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HENRY SIDGWICK 255
point that had come up, racy and fresh, but th!Y. owed
enormously to the manner of their telling. At the mo,ment
he wa.s absorbed in the spiritual setting of the ludicrous
incident. If he ever repeated himself, he never commented
in the same strain a.s before, but the mind, because it
was alive to infinite issues, .seemed to discern new depths
of comicality between men's behaviour and their aspirations.
The effect is not to be described, but I cannot
forbear from giving one supreme instance of a story good
in itself, but oh I so tantalizing not to have heard it from
his own lips. I owe it to my old educational colleague ·
on the Teachers' Guild, Professor Barnett, who badl! me
hear Sidgwick's voice stammer a rich gurgle of amusement
in every word. A very prominent politician, whose
hobby was Currency, visited a lunatic asylum and got
into talk with an inmate, who of course took him for the
newest arrival. The dialogue was as follows : L. "Well,
this is not a bad place : you see, every one of us poor
chaps bas his hobby. May I ask, sir, what is yours 'l "
P. " Mine I Oh I Bimetallism, to be sure." L. "Why,
whatever is that 'l " P. " What is Bimetallism ? " and
off he went, waxing warm over ratios, exchanges,
agios, Californian discoveries, stabilizations, and whatnot,
his hearer's face lengthening the while. After ten
minutes, L., interrupting: " I say, look here, old chap;
you're in the wrong box. This is only an ordinary lunatic
asylum ; but you are a d-d-d-damned fool."
A very puzzling fact was the unvarying heaviness of
style which make his writings difficult to read. They give
no.hint by any chance of the writer's humour. Even his
letters, though always interesting, were marked by the
same deficiency. Perhaps in the former the nature of
the subject and closeness of analysis forbade lightness.
As to the letters, there is one charming passage on this
very point, but no other instance. I suggest it was simply
a case of being overpressed. His physical vigour was
below the average, and the incessant references to labor
improblu tell a plain story. But I have known other