登陆注册
5380500000272

第272章

It can't.It never has done it.In all cases, little and big, the thought is born of a suggestion; and in all cases the suggestions come to the brain from the outside.The brain never acts except from exterior impulse.

A man can satisfy himself of the truth of this by a single process,--let him examine every idea that occurs to him in an hour; a day; in a week --in a lifetime if he please.He will always find that an outside something suggested the thought, something which he saw with his eyes or heard with his ears or perceived by his touch--not necessarily to-day, nor yesterday, nor last year, nor twenty years ago, but sometime or other.Usually the source of the suggestion is immediately traceable, but sometimes it isn't.

However, if you will examine every thought that occurs to you for the next two days, you will find that in at least nine cases out of ten you can put your finger on the outside suggestion--And that ought to convince you that No.10 had that source too, although you cannot at present hunt it down and find it.

The idea of writing to me would have had to wait a long time if it waited until your brain originated it.It was born of an outside suggestion--Sir Thomas and my old Captain.

The hypnotist thinks he has invented a new thing--suggestion.This is very sad.I don't know where my captain got his kerosene idea.(It was forty-one years ago, and he is long ago dead.) But I know that it didn't originate in his head, but it was born from a suggestion from the outside.

Yesterday a guest said, "How did you come to think of writing 'The Prince and the Pauper?' I didn't.The thought came to me from the outside--suggested by that pleasant and picturesque little history-book, Charlotte M.Yonge's "Little Duke," I doubt if Mrs.Burnett knows whence came to her the suggestion to write "Little Lord Fauntleroy," but I know; it came to her from reading "The Prince and the Pauper." In all my life I have never originated an idea, and neither has she, nor anybody else.

Man's mind is a clever machine, and can work up materials into ingenious fancies and ideas, but it can't create the material; none but the gods can do that.In Sweden I saw a vast machine receive a block of wood, and turn it into marketable matches in two minutes.It could do everything but make the wood.That is the kind of machine the human mind is.Maybe this is not a large compliment, but it is all I can afford.....

Your friend and well-wisher S.L.CLEMENS.

To Mrs.H.H.Rogers, in Fair Hawn, Mass.:

REDDING, CONN, Aug.12, 1908.

DEAR MRS.ROGERS, I believe I am the wellest man on the planet to-day, and good for a trip to Fair Haven (which I discussed with the Captain of the New Bedford boat, who pleasantly accosted me in the Grand Central August 5) but the doctor came up from New York day before yesterday, and gave positive orders that I must not stir from here before frost.It is because I was threatened with a swoon, 10 or 12 days ago, and went to New York a day or two later to attend my nephew's funeral and got horribly exhausted by the heat and came back here and had a bilious collapse.In 24 hours I was as sound as a nut again, but nobody believes it but me.

This is a prodigiously satisfactory place, and I am so glad I don't have to go back to the turmoil and rush of New York.The house stands high and the horizons are wide, yet the seclusion is perfect.The nearest public road is half a mile away, so there is nobody to look in, and Idon't have to wear clothes if I don't want to.I have been down stairs in night-gown and slippers a couple of hours, and have been photographed in that costume; but I will dress, now, and behave myself.

That doctor had half an idea that there is something the matter with my brain...Doctors do know so little and they do charge so much for it.I wish Henry Rogers would come here, and I wish you would come with him.You can't rest in that crowded place, but you could rest here, for sure! I would learn bridge, and entertain you, and rob you.

With love to you both, Ever yours, S.L.C.

In the foregoing letter we get the first intimation of Mark Twain's failing health.The nephew who had died was Samuel E.Moffett, son of Pamela Clemens.Moffett, who was a distinguished journalist--an editorial writer on Collier's Weekly, a man beloved by all who knew him--had been drowned in the surf off the Jersey beach.

To W.D.Howells, Kittery Point, Maine:

Aug.12, '08.

DEAR HOWELLS,--Won't you and Mrs.Howells and Mildred come and give us as many days as you can spare, and examine John's triumph? It is the most satisfactory house I am acquainted with, and the most satisfactorily situated.

But it is no place to work in, because one is outside of it all the time, while the sun and the moon are on duty.Outside of it in the loggia, where the breezes blow and the tall arches divide up the scenery and frame it.

It's a ghastly long distance to come, and I wouldn't travel such a distance to see anything short of a memorial museum, but if you can't come now you can at least come later when you return to New York, for the journey will be only an hour and a half per express-train.Things are gradually and steadily taking shape inside the house, and nature is taking care of the outside in her ingenious and wonderful fashion--and she is competent and asks no help and gets none.I have retired from New York for good, I have retired from labor for good, I have dismissed my stenographer and have entered upon a holiday whose other end is in the cemetery.

Yours ever, MARK.

From a gentleman in Buffalo Clemens one day received a letter inclosing an incompleted list of the world's "One Hundred Greatest Men," men who had exerted "the largest visible influence on the life and activities of the race." The writer asked that Mark Twain examine the list and suggest names, adding "would you include Jesus, as the founder of Christianity, in the list?"To the list of statesmen Clemens added the name of Thomas Paine; to the list of inventors, Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.The question he answered in detail.

To-----------, Buffalo, N.Y.

同类推荐
  • 噶玛阑志略

    噶玛阑志略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 易纬乾元序制记

    易纬乾元序制记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • First Across the Continent

    First Across the Continent

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 蕅益三颂

    蕅益三颂

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 大乘入道次第开决

    大乘入道次第开决

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 冉冉物华生

    冉冉物华生

    要说一个人花心,大概是因为他还没遇到一个值得他深爱的人,一旦遇上那个对的人,他将驻足停留,任周围狂蜂浪蝶,他的心已不再彷徨。一场意外的自杀,将越冉拉进爱情的阴谋里。一回莫名的错认,牵扯出孪生姐姐的身世迷。一次美丽的邂逅,让她再难逃“花花公子”的手掌心。“劝你不要接近髙逸尘,他不过是把你当做他的絮儿!你就是他一直寻找的初恋替代品而已!”“那你呢?你还不是为了抢你弟喜欢的人让他心痛而已!”……“离吴璟轩远一点,这个人身份不明,他接近你一定有目的。”“那你呢?你身份就明了,可惜是个花花大公子!人家吴璟轩至少专情!”
  • 荡寇志

    荡寇志

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 中国古代四大发明

    中国古代四大发明

    四大发明是指中国古代对世界具有很大影响的四种发明。即造纸术、指南针、火药、活字印刷术。此一说法最早由英国汉学家李约瑟提出并为后来许多中国的历史学家所继承,普遍认为这四种发明对中国古代的政治、经济、文化的发展产生了巨大的推动作用,且这些发明经由各种途径传至西方,对世界文明发展史也产生了很大的影响。《中国文化知识读本:中国古代四大发明》为“中国文化知识读本”系列之一,以优美生动的文字、简明通俗的语言、图文并茂的形式,介绍了中国古代四大发明的有关内容。
  • 人生就是放下

    人生就是放下

    这是一本让我们放下、让我们快乐、让我们幸福的书,书中讲了很多佛教中解决各种痛苦、放不下的不同方法,只要我们持之以恒,所有困难都会迎刃而解,轻而易举得到快乐。无论是事业、家庭、爱情,全都变得一帆风顺。
  • 龙皇武神

    龙皇武神

    偶获异宝,却遭兄弟背叛,不料,吴川竟是意外重生。重活一世,吴川以枪指天发誓:这一世,自己必要雪前耻!伏天骄!踏天歌!以手中长枪,一问天下英雄!
  • 竺峰敏禅师语录

    竺峰敏禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 何澹安医案

    何澹安医案

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 巴山月蜀水潮:文铭权新闻作品集

    巴山月蜀水潮:文铭权新闻作品集

    本书是一部反映四川省多个市州改革发展、时代风貌的大型新闻纪实文学作品,全书约28万字。作者饱含真情,勤于思考,以新闻这一独特的视觉,深入众多新闻现场,真实而又全面地呈现了这些市州改革发展的实践与成效,展示了广大干部群众良好的精神面貌,既讴歌了时代的主旋律,突出真善美,又提倡多样化,在内容和形式上大胆创新。尤其让人感动的是,在2008年汶川大地震、2013年芦山大地震发生后,作者在均第一时间赶赴抗震救灾一线,写出了大量感人肺腑的新闻作品。
  • 佛说大乘无量寿庄严经

    佛说大乘无量寿庄严经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 一剑一蓬莱

    一剑一蓬莱

    忙死了。冒充蓬莱正派,结果天天外出抓鬼降妖。下回坚决不能挂羊头卖狗肉。