Philosophy 4: A Story of Harvard UniversityWister, Owen
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Philosophy 4: A Story of Harvard University
Wister, Owen
College stories; Harvard University -- Fiction
Ten questions, and no Epicharmos of Kos. But no examination paper asks
everything, and this one did ask a good deal. Bertie and Billy wrote the
full time allotted, and found that they could have filled an hour more
without coming to the end of their thoughts. Comparing notes at lunch,
their information was discovered to have been lacking here and there.
Nevertheless, it was no failure; their inner convictions were sure of
fifty per cent at least, and this was all they asked of the gods. “I
was ripping about the ego,” said Bertie. “I was rather splendid myself,”
said Billy, “when I got going. And I gave him a huge steer about
memory.” After lunch both retired to their beds and fell into sweet
oblivion until seven o’clock, when they rose and dined, and after
playing a little poker went to bed again pretty early.
Some six mornings later, when the Professor returned their papers to
them, their minds were washed almost as clear of Plato and Thales as
were their bodies of yesterday’s dust. The dates and doctrines, hastily
memorized to rattle off upon the great occasion, lay only upon the
surface of their minds, and after use they quickly evaporated. To their
pleasure and most genuine astonishment, the Professor paid them high
compliments. Bertie’s discussion of the double personality had been
the most intelligent which had come in from any of the class. The
illustration of the intoxicated hack-driver who had fallen from his hack
and inquired who it was that had fallen, and then had pitied himself,
was, said the Professor, as original and perfect an illustration of our
subjective-objectivity as he had met with in all his researches. And
Billy’s suggestions concerning the inherency of time and space in
the mind the Professor had also found very striking and independent,
particularly his reasoning based upon the well-known distortions of time
and space which hashish and other drugs produce in us. This was the sort
of thing which the Professor had wanted from his students: free comment
and discussions, the spirit of the course, rather than any strict
adherence to the letter. He had constructed his questions to elicit
as much individual discussion as possible and had been somewhat
disappointed in his hopes.
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