putterings       285   <   286   >   287       index

or thought of having a thought, at every turn he cannot see
 

...The explainer can not let himself go. The puttering love of explaining, and the need of explaining, dog his soul at every turn of thought or thought of having a thought. He not only puts a microscope to his eyes to know with, but his eyes have ingrown microscopes. The microscope has become a part of his eyes. He cannot see anything without putting it on a slide, and when his microscope will not focus it, and it can not be reduced and explained, he explains that it is not there.

— Gerald Stanley Lee, “The Habit of Letting One’s Self Go,” in East & West 1:12 (October 1900) : 386-392 (389) : link (Stanford copy)
same (but Indiana U. copy, via hathitrust) : link
 

people

Gerald Stanley Lee (1862-1944)
wikipedia : link
and his several entries in this putterings project : link

East & West was founded and edited by fellow Columbia University students William Aspenwall Bradley (1878-1939) and George Sidney Hellman (1878-1958)

  1. William Aspenwall Bradley papers, 1900-1966
    Columbia University Library, Archival Collections : link
  2. George Sidney Hellman papers, 1888-1958 [bulk 1900-1958]
    NYPL Archives and Manuscripts : link
     

21 April 2023