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
Then I went to the Museum in the baths of Diocletian or whatever it is,
off there by the R. R., then to the Capitol, and then to lunch off the
Corso, at a restaurant, after buying a French book whose author says in
his preface that Sully, W. J., and Bergson are his masters. And I am
absolute 0 in my own home!...
_Apr. 30, 1905._ 7 P.M.
...If you never had a tired husband, at least you've got one now! The
_ideer_ of being in such delightful conditions and interesting
surroundings, and being conscious of nothing but one's preposterous
physical distress, is too ridiculous! I have just said good-bye to my
circle of admirers, relatively youthful, at the hotel door, under the
pretext (a truth until this morning) that I had to get ready to go to
Lausanne tonight, and I taper off my activity by subsiding upon you.
Yesterday till three, and the day before till five, I was writing my
address, which this morning I gave--in French. I wrote it carefully and
surprised myself by the ease with which I slung the Gallic accent and
intonation, being excited by the occasion.[58] Janet expressed himself
as _stupéfait_, from the linguistic point of view. The thing lasted 40
minutes, and was followed by a discussion which showed that the critics
with one exception had wholly failed to catch the point of view; but
that was quite _en régle_, so I don't care; and I have given the thing
to Claparède to print in Flournoy's "Archives." The Congress was far
too vast, but filled with strange and interesting creatures of all
sorts, and socially _very_ nutritious to anyone who can stand
sociability without distress. A fête of some sort every day--this P.M. I
have just returned from a great afternoon tea given us by some
"Minister" at the Borghese Palace--in the Museum. (The King, you know,
has bought the splendid Borghese park and given it to the City of Rome
as a democratic possession _in perpetuo_. A splendid gift.) The pictures
too! Tonight there is a great banquet with speeches, to which of course
I can't go. I lunched at the da Vitis,--a big table full, she very
simple and nice,--and I have been having this afternoon a very good and
rather intimate talk with the little band of "pragmatists," Papini,
Vailati, Calderoni, Amendola, etc., most of whom inhabit Florence,
publish the monthly journal "Leonardo" at their own expense, and carry
on a very serious philosophic movement, apparently _really_ inspired by
Schiller and myself (I never could believe it before, although Ferrari
had assured me), and show an enthusiasm, and also a literary swing and
activity that I know nothing of in our own land, and that probably our
damned academic technics and Ph.D.-machinery and university organization
prevents from ever coming to a birth. These men, of whom Ferrari is one,
are none of them _Fach-philosophers_, and few of them teachers at all.
It has given me a certain new idea of the way in which truth ought to
find its way into the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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