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Distributed Proofreading Team
1911
"We may be in the Universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeingthe books and hearing the conversation, but having no inkling of themeaning of it all."
—WILLIAM JAMES, A Pluralistic Universe
"… A man's vision is the great fact about him. Who cares for Carlyle'sreasons, or Schopenhauer's, or Spencer's? A philosophy is the expressionof a man's intimate character, and all definitions of the Universe arebut the deliberately adopted reactions of human characters upon it."
—Ibid
"There are certain persons who, independently of sex or comeliness,arouse an instant curiosity concerning themselves. The tribe is small,but its members unmistakable. They may possess neither fortune, goodlooks, nor that adroitness of advance-vision which the stupid name goodluck; yet there is about them this inciting quality which proclaims thatthey have overtaken Fate, set a harness about its neck of violence, andhold bit and bridle in steady hands.
"Most of us, arrested a moment by their presence to snatch the definitiontheir peculiarity exacts, are aware that on the heels of curiosityfollows—envy. They know the very things that we forever seek in vain.And this diagnosis, achieved as it were en passant, comes near to thetruth, for the hallmark of such persons is that they have found, andcome into, their own. There is a sign upon the face and in the eyes.Having somehow discovered the 'piece' that makes them free of the wholeamazing puzzle, they know where they belong and, therefore, whither theyare bound: more, they are definitely en route. The littlenesses ofexistence that plague the majority pass them by.
"For this reason, if for no other," continued O'Malley, "I count myexperience with that man as memorable beyond ordinary. 'If for no other,'because from the very beginning there was another. Indeed, it wasprobably his air of unusual bigness, massiveness rather,—head, face,eyes, shoulders, especially back and shoulders,—that struck me firstwhen I caught sight of him lounging there hugely upon my steamer deck atMarseilles, winning my instant attention before he turned and theexpression on his great face woke more—woke curiosity, interest, envy.He wore this very look of certainty that knows, yet with a tinge of mildsurprise as though he had only recently known. It was less thanperplexity. A faint astonishment as of a happy child—almost of ananimal—shone in the large brown eyes—"
"You mean that the physical quality caught you first, then thepsychical?" I asked, keeping him to the point, for his Irish imaginationwas ever apt to race away at a tangent.
He laughed good-naturedly, acknowledging the check. "I believe that to bethe truth," he replied, his face instantly grave again. "It was theimpression of uncommon bulk that heated my intuition—blessed if I knowhow—leading me to the other. The size of his body did not smother, as sooften is the case with big people: rather, it revealed. At the moment Icould conceive no possible connection, of course. Only this overwhelmingattraction of the man's personality caught me and I longed to makefriends. That's the way with me, as you know," he added, tossing the hairback from his forehead impatiently,"—pretty often. First impressions.Old man, I tell you, it was like a