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
I am delighted to hear how well Wilky is, and to hear from him. I wish
Bob would write me a line--and only one letter from Alice in all this
time--shame! Oh, the lovely white child! How the red man of the forest
would like to hug her to his bosom once more! I proposed, beloved Alice,
to write thee a long letter by this steamer describing my wonderful
adventures with the wild Indians, and the tiger [jaguar?], and various
details which interest thy lovely female mind; but I feel so darned
heavy and seedy this morning that I cannot pump up the flow of words,
and the letter goes on with the steamer from Manaos this evening. This
expedition has been far less adventurous and far more picturesque than
I expected. I have not yet seen a single snake wild here. The adventure
with the tiger consisted in his approaching to within 30 paces of our
mosquito net, and roaring so as to wake us, and then keeping us awake
most of the rest of the night by roaring far and near. I confess I felt
some skeert, on being suddenly awoke by him, tho' when I had laid me
down I had mocked the apprehensions of Tal about tigers. The adventure
with the wild Indians consisted in our seeing two of them naked at a
distance on the edge of the forest. On shouting to them in Lingoa Geral
they ran away. It gave me a very peculiar and unexpected thrilling
sensation to come thus suddenly upon these children of Nature. But I now
tell you in confidence, my beloved white child, what you must not tell
any of the rest of the family (for it would spoil the adventure), that
we discovered a few hours later that these wild Indians were a couple of
mulattoes belonging to another canoe, who had been in bathing.
I shall have to stop now. Do you still go to school at Miss Clapp's? For
Heaven's sake write to me, Bal! Tell Harry if he sees [John] Bancroft to
tell him Bourkhardt is much better, having found an Indian remedy of
great efficacy. Please give my best love to the Tweedies, Temples,
Washburns, La Farges, Paine, Childs, Elly Van Buren and in fact
everybody who is in any way connected with me. Best of love to Aunt
Kate, Wilk and Bob, Harry and all the family. I pine for Harry's
literary _efforts_ and to see a number or so of the "Nation." You can't
send too many magazines or papers--Care of James B. Bond, Parâ.
W. J.
IV
1866-1867
_Medical Studies at Harvard_
JAMES returned from Brazil in March, 1866, and immediately entered the
Massachusetts General Hospital for a summer's service as undergraduate
interne. In the autumn he left the Hospital and resumed his studies in
the Harvard Medical School.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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