Excerpt from The Open Self

It is halfway between midnight and dawn. The last two lighted windows on the street have just been darkened. The last pair of laughing celebrants has passed by to silence. And I begin a book.

Morning was to be the time of beginning. But the words started to say themselves, and they would not remain pillowed. So I write in a little room in this city where Whitman and Melville wrote of the colors and the shadows of this America, beginning a book halfway between midnight and dawn.

New York City. Early autumn. 3 A.M. Musing three remarks. One from a man of wealth with a New York City home and a Long Island estate. He has played the praised and accepted game of power and has won its rewards. But he said a few days ago, "If I were God I would put my thumb down on this city and wipe it out!" And as he spoke he pressed his thumb on the mahogany table top and twisted it around as if annihilating an insect.

A smartly dressed girl, fresh from sailing on the Sound, spoke in a more current idiom: "I would like to ride in the plane that would atom-bomb Western culture."

The third remark completes the triangle.

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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. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Open Self (Classic Reprint) (Charles Morris)