Henry Adams 



they did open, showed quarters more 

 Spanish than I liked. He loved 

 everything Spanish, even the Spanish 

 inn. That was his nature. When he 

 liked anything, he liked it all. One 

 felt colorless by his side, and, what 

 was not altogether pleasant, one felt 

 the truth. One's energies relaxed ; 

 one felt oneself a drag on him. In 

 this case I was put there to serve as 

 a drag,— perhaps even as a drug, — 

 and conscience did not mortify me 

 too much ; but the relation was al- 

 ways the same, and the nervous 

 restlessness of 1894 was, if anything, 

 weaker than the exuberant energy of 

 1870. He loved the Spaniard as he 

 loved the negro and the Indian and 

 all the primitives, because they were 

 not academic. Above all he loved 

 a paradox — a thing, he said, that 

 alone excused thought. No one, 

 in our time, ever talked paradox so 

 brilliant. 



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