The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 12: In MotleyBierce, Ambrose
General
The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce, Volume 12: In Motley
Bierce, Ambrose
American literature
I have in mind a notable instance of a sensation taking on three
dimensions—one for which I am not indebted, probably, to the courtesy
of some forgotten experience producing an association of ideas. It
will be conceded that it is at least unlikely that one should ever
enjoy simultaneously the double gratification of eating a pine-apple
and seeing a man hanged; such felicity is reserved, I fancy, for
creatures more meritorious than poor sinful human beings. Nevertheless,
I never taste pine-apple without a lively sense of a man with his
head in a black bag, depending from his beam. It is not that I am at
the same time conscious of the fruit and of that solemn spectacle; it
simply seems to me that a man hanging is the taste of that fruit. It
is needless to add that when thinking of those unworthy persons, my
enemies, I derive a holy delight from consuming generous slices of
pine-apple.
There is a class of mental phenomena which, so far as my knowledge
goes, has never been “spread upon the record.” Possibly they are
peculiar to my own imperfect understanding, and a saner consciousness
is innocent of them. If so it will gratify my pride of monopoly to
admit the public to a view of my intellectual chattels. The mental
process of enumeration is with me a gliding upward in various
directions from 1 to 100; not along a column of successive figures,
like a cat scampering up a staircase, but along a smooth, pale-bluish,
angular streak, with the hither-and-yon motion of a soaring snipe.
From 1 to 10 the line runs upward, and to the right at an angle with
the horizon of about sixty degrees. There it turns sharply back to the
left and the grade to 20 is nearly flat. Thence to 30 the ascent is
vertical. From 30 to 50 there is an ascent of 10 degrees to the right
and slightly away from me. The course to 60 is to the left again, the
angle, say 10 degrees. From 60 to 90 there is no break, the course,
too, is almost level and directly away; thence to 100 nearly vertical.
It will be observed that the angles are all at 10 and its multiples,
but there is no angle at 40, none at 70, nor at 80. I may explain that
the interval between 10 and 20 is greatly longer than it ought to be,
and I venture to protest against the exceptional and unwarrantable
brevity of that between 90 and 100.
Every time I count I am compelled to ascend some part of this
reasonless and ridiculous Jacob’s-ladder, with a “hitchety, hatchety,
up I go” movement, like Jack mounting his bean-stalk; and it is
ludicrously true that I feel a sense of relief on arriving at the more
nearly level stages, and on them am conscious of an augmented speed.
I can count from 60 to 70 twice as quickly as I can from 90 to 100.
Investigation and comparison of such conceptions as these can but
result in unspeakable advancement of knowledge. If any gentleman has
similar ones and a little leisure for their discussion I hope he will
consent to meet me in Heaven.
MY CREDENTIALS
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