The Poet at the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes
page 44 of 347 (12%)
page 44 of 347 (12%)
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skylights to them. Minds with skylights,--yes,--stop, let us see if we
can't get something out of that. One-story intellects, two--story intellects, three story intellects with skylights. All fact--collectors, who have no aim beyond their facts, are one-story men. Two-story men compare, reason, generalize, using the labors of the fact-collectors as well as their own. Three-story men idealize, imagine, predict; their best illumination comes from above, through the skylight. There are minds with large ground floors, that can store an infinite amount of knowledge; some librarians, for instance, who know enough of books to help other people, without being able to make much other use of their knowledge, have intellects of this class. Your great working lawyer has two spacious stories; his mind is clear, because his mental floors are large, and he has room to arrange his thoughts so that he can get at them,--facts below, principles above, and all in ordered series; poets are often narrow below, incapable of clear statement, and with small power of consecutive reasoning, but full of light, if sometimes rather bare of furniture, in the attics. --The old Master smiled. I think he suspects himself of a three-story intellect, and I don't feel sure that he is n't right. --Is it dark meat or white meat you will be helped to?--said the Landlady, addressing the Master. --Dark meat for me, always,--he answered. Then turning to me, he began one of those monologues of his, such as that which put the Member of the Haouse asleep the other day. --It 's pretty much the same in men and women and in books and |
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