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The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table-Part10_Oliver Wendell Holmes(1809-1894)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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hired an EARTHQUAKE for less money!]

Just as we find a mathematical rule at the bottom of many of the



bodily movements, just so thought may be supposed to have its

regular cycles. Such or such a thought comes round periodically,



in its turn. Accidental suggestions, however, so far interfere

with the regular cycles, that we may find them practically beyond



our power of recognition. Take all this for what it is worth, but

at any rate you will agree that there are certain particular



thoughts that do not come up once a day, nor once a week, but that

a year would hardly go round without your having them pass through



your mind. Here is one which comes up at intervals in this way.

Some one speaks of it, and there is an instant and eager smile of



assent in the listener or listeners. Yes, indeed; they have often

been struck by it.



ALL AT ONCE A CONVICTION FLASHES THROUGH US THAT WE HAVE BEEN IN

THE SAME PRECISE CIRCUMSTANCES AS AT THE PRESENT INSTANT, ONCE OR



MANY TIMES BEFORE.

O, dear, yes! - said one of the company, - everybody has had that



feeling.

The landlady didn't know anything about such notions; it was an



idee in folks' heads, she expected.

The schoolmistress said, in a hesitating sort of way, that she knew



the feeling well, and didn't like to experience it; it made her

think she was a ghost, sometimes.



The young fellow whom they call John said he knew all about it; he

had just lighted a cheroot the other day, when a tremendous



conviction all at once came over him that he had done just that

same thing ever so many times before. I looked severely at him,



and his countenance immediately fell - ON THE SIDE TOWARD ME; I

cannot answer for the other, for he can wink and laugh with either



half of his face without the other half's knowing it.

- I have noticed - I went on to say - the following circumstances



connected with these sudden impressions. First, that the condition

which seems to be the duplicate of a former one is often very



trivial, - one that might have presented itself a hundred times.

Secondly, that the impression is very evanescent, and that it is



rarely, if ever, recalled by any voluntary effort, at least after

any time has elapsed. Thirdly, that there is a disinclination to



record the circumstances, and a sense of incapacity to reproduce

the state of mind in words. Fourthly, I have often felt that the



duplicate condition had not only occurred once before, but that it

was familiar and, as it seemed, habitual. Lastly, I have had the



same convictions in my dreams.

How do I account for it? - Why, there are several ways that I can



mention, and you may take your choice. The first is that which the

young lady hinted at; - that these flashes are sudden recollections



of a previousexistence. I don't believe that; for I remember a

poor student I used to know told me he had such a conviction one



day when he was blacking his boots, and I can't think he had ever

lived in another world where they use Day and Martin.



Some think that Dr. Wigan's doctrine of the brain's being a double

organ, its hemispheres working together like the two eyes, accounts



for it. One of the hemispheres hangs fire, they suppose, and the

small interval between the perceptions of the nimble and the



sluggish half seems an indefinitely" target="_blank" title="ad.模糊地；无限期地">indefinitely long period, and therefore the

second perception appears to be the copy of another, ever so old.



But even allowing the centre of perception to be double, I can see

no good reason for supposing this indefinite lengthening of the



time, nor any analogy that bears it out. It seems to me most

likely that the coincidence of circumstances is very partial, but



that we take this partialresemblance for identity, as we

occasionally do resemblances of persons. A momentaryposture of



circumstances is so far like some preceding one that we accept it

as exactly the same, just as we accost a stranger occasionally,



mistaking him for a friend. The apparent similarity may be owing

perhaps, quite as much to the mental state at the time, as to the



outward circumstances.

- Here is another of these curiously recurring remarks. I have



said it, and heard it many times, and occasionally met with

something like it in books, - somewhere in Bulwer's novels, I



think, and in one of the works of Mr. Olmsted, I know.




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