The Letters of William James, Vol. 1James, William
General
The Letters of William James, Vol. 1
James, William
Intellectuals -- United States; James, William, 1842-1910; Philosophers -- United States; Psychologists -- United States
In late June James did, in fact, sail on the Cephalonia and disembark at
Queenstown. Thence he proceeded _via_ Cork to Killarney and on to
Dublin, where he spent a day at Trinity College before going to Glasgow
and Oban. Having, in the briefest time and at first sight, fallen "dead
in love wi' Scotland both land and people" he traveled on _via_
Edinburgh, and reached London by the 17th of July. There he stayed with
Henry James for ten days and saw his sister. A letter from London to
Mrs. James may be included in part.
_To Mrs. James._
34 DE VERE GARDENS, LONDON,
_July 29, 1889_.
... [After seeing Mrs. Gurney I went] to Brighton, where I spent a night
at Myers's lodgings, and the evening with him and the Sidgwicks trying
thought-transference experiments which, however, on that occasion did
not succeed.... The best thing by far which I saw in Brighton, and a
thing the impression of which will perhaps outlast everything else on
this trip, was four cuttle-fish (octopus) in the Aquarium. I wish we had
one of them for a child--such flexible intensity of life in a form so
inaccessible to our sympathy. Next day to Haslemere to the Pearsall
Smiths, where I spent a really _gemüthlich_ evening and morning.
Pearsall himself as engaging as of yore. The place and country
wonderfully rich and beautiful. Returning yesterday, went with H. to
National Gallery in the afternoon, and read Brownell on France in the
P.M. Yesterday, Sunday, Harry went to the country after breakfast,
whilst I wrote a lot of notes and read Zola's "Germinal," a story of
mines and miners, and a truly magnificent work, if successfully to
reproduce the horror and pity of certain human facts and make you see
them as if real can make a book magnificent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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