E-text prepared by Al Haines
MEMORIES AND STUDIES
by
WILLIAM JAMES
Longmans, Green, and Co.
Fourth Avenue and 30th Street, New York
London, Bombay, and Calcutta
1911
Copyright, 1911, by Henry James Jr.
All Rights Reserved
PREFATORY NOTE
Professor William James formed the intentionshortly before his death of republishing a numberof popular addresses and essays under the titlewhich this book now bears; but unfortunately hefound no opportunity to attend to any detail of thebook himself, or to leave definite instructions forothers. I believe, however, that I have departedin no substantial degree from my father's idea,except perhaps by including two or three shortpieces which were first addressed to specialoccasions or audiences and which now seem clearlyworthy of republication in their original form,although he might not have been willing to reprintthem himself without the recastings to which he wasever most attentive when preparing for new readers.Everything in this volume has already appeared inprint in magazines or otherwise, and definiteacknowledgements are hereinafter made in theappropriate places. Comparison with the original textswill disclose slight variations in a few passages, andit is therefore proper to explain that in thesepassages the present text follows emendations of theoriginal which have survived in the author's ownhandwriting.
HENRY JAMES, JR.
CONTENTS
I. LOUIS AGASSIZ II. ADDRESS AT THE EMERSON CENTENARY IN CONCORD III. ROBERT GOULD SHAW IV. FRANCIS BOOTT V. THOMAS DAVIDSON: A KNIGHT-ERRANT OF THE INTELLECTUAL LIFE VI. HERBERT SPENCER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY VII. FREDERICK MYERS' SERVICES TO PSYCHOLOGY VIII. FINAL IMPRESSIONS OF A PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER IX. ON SOME MENTAL EFFECTS OF THE EARTHQUAKE X. THE ENERGIES OF MEN XI. THE MORAL EQUIVALENT OF WAR XII. REMARKS AT THE PEACE BANQUET XIII. THE SOCIAL VALUE OF THE COLLEGE-BRED XIV. THE UNIVERSITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL THE PH. D. OCTOPUS THE TRUE HARVARD STANFORD'S IDEAL DESTINY XV. A PLURALISTIC MYSTIC
I
LOUIS AGASSIZ[1]
It would be unnatural to have such an assemblage as this meet in theMuseum and Faculty Room of this University and yet have no public wordspoken in honor of a name which must be silently present to the mindsof all our visitors.
At some near future day, it is to be hoped some one of you who is wellacquainted with Agassiz's scientific career will discourse hereconcerning it,—I could not now, even if I would, speak to you of thatof which you have far more intimate knowledge than I. On this socialoccasion it has seemed that what Agassiz stood for in the way ofcharacter and influence is the more fitting thing to commemorate, andto that agreeable task I have been called. He made an impression thatwas unrivalled. He left a sort of popular myth—the Agassiz legend, asone might say—behind him in the air about us; and life comes kindlierto all of us, we get more recognition from the world, because we callourselves naturalists,—and that was the class to which he alsobelonged.
The secret of such an extraordinarily effective influence lay in theequally extraordinary mixture of the animal and social gifts, theintellectual powers, and the desires and passions of the man. From hisboyhood, he looked on the world as if it and he were made for eachother, and on t