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AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY |
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by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
There are thoughts that never emerge into consciousness, which yet make their influence felt among the perceptible mental currents, just as the unseen planets sway the movements of those which are watched and mapped by the astronomer. Old prejudices, that are ashamed to confess themselves, nudge our talking thought to utter their magisterial veto. In hours of languor, as Mr. Lecky has remarked, the beliefs and fancies of obsolete conditions are apt to take advantage of us. We know very little of the contents of our minds until some sudden jar brings them to light, as an earthquake that shakes down a miser's house brings out the old stockings full of gold, and all the hoards that have hid away in holes and crannies. We not rarely find our personality doubled in our dreams, and do battle with ourselves, unconscious that we are our own antagonists. Dr. Johnson dreamed that he had a contest of wit with an opponent, and got the worst of it: of course, he furnished the wit for both. Tartini heard the Devil play a wonderful sonata, and set it down on awaking. Who was the Devil but Tartini himself? I remember, in my youth, reading verses in a dream, written, as I thought, by a rival fledgling of the Muse. They were so far beyond my powers, that I despaired of equaling them; yet I must have made them unconsciously as I read them. Could I only have remembered them waking! But I must here add another personal experience, of which I will say beforehand, -- somewhat as honest Izaak Walton said of his pike, "This dish of meat is too good for any but anglers or very honest men," -- this story is good only for philosophers and very small children. I will merely hint to the former class of thinkers, that its moral bears on two points: first, the value of our self-estimate, sleeping, -- possibly, also, waking; secondly, the significance of general formulae when looked at in certain exalted mental conditions. I once inhaled a pretty full dose of ether, with the determination to put on record, at the earliest moment of regaining consciousness, the thought I should find uppermost in my mind. The mighty music of the triumphal march into nothingness reverberated through my brain, and filled me with a sense of infinite possibilities which made me an archangel for the moment. The veil of eternity was lifted. The one great truth which underlies all human experience, and is the key to all the mysteries that philosophy has sought in vain to solve, flashed upon me in a sudden revelation. Henceforth all was clear: a few words had lifted my intelligence to the level of the knowledge of the cherubim. As my natural condition returned, I remembered my resolution; and, staggering to my desk, I wrote in ill-shaped, straggling characters, the all-embracing truth still glimmering in my consciousness. The words were these (children may smile, the wise will ponder): "A strong smell of turpentine prevails throughout."
Excerpted from Pages from An Old Volume of Life, by Oliver Wndell Holmes, Sr. |
THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Pages From An Old Volume Of Life, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (Digital Download)
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Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book... Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Magazine...
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