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1909 March 27 5:30 PM Meaning
betical order brought me into intimacy with a noble-hearted, sterling charactered young gentlemen, Horation Paine, almost the only real companion I have ever had, in the sense of not only being interested in the ideas that interested me but also disposed to think along the very paths of thought that I myself pursued. He and I occupied almost all our leisure together in reading and discussing Shiller's Aesthetische Poriefe which was being the first book philosophical work I ever read, took a hold upon me made an indelible impression upon me.
I may here mention that I am naturally deficient in aptitude for language. When a new bit of slange comes into vogue, I am about the last person who ? discovers what it means, and when I come to do so, it is by requesting somebody to explain it to me. I am very fequently in its? such doubt about the shade of meaning of some common word, such
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as "lovely", that I am obliged to hunt it up in concordances and in the poems to which they relate, and scarcely a day passes that I do not resort, one or twice, to the quotations in the Oxford Dictionary. Unfortunately for me, that work does not seem to have been designed for such defectives as I am, and familiar quotations, which have oft-times had decisive influence upon the shade of meaning, the associations of words are distinctly avoided there. I do not think I ever reflect in words: I employ visual diagrams, firstly, because this way of thinking is my natural language of self-communion, and secondly, because I am convinced that it is the best system for the purpose. But there is nothing fanciful about my diagrams. I do not, for example, see numbers with colours [?] attached to them and placed upon some curves; and it perfectly astounds me to find how useful some [?] are able
