Volume I Part 33 (1/2)
NEW ORLEANS, 1887
In reply to nearly all the questions about ht answer, ”Yes” Had the best advice in London Observe all the rules you suggest Glasses strain the eye too one Other eye destroyed by a blow at college; or rather by inflammation consequent upon blow Can tell you more about myself when I see you, but the result will be
I knew you were going to have thorough success;--you will do far better than you think Wish I had the opportunity to study ood physician Ah! to have a profession is to be rich, to have international current-old that is cosmopolitan, passes everywhere Then I think I would never settle down in any place; would visit all, wander about as long as I could There is such a delightful pleasantness about the _first_ relations with people in strange places--before you have made any rival, excited any ill will, incurred anybody's displeasure Stay long enough in any one place and the illusion is over: you have to sift this society through the ood friendshi+p too large to pass through To be a physician, an architect, an engineer,--anything thatto a universal or cosood tradesman is worthy of envy: he kok as in Paris
Apropos of a ain,--have you had occasion to re discovery in medicine or those sciences akin to medicine, is almost immediately popularized by a capital story? The best of those I have seen appeared in the _Revue Politique et Litteraire_ and in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ The evolution of electricity by the huested a powerful but very Frenchy sketch in the foro, which appeared concomitantly with those theatrical exhibitions of a fa with the super-refinement of the five senses, particularly vision and smell,--entitled ”Un Fou” The researches of Charcot and others into hypnotisested ”Une Tresse Blonde” in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_
It is always a safe and encouraging thing to trace one's ancestral history, supposing one be very philosophical In your case it is A fine physical and mental man can feel sure from theto thank his ancestors for But suppose the man be small, puny, sickly, scrofulous,--the question of ancestry becomes unpleasant We are far ahead of Tristram Shandy, nowadays; the inferiority of the homunculus is nosoe is, and how little philosophy betters the situation so about
Take such an exairl, full of physical attractiveness, grace, freshness, with a delicious disposition, fascinates you, you think of rande in your ad put into practice A Southern planter--splendid entlerandfather had co man ealthy, accomplished, steady, brave, had the best of reputations and was liked by the girl The father refused him frankly for the sireat criminal
It must have struck you, if you have studied Buddhism--(not ”esoteric Buddhism,” which is dareat faith are convertible into scientific truths in the transfor crucible of the new philosophy The consequence of the cri of the future personality; the heights attainable by discipline, of indifference to external things; the duty and holiness of the extinction of the _Self_; the ory of the physical metempsychosis, which is the shadow of a tre into the infinite life, light, knowledge, and the peace of the iives an harmonious commentary upon all these, which it refuses to the more barbarous faith of the Occident All that is noble in the Christianity, too s also to the older and vaster dream of the East--is perchance a dim reflection of it; the possibility of the invasion of the Oriental philosophy into the Occident seems to me worthy of consideration In the meanwhile, it is unfortunate that such apes as the ---- should parade their detestable _macaqueries_ as Buddhis of the sexual sense being ”such an infernal liar,” there are reasons that lead me to doubt whether it is _all_ a liar I think it never tells a _physical_ lie It only tells an ethical one The physical memory of the most worthless woman that ever ensnared a man vibrates always afterith a thrill of pleasure But that is not really what I intended to say: I want to know if there be any scientific explanation of this fact A woh to tempt a man to cut his netis, the character of a look fro A good woraceful, infinitely her physical superior, may have no such charm for the same man Here is a mystery I cannot explain This phenomenon is especially noticeable in the tropics, where differences of race and racesexual variations Never was there a huger stupidity than the observation that ”all women are in one respect alike” On the contrary, in that one respect they differ infinitely, inexplicably, diabolically, fantastically
L H
TO GEORGE M GOULD
NEW ORLEANS, 1887
DEAR MR GOULD,--I posted a letter, thanking you for two treatises so kindly sent, just before receiving your note Be sure that I will find it no small pleasure to have a chat with a brother-thinker, if I find myself in Philadelphia this summer
To the best of my recollection the book you speak of is a small, thin voluantic of existing epics--the Mahabharata excepted There are three complete translations of the colossal Ramayana:--The Italian version of Gorresio, I think in ten vols; the French prose one by Hippolyte Fauche in nine, which I have read; and the exceedingly tiresolish translation (now O P) by Griffith, in Popish verse It was, I think, on this last that ”The Iliad of the East” was based--a very poor effort, artistically
These epics are siend,--like the Katha-sarit-Sagara But one gets cloyed soon It requires the patience of a Talet out a diahty pantheistic hyment of the Mahabharata;--also the story of Nala, so beautifully translated by Monier Williairl, Toru Dutt, rote English and French as well as Hindustani and Sanscrit, s All you could wish for in this direction has not indeed been done; but it will take a hundred years to do it
I auist; and I only try to familiarize myself with the aspect of a national Idea as manifested in these epics
So with the Old Arabic spirit--pre-Islamic and post-Islamic The poetry of the desert is Homeric And I don't know but that for pure _natural_ poetry, the great Finnish Kalewala is not more wonderful than the Indian epics
When I s from the French edition of 1845, I was not familiar with the completion of the work by the labours of Loennrot
Pardon long letter You and I s over later on
Very cordially yours, LAFCADIO HEARN
TO ELIZABETH BISLAND
NEW ORLEANS, 1887
DEAR MISS BISLAND,--At the tiiven away;--I have not many friends, of course, but I did not have many proofs either The best I can therefore do is to send original photo This is taking a liberty, I suppose, to send asn't asked for; but it is the best I can do, and you can pitch it away if you don't want it
My novelette is done, and I a I aood deal of the scenery I do not kno long I shall stay in New York;--h to see you once,--for a little while Then again I ht take a notion to stay in the North--don't really knohat I shall do
What would be nice, if one could e it, would be to live in the country, or in some vast wilderness, and shi+p one's work away But I fear that will only be possible when I have become Ancient as the Moon,--if I should ever become ancient