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
MY DEAR MR. WELLS,--I have just read your "Utopia" (given me by F. C. S.
Schiller on the one day that I spent in Oxford on my way back to
Cambridge, Mass., after a few weeks on the Continent), and
"Anticipations," and "Mankind in the Making" having duly preceded,
together with numerous other lighter volumes of yours, the "summation of
stimuli" reaches the threshold of discharge and I can't help overflowing
in a note of gratitude. You "have your faults, as who has not?" but your
virtues are unparalleled and transcendent, and I believe that you will
prove to have given a shove to the practical thought of the next
generation that will be amongst the greatest of its influences for good.
All in the line of the English genius too, no wire-drawn French
doctrines, and no German shop technicalities inflicted in an
_unerbittlich consequent_ manner, but everywhere the sense of the full
concrete, and the air of freedom playing through all the joints of your
argument. You have a tri-dimensional human heart, and to use your own
metaphor, don't see different levels projected on one plane. In this
last book you beautifully soften cocksureness by the penumbra of the
outlines--in fact you're a trump and a jewel, and for human perception
you beat Kipling, and for hitting off a thing with the right word, you
are unique. Heaven bless and preserve you!--You are now an eccentric;
perhaps 50 years hence you will figure as a classic! Your Samurai
chapter is magnificent, though I find myself wondering what developments
in the way of partisan politics those same Samurai would develop, when
it came to questions of appointment and running this or that man in.
_That_ I believe to be human nature's ruling passion. Live long! and
keep writing; and believe me, yours admiringly and sincerely,
Wm. James.
_To Henry L. Higginson._
Cambridge, _July 18 [1905]_.
DEAR H.,--You asked me how rich I was getting by my own (as
distinguished from _your_) exertions....
I find on reaching home today a letter from Longmans, Green & Co. with a
check ... which I have mailed to your house in State Street....
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