Chapter 15

McGrath-Sherrill PressGRAPHIC ARTS BLDG.BOSTON

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 inThe Meaning of Truth, p. 43, under the title, "The Tigers in India."Vide, also,Collected Essays and Reviews.[4]In a brief letter to theHarvard 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 hisHistory 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. 443et 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 inScience, 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. 348infra.[9]Cf. William James's unsigned review of Blood'sAnæsthetic Revelationin theAtlantic 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 thenameof 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.[10a]"IlovedChild 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 Philosophyhad just appeared.[14]The Address has been reprinted inMemories 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 theBanner of Light, Mar. 12, 1898. The letter to the BostonTranscriptin 1894 appeared in the issue of Mar. 24.[18]James J. Putnam to William JamesBoston,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 theTranscriptof 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," inMemories 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 ofThe 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'sUp from Slavery.[36]"Frederick Myers's Services to Psychology." Reprinted inMemories and Studies.[37]The Individual, A Study of Life and Death. New York, 1900. This letter is reproduced from theAutobiographyof 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 coastBids 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 oldcadresand 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-pageSyllabusprinted 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 theArchives de Psychologie, 1905, vol.V, p. 1. It will also be found in theEssays 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:gouton 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,"videvol.I, p. 301supra.[69]Cf.pp. 16, 17, and 220supra.[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 inEssays in Radical Empiricism.[73]"Pragmatism's Conception of Truth." Included inSelected 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'sA Mind that Found Itself. Several letters from James are incorporated in the story.Videpp. 339 and 340; also pp. 320, 352.[75]Mrs. James's niece, Rosamund Gregor, age 6.[76]Memories and Studies, pp. 286et 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 inCollected Essays and Reviews.[82]Learned public.[83]Superficial stuff.[84]The lectures were published asA Pluralistic Universe.[85]New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1908.[86]"The Confidences of a Psychical Researcher," reprinted inMemories and Studiesunder the title "Final Impressions of a Psychical Researcher."[87]By Frank Harris; New York: 1909.[88]See the footnote onp. 39supra.

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 inThe Meaning of Truth, p. 43, under the title, "The Tigers in India."Vide, also,Collected Essays and Reviews.

[4]In a brief letter to theHarvard 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 hisHistory 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. 443et 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 inScience, 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. 348infra.

[9]Cf. William James's unsigned review of Blood'sAnæsthetic Revelationin theAtlantic 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 thenameof 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.

[10a]"IlovedChild 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 Philosophyhad just appeared.

[14]The Address has been reprinted inMemories 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 theBanner of Light, Mar. 12, 1898. The letter to the BostonTranscriptin 1894 appeared in the issue of Mar. 24.

[18]James J. Putnam to William JamesBoston,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 theTranscriptof 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.

[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 theTranscriptof 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," inMemories 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 ofThe 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'sUp from Slavery.

[36]"Frederick Myers's Services to Psychology." Reprinted inMemories and Studies.

[37]The Individual, A Study of Life and Death. New York, 1900. This letter is reproduced from theAutobiographyof 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 coastBids thee take sail.Full many a gallant ship, when we were lost,Weathered the gale.

[38]Mrs. O. W. Holmes had used the following translation of an epitaph in the Greek Anthology:—

[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 oldcadresand 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-pageSyllabusprinted 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 theArchives de Psychologie, 1905, vol.V, p. 1. It will also be found in theEssays 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:gouton 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."

[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,"videvol.I, p. 301supra.

[69]Cf.pp. 16, 17, and 220supra.

[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 inEssays in Radical Empiricism.

[73]"Pragmatism's Conception of Truth." Included inSelected 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'sA Mind that Found Itself. Several letters from James are incorporated in the story.Videpp. 339 and 340; also pp. 320, 352.

[75]Mrs. James's niece, Rosamund Gregor, age 6.

[76]Memories and Studies, pp. 286et 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 inCollected Essays and Reviews.

[82]Learned public.

[83]Superficial stuff.

[84]The lectures were published asA Pluralistic Universe.

[85]New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1908.

[86]"The Confidences of a Psychical Researcher," reprinted inMemories and Studiesunder the title "Final Impressions of a Psychical Researcher."

[87]By Frank Harris; New York: 1909.

[88]See the footnote onp. 39supra.

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