_Afterthought_
DEAR OLD MAN,--Speaking on the subject of "Life"--have you
read "Amiel's Journal" (_Journal Intime_)? If not, I would advise you
to, as its fine delicate analysis of things is in pure harmony with
your own way of thinking, so far as generalities go. In it there is a
paragraph about Germans, of precisely the same tenor as the paragraph in
your letter; and there is an admirable analysis of "society," with some
severe but just (just at the time written) animadversions upon American
society.
It seems to me, however, that neither Amiel nor anybody else has exactly
told us what society means. Amiel comes very close to it. I think,
however, the real truth would be more brutal.... Is not the charm (and
its display) of womanly presence and power the real force? Because it
is not really intellectual, this society. Intellectual societies are
societies of artists, men of letters, philosophers, where absolute
freedom of speech and action and dress are allowed. The polite society
only delicately sniffs or nibbles at intellectual life, or else
subordinates it to its fairy shows and transformation scenes. I don't
suppose for a moment that I am suggesting even the ghost of anything
new,--but I wish only to suggest that I think (in view of all this) that
nobody has ever, in English, dared to say what society really is as a
system or display,--to cut boldly into the heart of things. I don't mean
to say it is shocking, or wrong, or anything of that sort. It is quite
proper in the existing order of things, or else it wouldn't be. But
there are evolutional illustrations in it....
By the way, a Japanese friend tells me I have only _one
soul_,--confirming the Oxford beast's revelation. "Why?" I asked. "You
have no patience. Those who have no patience have only one soul. I have
four souls." "How many souls can one have?" I enquired. "Nine," he said.
"Men who can make other men afraid of them, men of strong will: they
have nine souls, or at least a great many."
Good-bye,--I think you have several souls.