House-Mates (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from House-Mates

And now that 'i want so much for a time to find dis traction from the horror of recent events, I have decided to attempt some account of my experience - just for my own satisfaction and, perhaps, as a sort of note for future reference. It will amuse me to plunge back into the past and follow again the development that was taking place when Fate casually and yet with an air of fastidious pre cision popped me into the incubator of 73 Keppel Street. (good Lord, what a house that was!) And to do that I must, to some extent, trace the steady process that was going on underneath the neat shell which any friend of my earlier period would unhesitatingly have declared to repte sent the actual Wilfred Hornby. I must search the uncer tain diary of my memory for any indications of growth that were marked at the time by the little glimmer of recording consciousness which seems at the last analysis to be the thing I recognise as my personality.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from House-Mates

We are puzzled by miracles because we watch them from the outside. From that point of view we get an effect of amazing change. Ten minutes ago this slightly damp but apparently complete chicken was seen as a rather dirty egg, that might have been regarded suspiciously from a breakfast standpoint, but was with the one exception of colour precisely like any other egg to be broken on the side of a basin and yield the familiar vision of an apricot wobbling in a mess of thin but sticky jelly. Not that it matters in this connexion just what part expectation plays in our attitude to the miracle. The metamorphosis of a smooth still egg that might be made of papier-mache into a differentiated entity full of passionate activities and desires is not less a miracle because it happens every time, or because we have become accustomed confidently to expect chickens from eggs. For just so long as we watch the transfiguration from the outside, the thing remains a miracle even though the failure of an egg to hatch is become the surprise and disappointment.

I want to get this right because certain acquaintances of mine once persisted in regarding me as an egg that had wonderfully and unforgiveably turned into a chicken.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.