I Am Fairly Tired--bored Beyond Endurance--by The

One Could Not Stay A Month Without Loving The Shabby Town

American Society Is A Sort Of Flat, Fresh-water Pond Which Absorbs Silently, Without Reaction, Anything Which Is Thrown Into It.

Probably The Institution Of Marriage Had Its Origin In Love Of Property. Both Men And Women Were United In This--that Whatever They Loved Best, They Wished To Possess. The Usual Theory Holds That The Communal System Would Not Permit The Gratification Of This Desire At The Expense Of Communal Rights, And That Therefore Men Were Driven To Gratify Their Passion By Purchasing Or By Capturing Women From Neighboring And Hostile Tribes.

Power Is Poison. Its Effect On Presidents Has Been Always Tragic, Chiefly As An Almost Indecent Excitement At First, And A Worse Reaction Afterwards; But Also Because No Mind Is So Well Balanced As To Bear The Strain Of Seizing Unlimited Force Without Habit Or Knowledge Of It; And Finding It Disputed With Him By Hungry Packs Of Wolves And Hounds Whose Lives Depend On Snatching The Carion.

Modern Politics Is, At Bottom, A Struggle Not Of Men But Of Forces. The Men Become Every Year More And More Creatures Of Force, Massed About Central Powerhouses. The Conflict Is No Longer Between The Men, But Between The Motors That Drive The Men, And The Men Tend To Succumb To Their Own Motive Forces.