" I read from the first with palpitating interest. My heart divined, even before my intelligence was prepared to do justice to the books, the unequalled amount of truth to be found in them. Imagine a fever patient, sufficiently restored of his malady to be able to think of something beside himself, suddenly transported where the free airs of heaven blow upon him, and the sound of running waters refreshes his jaded senses; and you have a feeble image of my delight in reading. Or, better still, imagine a subject of some petty despotism condemned to die, and with (what is more and worse)
Citable passage
Introduction to The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James
William James. Introduction to The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James. 1885. The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James, edited by William James (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1885), vii-119.
Citation
William James. Introduction to The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James. 1885. The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James, edited by William James (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1885), vii-119. Premodern Concordance passage passage-9745ac59e40ae3540b06.