do get at them. _You_
+have indubitably got at your own deeper levels by the Yoga methods. I
+hope that what you have gained will never again be lost to you. You must
+keep there! _My_ deeper levels seem very hard to find--I am so
+rebellious at all formal and prescriptive methods--a dry and bony
+_individual_, repelling fusion, and avoiding voluntary exertion. No
+matter, art is long! and _qui vivra verra_. I shall try fasting and
+again try breathing--discovering perhaps some individual rhythm that is
+more tolerable....
+
+
+
+
+_To John Jay Chapman._
+
+
+Cambridge, _May 18, 1906_.
+
+DEAR OLD JACK C.,--Having this minute come into the possession of a new
+type-writer, what can I do better than express my pride in the same by
+writing to you?[66]
+
+I spent last night at George Dorr's and he read me several letters from
+you, telling me also of your visit, and of how well you seemed. For
+years past I have been on the point of writing to you to assure [you] of
+my continued love and to express my commiseration for your poor wife,
+who has had so long to bear the brunt of your temper--you see I have
+been there already and I know how one's irritability is exasperated by
+conditions of nervous prostration--but now I can write and congratulate
+you on having recovered, temper and all. (As I write, it bethinks me
+that in a previous letter I have made identical jokes about your temper
+which, I fear, will give Mrs. Chapman a very low opinion of my
+humoristic resources, and in sooth they are small; but we are as God
+makes us and must not try to be anything else, so pray condone the
+silliness and let it pass.) The main thing is that you seem practically
+to have recovered, in spite of everything; and I am heartily glad.
+
+I too am well enough for all practical purposes, but I have to go slow
+and not try to do too many things in a day. Simplification of life and
+consciousness I find to be the great thing, but a hard thing to compass
+when one lives in city conditions. How our dear Sarah Whitman lived in
+the sort of railroad station she made of her life--I confess it's a
+mystery to me. If I lived at a place called Barrytown, it would probably
+go better--don't you ever go back to New York to live!
+
+Alice and I had a jovial time at sweet little Stanford University. It
+was the simple life in the best sense of the term. I am glad for once to
+have been part of the working machine of California, and a pretty deep
+part too, as it afterwards turned out. The earthquake also was a
+memorable bit of experience, and altogether we have found it
+mind-enlarging and are very glad we ben there. But the whole
+intermediate West is awful--a sort of penal doom to have to live there;
+and in general the result with me of having lived 65 years in America is
+to make me feel as if I had at least bought the right to a certain
+capriciousness, and were free now to live for the remainder of my days
+wherever I prefer and can make my wife and children consent--it is more
+likely to be in rural than in urban surroundings, and in the maturer
+than in the _rawrer_ parts of the world. But the first thing is to get
+out of the treadmill of teaching, which I hate and shall resign from
+next year. After that, I can use my small available store of energy in
+writing, which is not only a much more economical way of working it, but
+more satisfactory in point of quality, and more lucrative as well.
+
+Now, J. C., when are you going to get at writing again? The world is
+hungry for your wares. No one touches certain deep notes of moral truth
+as you do, and your humor is _köstlich_ and _impayable_. You ought to
+join the band of "pragmatistic" or "humanistic" philosophers. I almost
+fear that Barrytown may not yet have begun to be disturbed by the rumor
+of their achievements, the which are of the greatest, and seriously I du
+think that the world of thought is on the eve of a renovation no less
+important than that contributed by Locke. The leaders of the new
+movement are Dewey, Schiller of Oxford, in a sense Bergson of Paris, a
+young Florentine named Papini, and last and least worthy, W. J. H. G.
+Wells ought to be counted in, and if I mistake not G. K. Chesterton as
+well.[67] I hope you know and love the last-named writer, who seems to
+me a great teller of the truth. His systematic preference for
+contradictions and paradoxical forms of statement seems to me a
+mannerism somewhat to be regretted in so wealthy a mind; but that is a
+blemish from which some of our very greatest intellects are not
+altogether free--the philosopher of Barrytown himself being not wholly
+exempt. Join us, O Jack, and in the historic and perspective sense your
+fame will be secure. All future Histories of Philosophy will print your
+name.
+
+But although my love for you is not exhausted, my type-writing energy
+is. It communicates stiffness and cramps, both to the body and the mind.
+Nevertheless I think I have been doing pretty well for a first attempt,
+don't you? If you return me a good long letter telling me more
+particularly about the process of your recovery, I will write again,
+even if I have to take a pen to do it, and in any case I will do it much
+better than this time.
+
+Believe me, dear old J. C., with hearty affection and delight at your
+recovery--all these months I have been on the brink of writing to find
+out how you were--and with very best regards to your wife, whom some day
+I wish we may be permitted to know better. Yours very truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+Everyone dead! Hodgson, Shaler, James Peirce this winter--to go no
+further afield! _Resserrons les rangs!_
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Sept. 10, 1906_.
+
+DEAREST H.,--I got back from the Adirondacks, where I had spent a
+fortnight, the night before last, and in three or four hours Alice,
+Aleck and I will be spinning towards Chocorua, it being now five A.M.
+Elly [Temple] Hunter will join us, with Grenville, in a few days; but
+for the most part, thank Heaven, we shall be alone till the end of the
+month. I found two letters from you awaiting me, and two from Bill. They
+all breathed a spirit of happiness, and brought a waft of the beautiful
+European summer with them. It has been a beautiful summer here too; and
+now, sad to say, it is counting the last beads of its chaplet of hot
+days out--the hot days which are really the absolutely friendly ones to
+man--you wish they would get cooler when you have them, and when they
+are departed, you wish you could have their exquisite gentleness again.
+I have just been reading in the volume by Richard Jefferies called the
+"Life of the Fields" a wonderful rhapsody, "The Pageant of Summer." It
+needs to be read twice over and very attentively, being nothing but an
+enumeration of all the details visible in the corner of an old field
+with a hedge and ditch. But rightly taken in, it is probably the highest
+flight of human genius in the direction of nature-worship. I don't see
+why it should not count as an immortal thing. You missed it, when here,
+in not getting to Keene Valley, where I have just been, and of which the
+sylvan beauty, especially by moonlight, is probably unlike aught that
+Europe has to show. Imperishable freshness!...
+
+This is definitely my last year of lecturing, but I wish it were my
+first of non-lecturing. Simplification of the field of duties I find
+more and more to be the _summum bonum_ for me; and I live in
+apprehension lest the Avenger should cut me off before I get my message
+out. Not that the message is particularly needed by the human race,
+which can live along perfectly well without any one philosopher; but
+objectively I hate to leave the volumes I have already published without
+their logical complement. It is an esthetic tragedy to have a bridge
+begun, and stopped in the middle of an arch.
+
+But I hear Alice stirring upstairs, so I must go up and finish packing.
+I hope that you and W. J., Jr., will again form a harmonious
+combination. I hope also that he will stop painting for a time. He will
+do all the better, when he gets home, for having had a fallow interval.
+
+Good-bye! and my blessing upon both of you. Your ever loving,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To H. G. Wells._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _Sept. 11, 1906_.
+
+DEAR MR. WELLS,--I've read your "Two Studies in Disappointment" in
+"Harper's Weekly," and must thank you from the bottom of my heart. _Rem
+acu tetegisti!_ Exactly that callousness to abstract justice is _the_
+sinister feature and, to me as well as to you, the incomprehensible
+feature, of our U. S. civilization. How you hit upon it so neatly and
+singled it out so truly (and talked of it so tactfully!) God only knows:
+He evidently created you to do such things! I never heard of the
+MacQueen case before, but I've known of plenty of others. When the
+ordinary American hears of them, instead of the idealist within him
+beginning to "see red" with the higher indignation, instead of the
+spirit of English history growing alive in his breast, he begins to
+pooh-pooh and minimize and tone down the thing, and breed excuses from
+his general fund of optimism and respect for expediency. "It's probably
+right enough"; "Scoundrelly, as you say," but understandable, "from the
+point of view of parties interested"--but understandable in onlooking
+citizens only as a symptom of the moral flabbiness born of the exclusive
+worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That--with the squalid cash
+interpretation put on the word success--is our national disease. Hit it
+hard! Your book _must_ have a great effect. Do you remember the glorious
+remarks about success in Chesterton's "Heretics"? You will undoubtedly
+have written _the_ medicinal book about America. And what good humor!
+and what tact! Sincerely yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Theodora Sedgwick._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _Sept. 13, 1906_.
+
+DEAR THEODORA,--Here we are in this sweet delicate little place, after a
+pretty agitated summer, and the quiet seems very nice. Likewise the
+stillness. I have thought often of you, and _almost_ written; but there
+never seemed exactly to be time or place for it, so I let the sally of
+the heart to-you-ward suffice. A week ago, I spent a night with H. L.
+Higginson, whom I found all alone at his house by the Lake, and he told
+me your improvement had been continuous and great, which I heartily hope
+has really been the case. I don't see why it should not have been the
+case, under such delightful conditions. What good things friends are!
+And what better thing than lend it, can one do with one's house? I was
+struck by Henry Higginson's high level of mental tension, so to call it,
+which made him talk, incessantly and passionately about one subject
+after another, never running dry, and reminding me more of myself when I
+was twenty years old. It isn't so much a man's eminence of elementary
+faculties that pulls him through. They may be rare, and he do nothing.
+It is the steam pressure to the square inch behind that moves the
+machine. The amount of that is what makes the great difference between
+us. Henry has it high. Previous to seeing him I had spent ten days in
+beautiful Keene Valley, dividing them between the two ends. The St.
+Hubert's end is, I verily believe, one of the most beautiful things in
+this beautiful world--too dissimilar to anything in Europe to be
+compared therewith, and consequently able to stand on its merits all
+alone. But the great [forest] fire of four years ago came to the very
+edge of wiping it out! And any year it may go.
+
+I also had a delightful week all alone on the Maine Coast, among the
+islands.
+
+Back here, one is oppressed by sadness at the amount of work waiting to
+be done on the place and no one to be hired to do it. The entire meaning
+and essence of "land" is something to be worked over--even if it be only
+a wood-lot, it must be kept trimmed and cleaned. And for one who _can_
+work and who _likes_ work with his arms and hands, there is nothing so
+delightful as a piece of land to work over--it responds to every hour
+you give it, and smiles with the "improvement" year by year. I neither
+can work now, nor do I like it, so an irremediable bad conscience
+afflicts my ownership of this place. With Cambridge as headquarters for
+August, and a little lot of land there, I think I could almost be ready
+to give up this place, and trust to the luck of hotels, and other
+opportunities of rustication without responsibility. But perhaps we can
+get this place [taken care of?] some day!
+
+I don't know how much you read. I've taken great pleasure this summer in
+Bielshowski's "Life of Goethe" (a wonderful piece of art) and in
+Birukoff's "Life of Tolstoy."
+
+Alice is very well and happy in the stillness here. Elly Hunter is
+coming this evening, tomorrow the Merrimans for a day, and then Mrs.
+Hodder till the end of the month.
+
+Faithful love from both of us, dear Theodora. Your affectionate
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To his Daughter._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Jan. 20, 1907_, 6.15 P.M.
+
+SWEET PEGLEIN,--Just before tea! and your Grandam, Mar, and I going to
+hear the Revd. Percy Grant in the College chapel just after. We are
+getting to be great church-goers. 'T will have to be Crothers next. He,
+sweet man, is staying with the Brookses. After him, the Christian
+Science Church, and after that the deluge!
+
+I have spent all day preparing next Tuesday's lecture, which is my last
+before a class in Harvard University, so help me God amen! I am almost
+_afraid_ at so much freedom. Three quarters of an hour ago Aleck and I
+went for a walk in Somerville; warm, young moon, bare trees, clearing in
+the west, stars out, old-fashioned streets, not sordid--a beautiful
+walk. Last night to Bernard Shaw's ex-_quis_-ite play of "Cæsar and
+Cleopatra"--exquisitely acted too, by F. Robertson and Maxine Elliot's
+sister Gert. Your Mar will have told you that, after these weeks of
+persistent labor, culminating in New York, I am going to take sanctuary
+on Saturday the 2nd of Feb. in your arms at Bryn Mawr. I do not want,
+wish, or desire to "talk" to the crowd, but your mother pushing so, if
+you and the philosophy club also pull, I mean pull _hard_, Jimmy[68]
+will try to articulate something not too technical. But it will have to
+be, if ever, on that Saturday night. It will also have to be very short;
+and the less of a "reception," the better, after it.
+
+Your two last letters were tiptop. I never seen such _growth_!
+
+I go to N. Y., to be at the Harvard Club, on Monday the 28th. Kühnemann
+left yesterday. A most dear man. Your loving
+
+DAD.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James and William James, Jr._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb. 14, 1907_.
+
+DEAR BROTHER AND SON,--I dare say that you will be together in Paris
+when you get this, but I address it to Lamb House all the same. You
+twain are more "blessed" than I, in the way of correspondence this
+winter, for you give more than you receive, Bill's letters being as
+remarkable for wit and humor as Henry's are for copiousness, considering
+that the market value of what he either writes or types is so many
+shillings a word. When _I_ write other things, I find it almost
+impossible to write letters. I've been at it _stiddy_, however, for
+three days, since my return from New York, finding, as I did, a great
+stack of correspondence to attend to. The first impression of New York,
+if you stay there not more than 36 hours, which has been my limit for
+twenty years past, is one of repulsion at the clangor, disorder, and
+permanent earthquake conditions. But this time, installed as I was at
+the Harvard Club (44th St.) in the centre of the cyclone, I caught the
+pulse of the machine, took up the rhythm, and vibrated _mit_, and found
+it simply magnificent. I'm surprised at you, Henry, not having been more
+enthusiastic, but perhaps that superbly powerful and beautiful subway
+was not opened when you were there. It is an _entirely_ new New York, in
+soul as well as in body, from the old one, which looks like a village in
+retrospect. The courage, the heaven-scaling audacity of it all, and the
+_lightness_ withal, as if there was nothing that was not easy, and the
+great pulses and bounds of progress, so many in directions all
+simultaneous that the coördination is indefinitely future, give a kind
+of _drumming background_ of life that I never felt before. I'm sure that
+once _in_ that movement, and at home, all other places would seem
+insipid. I observe that your book,--"The American Scene,"--dear H., is
+just out. I must get it and devour again the chapters relative to New
+York. On my last night, I dined with Norman Hapgood, along with men who
+were successfully and happily in the vibration. H. and his most
+winning-faced young partner, Collier, Jerome, Peter Dunne, F. M. Colby,
+and Mark Twain. (The latter, poor man, is only good for monologue, in
+his old age, or for dialogue at best, but he's a dear little genius all
+the same.) I got such an impression of easy efficiency in the midst of
+their bewildering conditions of speed and complexity of adjustment.
+Jerome, particularly, with the world's eyes on his court-room, in the
+very crux of the Thaw trial, as if he had nothing serious to do. Balzac
+ought to come to life again. His Rastignac imagination sketched the
+possibility of it long ago. I lunched, dined, and sometimes breakfasted,
+out, every day of my stay, vibrated between 44th St., seldom going
+lower, and 149th, with Columbia University at 116th as my chief relay
+station, the magnificent space-devouring Subway roaring me back and
+forth, lecturing to a thousand daily,[69] and having four separate
+dinners at the Columbia Faculty Club, where colleagues severally
+compassed me about, many of them being old students of mine, wagged
+their tongues at me and made me explain.[70] It was certainly the high
+tide of my existence, so far as _energizing_ and being "recognized" were
+concerned, but I took it all very "easy" and am hardly a bit tired.
+Total abstinence from every stimulant whatever is the one condition of
+living at a rapid pace. I am now going whack at the writing of the rest
+of the lectures, which will be more original and (I believe) important
+than my previous works....
+
+
+
+
+_To Moorfield Storey._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb._ 21, 1907.
+
+DEAR MOORFIELD,--Your letter of three weeks ago has inadvertently lain
+unnoticed--not because it didn't do me good, but because I went to New
+York for a fortnight, and since coming home have been too druv to pay
+any tributes to friendship. I haven't got many letters either of
+condolence or congratulation on my retirement,--which, by the way,
+doesn't take place till the end of the year,--the papers have railroaded
+me out too soon.[71] But I confess that the thought is sweet to me of
+being able to hear the College bell ring without any tendency to "move"
+in consequence, and of seeing the last Thursday in September go by, and
+remaining in the country careless of what becomes of its youth. It's the
+_harness_ and the _hours_ that are so galling! I expect to shed truths
+in dazzling profusion on the world for many years.
+
+As for you, retire too! Let you, Eliot, Roosevelt and me, first relax;
+then take to landscape painting, which has a very soothing effect; then
+write out all the truths which a long life of intimacy with mankind has
+recommended to each of us as most useful. I think we can use the ebb
+tide of our energies best in that way. I'm sure that _your_
+contributions would be the most useful of all. Affectionately yours,
+
+WM. JAMES.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Mar._ 26, 1907.
+
+DEAR FLOURNOY,--Your dilectissime letter of the 16th arrived this
+morning and I must scribble a word of reply. That's the way to write to
+a man! Caress him! flatter him! tell him that all Switzerland is hanging
+on his lips! You have made me really _happy_ for at least twenty-four
+hours! My dry and businesslike compatriots never write letters like
+that. They write about themselves--you write about _me_. You know the
+definition of an egotist: "a person who insists on talking about
+_himself_, when you want to talk about _yourself_." Reverdin has told me
+of the success of your lectures on pragmatism, and if you have been
+communing in spirit with me this winter, so have I with you. I have
+grown more and more deeply into pragmatism, and I rejoice immensely to
+hear you say, "je m'y sens tout gagné." It is absolutely the only
+philosophy with _no_ humbug in it, and I am certain that it is _your_
+philosophy. Have you read Papini's article in the February "Leonardo"?
+That seems to me really splendid. You say that my ideas have formed the
+real _centre de ralliment_ of the pragmatist tendencies. To me it is the
+youthful and _empanaché_ Papini who has best put himself at the centre
+of equilibrium whence all the motor tendencies start. He (and Schiller)
+has given me great confidence and courage. I shall dedicate my book,
+however, to the memory of J. S. Mill.
+
+I hope that you are careful to distinguish in my own work between the
+pragmatism and the "radical empiricism" (Conception de Conscience,[72]
+etc.) which to my own mind have no necessary connexion with each other.
+My first proofs came in this morning, along with your letter, and the
+little book ought to be out by the first of June. You shall have a very
+early copy. It is exceedingly untechnical, and I can't help suspecting
+that it will make a real impression. Münsterberg, who hitherto has been
+rather pooh-poohing my thought, now, after reading the lecture on truth
+which I sent you a while ago, says I seem to be ignorant that Kant ever
+wrote, Kant having already said all that I say. I regard this as a very
+good symptom. The third stage of opinion about a new idea, already
+arrived: _1st_: absurd! _2nd_: trivial! _3rd_: _we_ discovered it! I
+don't suppose you mean to print these lectures of yours, but I wish you
+would. If you would translate my lectures, what could make me happier?
+But, as I said apropos of the "Varieties," I hate to think of you doing
+that drudgery when you might be formulating your own ideas. But, in one
+way or the other, I hope you will join in the great strategic
+combination against the forces of rationalism and bad abstractionism! A
+good _coup de collier_ all round, and I verily believe that a new
+philosophic movement will begin....
+
+I thank you for your congratulations on my retirement. It makes me very
+happy. A professor has two functions: (1) to be learned and distribute
+bibliographical information; (2) to communicate truth. The _1st_
+function is the essential one, officially considered. The _2nd_ is the
+only one I care for. Hitherto I have always felt like a humbug as a
+professor, for I am weak in the first requirement. Now I can live for
+the second with a free conscience. I envy you now at the Italian Lakes!
+But good-bye! I have already written you a long letter, though I only
+_meant_ to write a line! Love to you all from
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Charles A. Strong._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr._ 9, 1907.
+
+DEAR STRONG,--Your tightly woven little letter reached me this A.M.,
+just as I was about writing to you to find out how you are. Your long
+silence had made me apprehensive about your condition, and this news
+cheers me up very much. Rome is great; and I like to think of you there;
+if I spend another winter in Europe, it shall be mainly in Rome. You
+don't say where you're staying, however, so my imagination is at fault,
+I hope it may be at the _Russie_, that most delightful of hotels. I am
+overwhelmed with duties, so I must be very brief _in re religionis_.
+Your warnings against my superstitious tendencies, for such I suppose
+they are,--this is the second heavy one I remember,--touch me, but not
+in the prophetic way, for they don't weaken my trust in the healthiness
+of my own attitude, which in part (I fancy) is less remote from your own
+than you suppose. For instance, my "God of things as they are," being
+part of a pluralistic system, is responsible for only such of them as he
+knows enough and has enough power to have accomplished. For the rest he
+is identical with your "ideal" God. The "omniscient" and "omnipotent"
+God of theology I regard as a disease of the philosophy-shop. But,
+having thrown away so much of the philosophy-shop, you may ask me why I
+don't throw away the whole? That would mean too strong a negative
+will-to-believe for me. It would mean a dogmatic disbelief in any extant
+consciousness higher than that of the "normal" human mind; and this in
+the teeth of the extraordinary vivacity of man's psychological commerce
+with something ideal that _feels as if it_ were also actual (I have no
+such commerce--I wish I had, but I can't close my eyes to its vitality
+in others); and in the teeth of such analogies as Fechner uses to show
+that there may be other-consciousness than man's. If other, then why not
+higher and bigger? Why _may_ we not be in the universe as our dogs and
+cats are in our drawing-rooms and libraries? It's a will-to-believe on
+both sides: I am perfectly willing that others should disbelieve: why
+should you not be tolerantly interested in the spectacle of my belief?
+What harm does the little residuum or germ of actuality that I leave in
+God do? If ideal, why (except on epiphenomenist principles) may he not
+have got himself at least partly real by this time? I do not believe it
+to be healthy-minded to nurse the notion that ideals are self-sufficient
+and require no actualization to make us content. It is a quite
+unnecessarily heroic form of resignation and sour grapes. Ideals ought
+to aim at the _transformation of reality_--no less! When you defer to
+what you suppose a certain authority in scientists as confirming these
+negations, I am surprised. Of all insufficient authorities as to the
+total nature of reality, give me the "scientists," from Münsterberg up,
+or down. Their interests are most incomplete and their professional
+conceit and bigotry immense. I know no narrower sect or club, in spite
+of their excellent authority in the lines of fact they have explored,
+and their splendid achievement there. Their only authority _at large_ is
+for _method_--and the pragmatic method completes and enlarges them
+there. When you shall have read my whole set of lectures (now with the
+printer, to be out by June 1st) I doubt whether you will find any great
+harm in the God I patronize--the poor thing is so largely an ideal
+possibility. Meanwhile I take delight, or _shall_ take delight, in any
+efforts you may make to negate all superhuman consciousness, for only by
+these counter-attempts can a finally satisfactory modus vivendi be
+reached. I don't feel sure that I know just what you mean by
+"freedom,"--but no matter. Have you read in Schiller's new Studies in
+Humanism what seem to me two excellent chapters, one on "Freedom," and
+the other on the "making of reality"?...
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr._ 19, 1907.
+
+DEAR SCHILLER,--Two letters and a card from you within ten days is
+pretty good. I have been in New York for a week, so haven't written as
+promptly as I should have done.
+
+All right for the Gilbert Murrays! We shall be glad to see them.
+
+Too late for "humanism" in my book--all in type! I dislike "pragmatism,"
+but it seems to have the _international_ right of way at present. Let's
+both go ahead--God will know his own!
+
+When your book first came I lent it to my student Kallen (who was
+writing a thesis on the subject), thereby losing it for three weeks.
+Then the grippe, and my own proofs followed, along with much other
+business, so that I've only read about a quarter of it even now. The
+essays on Freedom and the Making of Reality seem to be written with my
+own heart's blood--it's startling that two people should be found to
+think so exactly alike. A great argument for the truth of what they say,
+too! I find that my own chapter on Truth printed in the J. of P.
+already,[73] convinces no one as yet, not even my most _gleichgesinnten_
+cronies. It will have to be worked in by much future labor, for I _know_
+that I see all round the subject and they don't, and I think that the
+theory of truth is the key to all the rest of our positions.
+
+You ask what I am going to "reply" to Bradley. But why need one reply to
+everything and everybody? B.'s article is constructive rather than
+polemic, is evidently sincere, softens much of his old outline, is
+difficult to read, and ought, I should think, to be left to its own
+destiny. How sweetly, by the way, he feels towards me as compared with
+you! All because you have been too bumptious. I confess I think that
+your _gaudium certaminis_ injures your influence. _We_'ve got a thing
+big enough to set forth now affirmatively, and I think that readers
+generally hate _minute_ polemics and recriminations. All polemic of ours
+should, I believe, be either very broad statements of contrast, or fine
+points treated singly, and as far as possible impersonally. Inborn
+rationalists and inborn pragmatists will never convert each other. We
+shall always look on them as spectral and they on us as
+trashy--irredeemably both! As far as the rising generation goes, why not
+simply express ourselves positively, and trust that the truer view
+quietly will displace the other. Here again "God will know his own."
+False views don't need much direct refutation--they get superseded, and
+I feel absolutely certain of the supersessive power of pragmato-humanism,
+if persuasively enough set forth.... The world is wide enough to harbor
+various ways of thinking, and the present Bradley's units of mental
+operation are so diverse from ours that the labor of reckoning over from
+one set of terms to the other doesn't bring reward enough to pay for it.
+Of course his way of treating "truth" as an entity trying all the while
+to identify herself with reality, while reality is equally trying to
+identify herself with the more ideal entity truth, isn't _false_. It's
+one way, very remote and allegorical, of stating the facts, and it
+"agrees" with a good deal of reality, but it has so little pragmatic
+value that its tottering form can be left for time to deal with. The
+good it does him is small, for it leaves him in this queer, surly,
+grumbling state about the best that can be done by it for philosophy.
+His great vice seems to me his perversity in logical activities, his bad
+reasonings. I vote to go on, from now on, not trying to keep account of
+the relations of his with our system. He can't be influencing disciples,
+being himself nowadays so difficult. And once for all, there _will_ be
+minds who _cannot_ _help_ regarding our growing universe as _sheer
+trash_, metaphysically considered. Yours ever,
+
+W. J.
+
+The next letter is addressed to an active promoter of reform in the
+treatment of the insane, the author of "A Mind that Found Itself." The
+Connecticut Society for Mental Hygiene and the National Committee for
+Mental Hygiene have already performed so great a public service, that
+anyone may now see that in 1907 the time had come to employ such
+instrumentalities in improving the care of the insane. But when Mr.
+Beers, just out of an asylum himself, appeared with the manuscript of
+his own story in his hands, it was not so clear that these agencies were
+needed, nor yet evident to anyone that he was a person who could bring
+about their organization.
+
+James's own opinion as to the treatment of the insane is not in the
+least overstated in the following letter. He recognized the genuineness
+of Mr. Beers's personal experience and its value for propaganda, and he
+immediately helped to get it published. From his first acquaintance with
+Mr. Beers, he gave time, counsel, and money to further the organization
+of the Mental Hygiene Committee; and he even departed, in its interest,
+from his fixed policy of "keeping out of Committees and Societies." He
+lived long enough to know that the movement had begun to gather
+momentum; and he drew great satisfaction from the knowledge.
+
+
+
+
+_To Clifford W. Beers._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 21, 1907_.
+
+DEAR MR. BEERS,--You ask for my opinion as to the advisability and
+feasibility of a National Society, such as you propose, for the
+improvement of conditions among the insane.
+
+I have never ceased to believe that such improvement is one of the most
+"crying" needs of civilization; and the functions of such a Society seem
+to me to be well drawn up by you. Your plea for its being founded
+before your book appears is well grounded, you being an author who
+naturally would like to cast seed upon a ground already prepared for it
+to germinate practically without delay.
+
+I have to confess to being myself a very impractical man, with no
+experience whatever in the details, difficulties, etc., of philanthropic
+or charity organization, so my opinion as to the _feasibility_ of your
+plan is worth nothing, and is undecided. Of course the first
+consideration is to get your money, the second, your Secretary and
+Trustees. All that _I_ wish to bear witness to is the great need of a
+National Society such as you describe, or failing that, of a State
+Society somewhere that might serve as a model in other States.
+
+Nowhere is there massed together as much suffering as in the asylums.
+Nowhere is there so much sodden routine, and fatalistic insensibility in
+those who have to treat it. Nowhere is an ideal treatment more costly.
+The officials in charge grow resigned to the conditions under which they
+have to labor. They cannot plead their cause as an auxiliary
+organization can plead it for them. Public opinion is too glad to remain
+ignorant. As mediator between officials, patients, and the public
+conscience, a society such as you sketch is absolutely required, and the
+sooner it gets under way the better.[74] Sincerely yours,
+
+WILLIAM JAMES.
+
+At the date of the next letter William James, Jr., was studying painting
+in Paris.
+
+
+
+
+_To his Son William._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 24, 1907_.
+
+DEAREST BILL,--I haven't written to you for ages, yet you keep showering
+the most masterly and charming epistles upon all of us in turn,
+including the fair Rosamund.[75] Be sure they are appreciated! Your Ma
+and I dined last night at Ellen and Loulie Hooper's to meet Rosalind
+Huidekoper and her swain. Loulie had heard from Bancel [La Farge] of
+your getting a "mention"--if for the model, I'm not surprised; if for
+the composition, I'm immensely pleased. Of course you'll tell us of it!
+We've had a very raw cold April, and today it's blowing great guns from
+all quarters of the sky, preparatory to clearing from the N.W., I think.
+We are rooting up the entire lawn to a depth of 18 inches to try to
+regenerate it. Four diggers and two carts have been at it for a week,
+with your mother, bareheaded and cloaked, and ruddy-cheeked, sticking to
+them like a burr. She doesn't handle pick or shovel, but she stands
+there all day long in a way it would do your heart good to see; and so
+democratic and hearty withal that I'm sure they like it, though working
+under such a great taskmaster's eye deprives them of those intervals of
+stolen leisure so dear to "workers" of every description. She makes it
+up to them by inviting them to an afternoon tea daily, with piles of
+cake and doughnuts. I fancy they like her well.
+
+We've let Chocorua to the Goldmarks. Aleck took his April recess along
+with his schoolmate Henderson and Gerald Thayer, partly on the summit,
+partly around the base, of Monadnock. The weather was fiercely wintry,
+and your mother and I said "poor blind little Aleck--he's got to learn
+thru experience." [She said "through"!] He came back happier and more
+exultant than I've ever seen him, and six months older morally and
+intellectually for the week with Gerald and Abbott Thayer. A great step
+forward. They burglarized the Thayer house, and were tracked and
+arrested by the posse, and had a paragraph in the Boston "Globe" about
+the robbery. As the thing involved an ascent of Monadnock after dark,
+with their packs, in deep snow, a day and a night there in snowstorm, a
+16-mile walk and out of bed till 2 A.M.. the night of the burglary, a
+"lying low" indoors all the next day at the Hendersons' empty house,
+three in a bed and the police waking them at dawn, I ventured to suggest
+a doubt as to whether the Thayer household were the greatest victims of
+the illustrious practical joke. "What," cries Aleck, starting to his
+feet, "nine men with revolvers and guns around your bed, and a revolver
+pointed close to your ear as you wake--don't you call that a success, I
+should like to know?" The Tom Sawyer phase of evolution is immortal!
+Gerald, who is staying with us now, is really a splendid fellow. I'm so
+glad he's taken to Aleck, who now is aflame with plans for being an
+artist. I wish he might--it would certainly suit his temperament better
+than "business."
+
+There 's the lunch bell.
+
+I have got my "Pragmatism" proofs all corrected. The most important
+thing I've written yet, and bound, I am sure, to stir up a lot of
+attention. But I'm dog-tired; and, in order to escape the social
+engagements that at this time of year grow more frequent than ever, I'm
+going off on Friday (this is Wednesday) to the country somewhere for ten
+days. If only there might be warm weather! We've just backed out from a
+dinner to William Leonard Darwin and his wife, and the Geo. Hodgeses,
+etc. W. T. Stead spent three hours here on Sunday and lectured in the
+Union on Monday--a splendid fellow whom I could get along with after a
+fashion. Let no one run him down to you. I've been to New York to the
+Peace Congress. Interesting but tiresome.
+
+Mary Salter is with us. Margaret and Rosamund just arrived at 107. No
+news else! Yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+SALISBURY, CONN., _May 4, 1907_.
+
+DEAREST H.-- ...I've been so overwhelmed with work, and the mountain of
+the _Unread_ has piled up so, that only in these days here have I really
+been able to settle down to your "American Scene," which in its peculiar
+way seems to me _supremely great_. You know how opposed your whole
+"third manner" of execution is to the literary ideals which animate my
+crude and Orson-like breast, mine being to say a thing in one sentence
+as straight and explicit as it can be made, and then to drop it forever;
+yours being to avoid naming it straight, but by dint of breathing and
+sighing all round and round it, to arouse in the reader who may have had
+a similar perception already (Heaven help him if he hasn't!) the
+illusion of a solid object, made (like the "ghost" at the Polytechnic)
+wholly out of impalpable materials, air, and the prismatic interferences
+of light, ingeniously focused by mirrors upon empty space. But you _do_
+it, that's the queerness! And the complication of innuendo and
+associative reference on the enormous scale to which you give way to it
+does so _build out_ the matter for the reader that the result is to
+solidify, by the mere bulk of the process, the like perception from
+which _he_ has to start. As air, by dint of its volume, will weigh like
+a corporeal body; so his own poor little initial perception, swathed in
+this gigantic envelopment of suggestive atmosphere, grows like a germ
+into something vastly bigger and more substantial. But it's the rummest
+method for one to employ systematically as you do nowadays; and you
+employ it at your peril. In this crowded and hurried reading age, pages
+that require such close attention remain unread and neglected. You can't
+skip a word if you are to get the effect, and 19 out of 20 worthy
+readers grow intolerant. The method seems perverse: "Say it _out_, for
+God's sake," they cry, "and have done with it." And so I say now, give
+us _one_ thing in your older directer manner, just to show that, in
+spite of your paradoxical success in this unheard-of method, you _can_
+still write according to accepted canons. Give us that interlude; and
+then continue like the "curiosity of literature" which you have become.
+For gleams and innuendoes and felicitous verbal insinuations you are
+unapproachable, but the _core_ of literature is solid. Give it to us
+_once_ again! The bare perfume of things will not support existence, and
+the effect of solidity you reach is but perfume and simulacrum.
+
+For God's sake don't _answer_ these remarks, which (as Uncle Howard used
+to say of Father's writings) are but the peristaltic belchings of my own
+crabbed organism. For one thing, your account of America is largely one
+of its omissions, silences, vacancies. You work them up like solids, for
+those readers who already germinally perceive them (to others you are
+_totally_ incomprehensible). I said to myself over and over in reading:
+"How much greater the triumph, if instead of dwelling thus only upon
+America's vacuities, he could make positive suggestion of what in
+'Europe' or Asia may exist to fill them." That would be nutritious to so
+many American readers whose souls are only too ready to leap to
+suggestion, but who are now too inexperienced to know what is meant by
+the contrast-effect from which alone your book is written. If you could
+supply the background which is the foil, in terms more full and
+positive! At present it is supplied only by the abstract geographic term
+"Europe." But of course anything of that kind is excessively difficult;
+and you will probably say that you _are_ supplying it all along by your
+novels. Well, the verve and animal spirits with which you can keep your
+method going, first on one place then on another, through all those
+tightly printed pages is something marvelous; and there are pages surely
+doomed to be immortal, those on the "drummers," _e.g._, at the beginning
+of "Florida." They are in the best sense Rabelaisian.
+
+But a truce, a truce! I had no idea, when I sat down, of pouring such a
+bath of my own subjectivity over you. Forgive! forgive! and don't reply,
+don't at any rate in the sense of defending yourself, but only in that
+of attacking _me_, if you feel so minded. I have just finished the
+proofs of a little book called "Pragmatism" which even you _may_ enjoy
+reading. It is a very "sincere" and, from the point of view of ordinary
+philosophy-professorial manners, a very unconventional utterance, not
+particularly original at any one point, yet, in the midst of the
+literature of the way of thinking which it represents, with just that
+amount of squeak or shrillness in the voice that enables one book to
+_tell_, when others don't, to supersede its brethren, and be treated
+later as "representative." I shouldn't be surprised if ten years hence
+it should be rated as "epoch-making," for of the definitive triumph of
+that general way of thinking I can entertain no doubt whatever--I
+believe it to be something quite like the protestant reformation.
+
+You can't tell how happy I am at having thrown off the nightmare of my
+"professorship." As a "professor" I always felt myself a sham, with its
+chief duties of being a walking encyclopedia of erudition. I am now at
+liberty to be a _reality_, and the comfort is unspeakable--literally
+unspeakable, to be my own man, after 35 years of being owned by others.
+I can now live for truth pure and simple, instead of for truth
+accommodated to the most unheard-of requirements set by others.... Your
+affectionate
+
+W. J.
+
+This letter appears never to have been answered, although Henry James
+wrote on May 31, 1907: "You shall have, after a little more patience, a
+reply to your so rich and luminous reflections on my book--a reply
+almost as interesting as, and far more illuminating than, your letter
+itself."
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _May 18, 1907_.
+
+...One word about the said proof [of your article]. It convinces me that
+you ought to be an academic personage, a "professor." For thirty-five
+years I have been suffering from the exigencies of being one, the
+pretension and the duty, namely, of meeting the mental needs and
+difficulties of other persons, needs that I couldn't possibly imagine
+and difficulties that I couldn't possibly understand; and now that I
+have shuffled off the professorial coil, the sense of freedom that comes
+to me is as surprising as it is exquisite. I wake up every morning with
+it. What! not to have to accommodate myself to this mass of alien and
+recalcitrant humanity, not to think under resistance, not to have to
+square myself with others at every step I make--hurrah! it is too good
+to be true. To be alone with truth and God! _Es ist nicht zu glauben!_
+What a future! What a vision of ease! But here you are loving it and
+courting it unnecessarily. You're fit to continue a professor in all
+your successive reincarnations, with never a release. It was so easy to
+let Bradley with his approximations and grumblings alone. So few people
+would find these last statements of his seductive enough to build them
+into their own thought. But you, for the pure pleasure of the operation,
+chase him up and down his windings, flog him into and out of his
+corners, stop him and cross-reference him and counter on him, as if
+required to do so by your office. It makes very difficult reading, it
+obliges one to re-read Bradley, and I don't believe there are three
+persons living who will take it in with the pains required to estimate
+its value. B. himself will very likely not read it with any care. It is
+subtle and clear, like everything you write, but it is too minute. And
+where a few broad comments would have sufficed, it is too complex, and
+too much like a criminal conviction in tone and temper. Leave him in his
+_dunklem Drange_--he is drifting in the right direction evidently, and
+when a certain amount of positive construction on our side has been
+added, he will say that that was what he had meant all along--and the
+world will be the better for containing so much difficult polemic
+reading the less.
+
+I admit that your remarks are penetrating, and let air into the joints
+of the subject; but I respectfully submit that they are not _called for_
+in the interests of the final triumph of truth. That will come by the
+way of displacement of error, quite effortlessly. I can't help
+suspecting that you unduly magnify the influence of Bradleyan Absolutism
+on the undergraduate mind. Taylor is the only fruit so far--at least
+within my purview. One practical point: I don't quite like your first
+paragraph, and wonder if it be too late to have the references to me at
+least expunged. I can't recognize the truth of the ten-years' change of
+opinion about my "Will to Believe." I don't find anyone--not even my
+dearest friends, as Miller and Strong--one whit persuaded. Taylor's and
+Hobhouse's attacks are of recent date, etc. Moreover, the reference to
+Bradley's relation to me in this article is too ironical not to seem a
+little "nasty" to some readers; therefore out with it, if it be not too
+late.
+
+See how different our methods are! All that Humanism needs now is to
+make applications of itself to special problems. Get a school of
+youngsters at work. Refutations of error should be left to the
+rationalists alone. They are a stock function of that school....
+
+I'm fearfully _tired_, but expect the summer to get me right again.
+Affectionately thine,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+1907-1909
+
+_The Last Period (III)--Hibbert Lectures in Oxford--The Hodgson Report_
+
+
+The story of the remaining years is written so fully in the letters
+themselves as to require little explanation.
+
+Angina pectoris and such minor ailments as are only too likely to
+afflict a man of sixty-five years and impaired constitution interrupted
+the progress of reading and writing more and more. Physical exertion,
+particularly that involved in talking long to many people, now brought
+on pain and difficulty in breathing. But James still carried himself
+erect, still walked with a light step, and until a few weeks before his
+death wore the appearance of a much younger and stronger man than he
+really was. None but those near to him realized how often he was in
+discomfort or pain, or how constantly he was using himself to the limit
+of his endurance. He bore his ills without complaint and ordinarily
+without mention; although he finally made up his mind to try to
+discourage the appeals and requests of all sorts that still harassed
+him, by proclaiming the fact that he was an invalid. As his power of
+work became more and more reduced, frustrations became harder to bear,
+and the sense that they were unavoidable oppressed him. When an
+invitation to deliver a course of lectures on the Hibbert Foundation at
+Manchester College, Oxford, arrived, he was torn between an impulse to
+clutch at this engagement as a means of hastening the writing-out of
+certain material that was in his mind, and the fear, only too
+reasonable, that the obligation to have the lectures ready by a certain
+date would strain him to the snapping point. After some hesitation he
+agreed, however, and the lectures were, ultimately, prepared and
+delivered successfully.
+
+In proportion as the number of hours a day that he could spend on
+literary work and professional reading decreased, James's general
+reading increased again. He began for the first time to browse in
+military biographies, and commenced to collect material for a study
+which he sometimes spoke of as a "Psychology of Jingoism," sometimes as
+a "Varieties of Military Experience." What such a work would have been,
+had he ever completed it, it is impossible to tell. It was never more
+than a rather vague project, turned to occasionally as a diversion. But
+it is safe to reckon that two remarkable papers--the "Energies of Men"
+(written in 1906) and the "Moral Equivalent of War" (written in
+1909)--would have appeared to be related to this study. That it would
+not have been a utopian flight in the direction of pacifism need hardly
+be said. However he might have described it, James was not disposed to
+underestimate the "fighting instinct." He saw it as a persistent and
+highly irritable force, underlying the society of all the dominant
+races; and he advocated international courts, reduction of armaments,
+and any other measures that might prevent appeals to the war-waging
+passion as commendable devices for getting along without arousing it.
+
+"The fatalistic view of the war-function is to me nonsense, for I know
+that war-making is due to definite motives and subject to prudential
+checks and reasonable criticisms, just like any other form of
+enterprise.... All these beliefs of mine put me squarely into the
+anti-militarist party. But I do not believe that peace either ought to
+be or will be permanent on this globe, unless the states pacifically
+organized preserve some of the old elements of army-discipline.... 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 globe. We must make new energies and hardihoods continue the
+manliness to which the military mind so faithfully clings. Martial
+virtues must be the enduring cement; intrepidity, contempt of softness,
+surrender of private interest, obedience to command, must still remain
+the rock upon which states are built--unless, indeed, we wish for
+dangerous reactions against commonwealths fit only for contempt, and
+liable to invite attack whenever a centre of crystallization for
+military-minded enterprise gets formed anywhere in their
+neighborhood."[76]
+
+Any utterances about war, arbitration, and disarmament, are now likely
+to have their original meaning distorted by reason of what may justly be
+called the present fevered state of public opinion on such questions. It
+should be clear that the foregoing sentences were not directed to any
+particular question of domestic or foreign policy. They were part of a
+broad picture of the fighting instinct, and led up to a suggestion for
+diverting it into non-destructive channels. As to particular instances,
+circumstances were always to be reckoned with. James believed in
+organizing and strengthening the machinery of arbitration, but did not
+think that the day for universal arbitration had yet come. He saw a
+danger in military establishments, went so far--in the presence of the
+"jingoism" aroused by Cleveland's Venezuela message--as to urge
+opposition to any increase of the American army and navy, encouraged
+peace-societies, and was willing to challenge attention by calling
+himself a pacifist.[77] "The first thing to learn in intercourse with
+others is non-interference with their own peculiar ways of being happy,
+provided those ways do not presume to interfere by violence with
+ours."[78] Tolerance--social, religious, and political--was fundamental
+in his scheme of belief; but he took pains to make a proviso, and drew
+the line at tolerating interference or oppression. Where he recognized a
+military danger, there he would have had matters so governed as to meet
+it, not evade it. Writing of the British garrison in Halifax in 1897, he
+said: "By Jove, if England should ever be licked by a Continental army,
+it would only be Divine justice upon her for keeping up the Tommy Atkins
+recruiting system when the others have compulsory service."
+
+ * * * * *
+
+In the case of one undertaking, which was much too troublesome to be
+reckoned as a diversion, he let himself be drawn away from his
+metaphysical work. He had taken no active part in the work of the
+Society for Psychical Research since 1896. In December, 1905, Richard
+Hodgson, the secretary of the American Branch, had died suddenly, and
+almost immediately thereafter Mrs. Piper, the medium whose trances
+Hodgson had spent years in studying, had purported to give
+communications from Hodgson's departed spirit. In 1909 James made a
+report to the S. P. R. on "Mrs. Piper's Hodgson control." The full
+report will be found in its Proceedings for 19O9,[79] and the concluding
+pages, in which James stated, more analytically than elsewhere, the
+hypotheses which the phenomena suggested to him, have been reprinted in
+the volume of "Collected Essays and Reviews." At the same time he wrote
+out a more popular statement, in a paper which will be found in
+"Memories and Studies." As to his final opinion of the spirit-theory,
+the following letter, given somewhat out of its chronological place,
+states what was still James's opinion in 1910.
+
+
+
+
+_To Charles Lewis Slattery._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 21, 1907_.
+
+DEAR MR. SLATTERY,--My state of mind is this: Mrs. Piper has supernormal
+knowledge in her trances; but whether it comes from "tapping the minds"
+of living people, or from some common cosmic reservoir of memories, or
+from surviving "spirits" of the departed, is a question impossible for
+_me_ to answer just now to my own satisfaction. The spirit-theory is
+undoubtedly not only the most natural, but the simplest, and I have
+great respect for Hodgson's and Hyslop's arguments when they adopt it.
+At the same time the electric current called _belief_ has not yet closed
+in my mind.
+
+Whatever the explanation be, trance-mediumship is an excessively complex
+phenomenon, in which many concurrent factors are engaged. That is why
+interpretation is so hard.
+
+Make any use, public or private, that you like of this.
+
+In great haste, yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+The next letter should be understood as referring to the abandonment of
+an excursion to Lake Champlain with Henry L. Higginson. The celebration
+alluded to in the last part of the letter had been arranged by the
+Cambridge Historical Society in honor of the hundredth anniversary of
+the birth of Louis Agassiz.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry L. Higginson._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, N. H., _circa, June 1, 1907_.
+
+DEAR HENRY,--On getting your resignation by telephone, I came straight
+up here instead, without having time to write you my acceptance as I
+meant to; and now comes your note of the fourth, before I have done so.
+
+I am exceedingly sorry, my dear old boy, that it is the doctor's advice
+that has made you fear to go. I hope the liability to relapse will soon
+fade out and leave you free again; for say what they will of _Alters
+Schwäche_ and resignation to decay, and _entbehren sollst du, sollst
+entbehren_, it means only sour grapes, and the insides of one always
+want to be doing the free and active things. However, a river can still
+be lively in a shrunken bed, and we must not pay too much attention to
+the difference of level. If you should summon me again this summer, I
+can probably respond. I shall be here for a fortnight, then back to
+Cambridge again for a short time.
+
+I thought the Agassiz celebration went off very nicely indeed, didn't
+you?--John Gray's part in it being of course the best. X---- was heavy,
+but respectable, and the heavy respectable _ought_ to be one ingredient
+in anything of the kind. But how well Shaler would have done that part
+of the job had he been there! Love to both of you!
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To W. Cameron Forbes._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _June 11, 1907_.
+
+DEAR CAMERON FORBES,--Your letter from Baguio of the 18th of April
+touches me by its genuine friendliness, and is a tremendous temptation.
+Why am I not ten years younger? Even now I hesitate to say no, and the
+only reason why I don't say yes, with a roar, is that certain rather
+serious drawbacks in the way of health of late seem to make me unfit for
+the various activities which such a visit ought to carry in its train. I
+am afraid my program from now onwards ought to be sedentary. I ought to
+be getting out a book next winter. Last winter I could hardly do any
+walking, owing to a trouble with my heart.
+
+Does your invitation mean to include my wife? And have you a good
+crematory so that she might bring home my ashes in case of need?
+
+I think if you had me on the spot you would find me a less impractical
+kind of an anti-imperialist than you have supposed me to be. I think
+that the manner in which the McKinley administration railroaded the
+country into its policy of conquest was abominable, and the way the
+country pucked up its ancient soul at the first touch of temptation, and
+followed, was sickening. But with the establishment of the civil
+commission McKinley did what he could to redeem things and now what the
+Islands want is CONTINUITY OF ADMINISTRATION to form new habits that may
+to some degree be hoped to last when we, as controllers, are gone. WHEN?
+that is the question. And much difference of opinion may be fair as to
+the answer. That we can't stay forever seems to follow from the fact
+that the educated Philippinos differ from all previous colonials in
+having been inoculated before our occupation with the ideas of the
+French Revolution; and that is a virus to which history shows as yet no
+anti-toxine. As I am at present influenced, I think that the U. S. ought
+to solemnly proclaim a date for our going (or at least for a plebiscitum
+as to whether we should go) and stand by all the risks. _Some_ date,
+rather than indefinitely drift. And shape the whole interval towards
+securing things in view of the change. As to this, I may be wrong, and
+am always willing to be convinced. I wish I could go, and see you all
+at work. Heaven knows I admire the spirit with which you are animated--a
+new thing in colonial work.
+
+It must have been a great pleasure to you to see so many of the family
+at once. I have seen none of them since their return, but hope to do so
+ere the summer speeds. The only dark spot was poor F----'s death.
+
+Believe me, with affectionate regards, yours truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+I am ordering a little book of mine, just out, to be sent to you. Some
+one of your circle may find entertainment in it.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller._
+
+
+[Post-card]
+
+CHOCORUA, _June_ 13, 1907.
+
+Yours of the 27th ult. received and highly appreciated. I'm glad you
+relish my book so well. You go on playing the Boreas and I shedding the
+sunbeams, and between us we'll get the cloak off the philosophic
+traveler! But _have_ you read Bergson's new book?[80]It seems to me that
+nothing is important in comparison with that divine apparition. All
+_our_ positions, real time, a growing world, asserted magisterially, and
+the beast intellectualism killed absolutely _dead_! The whole flowed
+round by a style incomparable as it seems to me. Read it, and digest it
+if you can. Much of it I can't yet assimilate.
+
+[_No signature._]
+
+
+
+
+_To Henri Bergson._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _June 13, 1907_.
+
+O my Bergson, you are a magician, and your book is a marvel, a real
+wonder in the history of philosophy, making, if I mistake not, an
+entirely new era in respect of matter, but unlike the works of genius of
+the "transcendentalist" movement (which are so obscurely and abominably
+and inaccessibly written), a pure classic in point of form. You may be
+amused at the comparison, but in finishing it I found the same
+after-taste remaining as after finishing "Madame Bovary," such a flavor
+of persistent _euphony_, as of a rich river that never foamed or ran
+thin, but steadily and firmly proceeded with its banks full to the brim.
+Then the aptness of your illustrations, that never scratch or stand out
+at right angles, but invariably simplify the thought and help to pour it
+along! Oh, indeed you are a magician! And if your next book proves to be
+as great an advance on this one as this is on its two predecessors, your
+name will surely go down as one of the great creative names in
+philosophy.
+
+There! have I praised you enough? What every genuine philosopher (every
+genuine man, in fact) craves most is _praise_--although the philosophers
+generally call it "recognition"! If you want still more praise, let me
+know, and I will send it, for my features have been on a broad smile
+from the first page to the last, at the chain of felicities that never
+stopped. I feel rejuvenated.
+
+As to the content of it, I am not in a mood at present to make any
+definite reaction. There is so much that is absolutely new that it will
+take a long time for your contemporaries to assimilate it, and I imagine
+that much of the development of detail will have to be performed by
+younger men whom your ideas will stimulate to coruscate in manners
+unexpected by yourself. To me at present the vital achievement of the
+book is that it inflicts an irrecoverable death-wound upon
+Intellectualism. It can never resuscitate! But it will die hard, for all
+the inertia of the past is in it, and the spirit of professionalism and
+pedantry as well as the æsthetic-intellectual delight of dealing with
+categories logically distinct yet logically connected, will rally for a
+desperate defense. The _élan vital_, all contentless and vague as you
+are obliged to leave it, will be an easy substitute to make fun of. But
+the beast _has_ its death-wound now, and the manner in which you have
+inflicted it (interval _versus_ temps d'arrêt, etc.) is masterly in the
+extreme. I don't know why this later _rédaction_ of your critique of the
+mathematics of movement has seemed to me so much more telling than the
+early statement--I suppose it is because of the wider _use_ made of the
+principle in the book. You will be receiving my own little "pragmatism"
+book simultaneously with this letter. How jejune and inconsiderable it
+seems in comparison with your great system! But it is so congruent with
+parts of your system, fits so well into interstices thereof, that you
+will easily understand why I am so enthusiastic. I feel that at bottom
+we are fighting the same fight, you a commander, I in the ranks. The
+position we are rescuing is "Tychism" and a really growing world. But
+whereas I have hitherto found no better way of defending Tychism than by
+affirming the spontaneous addition of _discrete_ elements of being (or
+their subtraction), thereby playing the game with intellectualist
+weapons, you set things straight at a single stroke by your fundamental
+conception of the continuously creative nature of reality. I think that
+one of your happiest strokes is your reduction of "finality," as usually
+taken, to its status alongside of efficient causality, as the
+twin-daughters of intellectualism. But this vaguer and truer finality
+restored to its rights will be a difficult thing to give content to.
+Altogether your reality lurks so in the background, in this book, that I
+am wondering whether you _couldn't_ give it any more development _in
+concreto_ here, or whether you perhaps were holding back developments,
+already in your possession, for a future volume. They are sure to come
+to you later anyhow, and to make a new volume; and altogether, the clash
+of these ideas of yours with the traditional ones will be sure to make
+sparks fly that will illuminate all sorts of dark places and bring
+innumerable new considerations into view. But the process may be slow,
+for the ideas are so revolutionary. Were it not for your style, your
+book might last 100 years unnoticed; but your way of writing is so
+absolutely commanding that your theories have to be attended to
+immediately. I feel very much in the dark still about the relations of
+the progressive to the regressive movement, and this great precipitate
+of nature subject to static categories. With a frank pluralism of
+_beings_ endowed with vital impulses you can get oppositions and
+compromises easily enough, and a stagnant deposit; but after my one
+reading I don't exactly "catch on" to the way in which the continuum of
+reality resists itself so as to have to act, etc., etc.
+
+The only part of the work which I felt like positively criticising was
+the discussion of the idea of nonentity, which seemed to me somewhat
+overelaborated, and yet didn't leave me with a sense that the last word
+had been said on the subject. But all these things must be very slowly
+digested by me. I can see that, when the tide turns in your favor, many
+previous tendencies in philosophy will start up, crying "This is nothing
+but what _we_ have contended for all along." Schopenhauer's blind will,
+Hartmann's unconscious, Fichte's aboriginal freedom (reëdited at Harvard
+in the most "unreal" possible way by Münsterberg) will all be claimants
+for priority. But no matter--all the better if you are in some ancient
+lines of tendency. Mysticism also must make claims and doubtless just
+ones. I say nothing more now--this is just my first reaction; but I am
+so enthusiastic as to have said only two days ago, "I thank heaven that
+I have lived to this date--that I have witnessed the Russo-Japanese war,
+and seen Bergson's new book appear--the two great modern turning-points
+of history and of thought!" Best congratulations and cordialest regards!
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To T. S. Perry._
+
+
+SILVER LAKE, N.H., _June 24, 1907_.
+
+
+DEAR THOS.,--Yours of the 11th is at hand, true philosopher that you
+are. No one but one bawn & bred in the philosophic briar-patch could
+appreciate Bergson as you do, without in the least understanding him. I
+am in an identical predicament. This last of his is the _divinest_ book
+that has appeared in _my_ life-time, and (unless I am the falsest
+prophet) it is destined to rank with the greatest works of all time. The
+style of it is as wonderful as the matter. By all means send it to Chas.
+Peirce, but address him Prescott Hall, Cambridge. I am sending you my
+"Pragmatism," which Bergson's work makes seem like small potatoes
+enough.
+
+Are you going to Russia to take Stolypin's place? or to head the
+Revolution? I would I were at Giverny to talk metaphysics with you, and
+enjoy a country where I am not responsible for the droughts and the
+garden. Have been here two weeks at Chocorua, getting our place ready
+for a tenant.
+
+Affectionate regards to you all.
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+LINCOLN, MASS., _Aug. 5, 1907_.
+
+DEAR MILLER,--I got your letter about "Pragmatism," etc., some time ago.
+I hear that you are booked to review it for the "Hibbert Journal." Lay
+on, Macduff! as hard as you can--I want to have the weak places pointed
+out. I sent you a week ago a "Journal of Philosophy"[81] with a word
+more about Truth in it, written _at_ you mainly; but I hardly dare hope
+that I have cleared up my position. A letter from Strong, two days ago,
+written after receiving a proof of that paper, still thinks that I deny
+the existence of realities outside of the thinker; and [R. B.] Perry,
+who seems to me to have written far and away the most important critical
+remarks on Pragmatism (possibly the _only_ important ones), accused
+Pragmatists (though he doesn't name _me_) of ignoring or denying that
+the real object plays any part in deciding what ideas are true. I
+confess that such misunderstandings seem to me hardly credible, and cast
+a "lurid light" on the mutual understandings of philosophers generally.
+Apparently it all comes from the _word_ Pragmatism--and a most unlucky
+word it may prove to have been. I am a natural realist. The world _per
+se_ may be likened to a cast of beans on a table. By themselves they
+spell nothing. An onlooker may group them as he likes. He may simply
+count them all and map them. He may select groups and name these
+capriciously, or name them to suit certain extrinsic purposes of his.
+Whatever he does, so long as he _takes account_ of them, his account is
+neither false nor irrelevant. If neither, why not call it true? It
+_fits_ the beans-_minus_-him, and _expresses_ the _total_ fact, of
+beans-_plus_-him. Truth in this total sense is partially ambiguous,
+then. If he simply counts or maps, he obeys a subjective interest as
+much as if he traces figures. Let that stand for pure "intellectual"
+treatment of the beans, while grouping them variously stands for
+non-intellectual interests. All that Schiller and I contend for is that
+there is _no_ "truth" without _some_ interest, and that non-intellectual
+interests play a part as well as intellectual ones. Whereupon we are
+accused of denying the beans, or denying being in anyway constrained by
+them! It's too silly!...
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Pauline Goldmark._
+
+
+PUTNAM SHANTY,
+KEENE VALLEY, _Sept. 14, 1907_.
+
+
+DEAR PAULINE,-- ...No "camping" for me this side the grave! A party of
+fourteen left here yesterday for Panther Gorge, meaning to return by the
+Range, as they call your "summit trail." Apparently it is easier than
+when on that to me memorable day we took it, for Charley Putnam swears
+he has done it in five and a half hours. I don't well understand the
+difference, except that they don't reach Haystack over Marcy as we did,
+and there is now a good trail. Past and future play such a part in the
+way one feels the present. To these youngsters, as to me long ago, and
+to you today, the rapture of the connexion with these hills is partly
+made of the sense of future power over them and their like. That being
+removed from me, I can only mix memories of past power over them with
+the present. But I have always observed a curious _fading_ in what
+Tennyson calls the "passion" of the past. Memories awaken little or no
+sentiment when they are too old; and I have taken everything here so
+prosily this summer that I find myself wondering whether the time-limit
+has been exceeded, and whether for emotional purpose I am a new self.
+We know not what we shall become; and that is what makes life so
+interesting. Always a turn of the kaleidoscope; and when one is utterly
+maimed for action, then the glorious time for _reading_ other men's
+lives! I fairly revel in that prospect, which in its full richness has
+to be postponed, for I'm not sufficiently maimed-for-action yet. By
+going slowly and alone, I find I can compass such things as the Giant's
+Washbowl, Beaver Meadow Falls, etc., and they make me feel very good. I
+have even been dallying with the temptation to visit Cameron Forbes at
+Manila; but I have put it behind me for this year at least. I think I
+shall probably give some more lectures (of a much less "popular" sort)
+at Columbia next winter--so you see there's life in the old dog yet.
+Nevertheless, how different from the life that courses through _your_
+arteries and capillaries! Today is the first honestly fine day there has
+been since I arrived here on the 2nd. (They must have been heavily
+rained on at Panther Gorge yesterday evening.) After writing a couple
+more letters I will take a book and repair to "Mosso's Ledge" for the
+enjoyment of the prospect....
+
+
+
+
+_To W. Jerusalem_ (Vienna).
+
+
+ST. HUBERT'S, N.Y. _Sept._ 15, 1907.
+
+DEAR PROFESSOR JERUSALEM,--Your letter of the 1st of September,
+forwarded from Cambridge, reaches me here in the Adirondack Mountains
+today. I am glad the publisher is found, and that you are enjoying the
+drudgery of translating ["Pragmatism"]. Also that you find the book more
+and more in agreement with your own philosophy. I fear that its
+untechnicality of style--or rather its deliberate
+_anti_-technicality--will make the German _Gelehrtes Publikum_,[82] as
+well as the professors, consider it _oberflächliches Zeug_[83]--which
+it assuredly is not, although, being only a sketch, it ought to be
+followed by something _tighter_ and abounding in discriminations.
+Pragmatism is an unlucky word in some respects, and the two meanings I
+give for it are somewhat heterogeneous. But it was already in vogue in
+France and Italy as well as in England and America, and it was
+_tactically_ advantageous to use it....
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+STONEHURST, INTERVALE, N.H., _Oct._ 6, 1907.
+
+DEAREST BROTHER,--I write this at the [James] Bryces', who have taken
+the Merrimans' house for the summer, and whither I came the day before
+yesterday, after closing our Chocorua house, and seeing Alice leave for
+home. We had been there a fortnight, trying to get some work done, and
+having to do most of it with our own hands, or rather with Alice's
+heroic hands, for mine are worth almost nothing in these degenerate
+days. It is enough to make your heart break to see the scarcity of
+"labor," and the whole country tells the same story. Our future at
+Chocorua is a somewhat problematic one, though I think we shall manage
+to pass next summer there and get it into better shape for good renting,
+thereafter, at any cost (not the renting but the shaping). After that
+what _I_ want is a free foot, and the children are now not dependent on
+a family summer any longer....
+
+I spent the first three weeks of September--warm ones--in my beloved and
+exquisite Keene Valley, where I was able to do a good deal of uphill
+walking, with good rather than bad effects, much to my joy. Yesterday I
+took a three hours walk here, three quarters of an hour of it uphill. I
+have to go alone, and slowly; but it's none the worse for that and makes
+one feel like old times. I leave this P.M. for two more days at
+Chocorua--at the hotel. The fall is late, but the woods are beginning
+to redden beautifully. With the sun behind them, some maples look like
+stained-glass windows. But the penury of the human part of this region
+is depressing, and I begin to have an appetite for Europe again. Alice
+too! To be at Cambridge with no lecturing and no students to nurse along
+with their thesis-work is an almost incredibly delightful prospect. I am
+going to settle down to the composition of another small book, more
+original and ground-breaking than anything I have yet put forth(!),
+which I expect to print by the spring; after which I can lie back and
+write at leisure more routine things for the rest of my days.
+
+The Bryces are wholly unchanged, excellent friends and hosts, and I like
+her as much as him. The trouble with him is that his insatiable love of
+information makes him try to pump _you_ all the time instead of letting
+you pump _him_, and I have let my own tongue wag so, that, when gone, I
+shall feel like a fool, and remember all kinds of things that I have
+forgotten to ask him. I have just been reading to Mrs. B., with great
+gusto on her part and renewed gusto on mine, the first few pages of your
+chapter on Florida in "The American Scene." _Köstlich_ stuff! I had just
+been reading to myself almost 50 pages of the New England part of the
+book, and fairly melting with delight over the Chocorua portion.
+Evidently that book will last, and bear reading over and over again--a
+few pages at a time, which is the right way for "literature" fitly so
+called. It all makes me wish that we had you here again, and you will
+doubtless soon come. I mustn't forget to thank you for the gold
+pencil-case souvenir. I have had a plated silver one for a year past,
+now worn through, and experienced what a "comfort" they are. Good-bye,
+and Heaven bless you. Your loving
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Jan._ 2, 1908.
+
+...I am just back from the American Philosophical Association, which had
+a really delightful meeting at Cornell University in the State of New
+York. Mostly epistemological. We are getting to know each other and
+understand each other better, and shall do so year by year, Everyone
+cursed my doctrine and Schiller's about "truth." I think it largely is
+misunderstanding, but it is also due to our having expressed our meaning
+very ill. The general blanket-word pragmatism covers so many different
+opinions, that it naturally arouses irritation to see it flourished as a
+revolutionary flag. I am also partly to blame here; but it was
+_tactically_ wise to use it as a title. Far more persons have had their
+attention attracted, and the result has been that everybody has been
+forced to think. Substantially I have nothing to alter in what I have
+said....
+
+I have just read the first half of Fechner's "Zend-Avesta," a wonderful
+book, by a wonderful genius. He had his vision and he knows how to
+discuss it, as no one's vision ever was discussed.
+
+I may tell you in confidence (I don't talk of it here because my damned
+arteries may in the end make me give it up--for a year past I have a
+sort of angina when I make efforts) that I have accepted an invitation
+to give eight public lectures at Oxford next May. I was ashamed to
+refuse; but the work of preparing them will be hard (the title is "The
+Present Situation in Philosophy"[84]) and they doom me to relapse into
+the "popular lecture" form just as I thought I had done with it forever.
+(What I wished to write this winter was something ultra dry in form,
+impersonal and exact.) I find that my free and easy and personal way of
+writing, especially in "Pragmatism," has made me an object of loathing
+to many respectable academic minds, and I am rather tired of awakening
+that feeling, which more popular lecturing on my part will probably
+destine me to increase.
+
+...I have been with Strong, who goes to Rome this month. Good,
+truth-loving man! and a very penetrating mind. I think he will write a
+great book. We greatly enjoyed seeing your friend Schwarz, the teacher.
+A fine fellow who will, I hope, succeed.
+
+A happy New Year to you now, dear Flournoy, and loving regards from us
+all to you all. Yours as ever
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Norman Kemp Smith._
+
+
+[Post-card]
+
+Cambridge, _Jan._ 31, 1908.
+
+I have only just "got round" to your singularly solid and compact study
+of Avenarius in "Mind." I find it clear and very clarifying, after the
+innumerable hours I have spent in trying to dishevel him. I have read
+the "Weltbegriff" three times, and have half expected to have to read
+both books over again to assimilate his immortal message to man, of
+which I have hitherto been able to make nothing. You set me free! I
+shall not re-read him! but leave him to his spiritual dryness and
+preposterous pedantry. His only really original idea seems to be that of
+the _Vitalreihe_, and that, so far as I can see, is quite false,
+certainly no improvement on the notion of adaptive reflex actions.
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To his Daughter._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr._ 2, 1908,
+
+DARLING PEG,--You must have wondered at my silence since your dear
+mother returned. I hoped to write to you each day, but the strict
+routine of my hours now crowded it out. I write on my Oxford job till
+one, then lunch, then nap, then to my ... doctor at four daily, and from
+then till dinner-time making calls, and keeping "out" as much as
+possible. To bed as soon after 8 as possible--all my odd reading done
+between 3 and 5 A.M., an hour not favorable for letter-writing--so that
+my necessary business notes have to get in just before dinner (as now)
+or after dinner, which I hate and try to avoid. I think I see my way
+clear to go [to Oxford] now, if I don't get more fatigued than at
+present. Four and a quarter lectures are fully written, and the rest are
+down-hill work, much raw material being ready now....
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+Cambridge, _April_ 15, 1908.
+
+DEAREST HENRY,--Your good letter to Harry has brought news of your play,
+of which I had only seen an enigmatic paragraph in the papers. I'm right
+glad it is a success, and that such good artists as the Robertsons are
+in it. I hope it will have a first-rate run in London. Your apologies
+for not writing are the most uncalled-for things--your assiduity and the
+length of your letters to this family are a standing marvel--especially
+considering the market-value of your "copy"! So waste no more in that
+direction. 'Tis I who should be prostrating myself--silent as I've been
+for months in spite of the fact that I'm so soon to descend upon you.
+The fact is I've been trying to compose the accursed lectures in a state
+of abominable brain-fatigue--a race between myself and time. I've got
+six now done out of the eight, so I'm safe, but sorry that the infernal
+nervous condition that with me always accompanies literary production
+must continue at Oxford and add itself to the other fatigues--a fixed
+habit of wakefulness, etc. I ought not to have accepted, but they've
+panned out good, so far, and if I get through them successfully, I shall
+be very glad that the opportunity came. They will be a good thing to
+_have done_. Previously, in such states of fatigue, I have had a break
+and got away, but this time no day without its half dozen pages--but the
+thing hangs on so long!...
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+R. M. S. IVERNIA,
+[Arriving at Liverpool], _Apr. 29, 1908_.
+
+DEAR H.,--Your letter of the 26th, unstamped or post-marked, has just
+been wafted into our lap--I suppose mailed under another cover to the
+agent's care.
+
+I'm glad you're not hurrying from Paris--I feared you might be awaiting
+us in London, and wrote you a letter yesterday to the Reform Club, which
+you will doubtless get ere you get this, telling you of our prosperous
+though tedious voyage in good condition.
+
+We cut out London and go straight to Oxford, _via_ Chester. I have been
+sleeping like a top, and feel in good fighting trim again, eager for the
+scalp of the Absolute. My lectures will put his wretched clerical
+defenders fairly on the defensive. They begin on Monday. Since you'll
+have the whole months of May and June, if you urge it, to see us, I pray
+you not to hasten back from "gay Paree" for the purpose.... Up since two
+A.M.
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Pauline Goldmark._
+
+
+PATTERDALE, ENGLAND, _July 2, 1908_.
+
+Your letter, beloved Pauline, greeted me on my arrival here three hours
+ago.... How I _do wish_ that I could be in Italy alongside of you now,
+now or any time! You could do me so much good, and your ardor of
+enjoyment of the country, the towns and the folk would warm up my cold
+soul. I might even learn to speak Italian by conversing in that tongue
+with you. But I fear that you'd find me betraying the coldness of my
+soul by complaining of the heat of my body--a most unworthy attitude to
+strike. Dear Paolina, never, never think of whether your body is hot or
+cold; live in the _objective_ world, above such miserable
+considerations. I have been up here eight days, Alice having gone down
+last Saturday, the 27th, to meet Peggy and Harry at London, after only
+two days of it. After all the social and other fever of the past six and
+a half weeks (save for the blessed nine days at Bibury), it looked like
+the beginning of a real vacation, and it would be such but for the
+extreme heat, and the accident of one of my recent malignant "colds"
+beginning. I have been riding about on stage-coaches for five days past,
+but the hills are so treeless that one gets little shade, and the sun's
+glare is tremendous. It is a lovely country, however, for
+pedestrianizing in cooler weather. Mountains and valleys compressed
+together as in the Adirondacks, great reaches of pink and green hillside
+and lovely lakes, the higher parts quite fully alpine in character but
+for the fact that no snow mountains form the distant background. A
+strong and noble region, well worthy of one's life-long devotion, if one
+were a Briton. And on the whole, what a magnificent land and race is
+this Britain! Every thing about them is of better quality than the
+corresponding thing in the U.S.--with but few exceptions, I imagine. And
+the equilibrium is so well achieved, and the human tone so cheery,
+blithe and manly! and the manners so delightfully good. Not one
+_unwholesome_-looking man or woman does one meet here for 250 that one
+meets in America. Yet I believe (or suspect) that ours is eventually
+the bigger destiny, if we can only succeed in living up to it, and thou
+in 22nd St. and I in Irving St. must do our respective strokes, which
+after 1000 years will help to have made the glorious collective
+resultant. Meanwhile, as my brother Henry once wrote, thank God for a
+world that holds so rich an England, so rare an Italy! Alice is entirely
+_aufgegangen_ in her idealization of it. And truly enough, the gardens,
+the manners, the manliness are an excuse.
+
+But profound as is my own moral respect and admiration, for a _vacation_
+give me the Continent! The civilization here is too heavy, too _stodgy_,
+if one could use so unamiable a word. The very stability and good-nature
+of all things (of course we are leaving out the slum-life!) rest on the
+basis of the national stupidity, or rather unintellectuality, on which
+as on a safe foundation of non-explosible material, the magnificent
+minds of the élite of the race can coruscate as they will, safely. Not
+until those weeks at Oxford, and these days at Durham, have I had any
+sense of what a part the Church plays in the national life. So massive
+and all-pervasive, so authoritative, and on the whole so decent, in
+spite of the iniquity and farcicality of the whole thing. Never were
+incompatibles so happily yoked together. Talk about the genius of
+Romanism! It's nothing to the genius of Anglicanism, for Catholicism
+still contains some haggard elements, that ally it with the Palestinian
+desert, whereas Anglicanism remains obese and round and comfortable and
+decent with this world's decencies, without an _acute_ note in its whole
+life or history, in spite of the shrill Jewish words on which its ears
+are fed, and the nitro-glycerine of the Gospels and Epistles which has
+been injected into its veins. Strange feat to have achieved! Yet the
+success is great--the whole Church-machine makes for all sorts of graces
+and decencies, and is not incompatible with a high type of Churchman,
+high, that is, on the side of moral and worldly virtue....
+
+How I wish you were beside me at this moment! A breeze has arisen on the
+Lake which is spread out before the "smoking-room" window at which I
+write, and is very grateful. The lake much resembles Lake George. Your
+ever grateful and loving
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Charles Eliot Norton._
+
+
+PATTERDALE, ENGLAND, _July 6, 1908_.
+
+DEAR CHARLES,--Going to Coniston Lake the other day and seeing the
+moving little Ruskin Museum at Coniston (admission a penny) made me
+think rather vividly of you, and make a resolution to write to you on
+the earliest opportunity. It was truly moving to see such a collection
+of R.'s busy handiwork, exquisite and loving, in the way of drawing,
+sketching, engraving and note-taking, and also such a varied lot of
+photographs of him, especially in his old age. Glorious old Don Quixote
+that he was! At Durham, where Alice and I spent three and a half
+delightful days at the house of F. B. Jevons, Principal of one of the
+two colleges of which the University is composed, I had a good deal of
+talk with the very remarkable octogenarian Dean of the Cathedral and
+Lord of the University, a thorough liberal, or rather radical, in his
+mind, with a voice like a bell, and an alertness to match, who had been
+a college friend of Ruskin's and known him intimately all his life, and
+loved him. He knew not of his correspondence with you, of which I have
+been happy to be able to order Kent of Harvard Square to send him a
+copy. His name is Kitchin.
+
+The whole scene at Durham was tremendously impressive (though York
+Cathedral made the stronger impression on me). It was so unlike Oxford,
+so much more American in its personnel, in a way, yet nestling in the
+very bosom of those mediæval stage-properties and ecclesiastical-principality
+suggestions. Oxford is all spread out in length and breadth, Durham
+concentrated in depth and thickness. There is a great deal of flummery
+about Oxford, but I think if I were an Oxonian, in spite of my
+radicalism generally, I might vote against all change there. It is an
+absolutely unique fruit of human endeavor, and like the cathedrals, can
+never to the end of time be reproduced, when the conditions that once
+made it are changed. Let other places of learning go in for all the
+improvements! The world can afford to keep her one Oxford unreformed. I
+know that this is a superficial judgment in both ways, for Oxford does
+manage to keep pace with the utilitarian spirit, and at the same time
+preserve lots of her flummery unchanged. On the whole it is a thoroughly
+_democratic_ place, so far as aristocracy in the strict sense goes. But
+I'm out of it, and doubt whether I want ever to put foot into it
+again....
+
+England has changed in many respects. The West End of London, which used
+at this season to be so impressive from its splendor, is now a mixed and
+mongrel horde of straw hats and cads of every description. Motor-buses
+of the most brutal sort have replaced the old carriages, Bond and Regent
+Streets are cheap-jack shows, everything is tumultuous and confused and
+has run down in quality. I have been "motoring" a good deal through this
+"Lake District," owing to the kindness of some excellent people in the
+hotel, dissenters who rejoice in the name of Squance and inhabit the
+neighborhood of Durham. It is wondrous fine, but especially adapted to
+trampers, which I no longer am. Altogether England seems to have got
+itself into a magnificently fine state of civilization, especially in
+regard to the cheery and wholesome tone of manners of the people,
+improved as it is getting to be by the greater infusion of the
+democratic temper. Everything here seems about twice as good as the
+corresponding thing with us. But I suspect we have the bigger eventual
+destiny after all; and give us a thousand years and we may catch up in
+many details. I think of you as still at Cambridge, and I do hope that
+physical ills are bearing on more gently. Lily, too, I hope is her well
+self again. You mustn't think of answering this, which is only an
+ejaculation of friendship--I shall be home almost before you can get an
+answer over. Love to all your circle, including Theodora, whom I miss
+greatly. Affectionately yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henri Bergson._
+
+
+LAMB HOUSE, _July 28, 1908_.
+
+DEAR BERGSON,--(can't we cease "Professor"-ing each other?--that title
+establishes a "disjunctive relation" between man and man, and our
+relation should be "endosmotic" socially as well as intellectually, I
+think),--
+
+_Jacta est alea_, I am not to go to Switzerland! I find, after a week or
+more here, that the monotony and simplification is doing my nervous
+centres so much good, that my wife has decided to go off with our
+daughter to Geneva, and to leave me alone with my brother here, for
+repairs. It is a great disappointment in other ways than in not seeing
+you, but I know that it is best. Perhaps later in the season the
+_Zusammenkunft_ may take place, for nothing is decided beyond the next
+three weeks.
+
+Meanwhile let me say how rarely delighted your letter made me. There are
+many points in your philosophy which I don't yet grasp, but I have
+seemed to myself to understand your anti-intellectualistic campaign very
+clearly, and that I have really done it so well in your opinion makes me
+proud. I am sending your letter to Strong, partly out of vanity, partly
+because of your reference to him. It does seem to me that philosophy is
+turning towards a new orientation. Are you a reader of Fechner? I wish
+that you would read his "Zend-Avesta," which in the second edition
+(1904, I think) is better printed and much easier to read than it looks
+at the first glance. He seems to me of the real race of prophets, and I
+cannot help thinking that _you_, in particular, if not already
+acquainted with this book, would find it very stimulating and
+suggestive. His day, I fancy, is yet to come. I will write no more now,
+but merely express my regret (and hope) and sign myself, yours most
+warmly and sincerely,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+The subject of the next letter was a volume of "Essays Philosophical and
+Psychological, in Honor of William James,"[85] by nineteen contributors,
+which had been issued by Columbia University in the spring of 1908. A
+note at the beginning of the book said: "This volume is intended to mark
+in some degree its authors' sense of Professor James's memorable
+services in philosophy and psychology, the vitality he has added to
+those studies, and the encouragement that has flowed from him to
+colleagues without number. Early in 1907, at the invitation of Columbia
+University, he delivered a course of lectures there, and met the members
+of the Philosophical and Psychological Departments on several occasions
+for social discussion. They have an added motive for the present work in
+the recollections of this visit."
+
+
+
+
+_To John Dewey._
+
+
+RYE, SUSSEX, _Aug. 4, 1908_.
+
+DEAR DEWEY,--I don't know whether this will find you in the Adirondacks
+or elsewhere, but I hope 'twill be on East Hill. My own copy of the
+Essays in my "honor," which took me by complete surprise on the eve of
+my departure, was too handsome to take along, so I have but just got
+round to reading the book, which I find at my brother Henry's, where I
+have recently come. It is a masterly set of essays of which we may all
+be proud, distinguished by good style, direct dealing with the facts,
+and hot running on the trail of truth, regardless of previous
+conventions and categories. I am sure it hitches the subject of
+epistemology a good day's journey ahead, and proud indeed am I that it
+should be dedicated to my memory.
+
+Your own contribution is to my mind the most _weighty_--unless perhaps
+Strong's should prove to be so. I rejoice exceedingly that you should
+have got it out. No one yet has succeeded, it seems to me, in jumping
+into the centre of your vision. Once there, all the perspectives are
+clear and open; and when you or some one else of us shall have spoken
+the exact word that opens the centre to everyone, mediating between it
+and the old categories and prejudices, people will wonder that there
+ever could have been any other philosophy. That it is the philosophy of
+the future, I'll bet my life. Admiringly and affectionately yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+LAMB HOUSE, RYE, _Aug. 9, 1908_.
+
+DEAR FLOURNOY,--I can't make out from my wife's letters whether she has
+seen you face to face, or only heard accounts of you from Madame
+Flournoy. She reports you very tired from the "Congress"--but I don't
+know what Congress has been meeting at Geneva just now. I don't suppose
+that you will go to the philosophical congress at Heidelberg--I
+certainly shall not. I doubt whether philosophers will gain so much by
+talking with each other as other classes of _Gelehrten_ do. One needs to
+_frequenter_ a colleague daily for a month before one can begin to
+understand him. It seems to me that the collective life of philosophers
+is little more than an organization of misunderstandings. I gave eight
+lectures at Oxford, but besides Schiller and one other tutor, only two
+persons ever _mentioned_ them to me, and those were the two heads of
+Manchester College by whom I had been invited. Philosophical work it
+seems to me must go on in silence and in print exclusively.
+
+You will have heard (either directly or indirectly) from my wife of my
+reasons for not accompanying them to Geneva. I have been for more than
+three weeks now at my brother's, and am much better for the
+simplification. I am very sorry not to have met with you, but I think I
+took the prudent course in staying away.
+
+I have just read Miss Johnson's report in the last S. P. R.
+"Proceedings," and a good bit of the proofs of Piddington's on
+cross-correspondences between Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Verrall, and Mrs.
+Holland, which is to appear in the next number. You will be much
+interested, if you can gather the philosophical energy, to go through
+such an amount of tiresome detail. It seems to me that these reports
+open a new chapter in the history of automatism; and Piddington's and
+Johnson's ability is of the highest order. Evidently "automatism" is a
+word that covers an extraordinary variety of fact. I suppose that you
+have on the whole been gratified by the "vindication" of Eusapia
+[Paladino] at the hands of Morselli _et al._ in Italy. Physical
+phenomena also seem to be entering upon a new phase in their history.
+
+Well, I will stop, this is only a word of greeting and regret at not
+seeing you. I got your letter of many weeks ago when we were at Oxford.
+Don't take the trouble to _write_ now--my wife will bring me all the
+news of you and your family, and will have given you all mine. Love to
+Madame F. and all the young ones, too, please. Your ever affectionate
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Shadworth H. Hodgson._
+
+
+PAIGNTON, S. DEVON, _Oct. 3, 1908_.
+
+DEAR HODGSON,--I have been five months in England (you have doubtless
+heard of my lecturing at Oxford) yet never given you a sign of life. The
+reason is that I have sedulously kept away from London, which I admire,
+but at my present time of life abhor, and only touched it two or three
+times for thirty-six hours to help my wife do her "shopping" (strange
+use for an elderly philosopher to be put to). The last time I was in
+London, about a month ago, I called at your affectionately remembered
+No. 45, only to find you gone to Yorkshire, as I feared I should. I go
+back in an hour, en route for Liverpool, whence, with wife and daughter,
+I sail for Boston in the Saxonia. I am literally enchanted with rural
+England, yet I doubt whether I ever return. I never had a fair chance of
+getting acquainted with the country here, and if I were a stout
+pedestrian, which I no longer am, I think I should frequent this land
+every summer. But in my decrepitude I must make the best of the more
+effortless relations which I enjoy with nature in my own country. I have
+seen many philosophers, at Oxford, especially, and James Ward at
+Cambridge; but, apart from _very_ few conversations, didn't get at
+close quarters with any of them, and they probably gained as little
+from me as I from them. "We are columns left alone, of a temple once
+complete." The power of mutual misunderstanding in philosophy seems
+infinite, and grows discouraging. Schiller of course, and his pragmatic
+friend Captain Knox, James Ward, and McDougall, stand out as the most
+satisfactory talkers. But there is too much fencing and scoring of
+"points" at Oxford to make construction active.
+
+Good-bye! dear Hodgson, and pray think of me with a little of the
+affection and intellectual interest with which I always think of you. My
+Oxford lectures won't appear till next April. Don't read the extracts
+which the "Hibbert Journal" is publishing. They are torn out of their
+natural setting. I have, as you probably know, ceased teaching and am
+enjoying a Carnegie pension. Yours ever fondly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+LONDON, _Oct. 4, 1908_.
+
+DEAR FLOURNOY,--I got your delightful letter duly two weeks ago, or
+more. I always have a bad conscience on receiving a letter from you,
+because I feel as if I _forced_ you to write it, and I know too well by
+your own confessions (as well as by my own far less extreme experience
+of reluctance to write) what a nuisance and an effort letters are apt to
+be. But no matter! this letter of yours was a good one indeed....
+
+We sail from Liverpool the day after tomorrow, and tomorrow will be a
+busy day winding up our affairs and making some last purchases of small
+things. Alice has an insatiable desire (as Mrs. Flournoy may have
+noticed at Geneva) to increase her possessions, whilst I, like an
+American Tolstoy, wish to diminish them. The most convenient
+arrangement for a Tolstoy is to have an anti-Tolstoyan wife to "run the
+house" for him. We have been for three days in Devonshire, and for four
+days at Oxford previous to that. Extraordinary warm summer weather, with
+exquisite atmospheric effects. I am extremely glad to leave England with
+my last optical images so beautiful. In any case the harmony and
+softness of the landscape of rural England probably excels everything in
+the world in that line.
+
+At Oxford I saw McDougall and Schiller quite intimately, also Schiller's
+friend, Capt. Knox, who, retired from the army, lives at Gründelwald,
+and is an extremely acute mind, and fine character, I should think. He
+is a militant "Pragmatist." Before that I spent three days at Cambridge,
+where again I saw James Ward intimately. I prophesy that if he gets his
+health again ... he will become also a militant pluralist of some sort.
+I think he has worked out his original monistic-theistic vein and is
+steering straight towards a "critical point" where the umbrella will
+turn inside out, and not go back. I hope so! I made the acquaintance of
+Boutroux here last week. He came to the "Moral Education Congress" where
+he made a very fine address. I find him very _simpatico_.
+
+[Illustration: William James and Henry Clement, at the "Putnam Shanty,"
+in the Adirondacks (1907?).]
+
+But the best of all these meetings has been one of three hours this very
+morning with Bergson, who is here visiting his relatives. So modest and
+unpretending a man, but such a genius intellectually! We talked very
+easily together, or rather _he_ talked easily, for he talked much more
+than I did, and although I can't say that I follow the folds of his
+system much more clearly than I did before, he has made some points much
+plainer. I have the strongest suspicions that the tendency which he has
+brought to a focus will end by prevailing, and that the present epoch
+will be a sort of turning-point in the history of philosophy. So many
+things converge towards an anti-rationalistic crystallization.
+
+_Qui vivra verra!_
+
+I am very glad indeed to go on board ship. For two months I have been
+more than ready to get back to my own habits, my own library and
+writing-table and bed.... I wish you, and all of you, a prosperous and
+healthy and resultful winter, and am, with old-time affection, your ever
+faithful friend,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+If the duty of writing weighs so heavily on you, why obey it? Why, for
+example, write any more reviews? I absolutely refuse to, and find that
+one great alleviation.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henri Bergson._
+
+
+LONDON, _Oct. 4, 1908_.
+
+DEAR BERGSON,--My brother was sorry that you couldn't come. He wishes me
+to say that he is returning to Rye the day after tomorrow and is so
+engaged tomorrow that he will postpone the pleasure of meeting you to
+some future opportunity.
+
+I need hardly repeat how much I enjoyed our talk today. You must take
+care of yourself and economize all your energies for your own creative
+work. I want very much to see what you will have to say on the
+_Substanzbegriff_! Why should life be so short? I wish that you and I
+and Strong and Flournoy and McDougall and Ward could live on some
+mountain-top for a month, together, and whenever we got tired of
+philosophizing, calm our minds by taking refuge in the scenery.
+
+Always truly yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To H. G. Wells._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Nov. 28, 1908_.
+
+DEAR WELLS,--"First and Last Things" is a great achievement. The first
+two "books" should be entitled "philosophy without humbug" and used as a
+textbook in all the colleges of the world. You have put your finger
+accurately on the true emphases, and--in the main--on what seem to me
+the true solutions (you are more monistic in your faith than I should
+be, but as long as you only call it "faith," that's your right and
+privilege), and the simplicity of your statements ought to make us
+"professionals" blush. I have been 35 years on the way to similar
+conclusions--simply because I started as a professional and had to
+_débrouiller_ them from all the traditional school rubbish.
+
+The other two books exhibit you in the character of the Tolstoy of the
+English world. A sunny and healthy-minded Tolstoy, as he is a
+pessimistic and morbid-minded Wells. Where the "higher synthesis" will
+be born, who shall combine the pair of you, Heaven only knows. But you
+are carrying on the same function, not only in that neither of your
+minds is boxed and boarded up like the mind of an ordinary human being,
+but all the contents down to the very bottom come out freely and
+unreservedly and simply, but in that you both have the power of
+contagious speech, and set the similar mood vibrating in the reader. Be
+happy in that such power has been put into your hands! This book is
+worth any 100 volumes on Metaphysics and any 200 of Ethics, of the
+ordinary sort.
+
+Yours, with friendliest regards to Mrs. Wells, most sincerely,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry James._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Dec. 19, 1908_.
+
+DEAREST H.,-- ...I write this at 6.30 [A.M.], in the library, which the
+blessed hard-coal fire has kept warm all night. The night has been
+still, thermometer 20°, and the dawn is breaking in a pure red line
+behind Grace Norton's house, into a sky empty save for a big morning
+star and the crescent of the waning moon. Not a cloud--a true American
+winter effect. But somehow "le grand puits de l'aurore" doesn't appeal
+to my sense of life, or challenge my spirits as formerly. It suggests no
+more enterprises to the decrepitude of age, which vegetates along,
+drawing interest merely on the investment of its earlier enterprises.
+The accursed "thoracic symptom" is a killer of enterprise with me, and I
+dare say that it is little better with you. But the less said of it the
+better--it doesn't diminish!
+
+My time has been consumed by interruptions almost totally, until a week
+ago, when I finally got down seriously to work upon my Hodgson report.
+It means much more labor than one would suppose, and very little result.
+I wish that I had never undertaken it. I am sending off a preliminary
+installment of it to be read at the S. P. R. meeting in January. That
+done, the rest will run off easily, and in a month I expect to actually
+begin the "Introduction to Philosophy," which has been postponed so
+long, and which I hope will add to income for a number of years to come.
+Your Volumes XIII and XIV arrived the other day--many thanks. We're
+subscribing to two copies of the work, sending them as wedding presents.
+I hope it will sell. Very enticing-looking, but I can't settle down to
+the prefaces as yet, the only thing I have been able to read lately
+being Lowes Dickinson's last book, "Justice and Liberty," which seems to
+me a decidedly big achievement from every point of view, and probably
+destined to have a considerable influence in moulding the opinion of the
+educated. Stroke upon stroke, from pens of genius, the competitive
+régime, so idolized 75 years ago, seems to be getting wounded to death.
+What will follow will be something better, but I never saw so clearly
+the slow effect of [the] accumulation of the influence of successive
+individuals in changing prevalent ideals. Wells and Dickinson will
+undoubtedly make the biggest steps of change....
+
+Well dear brother! a merry Christmas to you--to you both, I trust, for I
+fancy Aleck will be with you when this arrives--and a happy New Year at
+its tail! Your loving
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To T. S. Perry._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Jan. 29, 1909_.
+
+BELOVED THOMAS, cher maître et confrère,--Your delightful letter about
+my Fechner article and about your having become a professional
+philosopher yourself came to hand duly, four days ago, and filled the
+heart of self and wife with joy. I always knew you was one, for to be a
+real philosopher all that is necessary is to _hate_ some one else's type
+of thinking, and if that some one else be a representative of the
+"classic" type of thought, then one is a pragmatist and owns the fulness
+of the truth. Fechner is indeed a dear, and I am glad to have
+introduced, so to speak, his speculations to the English world, although
+the Revd. Elwood Worcester has done so in a somewhat more limited manner
+in a recent book of his called "The Living Word"-(Worcester of Emmanuel
+Church, I mean, whom everyone has now begun to fall foul of for trying
+to reanimate the Church's healing virtue). Another case of newspaper
+crime! The reporters all got hold of it with their megaphones, and made
+the nation sick of the sound of its name. Whereas in former ages men
+strove hard for fame, obscurity is now the one thing to be _striven_
+for. For _fame_, all one need do is to exist; and the reporter will do
+the rest--especially if you give them the address of your fotographer. I
+hope you're a spelling reformer--I send you the last publication from
+that quarter. I'm sure that simple spelling will make a page look
+better, just as a crowd looks better if everyone's clothes fit.
+
+Apropos of pragmatism, a learned Theban named---- has written a
+circus-performance of which he is the clown, called "Anti-pragmatisme."
+It has so much verve and good spirit that I feel like patting him on the
+back, and "sicking him on," but Lord! what a fool! I think I shall leave
+it unnoticed. I'm tired of reëxplaining what is already explained to
+satiety. Let _them_ say, now, for it is their turn, what the relation
+called truth consists in, what it is known as!
+
+I have had you on my mind ever since Jan. 1st, when we had our Friday
+evening Club-dinner, and I was deputed to cable you a happy New Year.
+The next day I couldn't get to the telegraph office; the day after I
+said to myself, "I'll save the money, and save him the money, for if he
+gets a cable, he'll be sure to cable back; so I'll write"; the following
+day, I forgot to; the next day I postponed the act; so from postponement
+to postponement, here I am. Forgive, forgive! Most affectionate remarks
+were made about you at the dinner, which generally doesn't err by
+wasting words on absentees, even on those gone to eternity....
+
+I have just got off my report on the Hodgson control, which has stuck to
+my fingers all this time. It is a hedging sort of an affair, and I don't
+know what the Perry family will think of it. The truth is that the
+"case" is a particularly poor one for testing Mrs. Piper's claim to
+bring back spirits. It is _leakier_ than any other case, and
+intrinsically, I think, no stronger than many of her other good cases,
+certainly weaker than the G. P. case. I am also now engaged in writing a
+popular article, "the avowals of a psychical researcher," for the
+"American Magazine," in which I simply state without argument my own
+convictions, and put myself on record. I think that public opinion is
+just now taking a step forward in these matters--_vide_ the Eusapian
+boom! and possibly both these _Schriften_ of mine will add their
+influence. Thank you for the Charmes reception and for the earthquake
+correspondence! I envy you in clean and intelligent Paris, though our
+winter is treating us very mildly. A lovely sunny day today! Love to all
+of you! Yours fondly,
+
+W. J.
+
+The "Charmes reception" was a report of the speeches at the French
+Academy's reception of Francis Charmes. The "Eusapian boom" will have
+been understood to refer to current discussions of the medium Eusapia
+Paladino.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The next letter refers to a paper in which both James and Münsterberg
+had been "attacked" in such a manner that Münsterberg proposed to send a
+protest to the American Psychological Association.
+
+
+
+
+_To Hugo Münsterberg._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Mar. 16, 1909_.
+
+DEAR MÜNSTERBERG,--Witmer has sent me the _corpus delicti_, and I find
+myself curiously unmoved. In fact he takes so much trouble over me, and
+goes at the job with such zest that I feel like "sicking him on," as
+they say to dogs. Perhaps the honor of so many pages devoted to one
+makes up for the dishonor of their content. It is really a great
+compliment to have anyone take so much trouble about one. Think of
+copying all Wundt's notes!
+
+But, dear Münsterberg, I hope you'll withdraw a second time your
+protest. I think it undignified to take such an attack seriously. Its
+excessive dimensions (in my case at any rate), and the smallness and
+remoteness of the provocation, stamp it as simply eccentric, and to show
+sensitiveness only gives it importance in the eyes of readers who
+otherwise would only smile at its extravagance. Besides, since these
+temperamental antipathies exist--why isn't it healthy that they should
+express themselves? For my part, I feel rather glad than otherwise that
+psychology is so live a subject that psychologists should "go for" each
+other in this way, and I think it all ought to happen _inside_ of our
+Association. We ought to cultivate tough hides there, so I hope that you
+will withdraw the protest. I have mentioned it only to Royce, and will
+mention it to no one else. I don't like the notion of Harvard people
+seeming "touchy"! Your fellow victim,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To John Jay Chapman._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Apr. 30, 1909_.
+
+DEAR JACK C.,--I'm not expecting you to _read_ my book, but only to
+"give me a thought" when you look at the cover. A certain witness at a
+poisoning case was asked how the corpse looked. "Pleasant-like and
+foaming at the mouth," was the reply. A good description of you,
+describing philosophy, in your letter. All that you say is true, and yet
+the conspiracy has to be carried on by us professors. Reality has to be
+_returned to_, after this long circumbendibus, though _Gavroche_ has it
+already. There _are_ concepts, anyhow. I am glad you lost the volume.
+It makes one less in existence and ought to send up the price of the
+remainder.
+
+Blessed spring! blessed spring! Love to you both from yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+The next post-card was written in acknowledgment of Professor Palmer's
+comments on "A Pluralistic Universe."
+
+
+
+
+_To G. H. Palmer._
+
+[Post-card]
+
+
+Cambridge, _May 13, 1909_.
+
+"The finest critical mind of our time!" No one can mix the honey and the
+gall as you do! My conceit appropriates the honey--for the gall it makes
+indulgent allowance, as the inevitable watering of a pair of aged
+rationalist eyes at the effulgent sunrise of a new philosophic day!
+Thanks! thanks! for the honey.
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+TO THEODORE FLOURNOY.
+
+
+CHOCORUA, JUNE 18, 1909.
+
+MY DEAR FLOURNOY,--You must have been wondering during all these weeks
+what has been the explanation of my silence. It has had two simple
+causes; 1st, laziness; and 2nd, uncertainty, until within a couple of
+days, about whether or not I was myself going to Geneva for the
+University Jubilee. I have been strongly tempted, not only by the
+"doctorate of theology," which you confidentially told me of (and which
+would have been a fertile subject of triumph over my dear friend Royce
+on my part, and of sarcasm on his part about academic distinctions, as
+well as a diverting episode generally among my friends,--I being so
+essentially profane a character), but by the hope of seeing you, and by
+the prospect of a few weeks in dear old Switzerland again. But the
+economical, hygienic and domestic reasons were all against the journey;
+so a few days ago I ceased coquetting with the idea of it, and have
+finally given it up. This postpones any possible meeting with you till
+next summer, when I think it pretty certain that Alice and I and Peggy
+will go to Europe again, and probably stay there for two years....
+
+What with the Jubilee and the Congress, dear Flournoy, I fear that your
+own summer will not yield much healing repose. "Go through it like an
+automaton" is the best advice I can give you. I find that it is
+possible, on occasions of great strain, to get relief by ceasing all
+voluntary control. _Do_ nothing, and I find that something will do
+itself! and not so stupidly in the eyes of outsiders as in one's own.
+Claparède will, I suppose, be the chief executive officer at the
+Congress. It is a pleasure to see how he is rising to the top among
+psychologists, how large a field he covers, and with both originality
+and "humanity" (in the sense of the omission of the superfluous and
+technical, and preference for the probable). When will the Germans learn
+that part? I have just been reading Driesch's Gifford lectures, Volume
+II. Very exact and careful, and the work of a most powerful intellect.
+But why lug in, as he does, all that Kantian apparatus, when the
+questions he treats of are real enough and important enough to be
+handled directly and not smothered in that opaque and artificial veil? I
+find the book extremely suggestive, and should like to believe in its
+thesis, but I can't help suspecting that Driesch is unjust to the
+possibilities of purely mechanical action. Candle-flames, waterfalls,
+eddies in streams, to say nothing of "vortex atoms," seem to perpetuate
+themselves and repair their injuries. You ought to receive very soon my
+report on Mrs. Piper's Hodgson control. Some theoretic remarks I make at
+the end may interest you. I rejoice in the triumph of Eusapia all along
+the line--also in Ochorowicz's young Polish medium, whom you have seen.
+It looks at last as if something definitive and positive were in sight.
+
+I am correcting the proofs of a collection of what I have written on the
+subject of "truth"--it will appear in September under the title of "The
+Meaning of Truth, a Sequel to Pragmatism." It is already evident from
+the letters I am getting about the "Pluralistic Universe" that that book
+will 1st, be _read_; 2nd, be _rejected_ almost unanimously at first, and
+for very diverse reasons; but, 3rd, will continue to be bought and
+referred to, and will end by strongly influencing English philosophy.
+And now, dear Flournoy, good-bye! and believe me with sincerest
+affection for Mrs. Flournoy and the young people as well as for
+yourself, yours faithfully,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Theodora Sedgwick._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, _July 12, 1909_.
+
+DEAR THEODORA,--We got your letter a week ago, and were very glad to
+hear of your prosperous installation, and good impressions of the place.
+I am sorry that Harry couldn't go to see you the first Sunday, but hope,
+if he didn't go for yesterday, that he will do so yet. When your social
+circle gets established, and routine life set up, I am sure that you
+will like Newport very much. As for ourselves, the place is only just
+beginning to smooth out. The instruments of labor had well-nigh all
+disappeared, and had to come piecemeal, each forty-eight hours after
+being ordered, so we have been using the cow as a lawn-mower, silver
+knives to carve with, and finger-nails for technical purposes
+generally. There is no labor known to man in which Alice has not
+indulged, and I have sought safety among the mosquitoes in the woods
+rather than remain to shirk my responsibilities in full view of them. We
+have hired a little mare, fearless of automobiles, we get our mail
+dally, we had company to dinner yesterday, relatives of Alice, the
+children will be here by the middle of the week, the woods are
+deliciously fragrant, and the weather, so far, cool--in fact we are
+_launched_ and the regular summer equilibrium will soon set in. The
+place is both pathetic and irresistible; I want to sell it, Alice wants
+to enlarge it--we shall end by doing neither, but discuss it to the end
+of our days.
+
+I have just read Shaler's autobiography, and it has fairly haunted me
+with the overflowing impression of his myriad-minded character. Full of
+excesses as he was, due to his intense vivacity, impulsiveness, and
+imaginativeness, his centre of gravity was absolutely steady, and I knew
+no man whose sense of the larger relation of things was always so true
+and right. Of all the minds I have known, his leaves the largest
+impression, and I miss him more than I have missed anyone before. You
+ought to read the book, especially the autobiographic half. Good-bye,
+dear Theodora. Alice joins her love to mine, and I am, as ever, yours
+affectionately,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To F. C. S. Schiller._
+
+
+_Chocorua_, _Aug. 14, 1909_.
+
+DEAR SCHILLER,-- ...I got the other day a very candid letter from A. S.
+Pringle-Pattison, about my "Pluralistic Universe," in which he said: "It
+is supremely difficult to accept the conclusion of an actually growing
+universe, an actual addition to the sum of being or (if that expression
+be objectionable) to the intensity and scope of existence, to a growing
+God, in fact."--This seems to me very significant. On such minute little
+snags and hooks, do all the "difficulties" of philosophy hang. Call them
+categories, and sacred laws, principles of reason, etc., and you have
+the actual state of metaphysics, calling all the analogies of phenomenal
+life impossibilities.
+
+No more lecturing from W. J., thank you! either at Oxford or elsewhere.
+Affectionately thine,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+CHOCORUA, S_ept. 28, 1909_.
+
+DEAR FLOURNOY,--We had fondly hoped that before now you might both,
+accepting my half-invitation, half-suggestion, be with us in this
+uncared-for-nature, so different from Switzerland, and you getting
+strengthened and refreshed by the change. _Dieu dispose_, indeed! The
+fact that _is_ never entered into our imagination! I give up all hope of
+you this year, unless it be for Cambridge, where, however, the
+conditions of repose will be less favorable for you.... I am myself
+going down to Cambridge on the fifth of October for two days of
+"inauguration" ceremonies of our new president, Lawrence Lowell....
+There are so many rival universities in our country that advantage has
+to be taken of such changes to make the newspaper talk, and keep the
+name of Harvard in the public ear, so the occasion is to be almost as
+elaborate as a "Jubilee"; but I shall keep as much out of it as is
+officially possible, and come back to Chocorua on the 8th, to stay as
+late into October as we can, though probably not later than the 20th,
+after which the Cambridge winter will begin. It hasn't gone well with my
+health this summer, and beyond a little reading, I have done no work at
+all. I have, however, succeeded during the past year in preparing a
+volume on the "Meaning of Truth"--already printed papers for the most
+part--which you will receive in a few days after getting this letter,
+and which I think may help you to set the "pragmatic" account of
+Knowledge in a clearer light. I will also send you a magazine article on
+the mediums, which has just appeared, and which may divert you.[86]
+Eusapia Paladino, I understand, has just signed a contract to come to
+New York to be at the disposition of Hereward Carrington, an expert in
+medium's tricks, and author of a book on the same, who, together with
+Fielding and Bagally, also experts, formed the Committee of the London
+S. P. R., who saw her at Naples.... After Courtier's report on Eusapia,
+I don't think any "investigation" here will be worth much
+"scientifically"--the only advantage of her coming may possibly be to
+get some scientific men to believe that there is really a problem. Two
+other cases have been reported to me lately, which are worth looking up,
+and I shall hope to do so.
+
+How much your interests and mine keep step with each other, dear
+Flournoy. "Functional psychology," and the twilight region that
+surrounds the clearly lighted centre of experience! Speaking of
+"functional" psychology, Clark University, of which Stanley Hall is
+president, had a little international congress the other day in honor of
+the twentieth year of its existence. I went there for one day in order
+to see what Freud was like, and met also Yung of Zürich, who professed
+great esteem for you, and made a very pleasant impression. I hope that
+Freud and his pupils will push their ideas to their utmost limits, so
+that we may learn what they are. They can't fail to throw light on
+human nature; but I confess that he made on me personally the impression
+of a man obsessed with fixed ideas. I can make nothing in my own case
+with his dream theories, and obviously "symbolism" is a most dangerous
+method. A newspaper report of the congress said that Freud had condemned
+the American religious therapy (which has such extensive results) as
+very "dangerous" because so "unscientific." Bah!
+
+Well, it is pouring rain and so dark that I must close. Alice joins me,
+dear Flournoy, in sending you our united love, in which all your
+children have a share. Ever yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Shadworth H. Hodgson._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Jan._ 1, 1910.
+
+A happy New Year to you, dear Hodgson, and may it bring a state of mind
+more recognizant of truth when you see it! Your jocose salutation of my
+account of truth is an epigrammatic commentary on the cross-purposes of
+philosophers, considering that on the very day (yesterday) of its
+reaching me, I had replied to a Belgian student writing a thesis on
+pragmatism, who had asked me to name my sources of inspiration, that I
+could only recognize two, Peirce, as quoted, and "S. H. H." with his
+method of attacking problems, by asking what their terms are "Known-as."
+Unhappy world, where grandfathers can't recognize their own
+grandchildren! Let us love each other all the same, dear Hodgson, though
+the grandchild be in your eyes a "prodigal." Affectionately yours,
+
+WM. JAMES.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The news of James's election as _Associé étranger_ of the Académie des
+Sciences Morales et Politiques, which had appeared in the Boston
+"Journal" a day or two before the next letter, had, of course, reached
+the American newspapers directly from Paris. The unread book by Bergson
+of which Mr. Chapman was to forward his manuscript-review was obviously
+"Le Rire," and Mr. Chapman's review may be found, not where the next
+letter but one might lead one to seek it, but in the files of the
+"Hibbert Journal."
+
+
+
+
+_To John Jay Chapman._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Jan._ 30, 1910.
+
+DEAR JACK,--Invincible epistolary laziness and a conscience humbled to
+the dust have conspired to retard this letter. God sent me straight to
+you with my story about Bergson's cablegram--the only other person to
+whom I have told it was Henry Higginson. _One_ of you must have put it
+into the Boston "Journal" of the next day,--_you_ of course, to
+humiliate me still the more,--so now I lie in the dust, spurning all the
+decorations and honors under which the powers and principalities are
+trying to bury me, and seeking to manifest the naked truth in my
+uncomely form. Never again, never again! Naked came I into life, and
+this world's vanities are not for me! You, dear Jack, are the only
+reincarnation of Isaiah and Job, and I praise God that he has let me
+live in your day. _Real_ values are known only to _you_!
+
+As for Bergson, I think your change of the word "comic" into the word
+"tragic" throughout his book is _impayable_, and I have no doubt it is
+true. I have only read half of him, so don't know how he is coming out.
+Meanwhile send me your own foolishness on the same subject, commend me
+to your liege lady, and believe me, shamefully yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To John Jay Chapman._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb._ 8, 1910.
+
+DEAR JACK,--Wonderful! wonderful! Shallow, incoherent, obnoxious to its
+own criticism of Chesterton and Shaw, off its balance, accidental,
+whimsical, false; but with central fires of truth "blazing fuliginous
+mid murkiest confusion," telling the reader nothing of the Comic except
+that it's smaller than the Tragic, but _readable_ and splendid, showing
+that the _man who wrote it_ is more than anything he can write!
+
+Pray patch some kind of a finale to it and send it to the "Atlantic"!
+Yours ever fondly,
+
+W. J.
+(Membre de I'Institut!)
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The "specimen" which was enclosed with the following note has been lost.
+It was perhaps a bit of adulatory verse. What is said about "Harris and
+Shakespeare," as also in a later letter to Mr. T. S. Perry on the same
+subject, was written apropos of a book entitled "The Man Shakespeare,
+His Tragic Life-Story."[87]
+
+
+
+
+_To John Jay Chapman._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Feb._ 15, 1910.
+
+DEAR JACK,--Just a word to say that it pleases me to hear you write this
+about Harris and Shakespeare. H. is surely false in much that he claims;
+yet 'tis the only way in which Shakespeare ought to be handled, so his
+_is_ the best book. The trouble with S. was his intolerable fluency. He
+improvised so easily that it kept down his level. It is hard to see how
+the man that wrote his best things could possibly have let himself do
+ranting bombast and complication on such a large scale elsewhere. 'T is
+mighty fun to read him through in order.
+
+I send you a specimen of the kind of thing that tends to hang upon me as
+the ivy on the oak. When will the day come? Never till, like me, you
+give yourself out as a poetry-hater. Thine ever,
+
+[Illustration: signature
+
+my new signature]
+
+
+
+
+_To Dickinson S. Miller._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Mar. 26, 1910_.
+
+DEAR MILLER,--Your study of me arrives! and I have pantingly turned the
+pages to find the eulogistic adjectives, and find them in such abundance
+that my head swims. Glory to God that I have lived to see this day! to
+have so much said about me, and to be embalmed in literature like the
+great ones of the past! I didn't know I was so much, was all these
+things, and yet, as I read, I see that I was (or am?), and shall boldly
+assert myself when I go abroad.
+
+To speak in all dull soberness, dear Miller, it touches me to the quick
+that you should have hatched out this elaborate description of me with
+such patient and loving incubation. I have only spent five minutes over
+it so far, meaning to take it on the steamer, but I get the impression
+that it is almost unexampled in our literature as a piece of profound
+analysis of an individual mind. I'm sorry you stick so much to my
+psychological phase, which I care little for, now, and never cared much.
+This epistemological and metaphysical phase seems to me more original
+and important, and I haven't lost hopes of converting you entirely yet.
+Meanwhile, thanks! thanks! [Émile] Boutroux, who is a regular angel, has
+just left our house. I've written an account of his lectures which the
+"Nation" will print on the 31st. I should like you to look it over,
+hasty as it is.
+
+...I hope that all these lectures on contemporaries (What a live place
+Columbia is!) will appear together in a volume. I can't easily believe
+that any will compare with yours as a thorough piece of interpretative
+work.
+
+We sail on Tuesday next. My thorax has been going the wrong way badly
+this winter, and I hope that Nauheim may patch it up.
+
+Strength to your elbow! Affectionately and gratefully yours,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+1910
+
+_Final Months--The End_
+
+
+SEVERAL reasons combined to take James to Europe in the early spring of
+1910. His heart had been giving him more discomfort. He wished to
+consult a specialist in Paris from whom an acquaintance of his,
+similarly afflicted, had received great benefit. He believed that
+another course of Nauheim baths would be helpful. Last, and not least,
+he wished to be within reach of his brother Henry, who was ill and
+concerning whose condition he was much distressed. In reality it was he,
+not his brother, who already stood in the shadow of Death's door.
+
+Accordingly he sailed for England with Mrs. James, and went first to
+Lamb House. Thence he crossed alone to Paris, and thence went on to
+Nauheim, leaving Mrs. James to bring his brother to Nauheim to join him.
+The Parisian specialist could do nothing but confirm previous diagnoses.
+
+Too much "sitting up and talking" with friends in Paris exhausted him
+seriously, and, after leaving Paris, he failed for the first time to
+shake off his fatigue. The immediate effect of the Nauheim baths proved
+to be very debilitating, and, again, he failed to rally and improve when
+he had finished them. By July, after trying the air of Lucerne and
+Geneva, only to find that the altitude caused him unbearable distress,
+he despaired of any relief beyond what now looked like the incomparable
+consolations of being at rest in his own home. So he turned his face
+westward.
+
+The next letters bid good-bye for the summer to two tried friends. Five
+months later it seemed as if James had been at more pains to make his
+adieus than he usually put himself to on account of a summer's absence.
+When Mrs. James returned to the Cambridge house in the autumn, after he
+had died, and had occasion to open his desk copy of the Harvard
+Catalogue, she found these words jotted at the head of the Faculty List:
+"A thousand regrets cover every beloved name." It grieved him that life
+was too short and too full for him to see many of them as often as he
+wanted to. One day before he sailed, his eye had been caught by the
+familiar names and, as a throng of comradely intentions filled his
+heart, he had had a moment of foreboding, and he had let his hand trace
+the words that cried this needless "Forgive me!" and recorded an
+incommunicable Farewell.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry L. Higginson._
+
+
+Cambridge, _Mar. 28, 1910_.
+
+BELOVED HENRY,--I had most positive hopes of driving in to see you ere
+the deep engulfs us, but the press is too great here, and it remains
+impossible. This is just a word to say that you are not forgotten, or
+ever to be forgotten, and that (after what Mrs. Higginson said) I am
+hoping you may sail yourself pretty soon, and have a refreshing time,
+and cross our path. We go straight to Rye, expecting to be in Paris for
+the beginning of April for a week, and then to Nauheim, whence Alice,
+after seeing me safely settled, will probably return to Rye for the heft
+of the summer. It would pay you to turn up both there and at Nauheim and
+see the mode of life.
+
+Hoping you'll have a good [Club] dinner Friday night, and never need any
+surgery again, I am ever thine,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Miss Frances R. Morse._
+
+
+Cambridge, _March 29, 1910_.
+
+DEAREST FANNY,--Your beautiful roses and your card arrived duly--the
+roses were not deserved, not at least by W. J. I have about given up all
+visits to Boston this winter, and the racket has been so incessant in
+the house, owing to foreigners of late, that we haven't had the strength
+to send for you. I sail on the 29th in the Megantic, first to see Henry,
+who has been ill, not dangerously, but very miserably. Our Harry is with
+him now. I shall then go to Paris for a certain medical experiment, and
+after that report at Nauheim, where they probably will keep me for some
+weeks. I hope that I may get home again next fall with my organism in
+better shape, and be able to see more of my friends.
+
+After Thursday, when the good Boutrouxs go, I shall try to arrange a
+meeting with you, dear Fanny. At present we are "contemporaries," that
+is all, and the one of us who becomes survivor will have regrets that we
+were no more!
+
+What a lugubrious ending! With love to your mother, and love from Alice,
+believe me, dearest Fanny, most affectionately yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To T, S. Perry._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _May 22, 1910_.
+
+BELOVED THOS.,--I have two letters from you--one about ... Harris on
+Shakespeare. _Re_ Harris, I did think you were a bit supercilious _a
+priori_, but I thought of your youth and excused you. Harris himself is
+horrid, young and crude. Much of his talk seems to me absurd, but
+nevertheless _that's the way to write about Shakespeare_, and I am sure
+that, if Shakespeare were a Piper-control, he would say that he
+relished Harris far more than the pack of reverent commentators who
+treat him as a classic moralist. He seems to me to have been a
+professional _amuser_, in the first instance, with a productivity like
+that of a Dumas, or a Scribe; but possessing what no other amuser has
+possessed, a lyric splendor added to his rhetorical fluency, which has
+made people take him for a more essentially serious human being than he
+was. Neurotically and erotically, he was hyperæsthetic, with a playful
+graciousness of character never surpassed. He could be profoundly
+melancholy; but even then was controlled by the audience's needs. A cork
+in the rapids, with no ballast of his own, without religious or ethical
+ideals, accepting uncritically every theatrical and social convention,
+he was simply an æolian harp passively resounding to the stage's call.
+Was there ever an author of such emotional importance whose reaction
+against false conventions of life was such an absolute zero as his? I
+know nothing of the other Elizabethans, but could they have been as
+soulless in this respect?--But _halte-la_! or I shall become a Harris
+myself!... With love to you all, believe me ever thine,
+
+W. J.
+
+Read Daniel Halévy's exquisitely discreet "Vie de Nietzsche," if you
+haven't already done so. Do you know G. Courtelines' "Les Marionettes de
+la Vie" (Flammarion)? It beats Labiche.
+
+
+
+
+_To François Pillon._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _May 25, 1910_.
+
+MY DEAR PILLON,--I have been here a week, taking the baths for my
+unfortunate cardiac complications, and shall probably stay six weeks
+longer. I passed through Paris, where I spent a week, partly with my
+friend the philosopher Strong, partly at the Fondation Thiers with the
+Boutrouxs, who had been our guests in America when he lectured a few
+months ago at Harvard. Every day I said: "I will get to the Pillons this
+afternoon"; but every day I found it impossible to attempt your four
+flights of stairs, and finally had to run away from the Boutrouxs' to
+save my life from the fatigue and pectoral pain which resulted from my
+seeing so many people. I have a dilatation of the aorta, which causes
+anginoid pain of a bad kind whenever I make any exertion, muscular,
+intellectual, or social, and I should not have thought at all of going
+through Paris were it not that I wished to consult a certain Dr. Moutier
+there, who is strong on arteries, but who told me that he could do
+nothing for my case. I hope that these baths may arrest the disagreeable
+tendency to _pejoration_ from which I have suffered in the past year.
+This is why I didn't come to see the dear Pillons; a loss for which I
+felt, and shall always feel, deep regret.
+
+The sight of the new "Année Philosophique" at Boutroux's showed me how
+valiant and solid you still are for literary work. I read a number of
+the book reviews, but none of the articles, which seemed uncommonly
+varied and interesting. Your short notice of Schinz's really _bouffon_
+book showed me to my regret that even you have not yet caught the true
+inwardness of my notion of Truth. You speak as if I allowed no _valeur
+de connaissance proprement dite_, which is a quite false accusation.
+When an idea "works" successfully among _all the other ideas_ which
+relate to the object of which it is our mental substitute, associating
+and comparing itself with them harmoniously, the workings are wholly
+inside of the intellectual world, and the idea's value purely
+intellectual, for the time, at least. This is my doctrine and
+Schiller's, but it seems very hard to express it so as to get it
+understood!
+
+I hope that, in spite of the devouring years, dear Madame Pillon's state
+of health may be less deplorable than it has been so long. In particular
+I wish that the neuritis may have ceased. I wish! I wish! but what's the
+use of wishing, against the universal law that "youth's a stuff will not
+endure," and that we must simply make the best of it? Boutroux gave some
+beautiful lectures at Harvard, and is the gentlest and most lovable of
+characters. Believe me, dear Pillon, and dear Madame Pillon, your ever
+affectionate old friend,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _May 29, 1910_.
+
+...Paris was splendid, but fatiguing. Among other things I was
+introduced to the Académie des Sciences Morales, of which you may likely
+have heard that I am now an _associé étranger_(!!). Boutroux says that
+Renan, when he took his seat after being received at the Académie
+Française, said: "Qu'on est bien dans ce fauteuil" (it is nothing but a
+cushioned bench with no back!). "Peut-être n'y a-t-il que cela de vrai!"
+Delicious Renanesque remark!...
+
+W. J.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The arrangement by which Mrs. James and Henry James were to have arrived
+at Nauheim had been upset. The two, who were to come from England
+together, were delayed by Henry's condition; and for a while James was
+at Nauheim alone.
+
+
+
+
+_To his Daughter._
+
+
+_Bad-Nauheim_, _May 29, 1910_.
+
+BELOVED PÉGUY,--The very _fust_ thing I want you to do is to look in the
+drawer marked "Blood" in my tall filing case in the library closet, and
+find the _date_ of a number of the "Journal of Speculative Philosophy"
+there that contains an article called "Philosophic Reveries." Send this
+_date_ (not the article) to the Revd. Prof. L. P. Jacks, 28 Holywell,
+Oxford, if you find it, _immediately_. He will understand what to do
+with it. If you don't find the article, do nothing! Jacks is notified. I
+have just corrected the proofs of an article on Blood for the "Hibbert
+Journal," which, I think, will make people sit up and rub their eyes at
+the apparition of a new great writer of English. I want Blood himself to
+get it as a surprise.
+
+_I_ got as a surprise your finely typed copy of the rest of my MS., the
+other day. I thank you for it; also for your delightful letters. The
+type-writing seems to set free both your and Aleck's genius more than
+the pen. (If you need a new ribbon it must be got from the agency in
+Milk St. just above Devonshire--but you'll find it hard work to get it
+into its place.) You seem to be leading a very handsome and domestic
+life, avoiding social excitements, and hearing of them only from the
+brethren. It is good sometimes to face the naked ribs of reality as it
+reveals itself in homes. I face them _here_ with no one but the
+blackbirds and the trees for my companions, save some rather odd
+Americans at the _Mittagstisch_ and _Abendessen_, and the good smiling
+_Dienstmädchen_ who brings me my breakfast in the morning.... I went to
+my bath at 6 o'clock this morning, and had the Park all to the
+blackbirds and myself. This was because I am expecting a certain Prof.
+Goldstein from Darmstadt to come to see me this morning, and I had to
+get the bath out of the way. He is a powerful young writer, and is
+translating my "Pluralistic Universe." But the weather has grown so
+threatening that I hope now that he won't come till next Sunday. It is a
+shame to converse here and not be in the open air. I would to Heaven
+_thou_ wert _mit_--I think thou wouldst enjoy it very much for a week
+or more. The German civilization is _good_! Only this place would give a
+very false impression of our wicked earth to a Mars-_Bewohner_ who
+should descend and leave and see nothing else. Not a dark spot (save
+what the patients' hearts individually conceal), no poverty, no vice,
+nothing but prettiness and simplicity of life. I snip out a
+concert-program (the afternoon one unusually good) which I find lying on
+my table. The like is given free in the open air every day. The baths
+weaken one so that I have little brain for reading, and must write
+letters to all kinds of people every day. A big quarrel is on in Paris
+between my would-be translators and publishers. I wish translators would
+let my books alone--they are written for my own people exclusively! You
+will have received Hewlett's delightful "Halfway House," sent to our
+steamer by Pauline Goldmark, I think. I have been reading a charmingly
+discreet life of Nietzsche by D. Halévy, and have invested in a couple
+more of his (N.'s) books, but haven't yet begun to read them. I am half
+through "Waffen-nieder!" a _first-rate_ anti-war novel by Baroness von
+Suttner. It has been translated, and I recommend it as in many ways
+instructive. How are Rebecca and Maggie [the cook and house-maid]? You
+don't say how you enjoy ordering the bill of fare every day. You can't
+vary it properly unless you make a _list_ and keep it. A good sweet dish
+is _rothe Grütze_, a form of fine sago consolidated by currant-jelly
+juice, and sauced with custard, or, I suppose, cream.
+
+Well! no more today! Give no end of love to the good boys, and to your
+Grandam, and believe me, ever thy affectionate,
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry P. Bowditch._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _June 4, 1910_.
+
+DEAREST HEINRICH,--The envelope in which this letter goes was addrest in
+Cambridge, Mass., and expected to go towards you with a letter in it,
+long before now. But better late than never, so here goes! I came over,
+as you may remember, for the double purpose of seeing my brother Henry,
+who had been having a sort of nervous breakdown, and of getting my
+heart, if possible, tuned up by foreign experts. I stayed upwards of a
+month with Henry, and then came hither _über_ Paris, where I stayed ten
+days. I have been here two and a half weeks, taking the baths, and
+enjoying the feeling of the strong, calm, successful, new German
+civilization all about me. Germany is _great_, and no mistake! But what
+a contrast, in the well-set-up, well-groomed, smart-looking German man
+of today, and his rather clumsily drest, dingy, and unworldly-looking
+father of forty years ago! But something of the old _Gemüthlichkeit_
+remains, the friendly manners, and the disposition to talk with you and
+take you seriously and to respect the serious side of whatever comes
+along. But I can write you more interestingly of physiology than I can
+of sociology.... The baths may or may not arrest for a while the
+downward tendency which has been so marked in the past year--but at any
+rate it is a comfort to know that my sufferings have a respectable
+organic basis, and are not, as so many of my friends tell me, due to
+pure "nervousness." Dear Henry, you see that you are not the only pebble
+on the beach, or toad in the puddle, of senile degeneration! I admit
+that the form of your tragedy beats that of that of most of us; but
+youth's a stuff that won't endure, in any one, and to have had it, as
+you and I have had it, is a good deal gained anyhow, while to see the
+daylight still under _any_ conditions is perhaps also better than
+nothing, and meanwhile the good months are sure to bring the final
+relief after which, "when you and I behind the veil are passed, Oh, but
+the long, long time the world shall last!" etc., etc. Rather gloomy
+moralizing, this, to end an affectionate family letter with; but the
+circumstances seem to justify it, and I know that you won't take it
+amiss.
+
+Alice is staying with Henry, but they will both be here in a fortnight
+or less. I find it pretty lonely all by myself, and the German language
+doesn't run as trippingly off the tongue as it did forty years ago.
+Passage back is taken for August 12th....
+
+Well, I must stop! Pray give my love to Selma, the faithful one. Also to
+Fanny, Harold, and Friedel. With Harold's engagement you are more and
+more of a patriarch. Heaven keep you, dear Henry.
+
+Believe me, ever your affectionately sympathetic old friend,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To François Pillon._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _June 8, 1910_.
+
+MY DEAR PILLON,--I have your good letter of the 4th--which I finally had
+to take a magnifying-glass to read (!)--and remained full of admiration
+for the nervous centres which, after 80 years of work, could still guide
+the fingers to execute, without slipping or trembling, that masterpiece
+of microscopic calligraphy! Truly your nervous centres are "well
+preserved"--the optical ones also, in spite of the cataracts and loss of
+accommodation! How proud I should be if now, at the comparatively
+youthful age of 68, I could flatter _myself_ with the hope of doing what
+you have done, and living down victoriously twelve more devouring
+enemies of years! With a fresh volume produced, to mark each year by! I
+give you leave, as a garland and reward, to misinterpret my doctrine of
+truth _ad libitum_ and to your heart's content, in all your future
+writings. I will never think the worse of you for it.
+
+What you say of dear Madame Pillon awakens in me very different
+feelings. She has led, indeed, a life of suffering for many years, and
+it seems to me a real tragedy that she should now be confined to the
+house so absolutely. If only you might inhabit the country, where, on
+fine days, with no stairs to mount or descend, she could sit with
+flowers and trees around her! The city is not good when one is confined
+to one's apartment. Pray give Madame Pillon my sincerest love--I never
+think of her without affection--I am almost ashamed to accept year after
+year your "Année Philosophique," and to give you so little in return for
+it. I am expecting my wife and brother to arrive here from England this
+afternoon, and we shall _probably_ all return together through Paris, by
+the middle of July. I will then come and see you, with the wife, so
+please keep the "Année" till then, and put it into my hands. I can read
+nothing serious here--the baths destroy one's strength so. Whether they
+will do any good to my circulatory organs remains to be seen--there is
+no good effect perceptible so far. Believe me, dear old friend, with
+every message of affection to you both, yours ever faithfully,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The letters which follow concern Henry Adams's "Letter to American
+Teachers," originally printed for private circulation, but recently
+published, with a preface by Mr. Brooks Adams, under the title: "The
+Degradation of Democratic Dogma."
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry Adams._
+
+
+BAD-NAUHEIM, _June 17, 1910_.
+
+DEAR HENRY ADAMS,--I have been so "slim" since seeing you, and the baths
+here have so weakened my brain, that I have been unable to do any
+reading except trash, and have only just got round to finishing your
+"letter," which I had but half-read when I was with you at Paris. To
+tell the truth, it doesn't impress me at all, save by its wit and
+erudition; and I ask you whether an old man soon about to meet his Maker
+can hope to save himself from the consequences of his life by pointing
+to the wit and learning he has shown in treating a tragic subject. No,
+sir, you can't do it, can't impress God in that way. So far as our
+scientific conceptions go, it may be admitted that your Creator (and
+mine) started the universe with a certain amount of "energy" latent in
+it, and decreed that everything that should happen thereafter should be
+a result of parts of that energy falling to lower levels; raising other
+parts higher, to be sure, in so doing, but never in equivalent amount,
+owing to the constant radiation of unrecoverable warmth incidental to
+the process. It is customary for gentlemen to pretend to believe one
+another, and until some one hits upon a newer revolutionary concept
+(which may be tomorrow) all physicists must play the game by holding
+religiously to the above doctrine. It involves of course the ultimate
+cessation of all perceptible happening, and the end of human history.
+With this general conception as _surrounding_ everything you say in your
+"letter," no one can find any fault--in the present stage of scientific
+conventions and fashions. But I protest against your interpretation of
+some of the specifications of the great statistical drift downwards of
+the original high-level energy. If, instead of criticizing what you seem
+to me to say, I express my own interpretation dogmatically, and leave
+you to make the comparison, it will doubtless conduce to brevity and
+economize recrimination.
+
+To begin with, the _amount_ of cosmic energy it costs to buy a certain
+distribution of fact which humanly we regard as precious, seems to me to
+be an altogether secondary matter as regards the question of history and
+progress. Certain arrangements of matter _on the same energy-level_ are,
+from the point of view of man's appreciation, superior, while others are
+inferior. Physically a dinosaur's brain may show as much intensity of
+energy-exchange as a man's, but it can do infinitely fewer things,
+because as a force of detent it can only unlock the dinosaur's muscles,
+while the man's brain, by unlocking far feebler muscles, indirectly can
+by their means issue proclamations, write books, describe Chartres
+Cathedral, etc., and guide the energies of the shrinking sun into
+channels which never would have been entered otherwise--in short, _make_
+history. Therefore the man's brain and muscles are, from the point of
+view of the historian, the more important place of energy-exchange,
+small as this may be when measured in absolute physical units.
+
+The "second law" is wholly irrelevant to "history"--save that it sets a
+terminus--for history is the course of things before that terminus, and
+all that the second law says is that, whatever the history, it must
+invest itself between that initial maximum and that terminal minimum of
+difference in energy-level. As the great irrigation-reservoir empties
+itself, the whole question for us is that of the distribution of its
+effects, of _which_ rills to guide it into; and the size of the rills
+has nothing to do with their significance. Human cerebration is the most
+important rill we know of, and both the "capacity" and the "intensity"
+factor thereof may be treated as infinitesimal. Yet the filling of such
+rills would be cheaply bought by the waste of whole sums spent in
+getting a little of the down-flowing torrent to enter them. Just so of
+human institutions--their value has in strict theory nothing whatever to
+do with their energy-budget--being wholly a question of the form the
+energy flows through. Though the _ultimate_ state of the universe may be
+its vital and psychical extinction, there is nothing in physics to
+interfere with the hypothesis that the penultimate state might be the
+millennium--in other words a state in which a minimum of difference of
+energy-level might have its exchanges so skillfully _canalisés_ that a
+maximum of happy and virtuous consciousness would be the only result. In
+short, the last expiring pulsation of the universe's life might be, "I
+am so happy and perfect that I can stand it no longer." You don't
+believe this and I don't say I do. But I can find nothing in "Energetik"
+to conflict with its possibility. You seem to me not to discriminate,
+but to treat quantity and distribution of energy as if they formed one
+question.
+
+There! that's pretty good for a brain after 18 Nauheim baths--so I won't
+write another line, nor ask you to reply to me. In case you can't help
+doing so, however, I will gratify you now by saying that I probably
+won't jaw back.--It was pleasant at Paris to hear your identically
+unchanged and "undegraded" voice after so many years of loss of solar
+energy. Yours ever truly,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: Facsimile of Post-card addressed to Henry Adams.]
+
+[Post-card]
+
+NAUHEIM, _June 19, 1910_.
+
+P. S. Another illustration of my meaning: The clock of the universe is
+running down, and by so doing makes the hands move. The energy absorbed
+by the hands and the _mechanical_ work they do is the same day after
+day, no matter how far the weights have descended from the position they
+were originally wound up to. The _history_ which the hands perpetrate
+has nothing to do with the _quantity_ of this work, but follows the
+_significance_ of the figures which they cover on the dial. If they move
+from O to XII, there is "progress," if from XII to O, there is "decay,"
+etc. etc.
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Henry Adams._
+
+
+[Post-card]
+
+CONSTANCE, _June 26, [1910]_.
+
+Yours of the 20th, just arriving, pleases me by its docility of spirit
+and passive subjection to philosophic opinion. Never, never pretend to
+an opinion of your own! that way lies every annoyance and madness! You
+tempt me to offer you another illustration--that of the _hydraulic ram_
+(thrown back to me in an exam, as a "hydraulic goat" by an
+insufficiently intelligent student). Let this arrangement of metal,
+placed in the course of a brook, symbolize the machine of human life. It
+works, clap, clap, clap, day and night, so long as the brook runs _at
+all_, and no matter how full the brook (which symbolizes the descending
+cosmic energy) may be, it works always to the same effect, of raising so
+many kilogrammeters of water. What the _value_ of this work as history
+may be, depends on the uses to which the water is put in the house which
+the ram serves.
+
+W. J.
+
+
+
+
+_To Benjamin Paul Blood._
+
+
+CONSTANCE, _June 25, 1910_.
+
+MY DEAR BLOOD,--About the time you will receive this, you will also be
+surprised by receiving the "Hibbert Journal" for July, with an article
+signed by me, but written mainly by yourself.[88] Tired of waiting for
+your final synthetic pronunciamento, and fearing I might be cut off ere
+it came, I took time by the forelock, and at the risk of making ducks
+and drakes of your thoughts, I resolved to save at any rate some of your
+rhetoric, and the result is what you see. Forgive! forgive! forgive! It
+will at any rate have made you famous, for the circulation of the H. J.
+is choice, as well as large (12,000 or more, I'm told), and the print
+and paper the best ever yet, I seem to have lost the editor's letter, or
+I would send it to you. He wrote, in accepting the article in May, "I
+have already 40 articles accepted, and some of the writers threaten
+lawsuits for non-publication, yet such was the exquisite refreshment
+Blood's writing gave me, under the cataract of sawdust in which
+editorially I live, that I have this day sent the article to the
+printer. Actions speak louder than words! Blood is simply _great_, and
+you are to be thanked for having dug him out. L. P. JACKS." Of course
+I've used you for my own purposes, and probably misused you; but I'm
+sure you will feel more pleasure than pain, and perhaps write again in
+the "Hibbert" to set yourself right. You're sure of being printed,
+whatever you may send. How I wish that I too could write poetry, for
+pluralism is in its _Sturm und Drang_ period, and verse is the only way
+to express certain things, I've just been taking the "cure" at Nauheim
+for my unlucky heart--no results so far!
+
+Sail for home again on August 12th. Address always Cambridge, Mass.;
+things are forwarded. Warm regards, fellow pluralist. Yours ever,
+
+Wm. James.
+
+
+
+
+_To Theodore Flournoy._
+
+
+GENEVA, _July 9, 1910_.
+
+DEAREST FLOURNOY,--Your two letters, of yesterday, and of July 4th sent
+to Nauheim, came this morning. I am sorry that the Nauheim one was not
+written earlier, since you had the trouble of writing it at all. I thank
+you for all the considerateness you show--you understand entirely my
+situation. My dyspnoea gets worse at an accelerated rate, and all I
+care for now is to get home--doing _nothing_ on the way. It is partly a
+spasmodic phenomenon I am sure, for the aeration of my tissues, judging
+by the color of my lips, seems to be sufficient. I will leave Geneva now
+without seeing you again--better not come, unless just to shake hands
+with my wife! Through all these years I have wished I might live nearer
+to you and see more of you and exchange more ideas, for we seem two men
+particularly well _faits pour nous comprendre_. Particularly, now, as my
+own intellectual house-keeping has seemed on the point of working out
+some good results, would it have been good to work out the less unworthy
+parts of it in your company. But that is impossible!--I doubt if I ever
+do any more writing of a serious sort; and as I am able to look upon my
+life rather lightly, I can truly say that "I don't care"--don't care in
+the least pathetically or tragically, at any rate.--I hope that Ragacz
+will be a success, or at any rate a wholesome way of passing the month,
+and that little by little you will reach your new equilibrium. Those
+dear daughters, at any rate, are something to live for--to show them
+Italy should be rejuvenating. I can write no more, my very dear old
+friend, but only ask you to think of me as ever lovingly yours,
+
+W. J.
+
+After leaving Geneva James rested at Lamb House for a few days before
+going to Liverpool to embark. Walking, talking and writing had all
+become impossible or painful. The short northern route to Quebec was
+chosen for the home voyage. When he and Mrs. James and his brother Henry
+landed there, they went straight to Chocorua. The afternoon light was
+fading from the familiar hills on August 19th, when the motor brought
+them to the little house, and James sank into a chair beside the fire,
+and sobbed, "It's so good to get home!"
+
+A change for the worse occurred within forty-eight hours and the true
+situation became apparent. The effort by which he had kept up a certain
+interest in what was going on about him during the last weeks of his
+journey, and a certain semblance of strength, had spent itself. He had
+been clinging to life only in order to get home.
+
+Death occurred without pain in the early afternoon of August 26th.
+
+His body was taken to Cambridge, where there was a funeral service in
+the College Chapel. After cremation, his ashes were placed beside the
+graves of his parents in the Cambridge Cemetery.
+
+ THE END
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIXES
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I
+
+THREE CRITICISMS FOR STUDENTS
+
+
+In his smaller classes, made up of advanced students, James found it
+possible to comment in detail on the work of individuals. Three letters
+have come into the hands of the editor, from which extracts may be taken
+to illustrate such comments. They were written for persons with whom he
+could communicate only by letter, and are extended enough to suggest the
+_viva voce_ comments which many a student recalls, but of which there is
+no record. The first is from a letter to a former pupil and refers to
+work of Bertrand Russell and others which the pupil was studying at the
+time. The second and third comment on manuscripts that had been prepared
+as "theses" and had been submitted to James for unofficial criticism.
+They exhibit him, characteristically, as encouraging the student to
+formulate something more positive.
+
+
+_Jan. 26, 1908._
+
+Those propositions or supposals which [Russell, Moore and Meinong] make
+the exclusive vehicles of truth are mongrel curs that have no real place
+between realities on the one hand and beliefs on the other. The
+negative, disjunctive and hypothetic truths which they so conveniently
+express can all, perfectly well (so far as I see), be translated into
+relations between beliefs and positive realities. "Propositions" are
+expressly devised for quibbling between realities and beliefs. They seem
+to have the objectivity of the one and the subjectivity of the other,
+and he who uses them can straddle as he likes, owing to the ambiguity of
+the word _that_, which is essential to them. "_That_ Cæsar existed" is
+"true," sometimes means the _fact that_ be existed is real, sometimes
+the _belief that_ he existed is true. You can get no honest discussion
+out of such terms....
+
+
+_Aug. 15, 1908._
+
+Dear K----, ...[I have] read your thesis once through. I only finished
+it yesterday. It is a big effort, hard to grasp at a single reading,
+and I'm too lazy to go over it a second time in its present physically
+inconvenient shape. It is obvious that parts of it have been written
+rapidly and not boiled down; and my impression is that you have left
+over in it too much of the complication of form in which our ideas, our
+critical ideas especially, first come to us, and which has, with much
+rewriting, to be straightened out. You were dealing with dialecticians
+and logic-choppers, and you have met them on their own ground with a
+logic-chopping even more diseased than theirs. So far as I can see, you
+_have_ met them, though your own expressions are often far from lucid
+(--result of haste?); but in some cases I doubt whether they themselves
+would think that they were met at all. I fear a little that both Bradley
+and Royce will think that your _reductiones ad absurdum_ are too fine
+spun and ingenious to have real force. Too complicated, too complicated!
+is the verdict of my horse-like mind on much of this thesis. Your
+defense will be, of course, that it is a thesis, and as such, expected
+to be barbaric. But then I point to the careless, hasty writing of much
+of it. You _must_ simplify yourself, if you hope to have any influence
+in print.
+
+The writing becomes more careful and the style clearer, the moment you
+tackle Russell in the 6th part. And when you come to your own dogmatic
+statement of your vision of things in the last 30 pages or so, I think
+the thesis splendid, prophetic in tone and _very_ felicitous, often, in
+expression. This is indeed the _philosophie de l'avenir_, and a dogmatic
+expression of it will be far more effective than critical demolition of
+its alternatives. It will render that unnecessary if able enough. One
+will simply _feel_ them to be diseased. My total impression is that the
+critter K---- has a _really magnificent vision_ of the lay of the land
+in philosophy,--of the land of bondage, as well as of that of
+promise,--but that he has a tremendous lot of work to do yet in the way
+of getting himself into straight and effective literary shape. He has
+_elements_ of extraordinary literary power, but they are buried in much
+sand and shingle....
+
+
+_May. 26, 1900._
+
+Dear Miss S----, I am a caitiff! I have left your essay on my poor self
+unanswered.... It is a great compliment to me to be taken so
+philologically and importantly; and I must say that from the technical
+point of view you may be proud of your production. I like greatly the
+objective and dispassionate key in which you keep everything, and the
+number of subdivisions and articulations which you make gives me
+vertiginous admiration. Nevertheless, the tragic fact remains that I
+don't feel wounded at all by all that output of ability, and for reasons
+which I think I can set down briefly enough. It all comes, in my eyes,
+from too much philological method--as a Ph.D. thesis your essay is
+supreme, but why don't you go farther? You take utterances of mine
+written at different dates, for different audiences belonging to
+different universes of discourse, and string them together as the
+abstract elements of a total philosophy which you then show to be
+inwardly incoherent. This is splendid philology, but is it live
+criticism of anyone's _Weltanschauung_? Your use of the method only
+strengthens the impression I have got from reading criticisms of my
+"pragmatic" account of "truth," that the whole Ph.D. industry of
+building up an author's meaning out of separate texts leads nowhere,
+unless you have first grasped his centre of vision, by an act of
+imagination. That, it seems to me, you lack in my case.
+
+For instance: [Seven examples are next dealt with in two and a half
+pages of type-writing. These pages are omitted.]
+
+...I have been unpardonably long; and if you were a man, I should
+assuredly not expect to influence you a jot by what I write. Being a
+woman, there may be yet a gleam of hope!--which may serve as the excuse
+for my prolixity. (It is not for the likes of _you_, however, to hurl
+accusations of prolixity!) Now if I may presume to give a word of advice
+to one so much more accomplished than myself in dialectic technique, may
+I urge, since you have shown what a superb mistress you are in that
+difficult art of discriminating abstractions and opposing them to each
+other one by one, since in short there is no university extant that
+wouldn't give you its _summa cum laude_,--I should certainly so reward
+your thesis at Harvard,--may I urge, I say, that you should now turn
+your back upon that academic sort of artificiality altogether, and
+devote your great talents to the study of reality in its concreteness?
+In other words, do some _positive_ work at the problem of what truth
+signifies, substitute a definitive alternative for the humanism which I
+present, as the latter's substitute. Not by proving their inward
+incoherence does one refute philosophies--every human being is
+incoherent--but only by superseding them by other philosophies more
+satisfactory. Your wonderful technical skill ought to serve you in good
+stead if you would exchange the philological kind of criticism for
+constructive work. I fear however that you won't--the iron may have
+bitten too deeply into your soul!!
+
+Have you seen Knox's paper on pragmatism in the "Quarterly Review" for
+April--perhaps the deepest-cutting thing yet written on the pragmatist
+side? On the other side read Bertrand Russell's paper in the "Edinburgh
+Review" just out. A thing after your own heart, but ruined in my eyes by
+the same kind of vicious abstractionism which your thesis shows. It is
+amusing to see the critics of the will to believe furnish such exquisite
+instances of it in their own persons. _E.g._, Russell's own splendid
+atheistic-titanic confession of faith in that volume of essays on
+"Ideals of Science and of Faith" edited by one Hand. X----, whom you
+quote, has recently worked himself up to the pass of being ordained in
+the Episcopal church.... I justify them both; for only by such
+experiments on the part of individuals will social man gain the evidence
+required. They meanwhile seem to think that the only "true" position to
+hold is that everything not imposed upon a will-less and non-coöperant
+intellect must count as false--a preposterous principle which no human
+being follows in real life.
+
+Well! There! that is all! But, dear Madam, I should like to know where
+you come from, who you are, what your present "situation" is, etc.,
+etc.--It is natural to have some personal curiosity about a lady who has
+taken such an extraordinary amount of pains for me!
+
+Believe me, dear Miss S----, with renewed apologies for the extreme
+tardiness of this acknowledgment, yours with mingled admiration and
+abhorrence,
+
+WM. JAMES.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II
+
+BOOKS BY WILLIAM JAMES
+
+
+The following chronological list includes books only, but it gives the
+essays and chapters contained in each.
+
+Professor R. B. Perry's "Bibliography" (see below) lists a great number
+of contributions to periodicals, which have never been reprinted, and
+includes notes indicative of the matter of each.
+
+(No attempt has been made to compile a list of references to literature
+about William James, but the following may be mentioned as easily
+obtainable: _William James_, by ÉMILE BOUTROUX. Paris, 1911.
+Translation: Longmans, Green & Co., New York and London, 1912. _La
+Philosophie de William James_, by THEODORE FLOURNOY. St. Blaise, 1911.
+Translation: _The Philosophy of William James._ Henry Holt & Co., New
+York, 1917.)
+
+
+ _Literary Remains of Henry James, Sr._, with an Introduction by
+ WILLIAM JAMES. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1884.
+
+ _The Principles of Psychology._ New York: Henry Holt & Co.; London:
+ Macmillan & Co., 1890.
+
+ _Volume I._ Scope of Psychology--Functions of the Brain--Conditions
+ of Brain Activity--Habit--The Automaton Theory--The Mind-Stuff
+ Theory--Methods and Snares of Psychology--Relations of Minds to
+ Other Things--The Stream of Thought--The Consciousness of
+ Self--Attention--Conception--Discrimination and
+ Comparison--Association--The Perception of Time--Memory.
+
+ _Volume II._ Sensation--Imagination--Perception of Things--The
+ Perception of Space--The Perception of Reality--Reasoning--The
+ Production of Movement--Instinct--The
+ Emotions--Will--Hypnotism--Necessary Truth and the Effects of
+ Experience.
+
+ _A Text-Book of Psychology._ Briefer Course. New York: Henry Holt &
+ Co.; London: Macmillan & Co., 1892.
+
+ Introductory--Sensation--Sight--Hearing--Touch--Sensations of
+ Motion--Structure of the Brain--Functions of the Brain--Some
+ General Conditions of Neural Activity--Habit--Stream of
+ Consciousness--The
+ Self--Attention--Conception--Discrimination--Association--Sense of
+ Time--Memory--Imagination--Perception--The Perception of
+ Space--Reasoning--Consciousness and
+ Movement--Emotion--Instinct--Will--Psychology and Philosophy.
+
+ _The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy._ New
+ York and London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1897.
+
+ The Will to Believe--Is Life Worth Living?--The Sentiment of
+ Rationality--Reflex Action and Theism--The Dilemma of
+ Determinism--The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life--Great Men
+ and their Environment--The Importance of Individuals--On Some
+ Hegelisms--What Psychical Research has Accomplished.
+
+ _Human Immortality, Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine._
+ London: Constable & Co., also Dent & Sons; Boston: Houghton,
+ Mifflin & Co., 1898.
+
+ _The Same._ A New Edition with Preface in Reply to His Critics.
+ Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1899.
+
+ _Talks to Teachers on Psychology, and to Students on Some of Life's
+ Ideals._ New York: Henry Holt & Co.; London: Longmans, Green & Co.,
+ 1899.
+
+ Psychology and the Teaching Art--The Stream of Consciousness--The
+ Child as a Behaving Organism--Education and Behavior--The Necessity
+ of Reactions--Native and Acquired Reactions--What the Native
+ Reactions Are--The Laws of Habit--Association of
+ Ideas--Interest--Attention--Memory--Acquisition of
+ Ideas--Apperception--The Will.
+
+ Talks to Students: The Gospel of Relaxation--On a Certain Blindness
+ in Human Beings--What Makes Life Significant?
+
+ _The Varieties of Religious Experience._ A Study in Human Nature.
+ The Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion, Edinburgh, 1901-1902. New
+ York and London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1902.
+
+ Religion and Neurology--Circumscription of the Topic--The Reality
+ of the Unseen--The Religion of Healthy-Mindedness--The Sick
+ Soul--The Divided Self, and the Process of its
+ Unification--Conversion--Saintliness--The Value of
+ Saintliness--Mysticism--Philosophy--Other
+ Characteristics--Conclusions--Postscript.
+
+ _Pragmatism._ A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking. New York
+ and London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1907.
+
+ The Present Dilemma in Philosophy--What Pragmatism Means--Some
+ Metaphysical Problems Pragmatically Considered--The One and the
+ Many--Pragmatism and Common Sense--Pragmatism's Conception of
+ Truth--Pragmatism and Humanism--Pragmatism and Religion.
+
+ _A Pluralistic Universe._ Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College.
+ New York and London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1909.
+
+ The Types of Philosophic Thinking--Monistic Idealism--Hegel and his
+ Method--Concerning Fechner--Compounding of Consciousness--Bergson
+ and his Critique of Intellectualism--The Continuity of
+ Experience--Conclusions---- Appendixes: _A._ The Thing and its
+ Relations. _B._ The Experience of Activity. _C._ On the Notion of
+ Reality as Changing.
+
+ _The Meaning of Truth._ A Sequel to _Pragmatism_. New York and
+ London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1909.
+
+ The Function of Cognition--The Tigers in India--Humanism and
+ Truth--The Relation between Knower and Known--The Essence of
+ Humanism--A Word More about Truth--Professor Pratt on Truth--The
+ Pragmatist Account of Truth and its Misunderstanders--The Meaning
+ of the Word Truth--The Existence of Julius Cæsar--The Absolute and
+ the Strenuous Life--Hébert on Pragmatism--Abstractionism and
+ "Relativismus"--Two English Critics--A Dialogue.
+
+ _Some Problems of Philosophy._ A Beginning of an Introduction to
+ Philosophy. New York and London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1911.
+
+ Philosophy and its Critics--The Problems of Metaphysics--The
+ Problem of Being--Percept and Concept--The One and the Many--The
+ Problem of Novelty--Novelty and the Infinite--Novelty and
+ Causation---- Appendix: Faith and the Right to Believe.
+
+ _Memories and Studies._ New York and London: Longmans, Green & Co.,
+ 1911.
+
+ Louis Agassiz--Address at the Emerson Centenary in Concord--Robert
+ Gould Shaw--Francis Boott--Thomas Davidson--Herbert Spencer's
+ Autobiography--Frederick Myers's Services to Psychology--Final
+ Impressions of a Psychical Researcher--On Some Mental Effects of
+ the Earthquake--The Energies of Men--The Moral Equivalent of
+ War--Remarks at the Peace Banquet--The Social Value of the
+ College-bred--The Ph.D. Octopus--The True Harvard--Stanford's Ideal
+ Destiny--A Pluralistic Mystic (B. P. Blood).
+
+ _Essays in Radical Empiricism._ Edited by RALPH BARTON PERRY. New
+ York and London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1912.
+
+ Introduction--Does Consciousness Exist?--A World of Pure
+ Experience--The Thing and its Relations--How Two Minds can Know One
+ Thing--The Place of Affectional Facts in a World of Pure
+ Experience--The Experience of Activity--The Essence of
+ Humanism--_La Notion de Conscience_--Is Radical Empiricism
+ Solipsistic?--Mr. Pitkin's Refutation of Radical
+ Empiricism--Humanism and Truth Once More--Absolutism and
+ Empiricism.
+
+ _Collected Essays and Reviews._ Edited by _Ralph Barton Perry_. New
+ York and London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1920.
+
+ Review of E. Sargent's _Planchette_ (1869)--Review of G. H. Lewes's
+ _Problems of Life and Mind_ (1875)--Review entitled "German
+ Pessimism" (1875)--Chauncey Wright (1875)--Review of "Bain and
+ Renouvier" (1876)--Review of Renan's _Dialogues_ (1876)--Review of
+ G. H. Lewes's _Physical Basis of Mind_ (1877)--Remarks on Spencer's
+ Definition of Mind as Correspondence (1878)--Quelques
+ Considérations sur la Méthode Subjective (1878)--The Sentiment of
+ Rationality (1879)--Review (unsigned) of W. K. Clifford's _Lectures
+ and Essays_ (1879)--Review of Herbert Spencer's _Data of Ethics_
+ (1879)--The Feeling of Effort (1880)--The Sense of Dizziness in
+ Deaf Mutes (1882)--What is an Emotion? (1884)--Review of Royce's
+ _The Religious Aspect of Philosophy_ (1885)--The Consciousness of
+ Lost Limbs (1887)--Réponse de W. James aux Remarques de M.
+ Renouvier sur sa théorie de la volonté (1888)--The Psychological
+ Theory of Extension (1889)--A Plea for Psychology as a Natural
+ Science (1892)--The Original Datum of Space Consciousness
+ (1893)--Mr. Bradley on Immediate Resemblance (1893)--Immediate
+ Resemblance--Review of G. T. Ladd's _Psychology_ (1894)--The
+ Physical Basis of Emotion (1894)--The Knowing of Things Together
+ (1895)--Review of W. Hirsch's _Genie und Entartung_
+ (1895)--Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results
+ (1898)--Review of R. Hodgson's _A Further Record of Observations of
+ Certain Phenomena of Trance_ (1898)--Review of Sturt's _Personal
+ Idealism_ (1903)--The Chicago School (1904)--Review of F. C. S.
+ Schiller's _Humanism_ (1904)--Laura Bridgman (1904)--G. Papini and
+ the Pragmatist Movement in Italy (1906)--The Mad Absolute
+ (1906)--Controversy about Truth with John E. Russell (1907)--Report
+ on Mrs. Piper's Hodgson Control; Conclusion (1909)--Bradley or
+ Bergson? (1910)--A Suggestion about Mysticism (1910).
+
+
+ _A List of the Published Writings of William James_, with notes,
+ and an index; by RALPH BARTON PERRY. New York and London: Longmans,
+ Green & Co., 1920.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+THROUGHOUT the index the initial =J.= stands for William James. In the
+list of references to his own writings, arranged alphabetically at the
+end of the entries under his name, the titles of separate papers are set
+in roman and quoted, those of volumes in italics.
+
+The words "See Contents" under a name indicate that letters addressed to
+the person in question are to be sought in the Table of Contents, where
+all letters are listed.
+
+
+Abauzit, F., =1=, 145, =2=, 185.
+
+Abbot, F. E., _Scientific Theism_, =1=, 247.
+
+Absolute, Philosophy of the, =1=, 238.
+
+Absolute Unity, =1=, 231.
+
+Académie Française, =2=, 338.
+
+Académie des Sciences Morales, et Politiques, =J.= a corresponding
+ member of, =2=, 75;
+ =J.= an _associé étranger_ of, 328, 319, 338.
+
+Adams, Brooks, =2=, 343.
+
+Adams, Henry, _Letter to American Teachers_, =2=, 343 _ff._;
+ mentioned, 10. _See Contents._
+
+Adirondack range, =1=, 194, 195.
+
+Adirondacks. _See_ Keene Valley.
+
+Adler, Waldo, =2=, 75, 76, 163.
+
+Æsthetics, Study of, and Art, =2=, 87.
+
+Agassiz, Alexander, =1=, 31.
+
+Agassiz, Louis, =J.= joins his Brazilian expedition, =1=, 54 _ff._,
+ =J.= quoted on, 55;
+ quoted, on =J.=, 56;
+ on the Brazilian expedition, 56, 57, 59, 61, 67, 68, 69;
+ described by =J.=, 65, 66;
+ centenary of, =2=, 287, 288;
+ mentioned, =1=, 34, 35, 37, 4=2=, 47, 48, 72, =2=, 2.
+
+Agassiz, Mrs. Louis, her 80th birthday, =2=, 180 and _n._, 181;
+ mentioned, =1=, 60, 65, 67. _See Contents_.
+
+Aguinaldo, Emilio, =2=, 148.
+
+Alcott, A. Bronson, =1=, 18 _n._
+
+Allen, John A., =1=, 74.
+
+Amalfi, Sorrento to, =2=, 22=1=, 222.
+
+Amazon, the, Agassiz's expedition to. _See_ Brazil.
+
+America, general aspect of the country, =1=, 346, 347 and _n._
+ And _see_ United States.
+
+American Philosophical Association, =2=, 163, 164, 300.
+
+Americans, in Germany, =1=, 87.
+
+Angell, James R., =1=, 345, =2=, 14.
+
+Anglican Church, =2=, 305.
+
+Anglicanism and Romanism, =2=, 305.
+
+Anglophobia in U. S. revealed by Venezuela incident, =2=, 27, 31, 32.
+
+Annunzio, Gabriele d', =2=, 63.
+
+"Anti-pragmatisme," =2=, 319.
+
+Aristotle, =1=, 283.
+
+_Aristotelian Society Proceedings_, =2=, 207.
+
+Arnim, Gisela von. _See_ Grimm, Mrs. Herman.
+
+Ashburner, Anne, =1=, 179, 181, 315.
+
+Ashburner, Grace, =1=, 181, 315. _See Contents_.
+
+Ashfield, annual dinner at, =2=, 199.
+
+Athens, =2=, 224, 225. And _see_ Parthenon, the.
+
+Atkinson, Charles, =1=, 35.
+
+Ausable Lakes, =1=, 194.
+
+Austria, political conditions in (1867), =1=, 95.
+
+Avenarius, =2=, 301.
+
+
+Baginsky, Dr., =1=, 214.
+
+Bain, Alexander, =1=, 143, 164.
+
+Bakewell, Charles M., =2=, 14, 81, 85, 120, 248.
+
+Baldwin, James M., =2=, 20.
+
+Baldwin, William, =1=, 337.
+
+Balfour, A. J., _Foundations of Belief_, =2=, 20.
+
+Balzac, Honoré de, =1=, 106, =2=, 265.
+
+Bancroft, George, =1=, 107, 109.
+
+Bancroft, Mrs. George, =1=, 135.
+
+Bancroft, John C., =1=, 70.
+
+Baring Bros., =1=, 73.
+
+Barber, Catherine, marries William James I, =1=, 4;
+ her ancestry, 4 and _n._
+ And _see_ James, Mrs. Catherine (Barber).
+
+Barber, Francis, =1=, 5.
+
+Barber, Jannet, =1=, 4 _n._
+
+Barber, John, =J.='s great-grandfather, in the Revolutionary army,
+ =1=, 4 and _n._;
+ H. James, Senior, on, 5.
+
+Barber, Mrs. John, =1=, 5.
+
+Barber, Patrick, =1=, 4 _n._
+
+Barber family, the, =1=, 4, 5.
+
+Bashkirtseff, Marie, Diary of, =1=, 307, =2=, 148.
+
+Bastien-Lepage, Jules, =1=, 210 and _n._
+
+"Bay." _See_ Emmet, Ellen.
+
+Bayard, Thomas F., =2=, 27 _n._
+
+Beers, Clifford W., _A Mind that Found Itself_, =2=, 273, 274 and _n._
+ _See Contents_.
+
+Beethoven, Ludwig von, _Fidelio_, =1=, 112.
+
+Belgium, philosophers in, =1=, 216.
+
+Benn, A. W., =1=, 333, 334.
+
+Berenson, Bernhard, =2=, 138.
+
+Bergson, Henri, _Matière et Mémoire_, =2=, 178, 179;
+ his system, 179;
+ =J.='s enthusiasm for, 179, 180 _n._;
+ _L'Evolution Créatrice_, 290 _ff._;
+ _Le Rire_, 329;
+ mentioned, 17=2=, 226, 257, 314, 315.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Berkeley, Sir W., _Principles_, =2=, 179.
+
+Berlin, =1=, 100, 105, 106, 11=2=, 122.
+
+Berlin, University of, =1=, 118, 120, 121.
+
+Bernard, Claude, =1=, 72, 156.
+
+Bhagavat-Gita, the, =2=, 238.
+
+Bible, the, and orthodox theology, =2=, 196.
+
+Bielshowski, A., _Life of Goethe_, =2=, 262.
+
+Bigelow, Henry J., =1=, 72.
+
+Bigelow, W., Sturgis, =2=, 10.
+
+Birukoff, _Life of Tolstoy_, =2=, 262.
+
+Black, W., _Strange Adventures of a Phaeton_, =1=, 173.
+
+Blood, Benjamin Paul, _The Flaw in Supremacy_, =2=, 39;
+ J.'s article on, in _Hibbert Journal_, 39 _n._, 347, 348;
+ his _Anæsthetic Revolution_ reviewed by =J.=, 40 and _n._;
+ his strictures on =J.='s English, 59;
+ mentioned, 22, 338, 339.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Bôcher, Ferdinand, =1=, 337.
+
+Boer War, the, =2=, 118, 140.
+
+Bonn-am-Rhein, =1=, 20.
+
+Boott, Elizabeth (Mrs. Frank Duveneck), =1=, 153, 155.
+
+Boott, Francis, J.'s commemorative address on, =1=, 153;
+ mentioned, 155, 341 _n._, =2=, 191.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Bornemann, Fraülein, =1=, 116, 135.
+
+Bosanquet, B., quoted, =2=, 126.
+
+Boston _Journal_, =2=, 329.
+
+Boston _Transcript_, J.'s letter to, on Medical License bill, =2=, 68-70;
+ 72 and _n._, 124, 125.
+
+Boulogne, Collège de, =1=, 20.
+
+Bourget, Paul, _Idylle Tragique_, =2=, 37;
+ and Tolstoy, 37, 38;
+ mentioned, =1=, 348.
+
+Bourget, Mme. Paul, =1=, 348.
+
+Bourkhardt, James, =1=, 64, 70.
+
+Bourne, Ansel, =1=, 294.
+
+Boutroux, Émile, =2=, 314, 33=2=, 335, 337, 338.
+
+Bowditch, Henry I., =1=, 124.
+
+Bowditch, Henry P., =1=, 7=1=, 10=2=, 138, 139, 149, 167, 169, 195.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Bowen, Francis, =1=, 53.
+
+Boyd, Harriet A. (Mrs. C. H. Hawes), =2=, 223, 224.
+
+Bradley, Francis H., _Logic_, =1=, 258;
+ mentioned, =2=, 142, 208, 216, 271, 272, 281, 282.
+
+Brazil, Agassiz's expedition to, =1=, 54 _ff._;
+ letters written by =J.=, 56-70;
+ recalled, on Mrs. Agassiz's 80th birthday, =2=, 181.
+
+Brazilians, the, =1=, 59, 66.
+
+Brighton (England) Aquarium, =1=, 287.
+
+British Guiana, =2=, 26.
+
+British intellectuality, =1=, 270.
+
+Brown-Séquard, Charles E., =1=, 71.
+
+Browning, Robert, "A Grammarian's Funeral," =1=, 129, 130;
+ mentioned, =2=, 123.
+
+Bruno, Giordano, inscription on statue of, =2=, 139,
+
+Bryce, James, =1=, 303, 345, =2=, 65, 298, 299.
+
+Bryce, Mrs. James, =2=, 298, 299.
+
+Bryn Mawr College, =2=, 120, 121.
+
+Bull, Mrs. Ole, =2=, 144.
+
+Bunch, a dog, =1=, 183.
+
+Burkhardt, Jacob, _Renaissance in Italy_, =1=, 176.
+
+Busse, _Leib und Seele, Geist and Körper_, =2=, 237 and _n._
+
+Butler, Joseph, _Analogy_, =1=, 189.
+
+Butler, Samuel, =1=, 283.
+
+
+Cabot, J. Elliot, =1=, 204.
+
+Caird, Edward, =1=, 205, 305.
+
+California, impressions of, =2=, 82.
+
+California, Northern, =2=, 80.
+
+California, University of, =2=, 5.
+
+California Champagne, Gift of, =1=, 291.
+
+Canadian Pacific Ry., =2=, 80.
+
+Carlyle, "Jenny," =2=, 192.
+
+Carlyle, Thomas, and H. James, Senior, compared, =1=, 241;
+ mentioned, 220.
+
+Carnegie, Andrew, =2=, 18.
+
+Carpenter, William B., =1=, 143.
+
+Carqueiranne, Château de, =2=, 114.
+
+Carrington, Hereward, =2=, 327.
+
+Cams, Karl G., =1=, 96.
+
+Casey, Silas, =1=, 155.
+
+Castle Malwood, =2=, 160.
+
+Catholic Church, =J.='s attitude toward, =1=, 296, 297.
+
+Catholics, "concrete," differentiated from their church, =1=, 297.
+
+Cattell, J. M., quoted, =1=, 300;
+ mentioned, =2=, 32.
+
+Census of Hallucinations in America, conducted by =J.=, =1=, 228,
+ 229, =2=, 50.
+
+Chamberlain, Joseph, =1=, 303.
+
+Chambers, Dr., _Clinical Lectures_, =1=, 150.
+
+Chanzy, Antoine E. A., =1=, 160.
+
+Chapman, John J., _Practical Agitation_, =2=, 124;
+ _Political Nursery_, 128;
+ mentioned, 125, 329.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Chapman, Mrs. John J., =2=, 256.
+
+Charmes, Francis, =2=, 320.
+
+Chatrian, L. G. C. A. _See_ Erckmann-Chatrian.
+
+Chautauqua, =J.='s lectures at, and impressions of, =2=, 40 _ff._
+
+Chesterton, Gilbert K., _Heretics_, =2=, 241, 260;
+ mentioned, 257 and =n.=, 330.
+
+Chicago, anarchist riot in, and English newspapers, =1=, 252.
+
+Chicago University, School of Thought, =2=, 201, 202.
+
+Child, Francis J., death of, =2=, 52;
+ mentioned, =1=, 51, 169, 195, 291, 315 and _n._, 317.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Child, Mrs. F. J., =1=, 51, 197, =2=, 52.
+
+Chocorua, =J.='s summer home at, =1=, 267, 268;
+ life at, 271, 272;
+ =J.='s life ends at, =2=, 350;
+ =1=, 261, 323.
+
+Christian Scientists, and the Medical License bill, =2=, 68, 69.
+
+Christian Theology, position with reference to, =2=, 213, 214.
+
+Clairvoyance. _See_ Psychic phenomena.
+
+Claparède, Edward, =2=, 226, 227, 323.
+
+Clark University, =2=, 327.
+
+Clarke, Joseph Thatcher, =2=, 130.
+
+Clemens, Samuel L. _See_ Twain, Mark.
+
+Cleveland, Grover, his Venezuela Message, and its reaction on
+ =J.=, =2=, 26 _ff._, 31, 32, 33, =2=, 285.
+
+Clifford, W. K., =2=, 218.
+
+Club, the, =2=, 9, 10.
+
+Colby, F. M., =2=, 264.
+
+Collier, Robert J. F., =2=, 264.
+
+Colorado Springs, summer school at, =2=, 24.
+
+Columbia Faculty Club, =J.='s talks at, =2=, 265 and _n._
+
+Columbia University, =2=, 332.
+
+Columbus, Christopher, and Dr. Bowditch, =1=, 124.
+
+Common sense, =2=, 198.
+
+Concord, Mass., Emerson centenary at, =2=, 194.
+
+Concord Summer School of Philosophy, =1=, 230, 255.
+
+Congress of the U. S., and the Spanish War, =2=, 73, 74.
+
+Coniston, Ruskin Museum at, =2=, 306.
+
+Continent, the, and England, contrasts between, =2=, 152, 305.
+
+Conversion, =2=, 57.
+
+Correggio, Antonio de, his Shepherds' Adoration, =1=, 90;
+ and Rafael, 90.
+
+Corruption, in Europe and America, =2=, 101.
+
+Courtelines, G., _Les Marionettes de la Vie_, =2=, 336.
+
+Courtier, M., =2=, 327.
+
+Cousin, Victor, =1=, 117.
+
+Crafts, James W., =2=, 10.
+
+Cranch, Christopher P., =1=, 131.
+
+_Critique Philosophique_, =1=, 188, 207.
+
+Crothers, Samuel M., =2=, 262.
+
+Cuba, and the Spanish War, =2=, 73, 74.
+
+
+Danriac, Lionel, =2=, 45, 203.
+
+Dante Alighieri, =1=, 331.
+
+Darwin, Charles R., =1=, 225.
+
+Darwin, Mrs. W. E. (Sara Sedgwick), =1=, 76, 179, =2=, 152.
+
+Darwin, William E., =2=, 152.
+
+Darwin, William Leonard, =2=, 276.
+
+Daudet, Alphonse, =2=, 168.
+
+Davidson. Thomas, =J.='s essay on, =2=, 107 _n._;
+ =J.= lectures at his summer school, 197, 199;
+ mentioned, =1=, 192, 202, 204, 249, 255, =2=, 156.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Davis, Jefferson, =1=, 66, 67.
+
+Death, reflections concerning, =2=, 154.
+
+Delboeuf, J., =1=, 216, 217.
+
+Demoniacal possession, =2=, 56, 57.
+
+Derby, Richard, =1=, 122.
+
+Descartes, René C., =1=, 188, =2=, 13.
+
+Determinism, =1=, 245, 246.
+
+Dewey, John, _Beliefs and Realities_, =2=, 245, 246;
+ mentioned, 202, 257.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Dexter, Newton, =1=, 68, 73.
+
+Dibblee, Anita, =2=, 82, 84.
+
+Dibblee, B. H., =2=, 82.
+
+Dibblee, Mrs., =2=, 82, 84.
+
+Dickinson, G. Lowes, _Justice and Liberty_, =2=, 317, 318.
+
+Diderot, Denis, _OEuvres Choisis_, =1=, 106, 107;
+ mentioned, 142.
+
+Dilthey, W., =1=, 109, 110, 111.
+
+Divonne, =1=, 137, 138.
+
+Dixwell, Epes S., =1=, 124.
+
+Dixwell, Fanny, =1=, 76 and _n._
+ And _see_ Holmes, Mrs. Fanny Dixwell.
+
+Dooley, Mr. _See_ Dunne, Finley P.
+
+Dorr, George B., =2=, 255.
+
+Dorrs, the, =2=, 63.
+
+Dresden, =1=, 86, 9=2=, 93, 104.
+
+Dresden Gallery, =1=, 90.
+
+Dreyfus Case, the, =2=, 89, 97 _ff._, 102.
+
+Driesch, Hans, _Gifford Lectures_, =2=, 323.
+
+Driver, Dr., =2=, 118.
+
+Du Bois, W. E. B., _The Souls of Black Folk_, =2=, 196 and _n._
+
+Du Bois-Raymond, Emil, =1=, 121.
+
+Dudevant, Mme. Aurore. _See_ Sand, George.
+
+Du Maurier, George, _Peter Ibbetson_, =1=, 318.
+
+Dunne, Finley P., =2=, 94, 264.
+
+Durham, =2=, 306, 307.
+
+Duveneck, Frank, =1=, 153, 337 and _n._, 341.
+
+Duveneck, Mrs. Frank. _See_ Boott, Elizabeth.
+
+Dwight, Thomas, =1=, 97, 98, 122, 124, 165, 166, 170.
+
+
+Edinburgh, praise of, =2=, 146, 147, 150;
+ social amenities in, 147, 148.
+
+Education, importance of, =1=, 119.
+
+Eliot, Charles W., quoted, on =J.= in Scientific School, =1=, 31, 32 and _n._;
+ on J. Wyman, 47, 48;
+ on courses given by =J.=, =2=, 4 _n._;
+ mentioned, =1=, 35, 165, 166, 202, 262, =2=, 3, 15, 86, 137, 266.
+
+Eliot, George, _Daniel Deronda_, =1=, 185.
+
+Elliot, Gertrude, =2=, 263.
+
+Elliot, John W., =2=, 129.
+
+Elliot, Mrs. John W. (Mary Morse), =1=, 197, 199, =2=, 129.
+
+Ellis, Rufus, =1=, 192.
+
+Emerson, Edward W., on H. James, Senior, =1=, 17, 18 and _n._;
+ mentioned, 33.
+
+Emerson, Mary Moody, and H. James, Senior, =1=, 18 _n._
+
+Emerson, Ralph Waldo, letters of H. James, Senior, to, quoted, =1=, 11;
+ centenary of, =2=, 187, 190, 193, 194 (=J.='s address at);
+ "the divine," 190, 191;
+ his devotion to truth, 190;
+ _Representative Men_, 192, 193;
+ and Santayana, 234, 235;
+ mentioned, =1=, 9, 18 _n._, 125, =2=, 23, 196, 197.
+
+Emmet, Ellen, =1=, 316, =2=, 61, 82, 83, 84.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Emmet, Mrs. Temple (Ellen Temple), =2=, 64.
+
+Emmet, Rosina H., =2=, 38, 61, 62, 64.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Emmet, Temple, =2=, 61.
+
+Empiricism, =1=, 152. And _see_ Radical Empiricism.
+
+England, in 1871, =1=, 161;
+ gardens in, 288;
+ impressions of, in 1901, =2=, 152;
+ contrasted with Continental countries, 152, 305;
+ and the U. S., 304, 305;
+ changes in, 307;
+ high state of civilization in, 307, 308.
+
+English, in Germany, =1=, 87.
+
+English language, the teaching of the, =1=, 341.
+
+English newspapers, and the anarchist riot in Chicago, =1=, 252;
+ attitude of, on Venezuela Message, =2=, 33;
+ mentioned, 125, 126.
+
+English people, one aspect of the greatness of, =1=, 288.
+
+English social and political system, =1=, 232, 233.
+
+Erb, Dr., =2=, 128.
+
+Erckmann (Émile)-Chatrian (L. G. C. A.), _L'Ami Fritz_, =1=, 101;
+ _Les Confessions d'un Joueur de Clarinette_, 101;
+ _Histoire d'un Sous-Maître_, 162;
+ mentioned, 106, 136.
+
+Erdmann, Johann E., =1=, 345.
+
+Erie Canal, the, =1=, 3.
+
+_Essays Philosophical and Philological in Honor of William
+ James_, =2=, 309, 310.
+
+Esterhazy M. (Dreyfus case), =2=, 98, 100.
+
+Evans, Mrs. Glendower. _See Contents._
+
+Evans, Mary Anne. _See_ Eliot, George.
+
+Everett, Charles Carroll, =1=, 202, =2=, 156.
+
+Everett, William, =1=, 51.
+
+Experience, The philosophy of, =2=, 184, 185, 187.
+
+
+Faidherbe, Louis L. C., =1=, 160.
+
+Fairchild, Sally, =2=, 205.
+
+Faith-curers, and the Medical License bill, =2=, 68, 69, 70, 71.
+
+Farlow, William G., =1=, 71.
+
+Fechner, Gustav T., _Zend-Avesta_, =2=, 300, 309;
+ mentioned, =1=, 160, =2=, 269, 318.
+
+Fichte, Johann G., =1=, 141, =2=, 293.
+
+Field, Kate, _Washington_, =1=, 308.
+
+_Figaro_, =2=, 97, 99.
+
+Fischer, Kuno, Essay on Lessing's _Nathan der Weise_, =1=, 94;
+ _Hegel's Leben, Werke und Lehre_, =2=, 134, 135, 138.
+
+Fiske, John, death of, =2=, 156, 157;
+ _Cosmic Philosophy_, =2=, 233;
+ mentioned, =1=, 347, =2=, 10.
+
+Fitz, Reginald H., =1=, 162.
+
+Flaubert, Gustave, _Madame Bovary_, =2=, 291;
+ mentioned, =1=, 182.
+
+Fletcher, Horace, =2=, 254.
+
+Flint, Austin, =1=, 167.
+
+Florence, Boboli Garden, =1=, 177; 180, 181, 328 _ff._, 340, 342.
+
+Flournoy, Theodore, _William James_, =1=, 145 and _n._;
+ beginnings of =J.='s friendship with, 320;
+ _Métaphysique et Psychologie_, =2=, 25;
+ on religious psychology, 185;
+ reviews Myers's _Human Personality_, 185;
+ lectures on pragmatism, 267;
+ mentioned, 129, 172, 180 _n._, 227, 228, 315.
+ His children referred to:
+ Alice, =2=, 129, 241, 242;
+ Ariane-Dorothée, 129;
+ Henri, 186, 187;
+ Marguerite, 129.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Flournoy, Mme. Theodore, =1=, 325, 326, =2=, 23, 25, 46,
+ 48, 53, 55, 129, 187, 310, 313.
+
+Foote, Henry W., =1=, 111, 112, 113, 153.
+
+Forbes, W. Cameron, =2=, 297. _See Contents._
+
+Forbes-Robertson, J., =2=, 263.
+
+Fouillée, Alfred, Renouvier's articles on, =1=, 231;
+ mentioned, 324.
+
+France, and Prussia (1867), =1=, 95;
+ religious and revolutionary parties in, 161, 162;
+ influence of Catholic education in, 162;
+ and the Dreyfus case, =2=, 89;
+ decadence of, 105, 106.
+
+France, Anatole, =2=, 63.
+
+Francis of Assisi, St., =2=, 142.
+
+Francis Joseph, Emperor, =1=, 88.
+
+Franco-Prussian War, =J.='s views on, =1=, 159, 160, 161.
+
+Frazer, J. G., =2=, 139.
+
+Free will, influence on =J.= of Renouvier's writings on, =1=, 147, 164,
+ 165, 169;
+ and determinism, 186;
+ S. H, Hodgson's paper on, 244, 245.
+
+French language, =1=, 341.
+
+Freud, Sigmund, =2=, 327, 328.
+
+
+Galileo, =2=, 1 =n.=
+
+Galileo anniversary at Padua, =1=, 333.
+
+Gardiner, H. N., =2=, 163. _See Contents._
+
+Gardner, Mrs. John L., =2=, 205.
+
+Garibaldi, statue of, =2=, 139.
+
+Gautier, Théophile, =1=, 106.
+
+Geneva, "Academy" of, =1=, 20, =2=, 187;
+ Museum at, 21.
+
+German art, =1=, 105.
+
+German character, =1=, 126.
+
+German education, =1=, 121.
+
+German essayists, discussed, =1=, 94, 95.
+
+German genius, its massiveness, =2=, 176.
+
+German language, =J.='s progress in learning, =1=, 87, 101, 108, 116, 121;
+ mentioned, 87, 88, 89, 92, 341.
+
+German motto, the, =1=, 213.
+
+German universities, and Harvard, =1=, 217, 218 and _n._
+
+Germans, =J.='s opinion of, =1=, 100, 101, 121, 122, =2=, 104.
+
+Germany, =J.='s impressions of, =1=, 86, 105;
+ peasant-women in, 211;
+ philosophers in, 216, 217;
+ in 1910, =2=, 341.
+
+Gibbens, Alice H., early life, =1=, 192;
+ marries =J.=, 192. And _see_ James, Mrs. William.
+
+Gibbens, Mrs. E. P., =1=, 192, 222, 247, 248, 260, 339,
+ =2=, 118. _See Contents._
+
+Gibbens, Margaret, =1=, 248, 260, 279, 28=1=, 318. And
+ _see_ Gregor, Mrs. Leigh R.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Gibbens, Mary, marries W. M. Salter, =1=, 248.
+
+Gifford Lectures. _See_ this title under James, William, Works of.
+
+Gilman, Daniel Coit, =1=, 202, 203.
+
+Gizycki, Herr von, =1=, 214, 248.
+
+Gladstone, William E., =2=, 31.
+
+Glenmore, Davidson's summer school of philosophy at, =2=, 197 _n._, 199.
+
+God, conceptions of, =2=, 211, 213, 269, 270.
+
+Goddard, George A., =1=, 274.
+
+Godkin, E. L., Life of, quoted, =1=, 17, 115 _n._;
+ =J.='s opinion of, 284, 285;
+ _Comments and Reflections_, =2=, 30;
+ illness of, 160, 161;
+ his death, 181;
+ proposed memorial to, 18=1=, 182;
+ his home life and his "life against the world," 182;
+ mentioned, =1=, 118, 239, =2=, 167.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Godkin, Mrs. E. L., =1=, 240, 241, =2=, 30, 167.
+
+Godkin, Lawrence, =2=, 30.
+
+Goethe, Johann W. von, quoted, =1=, 54;
+ _Italienische Reise_, 91;
+ Vischer on Faust, 94;
+ _Gedichte_, =2=, 176;
+ mentioned, =1=, 104, 107.
+
+Goldmark, Charles, =2=, 75, 77.
+
+Goldmark, Josephine, =2=, 215.
+
+Goldmark, Pauline, =2=, 75, 76, 94. _See Contents._
+
+Goldmarks, the, =2=, 275.
+
+Goldstein, Julius, =2=, 339.
+
+Goodwin, William W., =1=, 51.
+
+Gordon, George A., =1=, 277.
+
+Grand Canyon of Arizona, =2=, 238, 239.
+
+Grandfather Mountain, =1=, 316, 317.
+
+Grant, Sir Ludovic, =2=, 144.
+
+Grant, Percy, =2=, 262.
+
+Grant, Ulysses S., =1=, 155.
+
+Gray, John C., Jr., =1=, 102, 127, 154, 155, 168, 169, =2=, 9, 10, 288.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Gray, Roland, =2=, 109.
+
+Great Britain, and Venezuela, =2=, 26, 27;
+ and the Boer War, 140, 141.
+ And _see_ England.
+
+Greeks, the, =2=, 225.
+
+Green, St. John, =2=, 233.
+
+Greene, T. H., =2=, 237.
+
+Gregor, Mrs. Leigh R. (Margaret Gibbens), =1=, 338, =2=, 106.
+ And _see_ Gibbens, Margaret.
+
+Gregor, Rosamund, =2=, 275 and _n._
+
+Grimm, Herman, his _Unüberwindliche Mächte_, reviewed by
+ =J.=, =1=, 103, 104 and _n._;
+ his arrant moralism, 104;
+ "suckled by Goethe," 104;
+ J. dines with, 109 _ff._;
+ his costume, 110;
+ on Homer, 111;
+ mentioned, 107, 108, 125.
+
+Grimm, Mrs. Herman (Gisela von Arnim), =1=, 111, 116.
+
+Grimm Brothers, =1=, 107, 110.
+
+Grinnell, Charles E., =2=, 10.
+
+Gryon, Switzerland, =1=, 321, 322.
+
+Gurney, Edmund, _Phantasms of the Living_, =1=, 267;
+ his death, 279;
+ =J.='s regard for, 280 and _n._;
+ mentioned, 222, 229 _n._, 242, 25=1=, 255, =2=, 30.
+
+Gurney, Mrs. Edmund, =1=, 279, 287.
+
+Gurney, Ephraim W., =1=, 76 _n._, 151.
+
+Gurney, Mrs. Ephraim W. (Ellen Hooper), =1=, 76 _n._
+
+
+Habit, Chapter on, in the _Psychology_, =1=, 297.
+
+Halévy, Daniel, _Vie de Nietzsche_, =2=, 336, 340.
+
+Hall, G. Stanley, quoted, =1=, 188, 189, 307;
+ his new Journal, =2=, 210, 217;
+ mentioned, =1=, 255, 269, =2=, 327.
+
+Hallucinations, Census of. _See_ Census.
+
+Hamilton, Alexander, =1=, 5.
+
+Hamilton, Sir W., =1=, 189.
+
+Hampton Court, =1=, 287.
+
+Hapgood, Norman, =2=, 264.
+
+Harris, Frank, _The Man Shakespeare_, =2=, 330, 335, 336.
+
+Harris, William T., =1=, 201, 202, 204.
+
+Hartmann, Karl R. E. von, =1=, 19=1=, =2=, 293.
+
+Harvard Medical School, in the sixties, =1=, 71 _ff._;
+ and the Medical License Bill, =2=, 67.
+
+Harvard Psychological Laboratory, beginning of, =1=, 179 _n._;
+ Münsterberg in charge of, 301, 302.
+
+Harvard Summer School, =2=, 4.
+
+Harvard University, beginning of =J.='s service in, =1=, 165;
+ courses in philosophy offered by, 191;
+ Hegelism at, 208;
+ contrasted with German universities, 217, 218 and _n._;
+ Department of Philosophy, =J.= on the future of, 317, 318;
+ =J.='s new courses at, =2=, 3, 4;
+ routine business of professors, 45 and _n._;
+ a possible genuine philosophic universe at, 122;
+ confers LL.D. on =J.=, 173 and _n._;
+ =J.= resigns professorship at, 220, 266 and _n._;
+ Roosevelt as possible President of, 232 and _n._
+
+Havens, Kate, =1=, 85 _n._
+
+Hawthorne Julian, _Bressant_, =1=, 167.
+
+Hay, John, =1=, 251.
+
+Hegel, Georg W. F., _Aesthetik_, =1=, 87;
+ mentioned, 202, 205, 208, 305.
+
+Hegelianism (Hegelism), at Harvard, =1=, 208;
+ in the _Psychology_, 304 and _n._, 305;
+ mentioned, =2=, 237.
+
+Hegelians, =1=, 205.
+
+Heidelberg, =1=, 137.
+
+Helmholtz, H. L. F. von, _Optics_, =1=, 266;
+ mentioned, 72, 119, 123, 137, 224, 225, 347.
+
+Helmholtz, Frau von, =1=, 347.
+
+Henderson, Gerard C., =2=, 275.
+
+Henry, Joseph, =1=, 7.
+
+Henry, Colonel (Dreyfus case), =2=, 98.
+
+Herder, Johann G. von, =1=, 141.
+
+Hering, Ewald, =1=, 212.
+
+Hewlett, Maurice, _Halfway House_, =2=, 340.
+
+Heymans, G., _Einführung in die Metaphysik_, =2=, 237 and _n._
+
+Hibbert Foundation lectures (Manchester College), =2=, 283, 284.
+
+_Hibbert Journal_, =2=, 313, 348,
+
+Higginson, Henry L., takes charge of =J.='s patrimony, =1=, 233;
+ and the Harvard Union, =2=, 108 and _n._;
+ mentioned, 9, 10, 18=1=, 19=1=, 26=1=, 287, 329.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Higginson, James J., =1=, 102, 127.
+
+Higginson, Storrow, =1=, 35.
+
+Higginson, T. W., =2=, 191.
+
+Hildreth, J. L., =1=, 275, 277.
+
+Hildreth, Mrs. J. L., =1=, 276.
+
+Hoar, George F., =2=, 191.
+
+Hobhouse, L. T., and "The Will to Believe," =2=, 207, 209;
+ mentioned, 282. _See Contents._
+
+Hodder, Alfred, =2=, 14.
+
+Hodges, George, =2=, 276,
+
+Hodgson, Richard, death of, =2=, 242, 258;
+ his work and character, 242;
+ and Mrs. Piper, 242;
+ =J.= investigates Mrs. Piper's claim to give communications
+ from his spirit, 286, 287;
+ =J.='s report thereon, 317, 319, 324;
+ mentioned, =1=, 228, 229 _n._, 254, 281.
+
+Hodgson, Shadworth H., "Time and Space," =1=, 188;
+ "Theory of Practice," 188;
+ "Philosophy and Experience," and "Dialogue on the Will," 243-245;
+ mentioned, 143, 191, 202, 203, 204, 205, 208, 222.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Höffding, Harold, =2=, 216.
+
+Holland, Mrs. _See_ Mediums.
+
+Holmes, O. W., =1=, 71.
+
+Holmes, O. W., Jr., =1=, 60, 73, 76, 80, 154, 155, =2=, 10, 51.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Holmes, Mrs. O. W., Jr. (Fanny Dixwell), her "panel" and its
+ inscription, =2=, 156 and _n._, 157.
+
+Holt, Edwin B., =2=, 234.
+
+Holt, Henry, =2=, 18. _See Contents._
+
+Holt, Henry, & Co., J. contracts to write volume on Psychology for, =1=, 194.
+
+Homer, =1=, 111.
+
+Hooper, Edward W., =2=, 156.
+
+Hooper, Ellen, =1=, 76 and _n._
+
+Hooper, Ellen (Mrs. John Potter), =2=, 275.
+
+Hooper, Louisa, =2=, 275.
+
+Hopkins, Woolsey R., describes accident to H. James, Senior, =1=, 7, 8.
+
+Horace Mann Auditorium, =2=, 17.
+
+Horse-swapping, =1=, 271.
+
+House of Commons, =1=, 345, 346.
+
+Howells, W. D., _Indian Summer_, =1=, 253;
+ _Shadow of a Dream_, 298;
+ _Hazard of New Fortunes_, 298, 299;
+ _Rise of Silas Lapham_, 307;
+ _Minister's Charge_, 307, 308;
+ _Lemuel Barker_, 308;
+ _Criticism and Fiction_, 308;
+ mentioned, =1=, 158, =2=, 10.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Howells, Mrs. W. D., =1=, 253, 298, 299.
+
+Howison, George H., =1=, 239 _n._, 304, =2=, 78.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Hugo, Victor, _Les Misérables_, =1=, 263;
+ _La Légende des Siècles_, =2=, 63;
+ mentioned, =1=, 90, =2=, 51.
+
+Huidekoper, Rosamund, =2=, 275.
+
+Humanism, =2=, 245, 282.
+
+Humboldt, H. A. von, _Travels_, =1=, 62.
+
+Humboldt, W., letters of, =1=, 141.
+
+Hume, David, =1=, 187, =2=, 18, 123, 165.
+
+Hunnewell, Walter, =1=, 68.
+
+Hunt, William M., =1=, 24.
+
+Hunter, Ellen (Temple), =2=, 258, 262.
+
+Huxley, Thomas H., =J.= quoted on, =1=, 226 _n._;
+ his _Life and Letters_, 226 _n._, =2=, 248;
+ mentioned, =2=, 218.
+
+Hyatt, Alpheus, =1=, 31.
+
+Hyslop, James H., =2=, 242, 287.
+
+
+Ideal, the, =1=, 238.
+
+Idealism, Absolute, Royce's argument for, =1=, 242.
+
+Immortality, =1=, 310, =2=, 214, 287.
+
+Imperialism, =2=, 74.
+
+Indians, in Brazil, =1=, 66, 67, 70.
+
+Indifferentism, =1=, 238.
+
+Insane, proposed national society to improve condition of, =2=, 273, 274.
+
+Intellectualism, =2=, 291, 292.
+
+Italian language, =1=, 341, =2=, 222.
+
+Italy, =1=, 175, 180, 181.
+
+
+Jacks, L. P., =2=, 339, 348.
+
+Jackson Henry, =1=, 274, 275.
+
+Jacobi, Friedrich H., =1=, 141.
+
+James, Alexander R. (=J.='s son), =2=, 37, 43, 92. _See Contents._
+
+James, Alice (=J.='s sister), her diary quoted, =1=, 16;
+ in England with H. James, Jr., from 1885 on, 258;
+ her illness, 258, 259, 284;
+ her diary quoted, 259 _n._;
+ quoted, on =J.='s European trip in 1889, 289, 290;
+ her death, 319;
+ mentioned, 18, 47, 60, 69, 91, 103, 142, 172, 183, 217,
+ 220, 281, 285, 286, =2=, 127.
+ _See Contents._
+
+James, Mrs. Catherine (Barber), third wife of W. James I, (=J.='s paternal
+ grandmother), "a dear gentle lady," =1=, 6;
+ her house in Albany, 105;
+ mentioned, 4, 5 _n._, 7.
+
+James, Garth Wilkinson (=J.='s brother), wounded at Fort Wagner,
+ =1=, 43, 44, 49;
+ mentioned, =1=, 17, 33, 35, 36, 40, 41, 42, 51, 52, 60,
+ 69, 70, 88, 135 _n._, 136, 192.
+
+James, Henry, Senior (=J.='s father), quoted, on his father, =1=, 4,
+ his grandfather, 5,
+ and his mother, 5 and _n._;
+ his habit of thought expressed in his description of his mother, 5 _n._;
+ sketch of his life and character, 7-19;
+ maimed for life by accident, 7, 8;
+ his discontent with orthodox dispensation, 8;
+ marries Mary Walsh, 8;
+ =J.='s striking resemblance to, 10;
+ relations with his children, 10, 18, 19;
+ =J.='s introduction
+ to his _Literary Remains_, 10, 13;
+ letters of, to Emerson, 11;
+ effect of Swedenborg's works on, 12;
+ the only business of his later life, 1=2=, 13;
+ =J.='s
+estimate of, 13;
+ Henry James quoted on, 14;
+ letter of, to editor of _New Jerusalem Messenger_, 14-16;
+ his directions regarding his funeral service, 16;
+ Godkin quoted on, 17;
+ E. W. Emerson quoted on, 17, 18 and _n._;
+ and Miss Emerson, 18 _n._;
+ influence of his "full and homely idiom" on the conversation of
+ his sons, 18;
+ his philosophy, discussed by =J.=, 96, 97;
+ his essay on Swedenborg, 117;
+ letter of, to Henry James, 169;
+ dangerously ill, 218;
+ =J.='s last letter to, 218-220;
+ his _Secret of Swedenborg_, 220;
+ his death, 221;
+ =J.='s memories of, 221, 222;
+ his mentality described, 241, 242;
+ compared with Carlyle, 241;
+ mentioned, =2=, 6, 7, 27, 36, 53, 68, 80, 92, 103, 104, 115 and
+ _n._, 118, 135 _n._, 153, 157, 158 and _n._, 175,
+ 217, 260, 289, 290, 316, =2=, 39, 278.
+ _See Contents._
+
+_Literary Remains_ of, edited by =J.=, =1=, 4 and _n._, 5 _n._, 10,
+ 13, 236, 239, 240, 241.
+
+James, Mrs. Henry, Senior (Mary Walsh), (=J.='s mother), her character,
+ =1=, 9;
+ her death, 218;
+ mentioned, 8, 69, 80, 103, 117, 156, 175, 183, 219, 220. _See Contents._
+
+James, Henry, Jr. (=J.='s brother), impressions of an elder generation
+ reflected in _The Wings of the Dove_, =1=, 7;
+ and his mother, 9; his birth, 9;
+ quoted, on his father, 14;
+ influence of his father's "idiom" on his speech, 18;
+ at the Collège de Boulogne, 20;
+ early secret passion for authorship, 21;
+ his "meteorological blunder," 21; quoted, on =J.=, as
+ "he sits drawing," 22, 23;
+ letter of his father to, 169;
+ his feeling for Europe, 209;
+ its reaction on him and on =J.=, contrasted, 209, 210;
+ described by =J.=, 288;
+ his "third manner" of writing criticized by =J.=, =2=, 240, 277-279;
+ his paper on Boston, 252;
+ mentioned, =1=, 17, 25, 33, 36, 40, 41, 45, 51, 53, 68,
+ 70, 76, 80, 90, 94, 95, 99, 100, 115, 117, 118, 136, 138,
+ 141, 148 _n._, 174, 175, 177, 178, 180, 218, 219, 240, 258,
+ 260, 262, 269, 283, 284, 286, 287, 289, 290, 319, =2=, 10,
+ 35, 61, 62, 84, 105, 106, 110, 161, 167, 168, 169, 170, 192,
+ 193, 215, 224, 250, 280, 315, 333, 335, 338, 341, 350.
+ _See Contents._
+
+ Works of: _The American_, =1=, 185;
+ _The American Scene_, =2=, 264, 277, 299;
+ _The Bostonians_, =1=, 250, 25=1=, 25=2=, 253;
+ _The Golden Bowl_, =2=, 240;
+ Notes _of a Son and Brother_, =1=, 10, 11 _n._, 24, 32, 36, 135 _n._;
+ _Partial Portraits_, 280;
+ _The Portrait of a Lady_, 36;
+ _Princess Cassamassima_, 251;
+ _The Reverberator_, 280;
+ _Roderick Hudson_, 184;
+ _W. W. Story, Life of_, 27 _n._;
+ _The Tragic Muse_, 299;
+ _A Small Boy and Others_, 4 _n._, 8 _n._, 9, 10, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23;
+ _The Wings of the Dove_, 7, 36, =2=, 240.
+
+James, Henry, 3d (=J.='s son), =1=, 275, 278, 279, 282, 329, 330,
+ 336, 343, =2=,
+ 30, 31, 84, 129, 143, 145, 147, 159, 324.
+ _See Contents._
+
+James, Hermann (J.'s son), birth of, =1=, 234, 235; death of, 247.
+
+James, Margaret M. (=J.='s daughter), birth of, =1=, 267;
+ mentioned, 275, 276, 279, 281, 322, 332, 336, =2=, 43, 54,
+ 98, 102, 110, 130, 191.
+ _See Contents._
+
+James, Robertson (=J.='s brother), in Union army, =1=, 43, 44;
+ mentioned, 17, 33, 41, 43, 52, 60, 69, 70, 81, 136.
+
+James, William, =J.='s grandfather, his career, from penury to
+ great wealth, =1=, 2, 3;
+ a leading citizen of Albany, 3;
+ personal appearance, 3;
+ anecdotes of, 3, 4;
+ H. James, Senior, quoted on, 4;
+ his stiff Presbyterianism and its results, 4;
+ his will disallowed by court, 4, 6;
+ marries Catherine Barber, 4.
+
+James, William, (=J.='s uncle), =1=, 6.
+
+JAMES, WILLIAM.
+ His ancestors in America, =1=, 1;
+ recurrence of his father's habit of thought in, 5 _n._;
+ and his mother, 9;
+ resemblance of, to his father, 10;
+ quoted, on his father, 13;
+ influence of his father's "idiom," 18 and _n._;
+ frequent changes of schools and tutors, 19;
+ in Europe, 1855 to 1858, 19;
+ at the Collège de Boulogne, and the "Academy" of Geneva, 20;
+ quoted, on his education, 20;
+ interest in exact knowledge, 20;
+ begins study of anatomy at Geneva, 21;
+ his cosmopolitanism of consciousness, 22;
+ widely read in three languages, 22;
+ effect of his early training, 22;
+ takes up painting, 22-24;
+ portrait of Katharine Temple, 24;
+ physique, personal appearance and dress, 24, 25;
+ temperament and conversation, 26;
+ "smiting" quality of his best talk, 27;
+ keen about new things, 28;
+ disadvantage
+of being too encouraging to "little geniuses," 28, 29;
+ freer criticism of those who had arrived, 29;
+ influence as a teacher at Harvard, 29, 30;
+ in Lawrence Scientific School, 31 and _n._;
+ physical condition keeps him out of army in Civil War, 47;
+ transfers from Chemistry to Comparative Anatomy, 47;
+ and Jeffries Wyman, 48, 49;
+ begins course at Medical School, 53;
+ philosophy begins to beckon, 53;
+ joins Agassiz's expedition to the Amazon, 54;
+ his nine months with Agassiz not wasted, 55, 56;
+ has small-pox at Rio, 60, 61, 63 and _n._;
+ interne at Mass. General Hospital, 71;
+ again in Medical School, 71-84.
+
+ Impaired health causes his visit to Germany, 84, 85;
+ in Dresden, Berlin and Teplitz, 85, 86;
+ describes his condition in letter to his father, 95, 96;
+ returns to U. S., 139;
+ takes degree of M.D. (1869), 140;
+ eye-weakness, 140, 141;
+ scope of his reading, 141, 142 and _n._, 143;
+ his note-books, 143, 144;
+ relation between earlier and later writings, 144 and _n._;
+ morbid depression, 145;
+ chapter on the "sick soul" the story of his own case, 145-147;
+ return of resolution and self-confidence, 147, 148;
+ Instructor in Physiology, 165;
+ his real subject, physiological psychology, 165, 166;
+ his deepest inclination always toward philosophy, 166;
+ H. James, Senior's, letter on the change in =J.='s mental tone
+ and outlook, 169, 170;
+ decides to devote himself to biology, 171;
+ Europe again, 171;
+ end of the period of morbid depression, 171;
+ gives course in Psychology and organizes Psychological Laboratory,
+ 179 and _n_,;
+ contributions to periodicals, 180;
+ on teaching of philosophy in American colleges, 189 _ff._
+
+ Marries Alice H. Gibbens, 192;
+ effect of his new domesticity, 193;
+ importance of his wife's companionship and understanding, 193;
+ contracts to write a volume on Psychology, 194;
+ vacations in Keene Valley, 195;
+ his mode of life there, 195;
+ a bit of self-analysis, 199, 200;
+ first work on _Psychology_, 203, 223;
+ declines invitation to teach at Johns Hopkins, 203;
+ in Europe, 1880-83, 208 _ff._;
+ and Henry James, 209, 210;
+ "reaction" on Europe, 209, 210;
+ death of his mother, 218, and of his father, 221;
+ his memories of them, 221, 222;
+ corresponding member of English Society for Psychical Research, 227;
+ an organizer and officer of the American Society, 227;
+ investigates psychic phenomena, 227 _ff._;
+ conducts American Census of Hallucinations, 228, 229;
+ edits his father's _Literary Remains_, 236, 239 _ff._;
+ his life at Chocorua, 271, 272, 273.
+
+ Abroad in 1889, 286 _ff._;
+ at International Congress of Physiological Psychology, 288, 289, 290;
+ his new house in Cambridge, 290, 291;
+ his inclination toward the under-dog, 292, 293, =2=, 178;
+ completion of the _Psychology_, =1=, 293 _ff._;
+ effect of its publication on his reputation, 300;
+ prepares an abridgment (_Briefer Course_), 300, 301;
+ turns his attention more fully toward philosophy, 301;
+ raises money for Harvard Laboratory, 301, and recommends Münsterberg
+ as its head, 301;
+ his sabbatical year abroad, 302, 320 _ff._;
+ beginning of his friendship with Flournoy, 320;
+ receives honorary degree at Padua, 333.
+
+ How his mind was moving during the nineties, =2=, 2 _ff._;
+ his opinion of psychology, 2;
+ new courses at Harvard, 3, 4;
+ outside lecturing, 4;
+ would devote his thought and work to metaphysical and religious
+ questions, 5;
+ frustrations, 5, 6;
+ personal appearance, 6, 7;
+ his daily round, 7-9;
+ the Club, 9, 10;
+ nervous break-down, 10;
+ D. S. Miller quoted on, 11-17;
+ attitude toward spelling reform, 18, 19;
+ and Cleveland's Venezuela Message, 26 _ff._;
+ experiments with mescal, 35, 37;
+ Chautauqua lectures, 40 _ff._;
+ work on college committees, 45 _n._,
+ at Faculty meetings, 45 _n._,
+ lectures at Lowell Institute, 54 and _n._, 55;
+ invited to deliver Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh, 55;
+ Blood's strictures on his English, 59;
+ on a proposed Medical License bill, 66 _ff._;
+ on the Spanish War, 73, 74;
+ corresponding member of Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, 75;
+ a memorable night in the Adirondacks, 75-77.
+
+ Effect on his health of misadventures in the Adirondack, 78, 79, 90, 91;
+ two years of exile and illness, 92 _ff._;
+ an individualist and a liberal, 93;
+ opposed to Philippine policy of McKinley administration, 93, 94;
+ his teaching limited to a half-course a year, 171;
+ lectures and contributions to philosophic journals, 171;
+ strain on his strength, 171;
+ the spirit in which he did his work, 172, 173;
+ receives LL.D. from Harvard, 173 and _n._;
+ replies to Prof. Pratt's _Questionnaire_, 212-215;
+ at Philosophical Congress at Rome, 219, 220, 225 _ff._;
+ lectures at Stanford University, 220, 235, 240, 244 and _n._;
+ and the San Francisco earthquake, 220, 246 _ff._;
+ _Pragmatism_, 220;
+ resigns his professorship, 220, 266 and _n._;
+ the last meeting of his class, 220, 221, 262.
+
+ Declining health, 283, 333;
+ lectures on Hibbert Foundation at Oxford, 283, 284;
+ uncompleted projects, 284;
+ his attitude toward war, 284, 285, and universal arbitration, 285;
+ tolerance fundamental in his scheme of belief, 286;
+ his report on "Mrs. Piper's Hodgson control," 286, 287;
+ last months in Europe, 333 _ff._;
+ farewell to Harvard Faculty, 334;
+ returns to Chocorua, 350;
+ the end, 350.
+
+ Letters containing moral counsel, or touching upon problems of _Belief_,
+ =2=, 57, 65, 76, 77, 149, 150, 196, 197, 210, 211, 212-215, 269, 326,
+ 344-346;
+ _Conduct_, =1=, 77-79, 100, 128 _ff._, 148, 199, 200, =2=, 131, 132;
+ _Life and Death_, =1=, 218-220, 309-311, =2=, 130, 154.
+
+ WORKS OF:--
+ "Address of the President before the Society for Psychical Research,"
+ =2=, 30 and _n._
+ "Bain and Renouvier," 1, 186.
+ _Briefer Course_ (abridgment of the _Principles of Psychology_), =1=,
+ 300, 301, 304, 314.
+ "Brute and Human Intellect," =1=, 180.
+ "Certain Blindness in Human Beings, A," =2=, 5.
+ _Collected Essays and Reviews_, =1=, 225 _n._, =2=, 20 _n._, 287, 295 _n_.
+ "Confidences of a Psychical Researcher," =2=, 327 and _n._
+ "Dilemma of Determinism, The," =1=, 237 and _n._, 238.
+ "Does Consciousness Exist?" _See_ "Notion de Conscience, La."
+ "Energies of Men, The," =2=, 252, 284.
+ "Feeling of Effort, The," =1=, 207.
+ "Frederick Myers's Service to Psychology," =2=, 151 and _n._
+ "German-American Novel, A." =1=, 104 _n._
+ Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion, =J.= invited to deliver, =2=, 55;
+ preparing for, 85, 92, 93;
+ delivered, 144 _ff._;
+ success of, 147, 149, 150, 151;
+ outline of, 150;
+ published as _Varieties of Religious Experience_, 169;
+ mentioned, 75, 96, 97, 105, 108, 111, 115, 127, 134, =2=, 162, 164, 165.
+ And _see_ _Varieties of Religious Experience_, _infra_.
+ "How Two Minds can Know One Thing," =2=, 217 and _n._
+ _Human Immortality_, =2=, 180 and _n._
+ "Introspective Psychology, On Some Omissions of," =1=, 230.
+ "Knight-Errant of the Intellectual Life, A," =2=, 107 _n._
+ Lowell Institute Lectures, =2=, 54 and _n._, 55.
+ _Meaning of Truth, The_, =2=, 20 _n._, 327.
+ _Memories and Studies_, =1=, 153, 226 _n._, 229 _n._, =2=, 39
+ _n._, 59 _n._, 107 _n._, 151 _n._,
+ 193, 247, 285 _n._, 287, 327 _n._
+ "Moral Equivalent of War, The," =2=, 284.
+ "Notion de Conscience, La," =2=, 226 and _n._, 267 and _n._
+ "Perception of Space, The," =1=, 266 _n._
+ "Perception of Time, The," =1=, 266.
+ "Philosophic Reveries," =2=, 339.
+ "Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results," =2=, 5.
+ _Philosophy, Some Problems of_, =1=, 144 _n._, 186.
+ _Pluralistic Mystic, A._ (lectures on Hibbert Foundation), =2=, 39 _n._,
+ 300, 311, 313, 322, 324, 325, 326, 339.
+ _Pragmatism_, =2=, 17, 276, 279, 292, 294, 295, 300;
+ translated by W. Jerusalem, 297.
+ "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth," =2=, 271 and _n._
+ "Proposed Shortening of the College Course," =2=, 45 _n._
+ _Psychology, Principles of_, =1=, 194, 203, 223, 224, 249,
+ 268, 269, 283, 293 _ff._, 296, 297, 300, 301, 304 and _n._, 305,
+ 307, 320, =2=, 12, 13.
+ "Quelques Considérations sur la Méthode Subjective," =1=, 180.
+ _Radical Empiricism, Essays in_, =2=, 267 _n._
+ "Radical Empiricism, Is it Solipsistic?" =2=, 218.
+ "Radical Empiricism as a Philosophy," =2=, 197 _n._
+ _Selected Essays and Reviews_, =2=, 271.
+ "Sentiment of Rationality, The," =1=, 203 and _n._
+ "Shaw Monument, Oration on Unveiling of," =2=, 59, 60.
+ "Spatial Quale, The," =1=, 205 and _n._
+ "Spencer's Definition of Mind as Correspondence," =1=, 180.
+ _Talks to Teachers and Students on Some of Life's Problems_, =2=,
+ 4, 5, 40, 79, 286.
+ "Tigers in India, The," =2=, 20 _n._
+ _Varieties of Religious Experience._ (Gifford Lectures), =1=, 145-147,
+ 293, =2=, 169, 170, 209, 210, 268.
+ "What Psychical Research has Accomplished," =1=, 229 and _n._, 306.
+ "_Will to Believe, The_," =2=, 44, 48, 85, 87, 88, 207, 208, 209, 282.
+ _Will to Believe, The, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy_, =1=, 229
+ _n._, 237 _n._, 280 _n._, =2=, 4, 5, 34, 58 _n._, 64.
+ "Word More about Truth, A," =2=, 295.
+ _See_ also list of Dates at the beginning of Volume I, and the partial
+ bibliography (Appendix II, _infra_).
+
+James, Mrs. William (Alice Gibbens), =1=, 192, 193, 195, 196, 217, 218, 232,
+ 237, 247, 269, 276, 277, 278, 279, 281, 286, 288, 294, 297, 298, 316, 319,
+ 321, 325, 328, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 346, =2=, 5, 7, 8, 9, 20, 24, 34,
+ 35, 36, 37, 38, 52, 59, 60, 63, 92, 93, 96, 97, 110, 111, 112, 113, 129,
+ 134, 145, 147, 158, 159, 161, 165, 175, 176, 182, 187, 188, 193, 215, 223,
+ 233, 247, 250, 256, 258, 259, 275, 312, 313, 333, 334, 338, 350.
+ _See Contents._
+
+James, William (=J.='s son), birth of, =1=, 234;
+ mentioned, 237, 260, 275, 276, 277, 282, 329, 330, 336, 346, =2=,
+ 92, 98, 129, 159, 174, 175, 185, 186, 187, 250, 258, 259, 274, 275, 276.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Jameson Raid, =2=, 27.
+
+Janet, Pierre, =2=, 216, 217, 226, 254.
+
+Janet, Mme. Pierre, =2=, 216.
+
+Jap, a dog, =1=, 275, 276, 277, 278, 279.
+
+Jefferies, Richard, _The Life of the Fields_, =2=, 258, 259.
+
+Jeffries, B. Joy, =1=, 163.
+
+Jerome, W. T., =2=, 264.
+
+Jerusalem, W. _See Contents._
+
+Jevons, F. B., =2=, 306.
+
+"Jimmy," students' name for the _Briefer Course_, =1=, 301.
+
+Johns Hopkins University, =J.= declines invitation to teach at, =1=, 203.
+
+Johnson, Alice, =2=, 311.
+
+_Journal of Speculative Philosophy_, =1=, 266, =2=, 339.
+
+Jung-Stilling, Johann K., _Autobiography_, =1=, 155.
+
+
+Kallen, Horace M., =2=, 271.
+
+Kant, Immanuel, _Kritik der reinen Vernunft_, =1=, 138, =2=, 179;
+ =J.= lectures on, 45, 47, 51, 54;
+ mentioned, =1=, 117, 141, 191, 202, 205, =2=, 3.
+
+Kaulbach, W. von, =1=, 90.
+
+Keane, Bishop, =1=, 294.
+
+Keene Valley, Adirondacks, =J.='s summer holidays in, =1=, 194, 195, 196;
+ an eventful 24 hours, and its effect, =2=, 75-79, 95;
+ his further misadventure, 90, 91;
+ mentioned, =1=, 232, =2=, 51, 259, 261, 296, 297.
+
+Kipling, Rudyard, _The Light that Failed_, =1=, 307;
+ mentioned, =2=, 21, 22, 231.
+
+Kitchin, George W., =2=, 306.
+
+Knox, H. V., =2=, 313, 314.
+
+Kruger, Paul, =2=, 27.
+
+Kolliker, R. A. von, =1=, 123.
+
+Kosmos, the startling discoveries concerning, =1=, 101.
+
+Kühnemann, Eugen, =2=, 263.
+
+
+La Farge, Bancel, =2=, 275.
+
+La Farge, John, =1=, 24, 91, =2=, 173.
+
+Lamar, Lucuis Q. C., =1=, 251.
+
+Lamb, Charles, =2=, 239.
+
+Lamb House, Rye, Henry James's English home, =2=, 107, 111.
+
+Lawrence Scientific School, Chemical laboratory in, =1=, 31;
+ C. W. Eliot quoted on =J.='s course in, 31, 32 and _n._
+
+Leibnitz, Baron G. W. von, =2=, 13.
+
+Lemaître, Jules, =2=, 63.
+
+_Leonardo_, =2=, 227, 228, 245.
+
+Leopardi, Giacomo, "To Sylvia," =1=, 246 and _n._
+
+Lesley, Susan I., _Recollections of my Mother_, =2=, 135 and _n._
+
+Lessing, Gotthold E., _Emilia Galotti_, =1=, 91;
+ Fischer's Essay on _Nathan der Weise_, 94.
+
+Leuba, James H., =2=, 210, 211, 218.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Lincoln, Abraham, effect of his death, =1=, 66, 67;
+ characterized by =J.=, 67.
+
+Linville, N. C., =1=, 316, 317.
+
+Lister, Sir Joseph, =1=, 72.
+
+Lloyd, Henry D., =2=, 166.
+
+Locke, John, =1=, 191, =2=, 165, 257.
+
+Lodge, Henry Cabot, =2=, 30.
+
+Lodge, Sir Oliver, =1=, 229 _n._
+
+Loeser, Charles A., =1=, 337, 339.
+
+Lombroso, Cesar, =2=, 15.
+
+London, =1=, 175, =2=, 307.
+
+London, _Times_, =2=, 43, 65, 118.
+
+Long, George, =1=, 78.
+
+Loring, Katharine P., =1=, 259, 262, 311, 316.
+
+Lotze, Rudolf H., =1=, 206, 208.
+
+Loubet, Émile, President of France, =2=, 89, 98.
+
+Lowell, A. Lawrence, =2=, 326.
+
+Lowell, James Russell, death of, =1=, 314, 315 _n._;
+ =J.='s memory of, 315;
+ mentioned, 195.
+
+Lucerne, =2=, 133.
+
+Ludwig, Karl F. W., =1=, 72, 160, 215.
+
+Lutoslawski, W., =2=, 103, 171.
+ _See Contents._
+
+
+McDougall, William, =2=, 313, 314, 315.
+
+McKinley, William, and the Spanish War, =2=, 74;
+ Philippine Policy of his administration disapproved by =J.=, 93, 94, 289;
+ and Roosevelt, =J.='s description of, 94;
+ mentioned, 50, 101, 102, 109.
+
+MacMonnies, F. W., Bacchante, =2=, 62 and _n._, 63.
+
+Macaulay, Thomas B., Lord, =1=, 225.
+
+Mach, Ernst, =1=, 211, 212.
+
+Maine, U. S. S., explosion of, =2=, 73.
+
+Manchester College. _See_ Hibbert Foundation.
+
+Marcus Aurelius, =1=, 78, 79.
+
+Marshall, Henry Rutgers, _Instinct and Reason_, =1=, 87.
+ _See Contents_.
+
+Martin, L. J., =2=, 246, 249.
+
+Martineau, James, =1=, 283.
+
+Mascagni, Pietro, _I Rantzau_, =1=, 334, 335.
+
+Massachusetts General Hospital, =1=, 71, 72.
+
+Materialism, =1=, 82, 83.
+
+Maudsley, Henry, =1=, 143.
+
+Maupassant, Guy de, =1=, 282.
+
+Medical License bill (proposed), in Mass., =2=, 66 _ff._
+
+Mediums, =1=, 228, =2=, 287, 311.
+ And _see_ Paladino, Eusapia, and Piper, Mrs.
+
+Mental Hygiene, Connecticut Society for, =2=, 273;
+ National Committee for, 273.
+
+Merriman, Daniel. _See Contents._
+
+Merriman, Mrs. Daniel, =2=, 118.
+
+Merriman, R. B., =2=, 63, 66, 132, 175.
+
+Mescal, =J.='s experiment with, =2=, 35, 37.
+
+Metaphysical problems, =J.='s mind haunted by, =2=, 2.
+
+Metaphysics, outline of course offered by =J.= in, =2=, 3, 4;
+ =J.='s proposed system of, 179, 180.
+
+Meysenbug, Malwida von, _Memoiren einer Idealistin_, =2=, 135 and _n._
+
+Mezes, Sidney E., =2=, 14.
+
+Mill, John Stuart, =1=, 164, =2=, 267.
+
+Miller, Dickinson S., quoted, on =J.= as a teacher and lecturer, =2=, 11-17;
+ "Truth and Error," 18;
+ quoted, on =J.='s talks with Columbia Faculty Club, 265 _n._;
+ his "study" of =J.=, 331, 332;
+ mentioned, 87, 88, 137, 163, 232 _n._, 282.
+ _See Contents._
+
+_Mind_, =1=, 254, 255.
+
+Mind-curers. _See_ Faith-curers.
+
+Miracles, =2=, 57, 58.
+
+Mitchell, S. Weir, =2=, 37.
+
+Monism, =1=, 238, 244, 245.
+
+Montgomery, Edmund, =1=, 254, 255.
+
+Morgan, C. Lloyd, =2=, 216.
+
+Moritz, C. P., =1=, 141.
+
+Morley, John, _Voltaire_, =1=, 144 _n._
+
+Morse, Frances R., =1=, 197, =2=, 106, 113, 232.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Morse, Mary. _See_ Elliot, Mrs. John W.
+
+Morse, John T., =2=, 10.
+
+Motterone, Monte, =1=, 324.
+
+Müller, G. E., =1=, 312, 313.
+
+Munich Congress, =2=, 46, 50.
+
+Munk, H., =1=, 213, 114.
+
+Münsterberg, Hugo, recommended by =J.= as head
+ of Harvard Psychological Laboratory, =1=, 301, 302;
+ "the Rudyard Kipling of philosophy," 318;
+ "an immense success," 332;
+ criticizes =J.=, =2=, 267, 268;
+ mentioned, =1=, 312, =2=, 2, 18, 121, 229, 270, 293, 320.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Murray, Gilbert, =2=, 271.
+
+Musset, Alfred de, =2=, 63.
+
+Myers, F. W. H., _Human Personality_, =1=, 229 _n._, =2=, 151, 185 and _n._;
+ death of, 141;
+ =J.='s tribute to, 141, 151, 157;
+ mentioned, =1=, 287, 290, =2=, 57, 114, 118, 156, 157, 161.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Myers, Mrs. F. W. H., =1=, 290, 345, =2=, 151, 157.
+
+
+Naples, =2=, 222.
+
+_Nation, The_, review of _Literary Remains of Henry James_ in, =1=, 240, 241;
+ =J.='s comments on, 284;
+ and Cleveland's Venezuela Message, =2=, 28;
+ mentioned, =1=, 70, 92, 104 and _n._, 117, 118, 161,
+ 186, 188, 189, =2=, 42, 182, 332.
+
+Nauheim (Bad), =2=, 92, 93, 95, 104, 107, 134, 135, 157, 158, 160, 333, 338.
+
+Neilson, Adelaide, =1=, 168.
+
+Nevins, John C., _Demon Possession and Allied Themes_, =2=, 56 and _n._
+
+New Forest, The, =2=, 160, 161.
+
+_New Jerusalem Messenger_, H. James, Senior's, letter to
+ editor of, =1=, 14-16.
+
+_New World, The_, =1=, 334, =2=, 44.
+
+New York City, =2=, 264, 265.
+
+Newcomb, Simon, =1=, 250.
+
+Newport, R. I., =2=, 202, 203.
+
+Newton, Sir Isaac, =2=, 1 _n._
+
+Nichols, Herbert, =1=, 335, =2=, 14.
+
+Nietzsche, Friedrich W., =2=, 233.
+
+Nivedita, Sister, =2=, 144.
+
+Nonentity, Idea of, =2=, 293.
+
+Nordau, Max S., _Entartung_, =2=, 19;
+ mentioned, 17.
+
+Norton, Charles Eliot, Ruskin's letters to, =2=, 206;
+ mentioned, =1=, 181, 291, 331, 338, 347, =2=, 191, 199.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Norton, Grace, =1=, 284, =2=, 191.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Norton, Mrs. Charles E. (Susan Sedgwick), =1=, 181.
+
+Norton Woods, the, =2=, 201.
+
+
+Olney, Richard, and the Venezuela Message, =2=, 27, 29.
+
+Optimism, =1=, 83, 238.
+
+Oregon, forest fires in, =2=, 80.
+
+Ostensacken, Baron, =1=, 337, 339.
+
+Ostwald, W., =2=, 229.
+
+Oxford, =2=, 307.
+
+
+Padua, Galileo anniversary at, =1=, 333 and _n._;
+ University of, confers degree on =J.=, 333.
+
+Pædagogy, =2=, 47.
+
+Paladino, Eusapia, =2=, 186 and _n._, 311, 320, 327.
+
+Paley, William, =1=, 283.
+
+Pallanza, Italy, =1=, 329.
+
+Palmer, George H., a Hegelian, =1=, 205, 208;
+ investigates psychic phenomena with =J.=, 227;
+ mentioned, 202, 292, 335, =2=, 2, 18.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Palmer, Mrs. Alice Freeman, =2=, 124.
+
+Papini, Giovanni, _Crepuscolo dei Filosofi_, =2=, 245, 246;
+ mentioned, 172, 227, 228, 229, 257, 267.
+
+Paris, =1=, 174, 175, 217.
+
+Paris Commune (1871), =1=, 161.
+
+Parkman, Francis, =2=, 10.
+
+Parkman, Mrs. Henry, =2=, 205.
+
+Parthenon, the, =2=, 224, 225.
+
+Party spirit, the only permanent force of corruption in the U. S., =2=, 100.
+
+Pasteur, Louis, =1=, 72, 225.
+
+Paty du Clam, Colonel du, =2=, 98.
+
+Paulsen, Friederich, _Einleitung_, =1=, 346, =2=, 244.
+
+Peabody, Elizabeth, =1=, 112.
+
+Peabody, Frances G., =2=, 229.
+
+Peace Congress, =2=, 277.
+
+Peillaube, M., =2=, 228, 229.
+
+Peirce, Benjamin, =1=, 32.
+
+Peirce, Charles S., =1=, 33, 34, 80, 149, 169, =2=, 191, 233, 294, 328.
+
+Peirce, James M., =2=, 258.
+
+Perry, Ralph Barton, his _List of Published Writings_
+ of =J.=, =1=, 144, 223, 224;
+ mentioned, =2=, 121, 163, 234, 295.
+
+Perry, Thomas S., with =J.= in Berlin, =1=, 107, 109, 111, 113, 114, 117, 124;
+ mentioned, 40 _n._, 60, 91, 94, 102, 106, 134, 151, 157, 169, =2=, 10.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Pertz, Mrs. Emma (Wilkinson), =1=, 135 and _n._
+
+Pessimism, =1=, 238.
+
+Peterson, Ellis, =1=, 166.
+
+Pflüger, Dr., =1=, 156.
+
+Phelps, Edward J., =2=, 27 _n._
+
+Philippine question, the, =2=, 167, 168.
+
+Philippines, policy of McKinley administration concerning, =2=, 93, 94;
+ duty of U. S. with regard to, 289.
+
+Philosophical Club, University of California, =J.='s lectures to, =2=, 79.
+
+_Philosophical Review_, =2=, 228.
+
+Philosophical Society, =J.= refuses to join, =2=, 164.
+
+Philosophy, =J.= begins to feel the pull of, =1=, 53, 54;
+ difficulties attending teaching of, in American colleges, 188, 189, 190.
+
+Physiological Psychology, =1=, 165, 166, 179.
+
+Physiological Psychology, International Congress of, =1=, 288, 289, 290.
+
+Physiology, =J.= attends lectures on, in Berlin, =1=, 118, 120, 121;
+ =J.='s first teaching subject, 165.
+
+Picquart, M. G. (Dreyfus case), =2=, 67, 98.
+
+Piddington, J. G., =2=, 311.
+
+Pierce, George W., =2=, 14.
+
+Pillon, François, =1=, 208, 229, 233, 343, =2=, 45, 79.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Pillon, Mme. François, =2=, 73, 204, 338, 343.
+
+Pinkham, Lydia E., "the Venus of Medicine," =1=, 261 and _n._
+
+Piper, Mrs. William, =J.= quoted on, =1=, 227, 228;
+ mentioned, =2=, 242, 311, 319, 320.
+ And _see_ Hodgson, R.
+
+Plato, =1=, 283.
+
+Pluralism, =1=, 186, =2=, 155.
+
+Pluralistic idealism, =2=, 22.
+
+Pollock, Sir Frederick, =1=, 222, =2=, 199.
+
+Pomfret, Conn., =1=, 153, 154.
+
+_Popular Science Monthly_, =1=, 190.
+
+Porter, Noah, =1=, 231, 232.
+
+Porter, Samuel, =1=, 214.
+
+Porto Rico, =2=, 74.
+
+Potter, Horatio, =1=, 59.
+
+Powderly, Terence V., =1=, 284.
+
+Pragmatism, and radical empiricism, distinction between, =2=, 267;
+ disadvantages of the word as a title, 271, 295, 298.
+
+Prague, =1=, 211, 212, 213.
+
+Pratt, James B., =J.='s replies to his questionnaire on
+ religious belief, =2=, 212-215.
+
+Pratt, M., =2=, 204.
+
+Prince, William H., =1=, 37, 39, 42, 44.
+
+Prince, Mrs. William H. (Katharine James), =1=, 42.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Princeton Theological Seminary, H. James, Senior, at, =1=, 8.
+
+Pringle-Pattison, A. S., =2=, 325, 326.
+ And _see_ Seth, Andrew.
+
+Profession, choice of, =1=, 75, 79, 123.
+
+Prussia, political conditions in (1867), =1=, 95;
+ and France, 95.
+
+Prussians, =1=, 122.
+
+Psychic phenomena, investigated by =J.= and Palmer, =1=, 225 _ff._;
+ mentioned, 248, 250, 305, 306, =2=, 56, 287, 320.
+
+Psychical Research, American Society for, =J.= active in organizing, =1=, 227;
+ amalgamated with English Society, 227;
+ =J.= on its function, 249, 250, =2=, 242, 286, 306.
+
+Psychical Research, English Society for, founded, =1=, 227;
+ =J.= a corresponding member, vice-president, and president
+ of, 227, 229 _n._, 248.
+
+Psychologists, American Association of, =2=, 20.
+
+Psychology, =J.= begins to read on, =1=, 118, 119;
+ =J.= gives course in, 179;
+ =J.= helps to make it a modern science, 224, 225;
+ "a nasty little subject," =2=, 2.
+
+Psychology, Experimental, in U. S., History of, =1=, 179 _n._
+
+Psychology, Physiological. _See_ Physiological Psychology.
+
+Putnam, Charles P., =1=, 71, 195, 196, 327, =2=, 296.
+
+Putnam, Frederick W., =1=, 31.
+
+Putnam, George, =2=, 224, 225.
+
+Putnam, James J., letter to =J.= on Medical License bill, =2=, 72 _n._;
+ mentioned, =1=, 71, 168, 195, 196, =2=, 112, 128, 147, 249.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Putnam, Marian (Mrs. James J.), =2=, 249.
+
+
+Quincy, Henry P., =1=, 77, 122.
+
+
+Radcliffe College, =2=, 4, 24, 180 _n._, 181.
+
+Radcliffe College, =J.='s class at. _See Contents._
+
+Radical Empiricism and pragmatism, distinction between, =2=, 267;
+ mentioned, 203, 204.
+
+Rafael Sanzio, the Sistine Madonna, =1=, 90.
+
+Raffaello, Florentine cook, =1=, 339, 341.
+
+Rankin, Henry W., =2=, 55.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Reed, Thomas B., =2=, 50.
+
+Reid, Carveth, =1=, 205, 222.
+
+Religion, =J.='s views on, =2=, 64, 65, 127, 149, 150, 211 _ff._, 269.
+
+Renan, Ernest, death of, =1=, 326;
+ mentioned, 110, =2=, 123, 338.
+
+Renouvier, Charles, the _Année 1867 Philosophique_, =1=, 138, 186;
+ influence on =J.= of his writings on free will, 147, 169;
+ =J.='s first acquaintance with his work, 186;
+ =J.='s correspondence with, 186;
+ translates some of =J.='s papers, 186;
+ his articles on Fouillée, 231;
+ _Principes de la Nature_, 334;
+ his _Philosophy of History_, =2=, 44, 47;
+ his death, 204;
+ _Monadologie_ and _Personalisme_, 204;
+ mentioned, =1=, 138, 205.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Republican Party, the, in 1899, =2=, 94.
+
+Reverdin, M., =2=, 267.
+
+Rhea, Jannet, =1=, 4 _n._
+
+Rhea, Matthew, =1=, 4 _n._
+
+Rhodes, James F., _History of the U. S._, =2=, 27 _n._;
+ mentioned, 10.
+
+Richet, Charles, =1=, 229 _n._, =2=, 114, 225.
+
+Richter, Jean Paul, =1=, 141.
+
+Rindge, Frederick H., =1=, 330, =2=, 39.
+
+Rio de Janeiro, =1=, 58 _ff._
+
+Risks, choice of, =2=, 49, 50.
+
+Ritter, Charles, =1=, 23, =2=, 25, 55.
+
+Robertson, Alexander, =1=, 8, 9.
+
+Robertson, G. Croom, editor of _Mind_, =1=, 222, 254.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Robeson, Andrew R., =1=, 33.
+
+Romanism and Anglicanism, =2=, 305.
+
+Romanticism, =1=, 256.
+
+Rome, Philosophical Congress at, =2=, 225 _ff._, 228;
+ mentioned, =1=, 178, 180, =2=, 138, 139, 269.
+
+Roosevelt, Theodore, as possible President of Harvard, =2=, 232 and _n._;
+ mentioned, 94, 266.
+
+Ropes, John C., death of, =2=, 108, 109;
+ mentioned, =1=, 35, =2=, 10, 156.
+
+Rosmini-Serbati, Antonio, =1=, 295.
+
+Rousseau, Jean-Jacques, =1=, 142.
+
+Royce, Josiah, early life, =1=, 200, 201;
+ quoted, on his first acquaintance with =J.=, 200, 201;
+ brought to Harvard through =J.='s influence, 201;
+ his _Religious Aspect of Philosophy_, 239, 242, 265;
+ "a perfect little Socrates," 249;
+ made professor, 332;
+ and =J.=, as teachers, compared by Miller, =2=, 16;
+ "the Rubens of philosophy," 86;
+ _The World and the Individual_, 113 and _n._, 114, 116, 121 and _n._;
+ his system, 114;
+ a sketcher in philosophy, 114, 116;
+ mentioned, =1=, 238, 239, 255, 262, 280, 291, 318, 347,
+ =2=, 18, 122, 143, 216, 234, 321, 322.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Ruskin, John, his letters to C. E. Norton, =2=, 206, 207;
+ characterized by =J.=, 206;
+ _Modern Painters_, 206;
+ mentioned, =1=, 220, =2=, 306.
+
+Rye (England), =2=, 104.
+ And _see_ Lamb House.
+
+
+Sabatier, Paul, =2=, 142.
+
+St. Gaudens, Augustus, his monument to R. G. Shaw unveiled, =2=, 59-61.
+
+St. Louis, hurricane at, =2=, 35, 36.
+
+St. Louis Exposition (1904), =2=, 216.
+
+Sainte-Beuve, C. A., =1=, 142.
+
+Salisbury, Robert Cecil, Marquis of, =2=, 27.
+
+Salter, C. C., =1=, 51.
+
+Salter, W. M., =1=, 248, 346, =2=, 97.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Salter, Mrs. W. M. (Mary Gibbens), =1=, 248.
+
+San Francisco, earthquake at, =2=, 246 _ff._, 251, 256;
+ mentioned, 80, 81.
+
+Sanctis, Professor di, =2=, 225.
+
+Sand, George, and A. de Musset, =2=, 63;
+ mentioned, =1=, 106, 182, 183.
+
+Santayana, George, _Interpretations of Poetry and Religion_, =2=, 122-124;
+ _Life of Reason_, 234, 235;
+ mentioned, =1=, 335, =2=, 14, 121, 225.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Sardou, Victorien, _Agnes_, =1=, 168.
+
+Sargent, Epes, _Planchette_, reviewed by =J.=, =1=, 225 _n._
+
+Sargent, John S., =1=, 303.
+
+_Saturday Club, Early Years of the_. _See_ Emerson, Edward W.
+
+Saxons, the, =1=, 86.
+
+Scenery, part played by, in =J.='s spiritual experience, =2=, 174, 175.
+
+Schelling, Friedrich W. J. von, =1=, 14.
+
+Schiller, F. C. S., his article on =J.= in _Mind_, =2=, 65, 66;
+ _Studies in Humanism_, 270;
+ mentioned, 172, 186 _n._, 208, 230, 257, 267, 296, 300, 311, 313, 314, 337.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Schiller, J. C. Friedrich von, =1=, 91, 141, 202.
+
+Schinz, Herr, =2=, 337.
+
+Schlegel, August W. von, =1=, 141.
+
+Schlegel, Karl W. F. von, =1=, 141.
+
+Schmidt, Heinrich J., _History of German Literature_, =1=, 141.
+
+Schopenhauer, Arthur, =1=, 191, =2=, 293.
+
+Schott, Dr. (Nauheim), =2=, 124, 128, 134, 157.
+
+Schurman, Jacob G., =1=, 334, =2=, 166.
+
+Scotland, =J.= strongly attracted by, =1=, 286.
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, his _Journal_, =1=, 309.
+
+Scripture, Edward W., =1=, 334.
+
+Scudder, Samuel H., =1=, 31.
+
+Sea, =J.='s views of traveling by, =1=, 58.
+
+Seals, trained, =1=, 278.
+
+Sécretan, Charles, =1=, 324.
+
+Sedgwick, Arthur G., =1=, 320 and _n._, =2=, 10.
+
+Sedgwick, Lucy (Mrs. Arthur G.), =1=, 320 and _n._
+
+Sedgwick, Sara, =1=, 76 and _n._
+ And _see_ Darwin, Mrs. W. E.
+
+Sedgwick, Theodora, =1=, 181, 291, 315, 317, 328, 331,
+ =2=, 151, 152, 191, 200, 207, 308.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Selberg, "a swell young Jew," =1=, 112, 114, 115.
+
+Semler, Dr., =1=, 87.
+
+Seth, Andrew, =2=, 96, 116, 144.
+ And _see_ Pringle-Pattison, A. S.
+
+Seth, James, =2=, 144.
+
+Shakespeare:
+ H. Grimm on _Hamlet_, =1=, 111;
+ _As You Like It_, 144 _n._, 190;
+ at Stratford, =2=, 166;
+ mentioned, 330, 335, 336.
+
+Shaler, Nathaniel S., quoted, on J. Wyman, =1=, 48;
+ _The Individual_, =2=, 153 and _n._, 154;
+ _Autobiography_, 325;
+ mentioned, =1=, 31, =2=, 258, 288.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Shaw, G. Bernard, _Cæsar and Cleopatra_, =2=, 263;
+ mentioned, 330.
+
+Shaw, Robert G., unveiling of St. Gaudens's monument to, =2=, 59-61;
+ mentioned, =1=, 43.
+
+Sherman, William T., =1=, 56, 57.
+
+Sidgwick, Henry, "Lecture against Lecturing," =2=, 12;
+ death of, 141;
+ mentioned, =1=, 229 _n._, 287, 290, 345, =2=, 50, 156.
+
+Slattery, Charles L. _See Contents._
+
+Smith, Adam, =1=, 283.
+
+Smith, Norman K. _See Contents._
+
+Smith, Paulina C., =2=, 106.
+
+Smith, Pearsall, =1=, 287.
+
+Snow, William F., quoted, on =J.= and the San Francisco
+ earthquake, =2=, 247 _n._
+
+Snow, Mrs. W. F., =2=, 246.
+
+Society for Psychical Research. _See_ Psychical Research, Society for.
+
+Solomons, Leon M., death of, =2=, 119;
+ his character and work, 119, 120.
+
+Sorbonne, the, =J.= declines appointment as exchange
+ professor at, =2=, 236 and _n._
+
+Sorrento, to Amalfi, =2=, 221, 222.
+
+Spain, misrule of, in Cuba, =2=, 73.
+
+Spanish War, the, =2=, 73, 74.
+
+Spannenberg, Frau, =1=, 85.
+
+_Spectator, The_, =2=, 126.
+
+Spelling reform, =J.='s attitude toward, =2=, 18, 19.
+
+Spencer, Herbert, _Psychology_, =1=, 188;
+ _Data of Ethics_, 264;
+ mentioned, 143, 164, 191, 254.
+
+Spinoza, Baruch, =1=, 283, =2=, 13.
+
+Spirit-theory, the. _See_ Psychic phenomena.
+
+Spiritualism. _See_ Psychic phenomena.
+
+Spiritualists, and the Medical License bill, =2=, 68.
+
+Springfield _Republican_, =2=, 125.
+
+Stanford, Leland, =2=, 242, 244.
+
+Stanford, Mrs. Leland, =1=, 242, 244.
+
+Stanford, Leland, Jr.,=1=, 243.
+
+Stanford University, =J.='s lectures at, =2=, 235, 240, 244 and _n._;
+ a miracle, 241;
+ its history, 242, 243;
+ what it might be made, 243, 244.
+
+Stanley, Sir Henry M., =1=, 303.
+
+Stanley, Lady, =1=, 303.
+
+Starbuck, E. D., _Psychology of Religion_, =2=, 217.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Stead, W. T., =2=, 276, 277.
+
+Steffens, Heinrich, =1=, 141.
+
+Stephen. Sir James Fitz-James, "Essay on Spirit-Rapping," =1=, 34 _n._
+
+Stephen, Sir Leslie, _Utilitarians_, =2=, 152;
+ his letters, 176.
+
+Steuben, Baron von, =1=, 5.
+
+Storey, Moorfield, =1=, 109, =2=, 10.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Stout, G. F., =2=, 47, 65.
+
+Strasburg, =1=, 86, 87.
+
+Stratford-on-Avon, and the Baconian theory, =2=, 166.
+
+Strong, Charles A., =2=, 198, 225, 229, 230,
+ 282, 295, 301, 309, 310, 315, 337.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Stumpf, Carl, _Tonpsychologie_, =1=, 266, 267;
+ mentioned, 211, 212, 213, 216, 289.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Sturgis, James, =1=, 184.
+
+Style in philosophic writing, =2=, 217, 228, 229, 237,
+ 244, 245, 257, 272, 281, 300.
+
+Subjectivism, tendency to, =1=, 249.
+
+Subliminal, Problem of the, =2=, 141, 149, 150, 212.
+
+Success, worship of, =2=, 260.
+
+Sully, James, =2=, 1 _n._, 225, 226, 218.
+ _See Contents._
+
+"Supernatural" matters. _See_ Psychic phenomena.
+
+Suttner, Baroness von, _Waffennieder_, =2=, 340.
+
+Swedenborg, Emmanuel, influence of his works on H. James,
+ Senior, =1=, 12, 13, 14;
+ _Society of the Redeemed Form of Man_, quoted, 12 and _n._;
+ H. James, Senior's, essay on, 117;
+ mentioned, =2=, 40.
+
+Switzerland, =1=, 322, 323, 327, 328, 336.
+
+Sylvain, Mlle., =2=, 224.
+
+Sylvain, M., =2=, 224.
+
+
+Tappan, Mary, =2=, 200.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Tappan, Mrs., =1=, 118.
+
+Taylor, A. E., =2=, 208, 216, 281, 282.
+
+Temple, Ellen, =1=, 38, 39, 51, =2=, 61, 81.
+ And _see_ Emmet, Mrs. Temple.
+
+Temple, Henrietta, =1=, 39.
+
+Temple, Katharine, =J.='s portrait of, =1=, 24;
+ mentioned, 36, 51, 74, 75.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Temple, "Minny," the original of two of Henry James's heroines, =1=, 36;
+ =J.= quoted on, 36, 37;
+ her "madness," 38;
+ mentioned, 43, 51, 74, 75, 98.
+
+Temple, Mrs. Robert (=J.='s aunt), =1=, 36.
+
+Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, =2=, 276.
+
+Teplitz, =1=, 133, 134, 137.
+
+Thames, the, =1=, 287.
+
+Thatness. _See_ Whatness.
+
+Thaw, Henry, trial of, =2=, 264.
+
+Thayer, Abbott, =2=, 276.
+
+Thayer, Gerald, =2=, 275, 276.
+
+Thayer, Joseph Henry, =1=, 323.
+
+Thayer, Miriam, =1=, 323.
+
+Thayer Expedition. _See_ Brazil, Agassiz's expedition to.
+
+Thies, Louis, =1=, 107, 112, 157.
+
+Thies, Miss, =1=, 116.
+
+Thompson, Daniel G., =1=, 295.
+
+Tieck, Ludwig, =1=, 141.
+
+Tolstoy, Leo, _War and Peace_, =2=, 37, 40, 48;
+ and P. Bourget, 37, 38;
+ _Anna Karenina_, 41, 48;
+ and H. G. Wells, 316;
+ mentioned, 44, 45, 51, 52, 63.
+
+Torquay, =2=, 167.
+
+Townsend, Henry E., =1=, 122.
+
+Truth, the, obscured by American philosophers, =2=, 237, 272, 337.
+
+Tuck, Henry, =1=, 122, 124.
+
+Tuckerman, Emily, =2=, 168.
+
+Turgenieff, Ivan, =1=, 177, 182, 185.
+
+Twain, Mark, =1=, 333, 341, 342, =2=, 264.
+
+Tweedie, Mrs. Edmund, =1=, 36.
+
+Tweedies, the, =1=, 117, 184.
+
+Tychism, =2=, 204, 292.
+
+Tychistic and pluralistic philosophy of pure experience, =2=, 187.
+
+
+Union College, H. James, Senior, graduates at, =1=, 8.
+
+_Unitarian Review_, Davidson's article in, =1=, 236.
+
+Unitarianism (Boston), the "bloodless pallor" of, =1=, 236.
+
+United States, =J.='s remarks on, =1=, 216, 217;
+ and the Philippines, =2=, 140, 141;
+ rushing to wallow in the mire of empire, 141;
+ manner of eating boiled eggs in, 188;
+ vocalization of people of, 189;
+ and England, 304, 305.
+
+Upham, Miss, =1=, 34, 50.
+
+Uphues, =1=, 345, 346.
+
+
+Van Buren, "Elly," =1=, 70, 74, 75.
+
+Van Rensselaer, Stephen, =1=, 3.
+
+Venezuela Message, Cleveland's, =2=, 26 _ff._
+
+Venus de Milo, =1=, 113.
+
+Verne, Jules, _Tour of the World in Eighty Days_, =1=, 173.
+
+Veronese, Paul, =1=, 90.
+
+Verrall, Mrs. A. W. _See_ Mediums.
+
+Vers-chez-les-Blanc, =1=, 320, 345, =2=, 48.
+
+Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy, =2=, 227.
+
+Victoria, Queen, her Jubilee, =1=, 270.
+
+Vienna, exhibition of French paintings at, =1=, 210.
+
+Villari, Pasquale, =1=, 338, 339, 342.
+
+Villari, Mrs., =1=, 338, 339, 342.
+
+Vincent, George E., =2=, 41, 42.
+
+Virchow, Rudolf, =1=, 72.
+
+Vischer, F. T., Essays, =1=, 94;
+ _Aesthetik_, 94.
+
+Viti, Signor da, =2=, 227.
+
+Vivekananda, =2=, 144.
+
+Voltaire, =1=, 144 _n._
+
+Vulpian, A., =1=, 156.
+
+
+Walcott, Henry P., =1=, 347, =2=, 10.
+
+Waldstein, Charles, =1=, 274, =2=, 224.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Walsh, Catherine (=J.='s 'Aunt Kate'), =1=, 41,
+ 51, 60, 61, 70, 80, 81, 114, 118, 183, 218,
+ 259, 280, 282, 285.
+
+Walsh, Hugh, =1=, 8.
+
+Walsh, Rev. Hugh, =1=, 8 _n._
+
+Walsh, James (=J.='s maternal grandfather), =1=, 8.
+
+Walsh, Mary, marries H. James, Senior, =1=, 8;
+ her ancestry, 8, 9.
+ And _see_ James, Mrs. William.
+
+Walsh, Mrs. Mary (Robertson), =1=, 8.
+
+Walston, Sir Charles. _See_ Waldstein, Charles.
+
+Wambaugh, Eugene, =2=, 132.
+
+Ward, James, =2=, 312, 313, 314, 315.
+
+Ward, Samuel, =1=, 73.
+
+Ward, Thomas W., on the Brazilian expedition, =1=, 59, 60, 65;
+ mentioned, 33.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Ward, Dorothy, =2=, 166.
+
+Ware, William R., =1=, 124, 153.
+
+Waring, Daisy, =2=, 202.
+
+Waring, George E., quoted, on Henry James, =1=, 184, 185.
+
+Warner, Joseph B., =2=, 160, 233.
+
+Warren, W. R., =2=, 233.
+
+Washington, Booker T., _Up from Slavery_, =2=, 148;
+ mentioned, 60, 61.
+
+Washington, Mrs. Booker T., at Ashfield, =2=, 199.
+
+Washington, George, =1=, 5, 277.
+
+Washington, State of, forest fires in, =2=, 80.
+
+Wells, H. G., _Utopia_, =2=, 230, 231;
+ _Anticipations_, 231;
+ _Mankind in the Making_, 231;
+ =J.='s appreciation of, 231;
+ _Kipps_, 241;
+ "Two Studies in Disappointment," 259, 260;
+ _First and Last Things_, 316;
+ the Tolstoy of the English World, 316;
+ mentioned, 246, 257, 318.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Werner, G., =2=, 242.
+
+Whatness and thatness, =1=, 244, 245.
+
+"White man's burden," cant about the, =2=, 88.
+
+Whitman, Henry, death of, =2=, 156;
+ mentioned, =1=, 298, 302.
+
+Whitman, Sarah (Mrs. Henry), her character and
+ accomplishments, =1=, 302, =2=, 205, 206;
+ last illness and death, 204, 205, 207;
+ mentioned, =1=, 309 _n._, 348, =2=, 156, 256.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Whitman, Walt, =2=, 123.
+
+Whole, Idolatry of the, =1=, 246, 247.
+
+Wilkinson, Emma. _See_ Pertz, Mrs. Emma.
+
+Wilkinson, J. J. Garth, =1=, 135 _n._
+
+William II of Germany, his message to Kruger, =2=, 27, 28.
+
+Wilmarth, Mrs., =2=, 50.
+
+Witmer, Lightner, =2=, 320.
+
+Wolff, Christian, =1=, 264.
+
+Woodberry, George E., _The Heart of Man._ =2=, 89, 90.
+
+Woodbridge, F. J. E., _Journal_, =2=, 244.
+ _See Contents._
+
+Worcester, Elwood, _The Living World_, =2=, 318.
+
+Wordsworth, W., _The Excursion_, =1=, 168, 169.
+
+Wright, Chauncy, and =J.=, =1=, 152 _n._;
+ mentioned, =2=, 233.
+
+Wundt, Wilhelm M., as a type of the German professor, =1=, 263;
+ his _System_, 333;
+ mentioned, 119, 215, 216, 224, 264, 295, =2=, 321.
+
+Wyman, Jeffries, influence as a teacher, =1=, 47;
+ C. W. Eliot and N. S. Shaler quoted on, 47, 48;
+ =J.= quoted on, 48, 49;
+ mentioned, 35, 37, 50, 71, 72, 150, 155, 160, 163, 170.
+
+
+Yale University, =1=, 231.
+
+Yankees, a German lady's idea of, =1=, 89, 90.
+
+Yoga practices, =2=, 252 _ff._
+
+Yosemite Valley, =2=, 81.
+
+
+Zennig's restaurant (Berlin), =1=, 112, 113.
+
+_Zion's Herald_, Emerson number of, =2=, 197.
+
+Zola, Émile, _Germinal_, =1=, 287;
+ mentioned, =2=, 67, 73.
+
+
+MCGRATH-SHERRILL PRESS
+GRAPHIC ARTS BLDG.
+BOSTON
+
+ * * * * *
+
+The following typographical errors have been corrected by the etext
+transcriber:
+
+mutally encouraging=>mutually encouraging
+
+Malvida von Meysenbug, Stuttgart, 1877=>Malwida von Meysenbug,
+Stuttgart, 1877
+
+Meysenbug, Malvida von, _Memoiren einer Idealistin_=>Meysenbug, Malwida
+von, _Memoiren einer Idealistin_
+
+Rome eems to beat=>Rome seems to beat
+
+Qu'on est bien dans çe fauteuil=>Qu'on est bien dans ce fauteuil
+
+
+ * * * * *
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] "It seems to me that psychology is like physics before Galileo's
+time--not a single elementary law yet caught a glimpse of. A great
+chance for some future psychologue to make a greater name than Newton's;
+but who then will read the books of this generation? Not many, I trow.
+Meanwhile they must be written." To James Sully, July 8, 1890.
+
+[2] President Eliot, in a memorandum already referred to (vol. 1, p. 32,
+note), calls attention to these courses and remarks: "These frequent
+changes were highly characteristic of James's whole career as a teacher.
+He changed topics, textbooks and methods frequently, thus utilizing his
+own wide range of reading and interest and his own progress in
+philosophy, and experimenting from year to year on the mutual contacts
+and relations with his students." James continued to be titular
+Professor of Psychology until 1897, just as he had been nominally
+Assistant Professor of Physiology for several years during which the
+original and important part of his teaching was psychological. His title
+never indicated exactly what he was teaching.
+
+[3] At this meeting he delivered a presidential address "On the Knowing
+of Things Together," a part of which is reprinted in _The Meaning of
+Truth_, p. 43, under the title, "The Tigers in India." _Vide_, also,
+_Collected Essays and Reviews_.
+
+[4] In a brief letter to the _Harvard Crimson_ (Jan. 9, 1896), James
+urged the right and duty of individuals to stand up for their opinions
+publicly during such crises, even though in opposition to the
+administration. Mr. Rhodes, in his _History of the United States,
+1877-1896_, makes the following observation: "Cleveland, in his chapter
+on the 'Venezuelan Boundary Controversy,' rates the un-Americans who
+lauded 'the extreme forbearance and kindness of England.' ... The
+reference ... need trouble no one who allows himself to be guided by two
+of Cleveland's trusted servants and friends. Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary
+of State during the first administration, and actual ambassador to Great
+Britain, wrote in a private letter on May 25, 1895, 'There is no
+question now open between the United States and Great Britain that needs
+any but frank, amicable and just treatment.' Edward J. Phelps, his first
+minister to England, in a public address on March 30, 1896, condemned
+emphatically the President's Venezuela policy." See Rhodes, _History_,
+vol. VIII, p. 454; also p. 443 _et seq._
+
+[5] "The Evolution of the Summer Resort."
+
+[6] "Address of the President before the Society for Psychical
+Research." Proc. of the (Eng.) Soc. for Psych. Res. 1896, vol. XII, pp.
+2-10; also in _Science_, 1896, N. S., vol. IV, pp. 881-888.
+
+[7] From the last paragraph of Cleveland's Venezuela message.
+
+[8] In 1910--during his final illness, in fact--James fulfilled this
+promise. See "A Pluralistic Mystic," included in Memories and Studies;
+also letter of June 25, 1910, p. 348 _infra_.
+
+[9] Cf. William James's unsigned review of Blood's _Anæsthetic
+Revelation_ in the _Atlantic Monthly_, 1874, vol. XXXIV, p. 627.
+
+[10] James always did a reasonable share of college committee work,
+especially for the committee of his own department. But although he had
+exercised a determining influence in the selection of every member of
+the Philosophical Department who contributed to its fame in his time
+(except Professor Palmer, who was his senior in service), he never
+consented to be chairman of the Department. He attended the weekly
+meetings of the whole Faculty for any business in which he was
+concerned; otherwise irregularly. He spoke seldom in Faculty.
+Occasionally he served on special committees. He usually formed an
+opinion of his own quite quickly, but his habitual tolerance in matters
+of judgment showed itself in good-natured patience with discussion--this
+despite the fact that he often chafed at the amount of time consumed.
+"Now although I happen accidentally to have been on all the committees
+which have had to do with the proposed reform, and have listened to the
+interminable Faculty debates last winter, I disclaim all powers or right
+to speak in the _name_ of the majority. Members of our dear Faculty have
+a way of discovering reasons fitted exclusively for their idiosyncratic
+use, and though voting with their neighbors, will often do so on
+incommunicable grounds. This is doubtless the effect of much learning
+upon originally ingenious minds; and the result is that the abundance of
+different points and aspects which a simple question ends by presenting,
+after a long Faculty discussion, beggars both calculation beforehand and
+enumeration after the fact."--"The Proposed Shortening of the College
+Course." _Harvard Monthly_, Jan., 1891.
+
+[1] "I _loved_ Child more than any man I know." Sept. 12, '96.
+
+[11] Eight lectures on "Abnormal Mental States" were delivered at the
+Lowell Institute in Boston, but were never published. Their several
+titles were "Dreams and Hypnotism," "Hysteria," "Automatisms," "Multiple
+Personality," "Demoniacal Possession," "Witchcraft," "Degeneration,"
+"Genius." In a letter to Professor Howison (Apr. 5, 1897) James said,
+"In these lectures I did not go into psychical research so-called, and
+although the subjects were decidedly morbid, I tried to shape them
+towards optimistic and hygienic conclusions, and the audience regarded
+them as decidedly anti-morbid in their tone."
+
+[12] _Demon Possession and Allied Themes_, by John C. Nevius.
+
+[13] _The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy_ had
+just appeared.
+
+[14] The Address has been reprinted in _Memories and Studies_.
+
+[15] For a short while MacMonnies's Bacchante stood in the court of the
+Boston Public Library.
+
+[16] These words were not employed in public, but were once applied to a
+well-known professor in a private letter.
+
+[17] A full report of the speech made at the Legislative hearing was
+printed in the _Banner of Light_, Mar. 12, 1898. The letter to the
+Boston _Transcript_ in 1894 appeared in the issue of Mar. 24.
+
+[18] _James J. Putnam to William James_
+
+BOSTON, _Mar. 9, 1898_.
+
+DEAR WILLIAM,--We have thought and talked a good deal about the subject
+of your speech in the course of the last week. I prepared with infinite
+labor a letter intended for the _Transcript_ of last Saturday, but it
+was not a weighty contribution and I am rather glad it was too late to
+get in. I think it is generally felt among the best doctors that your
+position was the liberal one, and that it would be a mistake to try to
+exact an examination of the mind-healers and Christian Scientists. On
+the other hand, I am afraid most of the doctors, even including myself,
+do not have any great feeling of fondness for them, and we are more in
+the way of seeing the fanatical spirit in which they proceed and the
+harm that they sometimes do than you are. Of course they do also good
+things which would remain otherwise not done, and that is the important
+point, and sincere fanatics are almost always, and in this case I think
+certainly, of real value.
+
+Always affectionately,
+JAMES J. P.
+
+
+[19] That is, there was here no path to follow, only "blazes" on the
+trees.
+
+[20] The housekeeper at the Putnam-Bowditch "shanty."
+
+[21] Photograph of a boy and girl standing on a rock which hangs dizzily
+over a great precipice above the Yosemite Valley.
+
+[22] G. E. Woodberry: _The Heart of Man_; 1899.
+
+[23] James's house was number 95, his mother-in-law's number 107.
+
+[24] Augusta was the house-maid; Dinah, a bull-terrier.
+
+[25] It will be recalled that Davidson had a summer School of Philosophy
+at his place called Glenmore on East Hill, and that East Hill is at one
+end of Keene Valley. See also James's essay on Thomas Davidson, "A
+Knight Errant of the Intellectual Life," in _Memories and Studies_.
+
+[26] A gift which provided for building the "Harvard Union."
+
+[27] "You have never spent a night under our roof, or eaten a meal in
+our house!" This fictitious charge had become the recognized theme of
+frequent elaborations.
+
+[28] _The World and the Individual_, vol. I. Mrs. Evans was inclined to
+contend for Royce's philosophy.
+
+[29] The name of an American claret which his correspondent had
+"discovered" and in which it also pleased James to find merit.
+
+[30] The second volume of _The World and the Individual_. (Gifford
+Lectures at the University of Aberdeen.)
+
+[31] _Interpretations of Poetry and Religion._ New York, 1900.
+
+[32] _Memoiren einer Idealistin_, by Malwida von Meysenbug, Stuttgart,
+1877.
+
+[33] _Recollections of My Mother_ [Anne Jean Lyman], by Susan I. Lesley,
+Boston, 1886.
+
+[34] Sister Nivedita.
+
+[35] Booker T. Washington's _Up from Slavery_.
+
+[36] "Frederick Myers's Services to Psychology." Reprinted in _Memories
+and Studies_.
+
+[37] _The Individual, A Study of Life and Death_. New York, 1900. This
+letter is reproduced from the _Autobiography_ of N. S. Shaler, where it
+has already been published.
+
+[38] Mrs. O. W. Holmes had used the following translation of an epitaph
+in the Greek Anthology:--
+
+ A shipwrecked sailor buried on this coast
+ Bids thee take sail.
+ Full many a gallant ship, when we were lost,
+ Weathered the gale.
+
+
+[39] "And base things of the world and things which are despised hath
+God chosen, yes, and things which are not, to bring to naught things
+that are."
+
+[40] Kitchen.
+
+[41] Although James had received the usual hint that Harvard intended to
+confer an honorary degree upon him, he had absented himself from both
+the honors and fatigues of Commencement time. The next year he was
+present, and the LL.D. was conferred.
+
+[42] "I have been re-reading Bergson's books, and nothing that I have
+read in years has so excited and stimulated my thought. Four years ago I
+couldn't understand him at all, though I felt his power. I am sure that
+that philosophy has a great future. It breaks through old _cadres_ and
+brings things into a solution from which new crystals can be got." (From
+a letter to Flournoy, Jan. 27, 1902.)
+
+[43] The Ingersoll Lecture on Human Immortality.
+
+[44] There had been a celebration of Mrs. Agassiz's eightieth birthday
+at Radcliffe College, of which she was President.
+
+[45] On the Amazon in 1865-66.
+
+[46] An 8-page _Syllabus_ printed for the use of his students in the
+course on the "Philosophy of Nature" which James was giving during the
+first half of the college year.
+
+[47] _Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death_, by F. W. H.
+Myers.
+
+[48] "The piles driven into the quicksand are too few for such a
+structure. But it is essential as a preliminary attempt at methodizing,
+and will doubtless keep a very honorable place in history." To F. C. S.
+Schiller, April 8, 1903.
+
+[49] Eusapia Paladino, the Italian "medium." The physical manifestations
+which occurred during her trance had excited much discussion.
+
+[50] The name of a student-society.
+
+[51] The horse.
+
+[52] W. E. B. Du Bois: _The Souls of Black Folk_.
+
+[53] These five lectures were delivered at the summer school at
+"Glenmore," which Thomas Davidson had founded. Their subject was
+"Radical Empiricism as a Philosophy"; but they were neither written out
+nor reported.
+
+[54] _Aristotelian Society Proceedings_, vol. IV, pp. 87-110.
+
+[55] James's answers are printed in italics.
+
+[56] "How Two Minds Can Know One Thing," _Journal of Philosophy,
+Psychology, and Scientific Methods_, 1905, vol. II, p. 176.
+
+[57] "Is Radical Empiricism Solipsistic?" _Journal of Philosophy,
+Psychology, and Scientific Methods_, 1905, vol. II, p. 235.
+
+[58] This address, "La Notion de Conscience," was printed first in the
+_Archives de Psychologie_, 1905, vol. V, p. 1. It will also be found in
+the _Essays in Radical Empiricism_.
+
+[59] "My own desire to see Roosevelt president here for a limited term
+of years was quenched by a speech he made at the Harvard Union a couple
+of years ago." (To D. S. Miller, Jan. 2, 1908.)
+
+[60] _The Life of Reason._ New York, 1905.
+
+[61] He had been "sounded" regarding an appointment as Harvard Exchange
+Lecturer at the Sorbonne, and had at first been inclined to accept.
+
+[62] Busse, _Leib und Seele, Geist und Körper_; Heymans, _Einführung in
+die Metaphysik_.
+
+[63] _Vide Letters of Henry James_, vol. II, p. 43.
+
+[64] "Also outside 'addresses,' impossible to refuse. Damn them! Four in
+this Hotel [in San Francisco] where I was one of four orators who spoke
+for two hours on 'Reason and Faith,' before a Unitarian Association of
+Pacific Coasters. Consequence: _gout_ on waking this morning! _Unitarian
+gout_--was such a thing ever heard of?" (To T. S. Perry, Feb. 6, 1906.)
+
+[65] Dr. Snow kindly wrote an account of the afternoon that he spent in
+James's company in the city and it may here be given in part.
+
+"When I met Professor James in San Francisco early in the afternoon of
+the day of the earthquake, he was full of questions about my personal
+feelings and reactions and my observations concerning the conduct and
+evidences of self-control and fear or other emotions of individuals with
+whom I had been closely thrown, not only in the medical work which I
+did, but in the experiences I had on the fire-lines in dragging hose and
+clearing buildings in advance of the dynamiting squads.
+
+"I described to him an incident concerning a great crowd of people who
+desired to make a short cut to the open space of a park at a time when
+there was danger of all of them not getting across before certain
+buildings were dynamited. Several of the city's police had stretched a
+rope across this street and were volubly and vigorously combating the
+onrush of the crowd, using their clubs rather freely. Some one cut the
+rope. At that instant, a lieutenant of the regular army with three
+privates appeared to take up guard duty. The lieutenant placed his guard
+and passed on. The three soldiers immediately began their beat, dividing
+the width of the street among themselves. The crowd waited, breathless,
+to see what the leaders of the charge upon the police would now do. One
+man started to run across the street and was knocked down cleverly by
+the sentry, with the butt of his gun. This sentry coolly continued his
+patrol and the man sat up, apparently thinking himself wounded, then
+scuttled back into the crowd, drawing from every one a laugh which was
+evidently with the soldiers. Immediately, the crowd began to melt away
+and proceed up a side street in the direction laid out for them.
+
+"In connection with this story Professor James casually mentioned that
+not long before, where there were no soldiers or police, he had run on
+to a crowd stringing a man to a lamp-post because of his endeavor to rob
+the body of a woman of some rings. At the time, I did not learn other
+details of this particular incident, us Professor James was so full of
+the many scenes he had witnessed and was particularly intent on
+gathering from me impressions of what I had seen. I suppose he had
+similarly been gathering observations from others whom he met,
+
+"An incident which struck me as humorous at the time was that he should
+have gathered up a box of "Zu-zu gingersnaps," and, as I recall it, some
+small pieces of cheese. I do not now recall his comment on where he had
+obtained these, but there was some humorous incident connected with the
+transaction, and he was quite happy and of opinion that he was enjoying
+a nourishing meal.
+
+"Professor James told me vividly and in a few words the circumstances of
+the damage done by the earthquake at Stanford University, and I left him
+to make arrangements for going down to the University that night to
+provide for my family. As it turned out, Professor James returned to the
+campus before I did, and true to his promise thoughtfully hunted up Mrs.
+Snow and told her that he had seen me and that I was alive and well."
+
+[66] James had not used a type-writer since the time when his eyes
+troubled him in the seventies. The machine now had the fascination of a
+strange toy again.
+
+[67] He did mistake, as Mr. Chesterton's subsequent utterances showed.
+
+[68] As to "Jimmy," _vide_ vol. I, p. 301 _supra_.
+
+[69] _Cf._ pp. 16, 17, and 220 _supra_.
+
+[70] Dr. Miller writes: "These four evenings at the Faculty Club were
+singularly interesting occasions. One was a meeting of the Philosophical
+Club of New York, whose members, about a dozen in number, were of
+different institutions. The others were impromptu meetings arranged
+either by members of the Department of Philosophy at Columbia or a wider
+group. At one of them Mr. James sat in a literal circle of chairs, with
+professors of Biology, Mathematics, etc., as well as Philosophy, and
+answered in a particularly friendly and charming way the frank
+objections of a group that were by no means all opponents. At the close,
+when he was thanked for his patience, he remarked in his humorously
+disclaiming manner that he was not accustomed to be taken so seriously.
+Privately he remarked how pleasantly such an unaffected, easy meeting
+contrasted with a certain formal and august dinner club, the exaggerated
+amusement of the diners at each other's jokes, etc."
+
+[71] His resignation did not take effect until the end of the Academic
+year, although his last meeting with the class to which he was giving a
+"half-course," occurred at the mid-year.
+
+[72] "La Notion de Conscience," _Archives de Psychologie_, vol. V, No.
+17, June, 1905. Later included in _Essays in Radical Empiricism_.
+
+[73] "Pragmatism's Conception of Truth." Included in _Selected Essays
+and Reviews_.
+
+[74] The story of the Committee for Mental Hygiene is interestingly told
+in Part V of the 4th Edition of C. W. Beers's _A Mind that Found
+Itself_. Several letters from James are incorporated in the story.
+_Vide_ pp. 339 and 340; also pp. 320, 352.
+
+[75] Mrs. James's niece, Rosamund Gregor, age 6.
+
+[76] _Memories and Studies_, pp. 286 _et seq._
+
+[77] The reader need hardly be reminded that new meanings and
+associations have attached themselves to this word in particular.
+
+[78] _Talks to Teachers_, p. 265.
+
+[79] Proceedings of (English) S.P.R., vol. XXIII, pp. 1-121. Also, Proc.
+American S.P.R., vol. III, p. 470.
+
+[80] _L'Évolution Créatrice._
+
+[81] "A Word More about Truth," reprinted in _Collected Essays and
+Reviews_.
+
+[82] Learned public.
+
+[83] Superficial stuff.
+
+[84] The lectures were published as _A Pluralistic Universe_.
+
+[85] New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1908.
+
+[86] "The Confidences of a Psychical Researcher," reprinted in _Memories
+and Studies_ under the title "Final Impressions of a Psychical
+Researcher."
+
+[87] By Frank Harris; New York: 1909.
+
+[88] See the footnote on p. 39 _supra_.
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 38091 ***
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