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26

that impressed me a lot. In one, he describes a thought which I have had. Did you ever stop to think that there is no sound where there is no ear to hear it; that a bolt of lightning might strike a tree somewhere but if there were no ears to hear the thunder and the crash of the tree as it fell to the ground, all this would happen in perfect silence. I have thought of it but never before seen it put into words. This is from "Mont Blanc:"

[[piece of paper, glued onto the typed page, with handwritting]]
"In the calm darkness of the moonless nights,
In the lone glare of day, the snows descended
Upon that Mountain; one beholds them there,
Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun.
Or the star beams dust thru them; winds contend
Silently there, and heap the snow, with breath
Rapid and strong, but silently! Its home
The voiceless lightning in these solitudes
Keeps innocently, and like vapor broods
Over the snow. The secret strength of things,
Which governs thought, and to the infinite dome
Of heaven is as a law, inhabits thee!
And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea,
If to the human minds imaginings
Silence and solitude were vacancy?"
[[/piece of paper]]

Your turbo generator is beginning to show signs of progress. They have the generator stator on the machine now. I went inside of it yesterday, it being about five feet in diameter, and it seemed queer to think that someday the rotor of that generator would be whirling around in the very place where I was then standing, and generating electricity to light your home. If I could get my thoughts running just so, I could have the queerest sensation. The feeling that I had was one belonging to the same family of feelings that this belongs to: Don't you get a queer sensation when you're standing where some famous thing has happened, say a great battle? I have never had quite such a queer feeling as when I stood by Concord Bridge and read: