Company and Solitude ill 



unruptured by disagreement or marred by 

 misunderstanding. Whatever the limits of 

 my knowledge, I know myself. What the 

 world is, what life is, can only be judged by 

 me through my senses. What you tell me 

 really means nothing. I see with my eyes, 

 hear with my ears, touch with my hands, and 

 distinguish odors with my nose. Your ex- 

 periences can be nothing to me, except as I 

 compare your report of them with my own 

 impressions. As you may say of yourself, 

 I say of mine : wherever I am, there is the 

 centre of the world ; and when I am alone, I 

 am the only man in existence. If another's 

 proximity is not made known to my senses, 

 how may I know that you are still on the 

 earth ? Your world may pass away and mine 

 remain. What your world is it does not 

 concern me to know; but my world does 

 fill all my thought, and, projecting myself 

 therein, am filled with its direft impressions 

 upon my senses, myself, that entity which 

 is most forcibly expressed by a simple let- 

 ter, I. 



There would be less jangling in this world fj 

 if individuals were given to placing more [ 

 emphasis upon their own expressions, by , 



