Simply to establish acceptance of that may be doing well enough in this
book of first and tentative explorations.
In _All the Year Round_, 8-254, is described a fall that took place in
England, Sept. 21, 1741, in the towns of Bradly, Selborne, and
Alresford, and in a triangular space included by these three towns. The
substance is described as "cobwebs"--but it fell in flake-formation, or
in "flakes or rags about one inch broad and five or six inches long."
Also these flakes were of a relatively heavy substance--"they fell with
some velocity." The quantity was great--the shortest side of the
triangular space is eight miles long. In the _Wernerian Nat. Hist. Soc.
Trans._, 5-386, it is said that there were two falls--that they were
some hours apart--a datum that is becoming familiar to us--a datum that
cannot be taken into the fold, unless we find it repeated over and over
and over again. It is said that the second fall lasted from nine o'clock
in the morning until night.
Now the hypnosis of the classic--that what we call intelligence is only
an expression of inequilibrium; that when mental adjustments are made,
intelligence ceases--or, of course, that intelligence is the confession
of ignorance. If you have intelligence upon any subject, that is
something you're still learning--if we agree that that which is learned
is always mechanically done--in quasi-terms, of course, because nothing
is ever finally learned.
It was decided that this substance was spiders' web. That was
adjustment. But it's not adjustment to me; so I'm afraid I shall have
some intelligence in this matter. If I ever arrive at adjustment upon
this subject, then, upon this subject, I shall be able to have no
thoughts, except routine-thoughts. I haven't yet quite decided
absolutely everything, so I am able to point out:
That this substance was of quantity so enormous that it attracted wide
attention when it came down--