The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-04-16
OcToPI0F THE BRAIN 3:Fl All
Kate Sanborn's Interesting
Letter on Books and
Happenings.

ton of order, peace and hope by con-
fiding my perplexities to you, my new
readers.
have had a delightful and refresh
ing visit from distinguished professor
of biology and his agreeable wife. But
some of the new things he spoke of so
surely were rather depressing to one
whose mind has had other training.
We must go farther back than to the
ape for a direct ancestor nor is the
missing link between him and man. We
go back in a straight line to the Limu-
lus polyphemus of horseshoe crab.
Just there comes serious break,
which is difficult to restore, because all
the specimens of that variety seem to
have become extinct. This is serious.
The idea of a personal God is the
rankest absurdity, immortality a base
less dream, personal identity after
death an amusing delusion.
He could not explain who or what
started the first amelia, or why the eye
we used to have on or in the top of the
head had disappeared.
But I was grieved to hear that
thought was caused by the stretching
antennae of octopi in our BRAIN start
sleep these tendrils draw back into
quietude We are doubtless largely
made up of wrigglers, and our diseases
are caused by intruding parasites, but
some way 1 can stand all that with
more calmness than the news of these
spraying occupants of what l called
my BRAIN
The professor remarked that he had
recently seen a photograph of the
milky way, and that it was now con-
ceded that it consisted of innumerable
stars probably inhabited And how
can we, infinitesimally unimpOrtant
mites, hope to go on?
1 bravely took my last calendar the
starlight" theme: immortality, and
read one cheering quotation; but the
grim smile of the saVant caused me to
lay it down. I quoted Prof. James of
Harvard, who does believe in immOr-
tality to an unmoved man. l did not
sleep well that night.
The antennae of my cerebral octopi
didn't retire as they should thought
of the insane; probably their octopi had
got all mixed up. How.thankful L was
that so far mine had worked right.
This morning I have been looking
over a very new book, THE Letters of
Thomas Carlyle to His Youngest SIS
ter" and I find this paragraph:
Matter exists only spiritually and
TO represent some idea and Dody II
forth. Heaven and earth are but the
time-vesture of the eternal The uni
verse is but one vast symbol OF COD,
nav. if thou wilt have it. what is man
himself but a symbol of God? Is not
all that he does symbolical?, revela-
ton to sense of the mystic God-glNen
force that is in him"
You see he regarded time as an illu-
sion; tShakspere said;
We are such stuff as dreams are
made of"
o dear! In these letters written to
his nearest and dearest, Carlyle gives
no uncommon thoughts and few strik-
ing sentences. But. the man hda such
a tremendous personality tnat We read
his directions for making his flannel
shirts, or a request for pair OF Ieu
and brown "wristikins, OF me
'boozy" yarn, knit two-ply, With real
interest, and are pleased when We md
later that they suited.
One sees little Of the savage GROWER,
savage critic, and dyspeptic indlgc-oag,
in these home talks. He. was true and
constant as a son and brother, ana
gaining a closer knowledge OF the mF- H.
we like him better. These letters are
edited by Charles Copeland FoWnierd,
and published by HOughton & MitiIlI.
The Introductory essay by Mr.. Town
send on Carlyle as a letter-WrltIr' is
well done. Abiding to The fac, that
most famous letter writer's have t9en
genial and cheerful, giving the -brlEnt
side of their lives to their correspoEdF
ents, he shows Carlyle in ellckest cDl-
.trast All annoyances spoke To Ping
through a megaphone. Every cock alat
crowed near him was "a demon fowl ;
no one was ever so tiendlshiy torment
ed by a liver: mankind were m 1stly
fools; London was n monstrous
wen; Europe "a huge supperaton !;
the world at large "a dusty fuiiglnqus
chaos" a stern and awful plaaeaf' hut
we do not mind. His genius towers 50
far above his faults that hey are as
pebbles at the base of a mighty NOUN
tain.
Who ever drew such vivid character
sketches as he? sometimes using INK oil
midnight blaCkness, then Il lurid red,
again his burning words jerk along the
page like forked lightning; sometimes
he dipped his pen in Vitriol! And ne
made pictures that stay.
There was the closest bond of deTO-
ton between him and his grand, SIM
pIe-hearted old mother. de never Ter
got her or failed to keep her supplied
with all sorts Of comforts, and best of
al never distressed her loving ne; t,
by failing to write. Carlyle is MINOR
tai as the historian and Diographer,
and is ranked as one Of England's best
letter writer's. But these everyday
chats with his own, show hnn IN 4 new
and beautiful light After writing his
sister Jenny a very full letter, he would
add: Send an old newspaper from
time to time if you are well, with two
strokes on it
Everyone will wish to add this vol
une to their Carlyle shelf.
DR.. Holmes used to allude to Elsie
Venner as his "medicated novel"
have three novels sent me lately, that
deal with religion in various ways, and
from different outlOoks, and all vel
worth a careful reading, but I cannot
think of a name by which to classify
them. Mrs. Skinner now of Detroit
formerly Miss Henrietta Dana Of Cam
bridge, an accomplished, travelled wo
man of the finest musical education
gives US a musical novel, permeatet
with the best influences of the Roman
Catholic church: "Espiritu Santo,
Harper & Bros, $3.50.
From Edouard Rod. we have stud!
of French Professionalism, its scene lai,
in two Huguenot stronghOlds. A criti
saws that it pleases both Catholics an,
Protestants As NJ. Rod is now in gu
country lecturing at Harvard and a
other colleges, we like to know some
thing of his own work Little &
Brown. publishers, S1.25. Edmund Ges
saws that his work whether in criticism
or fiction, always demands attention.
And DR.. Ruen Thomas Of Brooklin
NAV be called gloriously courageous
the clergyman who dared TO write a
he believes. In his novel, THE Kinshil
of Souls" he gives his honest convic
fions and stands forth in shining con
l.