HUMAN AND LITERATURE

The Place of the Story in the Life of Children       “Stories are the natural soul-food of children, their native air and vital breath”. The story is a phase of communication—the instinctive tendency to signal and transmit feelings and ideas and to respond to such expressions—and communication is associated with the social complex of instincts and emotions as indicated by these responses. Through the power of social sympathy in this complex, curiosity and the imagination are brought under the sway of communication, especially in the story. Indeed, the psychology of the story reveals how deeply social sympathy influences the imagination and controls curiosity. The primitive side of this social sympathy is seen in the responses of social animals to the calls of their kind, in the rush of dogs and men to the cries of battle. Its power over the imagination is shown in the swaying of the spectator to the movements of the athlete, his ejaculations and his cries of distress or d...

The Mob and the Mental Epidemic    What is the nature and the source of the mob? It is at one moment so humane, at another so savage, at one moment so heroic, at the next so cowardly, that it would seem at first glance as if it were governed by caprice, not by law. Yet there are certain conditions which favor the production of a mob, and a study of these conditions may help us to understand its apparently lawless nature. The examination of a few cases may disclose some of the factors which form the problem. In 1883, in the city of Ekaterinoslav, Russia, a Jewish merchant happened to quarrel with a peasant woman. "Murder! murder!" she screamed at the top of her voice. A crowd of idlers soon gathered about the two combatants. "Beat the Jews!" suggested someone in the crowd. A few stones flew in the direction of the Jew's store, more and more followed; then the mob made a rush for the building and destroyed it. At about the same time, in one of the suburbs of Nijni...

Philosophy of the Enlightenment What is Enlightenment? Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. "Have courage to use your own reason!" - that is the motto of enlightenment. ---> Read More

Santo Domingo: its Revolution and its Hero Toussaint Louverture    I have thought that a short life of Toussaint Louverture might be desirable for two purposes —one is, that it may, in some degree, weaken that bitter prejudice of color, which denies the blacks the rights of citizens—which drives them away from the Communion-table—and will not let them enter an omnibus, nor, if it can prevent it, into Heaven. The other is, that it may encourage the blacks to deserve respect and honor—as he did—by growing industrious, and rich, and intelligent, and brave, and noble, and strong, and so prove their manhood against all infidels, north and south—in the Church and out of it. It should be borne in mind, that Toussaint was a negro, and that he was not more ashamed of being black than he should be of being white. Columbus called the Island of Santo Domingo “The Paradise of God.” The beauty of its valleys, the wildness of its mountains, the tropical luxuriance of its plains, confirm his ...

Story of the Bermudas    I returned from Greytown and the waters of the San Juan to St. Thomas, spending a few days at Aspinwall and Panama on my journey, as I have before explained; and on this occasion, that of my fourth visit to St. Thomas, I was happy enough to escape without any long stay there. My course now lay to the Bermudas, to which islands a steamer runs once a month from that disagreeable little depot of steam navigation. But as this boat is fitted to certain arrivals and despatches, not at St. Thomas, but at Halifax, and as we reached St. Thomas late on the night of the day on which she should have sailed, and as my missing that vessel would have entailed on me another month's sojourn, and that a summer month, among those islands, it may be imagined that I was rather lively on entering the harbour; — keenly lively to ascertain whether the 'Delta,' such is the name of the Bermuda boat, was or was not gone on her mission. ---> Read More

Toussaint Louverture: the Haitian Slave Leader   Toussaint Louverture was one of the liberators of Haiti. After the insurrection, he joined the insurgents, and, having acquired some knowledge of surgery and medicine, acted as physician to the forces. In 1796 he was named commander-in-chief of the armies of St Domingo, but, having raised and disciplined a powerful army of blacks, he made himself master of the whole country, renounced the authority of France, and announced himself “the Buonaparte of St Domingo.” He was taken prisoner by treachery on the part of France, and died in the prison of Joux, near Besançon, 27th April 1803. ---> Read More

Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves?    What is the explanation of the fact that people use things that stupefy them: vódka, wine, beer, hashish, opium, tobacco, and other things. Why did the practice begin? Why has it spread so rapidly, and why is it still spreading among all sorts of people, savage and civilized? How is it that where there is no vódka, wine or beer, we find opium, hashish, and the like, and that tobacco is used everywhere? Why do people wish to stupefy themselves? Ask anyone why he began drinking wine and why he now drinks it. He will reply, “Oh, I like it, and everybody drinks,” and he may add, “it cheers me up.” Some — those who have never once taken the trouble to consider whether they do well or ill to drink wine — may add that wine is good for the health and adds to one's strength; that is to say, will make a statement long since proved baseless. Ask a smoker why he began to use tobacco and why he now smokes, and he also will reply: “To while away the time; e...