DOI Artikel:
Harland, Henry: The friend of man
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.38746#0073
By Henry Harland 69
original simplicity, from the overgrowths which time and separ-
ateness have allowed to accumulate upon it. Albigo : the tongue
which all men speak unconsciously : the universal human tongue.
And, finally, the aim—the common, single aim—the highest
possible spiritual development of man, the highest possible culture
of the human soul.”
That is whatlreceived in response to my request for a few personal
reminiscences of Victor Emmanuel, Garibaldi, and Mazzini.
You will infer that Mr. Ambrose lacked humour. But his
most conspicuous trait, his preponderant trait—the trait which, I
think, does more than any other to explain him, him and his
fortunes and his actions—was the trait I had vaguely noticed in
our first five minutes’ intercourse, after my re-introduction to him ;
the trait which, I have conjectured, perhaps gave its unsympathetic
quality to his face : abstraction from his surroundings and his
company, inattention, indifference, to them.
On that first evening, you may remember, he had asked me
certain questions; but I had felt that he was thinking of something
else. I had answered them, but I had felt that he never heard my
answers.
That little negative incident, I believe, gives the key to his
character, to his fortunes, to his actions.
The Friend of Man was totally deaf and blind and insensible to
men. Man, as a metaphysical concept, was the major premiss of
his philosophy ; men, as individuals, he was totally unable to realise.
He could not see you, he could not hear you, he could get no
“ realising sense ” of you. You spoke, but your voice was an
unintelligible murmur in his ears ; it was like the sound of the
wind—it might annoy him, disturb him (in which case he would
seek to silence it with a hist-hist), it could not signify to him.
The Yellow Book—Vol. XT. e You
original simplicity, from the overgrowths which time and separ-
ateness have allowed to accumulate upon it. Albigo : the tongue
which all men speak unconsciously : the universal human tongue.
And, finally, the aim—the common, single aim—the highest
possible spiritual development of man, the highest possible culture
of the human soul.”
That is whatlreceived in response to my request for a few personal
reminiscences of Victor Emmanuel, Garibaldi, and Mazzini.
You will infer that Mr. Ambrose lacked humour. But his
most conspicuous trait, his preponderant trait—the trait which, I
think, does more than any other to explain him, him and his
fortunes and his actions—was the trait I had vaguely noticed in
our first five minutes’ intercourse, after my re-introduction to him ;
the trait which, I have conjectured, perhaps gave its unsympathetic
quality to his face : abstraction from his surroundings and his
company, inattention, indifference, to them.
On that first evening, you may remember, he had asked me
certain questions; but I had felt that he was thinking of something
else. I had answered them, but I had felt that he never heard my
answers.
That little negative incident, I believe, gives the key to his
character, to his fortunes, to his actions.
The Friend of Man was totally deaf and blind and insensible to
men. Man, as a metaphysical concept, was the major premiss of
his philosophy ; men, as individuals, he was totally unable to realise.
He could not see you, he could not hear you, he could get no
“ realising sense ” of you. You spoke, but your voice was an
unintelligible murmur in his ears ; it was like the sound of the
wind—it might annoy him, disturb him (in which case he would
seek to silence it with a hist-hist), it could not signify to him.
The Yellow Book—Vol. XT. e You