The Letters of William James, Vol. 2James, William
Philosophy
The Letters of William James, Vol. 2
James, William
Intellectuals -- United States; James, William, 1842-1910; Philosophers -- United States; Psychologists -- United States
The time had now come for him to stop regular teaching altogether. He
had been continuing to teach, partly in deference to the wishes of the
College; but it had become evident that he must have complete freedom to
use his strength and time for writing when he could write, for special
lectures, like the series on Pragmatism, when such might serve his ends,
and for rest and change when recuperation became necessary. So, in
February, 1907, he sent his resignation to the Harvard Corporation. The
last meeting of his class ended in a way for which he was quite
unprepared. His undergraduate students presented him with a silver
loving-cup, the graduate students and assistants with an inkwell. There
were a couple of short speeches, and words were spoken by which he was
very much moved. Unfortunately there was no record of what was said.
_To Mrs. James._
AMALFI, _Mar. 30, 1905_.
...It is good to get something in full measure, without haggling or
stint, and today I have had the picturesque ladled out in buckets full,
heaped up and running over. I never realized the beauties of this shore,
and forget (in my habit of never noticing proper names till I have been
there) whether you have ever told me of the drive from Sorrento to this
place. Anyhow, I wish that you could have taken it with me this day.
"Thank God for this day!" We came to Sorrento by steamer, and at 10:30
got away in a carriage, lunching at the half-way village of Positano;
and proceeding through Amalfi to Ravello, high up on the mountain side,
whence back here in time for a 7:15 o'clock dinner. Practically six
hours driving through a scenery of which I had never realized the
beauty, or rather the interest, from previous descriptions. The
lime-stone mountains are as _strong_ as anything in Switzerland, though
of course much smaller. The road, a _Cornice_ affair cut for the most
part on the face of cliffs, and crossing little ravines (with beaches)
on the side of which nestle hamlets, is positively ferocious in its
grandeur, and on the side of it the azure sea, dreaming and blooming
like a bed of violets. I didn't look for such Swiss strength, having
heard of naught but beauty. It seems as if this were a race such that,
when anyone wished to express an emotion of any kind, he went and built
a bit of stone-wall and limed it onto the rock, so that now, when they
have accumulated, the works of God and man are inextricably mixed, and
it is as if mankind had been a kind of immemorial coral insect. Every
possible square yard is terraced up, reclaimed and planted, and the
human dwellings are the fiercest examples of cliff-building,
cave-habitation, staircase and foot-path you can imagine. How I do wish
that you could have been along today....
_Mar. 31, 1905_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account