Synopses & Reviews
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE LAKE OF CHARLEMAGNE. AN APOLOGY OF ASSOCIATION, Sense of indecision and self-contradic- tioh has been worrying me of late. A suspicion has come to me, in moments of weariness and depression (as such suspicions always do come), that I might be getting entangled in exaggerated, unjust notions; that I might, so to speak, be selling my soul to the most cunning of all fiends, the Demon of Theory. This demon is much more subtle and dangerous than those of his brethren who, once upon a time, haggled souls out of unlucky alchemists and architects in exchange for books of spells and plans of cathedral's. He does not frighten you with his horns and fumesof brimstone, nor make you think twice by exacting signatures with your own blood, and similar alarming legaj jproceed- ings. He merely leaves carelessly about the object of your desire, the explanation which will spare you all further fatigue and labour, which will save you from the torment of self-doubt, from the humiliation of self-contradiction as rapidly as will a banker's letter and a cheque book save the penniless wretch from the torment and humiliation of bankruptcy. He himself, I mean this demon, keeps studiously out of the way. You find the unexpected thing which solves all your difficulties, puts an end to all your worries; and in all probability you hasten to pick it up, thanking your good fortune, and wondering at your stupidity in not having noticed before this invaluable piece of property. The demon, who sees all that is going on, laughs in his sleeve. The mouse has walked into the trap. For, strange as it may appear, from the moment of your pocketing that explanation thus cunningly thrown in your way, you are, to an ever-increasing extent, and for a daily-increasing number of years, the property of that Theory...
Synopsis
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