The Washington herald., 1914-05-31
'ould disagree on anything under the

could disagree on anything under the
sun.
/ wish he would come back. Why did
be 60? Who can ever explain It! !
am lonely now, and depressed with
grave forebodings-frightened by ter
rors that are of the mind and that put
at naught all that my mind has ever
conceived. Form is mutsble. This is
the last word of positive science. The
dead do not come back. This is incon-
The dead are dead. and
that is the end of it, and of them. And
yet l have had experiences here-here,
in this very room, at this very desk,
that-but wait. Let me put it down IN
black and white, in words simple and
Let me ask some Ques-
tions. Who mislays my pen. That is
what l desire to know. Who uses up
my ink 50 rapidly? Not !. And yet
the ink goes.
The answer to these questions would
settle all the enigmas Of the universe. !
know the answer. l am not fool. And
some day, if / am plagued too desper-
ately, l shall give the answer myself. /
shall give the name Of him who mislays
my pen and uses up my ink. II is %
silly to think that I could use such =
quantity of ink The servant lies, I
know.
have got me fountain pen. have
always dislileed the device, but my old
stub had to 60. burned it in the fire.
place. The ink ! keep under lock and
key. / shall see if / cannot put stop to
these lies that are being written about
me- And / have other plans. 1t is not
true that have recanted. ] still believe
that live in a mechanical universe. II
has not been proved otherwise to me, for
all that l have peered over his shoulder
and read his malicious statement to the
contrary. He gives me credit for no less
than average stupidity. He thinks !
think he is real. How silly. / know be
is a grain-6gment, nothing more
There are such things as hallueina-
tons. Even as looked over his shoul-
der and read, knew that this was such
a thing. II I were only well it would
be interesting. All my life have want
ed to experience such phenomena And
now it has come to me. l shall make
the most of II. What is inaginatiour It
can make something where there is moth
ing. How can anything be something
where there is nothing! How can any
thing be something and nothing At tn.
same time? I leave it for the metaphysi-
clans to ponder. I know better. No
scholastics for me. This is real world,
and everything in it is real. What is
not real is not. Therefore he is not.
Yet he tries to fool me into believing
that he is-when all the time ! know he
has no existence outside of my own
brain cells.
saw him today, seated at the deslk,
writing. 1t gave me quite a shock, b.
cause l had thought he was quite dis
pelled. Nevertheless, on looking stead
lily, / found that he was not there-the
old familiar trick Of the brain. / have
dwelt too long on what has happened. I
am becoming morbid, and my old indi-
gestion is limiting and muttering. / shall
take exercise. Each day shall walk
for two hours.
1t is impossible. / cannot exercise.
Each time return from my walk he is
sitting in my chair at my desk. 1t grows
more difficult to drive him away. 1t is
my chair Upon this l insist. 1t was
his, but he is dead and it is no longer
his. How one can. be fooled by the
phantoms of his own imaginingl There
is nothing real in his apparition. I know
it. / am firmly grounded with my fifty
years of study. The dead are dead.
And yet, explain one thing. Today,
before going for my walk, I carefully
put the fountain pen in my pocket be-
fore leaving the room. l remember it
distinctly. l looked at the clock at the
time. 1t was 1910. Yet on my return
there was the pen lying on .the desk.
Some one had been using it. There was
very little ink left. / wish he would not
write so much. 1t is disconcerting.
There is one thing upon which Jim
and l were not quite agreed. He believed
in the eternity of the forms of things.
Therefore, there entered in Immediately
the consequent belief in Immortality and
all the other notions of the metaphysi-
cal philosophers. had little patience
with him in this. Painstakingly l have
traced to him the evolution of his belief
in the eternity of forms, showing him
how it has arisen out of his early in
fatuation with logic and mathematics.
Of course, from that warped, squirting,