1 Friday
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3 I thought I shouldn't to write to you today, but I find a kind of need.
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5 Did you ever read that passage in Shelly's letters where he talks
6about genius (I think he repeats it from another book.) that Genius
7does not invent, it perceives. I think that ^this^ is so won-derfully
8true & more true the more one looks at it. It agrees with the true
9fact that you noticed the other day, that men of genius are always
10childlike. A child sees everything, looks straight at it, examines it
11without any preconceived idea; most people after they are about eleven
12or twelve quiet lose this power, they see everything through a few
13pre-conceived ideas which hang like a veil between them & the outer
14world.
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16 By the bye (this doesn't bear directly on that) did you ever do what I
17was fond of doing when I was a child, I used to call it "Looking at
18things really"? Look at your hand, for instance, make an effort of
19mind, & dis-associate from it every preconceived idea, for instance
20that it is your hand, that it is part of a human body, &c &c. Look at
21it simply as an object which strikes the eye; you will be surprised
22who how new, & strange, & funny it looks, as though you had never seen
23it before. It requires some effort of mind of course, & one can't do
24it if one is hurried & talking, it takes some time. I used to do it
25often in church to pass away the time. It can be done with the other
26senses too, of course. I have often done it with speaking. Listen to
27people talking as though you didn't understand what the words meant, &
28didn't or that the sound came from human voices. Listen to it just as
29a noise striking the ear. It is utterly different from what one
30fancies. This isn't very interesting though.
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32 I have been reading my Emerson just now. You will do me great service
33if you help me to read French, it will open a whole new field of books
34to me.
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36 Tomorrow at twelve I must walk down to Wirksworth to meet Mrs Walter
37at 1.We shall talk a great deal about Hinton. I mean to try & explain
38Hinton to her & make her ^understand him^. I don't think she sees him
39rightly. I will tell you what she says & ^what^ I say about it. How
40beautiful about your visit to Shields.
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