Evening star., 1935-09-22

in her cosmology. Lady angels wore
petticoats and gentleman angels at
least kept their wings discreetly folded.
In that diary she came face to face
with the most shockingly naked of all
naked things-a mind stripped bare
Of illusions and rationalizations.
She considered it a part of her trust
that the mind of Amiel should be
properly clad before 1t was allowed
to venture before the world. She
clothed it by her conscientious efforts
in selecting and editing. A strange.
Amiel the world has known, pitied and
loved. But it was an idealized figure
of the nineteenth century gentleman.
When Mile. Mercier died in 1918
the previously guarded manuscript
passed into the hands of her nephew,
Bernard Bouvier, who subjected it to
a critical and laborious re-examina-
ton. The result was new edition,
containing much that had been de-
leted from the original publication
with which, in its translation by Mrs.
Humphrey Ward. most American
readers are acquainted.
The result is volume which, with
out sacrificing line of the old ma
terial, is more in tone with the spirit
of the twentieth century. A new
Amiel appears-a far more realistic,
fesh-and-blood figure in the light OF
that twentieth century psychology OF
which he was a pioneer. There is
the same Hamlet-like character, the
same torturing introspection, the same
brilliant psychological analysis, the
same objective and scientific obServa-
ton of nature, the same moving poetry
and a vastly more recognizable per-
sonality.
The professor, we learn here for the
first tine, didn't spend all his time in
morbid self-analysis, philosophical
contemplation, lonely walks in the
moonlight, or worry about approach
ing death. He attended party once
it must have been a rather hilarious
party for the eminently proper Geneva
of that day-and in reckless moment
kissed one of the ladies. 1t frightened
him. But, true to form. he went home
and wrote a full account of that kiss
in his journal.
1t did not appear, Of course. ir
Mile. Mercier's edition. And during
his student days in Germany, M
shamelessly confesses. he engaged II
firtations with several frauleins. The
ghosts of those fiirtations bothered
him a lot in later years.
THESE are breaths of realism which
DR.. Bouvier has allowed to entel
the lamp-lit room. They, perhaps, de-
serve emphasis because of a reason
even more significant than that they
make Amiel more real and lovable
He was one of the greatest introspec'
tive psychologists of all time. Perhap!
no man ever lived who subjected hi
own mind and emotions to a mor'
ruthless, objective study. And thl
study led him into paths which other
were not to follow for nearly gen
Grafton. He is truly a pioneer-ant
an uncompromiSing and courageou!
one-in the strange country of the sou
explored by Freud, Jung and their fol
lowers. It was not mercy that n
recognized and expanded the concep
of the unconscious which many philos
ophers had held before him. He wa
practical and factual. He was per
haps the first, for example, to hav'
arrived at the h-fulfillment theor!
of dreams, independently and by hi
own tortuous path.
DR.. Bouvier, by rescuing these hith
erto unpublished fragments OF Amieli
journal, has provided the world will
an important document in the histor!
of psychology. But he has, we be
lieve, done much more. Mile. Mercier'
first publication resulted in the up
springing over Europe and Americs
of an Amiel cult. The man had ,
real message to his time. 1t was syn
thesis of the PHILOSOPHERS Of Words
worth, of Carlyle, Of Emerson, o
Thoreau. The obscurest caverns o
these PHILOSOPHERS were Illuminated b.
the genius of the Geneva recluse.
Amiel lived in an age Of crashinI
faiths. His thought, like Arnold's
wandered between two worlds. on,
dead, the other helpless to be born.
The theological, philosophical, eco
nomic and political landmarks Of tn
European mind were disappearing
Out of this intellectual chaos he fount
. sure but perilous path. Others has
stumbled into it before him. Some hat
followed 1t to glory and more TO dis