The Swarm Spirit 



thing lies behind his silence. And why? Simply 

 because every living man is silently, unconsciously 

 projecting his real thought or feeling, and you are 

 unconsciously understanding it or else making a 

 vain conscious effort in that direction. 



Such experiences are commonly confined to a 

 room, to the circle of an open fire; but they are 

 not limited by necessity to any narrow reach, since 

 there is nothing in a wall to hinder a man's love 

 or hate from passing through, or in the air to 

 check its far-going, or in the nature of another 

 man to prevent its reception. The influence of 

 one person's unvoiced will or purpose or warning 

 or summons upon another person at a distance, 

 should it turn out more common than we now be- 

 lieve possible because of our habit of speech, 

 would be nothing unnatural or mysterious, but 

 rather a true working of the subconscious or 

 animal mind, which had its own way of communi- 

 cation before ever speech was invented. 



Whitman, who sometimes got hold of the tail 

 end of philosophy (and who was wont to believe 

 he could drag it out, like a trapped woodchuck, 

 and whirl it around his head with barbaric whoops), 

 was often seen at the burrow of this thought- 

 transference doctrine: 



These yearnings why are they? these thoughts in the dark- 

 ness why are they? 



[129] 



