The New York herald., 1921-01-09
William James and Lincoln

.'There is a mystery of rightness about
that Parthenon that cannot understand. 1t
sets standard for other human things.
showing that absolute rightness is not out
of reach. Suffice ii that I couldn't
keep the tears from yelling into my eyes,"
1t is this coloring of thought with rich
human feeling that draws alike to James
and to Lincoln. And both alike had the gift
of laughter. Almost every page of the James
letters is lighted with some touch of humor.
And his homely comparisons are unique In
the writings of the philosophic tribe. In
describing the mental state of thinker who
was on the point of abandoning certain
theories James wrote: 1.-THE umbrella will
turn inside out, and not go back Lincoln
might have said that! And very like 1t is
the description in a letter to Mrs. James Of
certain overserious type
I've been meeting minds so earnest and
helpless that it takes them half an hour to
get from one idea to its immediately ad-
jacent next neighbor and that with infinite
creaking and groaning. And when they've
got to the next idea they lie down OMIT with
their whole weight and can get no farther.
like COW on a doormat so that you can
get neither in nor out with them"
OF course, a man with so enthusiastic
temperament could not be wholly consistent.
I remember the lecture he gave on the de-
STABILITY of relaxation, to which he uncon-
ner of his own delivery! He was quite as
eager in welcoming other mems inspirations
in expressing his own witness the noble
delight of his letters to Bergson and Wells.
20, my Bergson, you are a magician, and
your book is a marvel, real wonder in the
history of philosophy. making, if l mistake
not, an entirely new era in respect of matter,
but unlike the works of genius Of the tran
scendentalist movement (Which are so
ohc abo ipa nd
written), a pure classic in point of form.
You may be amused at the comparison, but
in finishing it l found the same after-taste
remaining as after finishing Madame
Bovary,' such flavor of persistent euphony,
of a rich river that never foamed or ran
thin, but steadily and firmly proceeded with
it's banks full to the brim Then the aptness
of your illustrations. that never scratch
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 book proves to be as great an advance
on this one as this Is on it's two predecessors,
your name will surely go down as one of the
great creative names in philosophy"
DEAR WMLs-First and last things is a
great achievement. The first two books
should be entitled philosophy without hum
bug and used as textbook in all the col
leges of the world You have put your finger
main-on what seems to me the true solu-
tions (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 professionally blush. I have
been 35 years on the way to similar con-
clusons-simply because 1 started as pro-
fessonal and had to debrouiller them from
all the traditional school rubbish"
In view of some of the charges of trivi-
alty and superficial thinking brought
against Wells to-day on the publication of
his Outline of History" 1t is in order to
quote these letters of profound thinker
James had written to Wells three years be-
fore the letter quoted:
'I believe that you will prove to have
given a shove to the practical thought of
the next generation that will be among the
greatest of it's influences for good :.
Everywhere the sense of the full concrete
and the air of freedom playing through all
the joints of your argument"
AS for James the man, it is hard to see
how anybody could read the letters to his
family and to friends of all sorts without
loving him. He gave himself with glorious
prodigality. Some idea of this is conveyed