[10] James always did a reasonable share of college committee work, especially for the committee of his own department. But although he had exercised a determining influence in the selection of every member of the Philosophical Department who contributed to its fame in his time (except Professor Palmer, who was his senior in service), he never consented to be chairman of the Department. He attended the weekly meetings of the whole Faculty for any business in which he was concerned; otherwise irregularly. He spoke seldom in Faculty. Occasionally he served on special committees. He usually formed an opinion of his own quite quickly, but his habitual tolerance in matters of judgment showed itself in good-natured patience with discussion--this despite the fact that he often chafed at the amount of time consumed. "Now although I happen accidentally to have been on all the committees which have had to do with the proposed reform, and have listened to the interminable Faculty debates last winter, I disclaim all powers or right to speak in the _name_ of the majority. Members of our dear Faculty have a way of discovering reasons fitted exclusively for their idiosyncratic use, and though voting with their neighbors, will often do so on incommunicable grounds. This is doubtless the effect of much learning upon originally ingenious minds; and the result is that the abundance of different points and aspects which a simple question ends by presenting, after a long Faculty discussion, beggars both calculation beforehand and enumeration after the fact."--"The Proposed Shortening of the College Course." _Harvard Monthly_, Jan., 1891. [1] "I _loved_ Child more than any man I know." Sept. 12, '96. [11] Eight lectures on "Abnormal Mental States" were delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston, but were never published. Their several titles were "Dreams and Hypnotism," "Hysteria," "Automatisms," "Multiple Personality," "Demoniacal Possession," "Witchcraft," "Degeneration," "Genius." In a letter to Professor Howison (Apr. 5, 1897) James said, "In these lectures I did not go into psychical research so-called, and although the subjects were decidedly morbid, I tried to shape them towards optimistic and hygienic conclusions, and the audience regarded them as decidedly anti-morbid in their tone." [12] _Demon Possession and Allied Themes_, by John C. Nevius. [13] _The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy_ had just appeared. [14] The Address has been reprinted in _Memories and Studies_. [15] For a short while MacMonnies's Bacchante stood in the court of the Boston Public Library. [16] These words were not employed in public, but were once applied to a well-known professor in a private letter. [17] A full report of the speech made at the Legislative hearing was printed in the _Banner of Light_, Mar. 12, 1898. The letter to the Boston _Transcript_ in 1894 appeared in the issue of Mar. 24. [18] _James J. Putnam to William James_