SAMUEL BAILEY
It might tell us something when we discover that Thoreau had checked out a volume from the Harvard Library not just once, but twice — but we cannot be confident what that might tell us. It might also tell us something when we discover that Thoreau had registered no comments whatever on that book’s heavy philosophical musings, and had copied no words whatever from it into his commonplace books, either the first time he took a look into it, or the second time around — and can we not be confident what that additional datapoint tells us? Does the fact that our guy neglected to copy from it either time he looked it over not inform us that this material actually is of diddly-squat real interest to anyone who had a life? (I’m just asking.) –But this picture above, the lovely image of bucolic Sheffield in England, is it not such a photograph as to make us marvel how anyone could reside in such an earthly paradise, and not become just unutterably benign? “Samuel Bailey (1791-1870), British philosopher and author, was born at Sheffield in 1791. He was among the first of those Sheffield merchants who went to the United States to establish trade connections. After a few years in his father's business, he retired with an ample fortune from all business concerns, with the exception of the Sheffield Banking Company, of which he was chairman for many years. Although an ardent liberal, he took little part in political affairs. On two occasions he stood for Sheffield as a “philosophic radical,” but without success. His life is for the most part a history of his numerous and varied publications. His books, if not of first-rate importance, are marked by lucidity, elegance of style and originality of treatment. He died suddenly on January 18 1870, leaving over £80,000 to the town of Sheffield. His first work, ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS, published HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
anonymously in 1821 (2nd ed., 1826; 3rd ed., 1837), attracted more attention than any of his other writings. A sequel to it appeared in 1829, ESSAYS ON THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH (2nd ed., 1844). Between these two were QUESTIONS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, POLITICS, MORALS, &C. (1823), and a CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON THE NATURE, MEASURE, AND CAUSES OF VALUE (1825), directed against the opinions of Ricardo and his school. His next publications also were on economic or political subjects, RATIONALE OF POLITICAL REPRES ENTATION (1835), and MONEY AND ITS VICISSITUDES (1837), now practically forgotten; about the same time also appeared some of his pamphlets, DISCUSSION OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, RIGHT OF PRIMOGENITURE EXAMINED, DEFENCE OF JOINT-STOCK BANKS. In 1842 appeared his REVIEW OF BERKELEY'S THEORY OF VISION, an able work which called forth rejoinders from JS Mill in the Westminster Review (reprinted in DISSERTATIONS), and from Ferrier in Blackwood (reprinted in LECTURES AND REMAINS, ii). Bailey replied to his critics in a LETTER TO A PHILOSOPHER (1843), &c. In 1851 he published THEORY OF R EASONING (2nd ed.,1852), a discussion of the nature of inference, and an able criticism of the functions and value of the syllogism. In 1852 he published DISCOURSES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS; and finally summed up his philosophic views in the LETTERS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN MIND (three series, 1855, 1858,1863). In 1845 he published MARO A POEM IN FOUR CANTOES (85 pp., Longmans), containing a description of a young poet who printed 1000 copies of his first poem, of which only 10 were sold. He was a diligent student of Shakespeare, and his last literary work was ON THE RECEIVED TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE'S DRAMATIC WRITINGS AND ITS IMPROVEMENT (1862). Many of the emendations suggested are more fantastic than felicitous. The LETTERS contain a discussion of many of the principal problems in psychology and ethics. Bailey can hardly be classed as belonging either to the strictly empirical or to the idealist school, but his general tendency is towards the former. In regard to method, he founds psychology entirely on introspection. He thus, to a certain extent, agrees with the Scottish school, but he differs from them in rejecting altogether the doctrine of mental faculties. What have been designated faculties are, upon his view, merely classified...”
“NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Samuel Bailey HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1791
July 5, Tuesday: Samuel Bailey was born in Sheffield, England, a son of the merchant Joseph Bailey with Mary Eadon Bailey. After education at the Free Writing School and the Moravian Settlement in Fulneck, Samuel would join his father’s business but soon would have accumulated enough wealth to be able to retire from most business activities, retaining only his involvement in the Sheffield Banking Company for which he would serve long-term as chairman.
NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT
Samuel Bailey “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1821
Samuel Bailey’s ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS was published anonymously and was well received.
LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD.
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Samuel Bailey HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1823
Samuel Bailey’s QUESTIONS IN POLITICAL ECONOMY, POLITICS, MORALS, METAPHYSICS, &C.
THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Samuel Bailey HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1825
Samuel Bailey’s A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON THE NATURE, MEASURE AND CAUSES OF VALUE; CHIEFLY IN REFERENCE TO THE WRITINGS OF MR. RICARDO AND HIS FOLLOWERS BY THE AUTHOR OF ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS, &C. &C. (London, Printed for R. Hunter, St Paul’s Churchyard). BAILEY’S DISSERTATION
THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Samuel Bailey HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1826
Samuel Bailey, who had helped found the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, became its President. He prepared an expanded 2d edition of his successful ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS (this is the edition that David Henry Thoreau would check out of the Harvard Library on September 16, 1834 and again on January 9, 1837). BAILEY’S OPINIONS
He created a pamphlet of more than a hundred pages, entitled A LETTER TO A POLITICAL ECONOMIST.
WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF
Samuel Bailey “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1828
Samuel Bailey was elected a Town Trustee of Sheffield, England, an earnest decent town in which there’s seldom a cow out of place.
DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD.
Samuel Bailey “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1829
Samuel Bailey’s ESSAYS ON THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH, a sequel to his 1821 publication ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS.
CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT
Samuel Bailey “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1830
Samuel Bailey served again as the President of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1831
Samuel Bailey helped found the Sheffield Banking Society. An American edition of his revised ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS and his ESSAYS ON THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH was published in Philadelphia. He created a pamphlet of 55 pages, entitled DISCUSSION OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1832
Samuel Bailey was an unsuccessful “philosophical radical” candidate in the first election held in Sheffield, England. He would try one more time, and would again not win election, after which he would lose interest in politics.
(In explanation of these losses at the polls, some have pointed to the general reputation of the Bailey family in Sheffield. The family name was associated by townspeople, perhaps due to the business practices of Samuel’s father Joseph and perhaps to do with the business practices of Samuel himself, with a form of barter system then termed “stuffing,” a barter system in accordance with which a common worker might often at the end of the workday find himself holding onto only the shitty end of the economic stick, having nothing to take home that evening with which to sustain his children — without, as President George W. Bush would express it, any “food to put on h is family.”) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1834
September 16, Tuesday: David Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, Samuel Bailey’s ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS in its 2d edition of 1826 (he would check this volume out again). BAILEY’S OPINIONS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
Our guy also checked out the 1820 edition of Gasparo Grimani’s NEW AND IMPROVED GRAMMAR OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE, WITH COPIOUS EXERCISES, UNDER EVERY RULE AND OBSERVATION.1
(To which grammar was he going to pay more attention, the grammar of Italian or the grammar of Philosophy? We will find out whether this philosophy baked any bread.)
1. The record of the books Thoreau checked out from the Harvard Library during his Sophomore (1834-1835) and Junior (1835- 1836) school years is of particular interest to us, because Charging Book “D” of the “Institute of 1770”, the book which contained the record of Thoreau’s borrowings from that student club’s library, is missing. This record may yet turn up — but its present absence represents a serious hole in Thoreau scholarship. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1835
Samuel Bailey’s RATIONALE OF POLITICAL REPRESENTATION. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1837
Samuel Bailey’s MONEY AND ITS VICISSITUDES IN VALUE. In about this period he was also active as a pamphleteer, producing such items as DISCUSSION OF PARLIAMENTARY REFORM, RIGHT OF PRIMOGENITURE EXAMINED, and DEFENCE OF JOINT-STOCK BANKS. He prepared a 3d edition of ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS. He prepared a 60-page pamphlet entitled RIGHT OF PRIMOGENITURE EXAMINED. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
January 9, Monday: David Henry Thoreau checked out, from Harvard Library, the 3d volume of the 21- volume set edited by Alexander Chalmers, THE WORKS OF THE ENGLISH POETS, FROM CHAUCER TO COWPER; INCLUDING THE SERIES EDITED WITH PREFACES, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL, BY DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON: AND THE MOST APPROVED TRANSLATIONS. THE ADDITIONAL LIVES BY ALEXANDER CHALMERS IN TWENTY- ONE VOLUMES (London, 1810). PERUSE VOLUME III
Thoreau would extract from this volume Samuel Daniel’s Philotas, Philocosmus, and Musophilus into his literary notebook, and from there the material would be making its way into A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
MERRIMACK RIVERS, in the “Sunday” and “Monday” chapters.
SAMUEL DANIEL He also extracted from “To the Lady Margaret, Countess of Cumberland” into his literary notebook, and from 2 there into A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS, and into “A Plea for Captain John Brown.” SAMUEL DANIEL
2. He also extracted from “Ulysses and the Syren,” “History of the Civil Wars,” “To Lucy Countess of Bedford,” “To the Lady Anne Clifford,” “To Henry Wrothesly, Early of Southampton,” and “Hymen’s Triumph to the Queen” into his literary notebook. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
“A PLEA FOR CAPTAIN JOHN BROWN”: One writer says that Brown’s peculiar monomania made him to be “dreaded by the Missourians as a supernatural being.” Sure enough, a hero in the midst of us cowards is always so dreaded. He is just that thing. He shows himself superior to nature. He has a spark of divinity in him.
“Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!”
A WEEK: Men do not fail commonly for want of knowledge, but for want of prudence to give wisdom the preference. What we need to know in any case is very simple. It is but too easy to establish another durable and harmonious routine. Immediately all parts of nature consent to it. Only make something to take the place of something, and men will behave as if it was the very thing they wanted. They must behave, at any rate, and will work up any material. There is always a present and extant life, be it better or worse, which all combine to uphold.We should be slow to mend, my friends, as slow to require mending, “Not hurling, according to the oracle, a transcendent foot towards piety.” The language of excitement is at best picturesque merely. You must be calm before you can utter oracles. What was the excitement of the Delphic priestess compared with the calm wisdom of Socrates? — or whoever it was that was wise. — Enthusiasm is a supernatural serenity. “Men find that action is another thing Than what they in discoursing papers read; The world’s affairs require in managing More arts than those wherein you clerks proceed.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
A WEEK: Though we know well, “That ’t is not in the power of kings PEOPLE OF [or presidents] to raise A spirit for verse that is not born A WEEK thereto, Nor are they born in every prince’s days”; yet spite of all they sang in praise of their “Eliza’s reign,” we have evidence that poets may be born and sing in our day, in the presidency of James K. Polk, “And that the utmost powers of English rhyme,” Were not “within her peaceful reign confined.” The prophecy of the poet Daniel is already how much more than fulfilled! “And who in time knows whither we may vent The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores This gain of our best glory shall be sent, T’ enrich unknowing nations with our stores? What worlds in th’ yet unformed occident, May come refined with the accents that are ours.” Enough has been said in these days of the charm of fluent writing. We hear it complained of some works of genius, that they have fine thoughts, but are irregular and have no flow. But even the mountain peaks in the horizon are, to the eye of science, parts of one range. We should consider that the flow of thought is more like a tidal wave than a prone river, and is the result of a celestial influence, not of any declivity in its channel. The river flows because it runs down hill, and flows the faster the faster it descends. The reader who expects to float down stream for the whole voyage, may well complain of nauseating swells and choppings of the sea when his frail shore-craft gets amidst the billows of the ocean stream, which flows as much to sun and moon as lesser streams to it. But if we would appreciate the flow that is in these books, we must expect to feel it rise from the page like an exhalation, and wash away our critical brains like burr millstones, flowing to higher levels above and behind ourselves. There is many a book which ripples on like a freshet, and flows as glibly as a mill-stream sucking under a causeway; and when their authors are in the full tide of their discourse, Pythagoras and Plato and Jamblichus halt beside them. Their long, stringy, slimy sentences are of that consistency that they naturally flow and run together. They read as if written for military men, for men of business, there is such a despatch in them. Compared with these, the grave thinkers and philosophers seem not to have got their swaddling-clothes off; they are slower than a Roman army in its march, the rear camping to-night where the van camped last night. The wise Jamblichus eddies and gleams like a watery slough. “How many thousands never heard the name Of Sidney, or of Spenser, or their books? And yet brave fellows, and presume of fame, And seem to bear down all the world with looks.”
PYTHAGORAS HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
PLATO JAMBLICHUS
Thoreau also checked out (a 2d time, as he had already checked out this book) the 2d edition of Samuel Bailey’s ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS. BAILEY’S OPINIONS
(This is indeed rare: on this new reading, scholars have discovered, as on the first pass in 1834, Thoreau took no notes. There is nothing in any of his published writings and there is nothing in any of his commonplace books to indicate that our guy had noted in this volume any thought whatever of any value to him. –Perhaps the fact that this philosophy baked none of his bread reveals something about him to us.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1840
3 Samuel Bailey prepared a 100-page pamphlet, entitled DEFENCE OF JOINT-STOCK BANKS.
3. “Daddy, why do the banks need us to defend them?” HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1842
Samuel Bailey’s A REVIEW OF BERKELEY’S THEORY OF VISION, DESIGNED TO SHOW THE UNSOUNDNESS OF THAT CELEBRATED SPECULATION. BY SAMUEL BAILEY, AUTHOR OF “ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS.” &C (London: James Ridgway). GEORGE BERKELEY
BERKELEY ON VISION HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
June: In Blackwood’s Magazine, James Frederick Ferrier responded to Samuel Bailey’s REVIEW OF BERKELEY’S THEORY OF VISION, DESIGNED TO SHOW THE UNSOUNDNESS OF THAT CELEBRATED SPECULATION.
GEORGE BERKELEY
October: In the Westminster Review, John Stuart Mill responded to Samuel Bailey’s REVIEW OF BERKELEY’S THEORY OF VISION, DESIGNED TO SHOW THE UNSOUNDNESS OF THAT CELEBRATED SPECULATION.
GEORGE BERKELEY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1843
Samuel Bailey responded to his critics John Stuart Mill and James Frederick Ferrier by means a pamphlet, ALETTER TO A PHILOSOPHER, IN REPLY TO SOME RECENT ATTEMPTS TO VINDICATE “BERKELEY’S THEORY OF VISION,” AND IN FURTHER ELUCIDATION OF ITS UNSOUNDNESS. BY THE AUTHOR OF “A REVIEW OF BERKELEY’S THEORY OF VISION,” “ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS,” &C. (London: James Ridgway). –That’s not the pamphlet, which is 68 pages in length, but merely its title. GEORGE BERKELEY HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1844
A 2d edition of Samuel Bailey’s ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS and his ESSAYS ON THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH was published in Philadelphia. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1845
Samuel Bailey’s MARO; OR, POETIC IRRITABILITY, an 85-page poem (Longmans). HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1851
Samuel Bailey’s THE THEORY OF REASONING. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1852
Samuel Bailey’s DISCOURSES ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS; READ BEFORE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETIES. Publication of a 2d edition of his THE THEORY OF REASONING. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1854
A Boston printing of the 3d edition of Samuel Bailey’s ESSAYS ON THE FORMATION AND PUBLICATION OF OPINIONS. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1855
Samuel Bailey’s LETTERS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN MIND (first series). THE HUMAN MIND (I) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1858
Samuel Bailey’s LETTERS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN MIND (second series). THE HUMAN MIND (II) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1862
Volume I of Samuel Bailey’s ON THE RECEIVED TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE’S DRAMATIC WRITINGS AND ITS IMPROVEMENT. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1863
Samuel Bailey’s LETTERS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN MIND (third series). THE HUMAN MIND (III)
January 21, Wednesday: Samuel Bailey had sent John Stuart Mill a gift of a volume of his LETTERS ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN MIND — in effect, “Let’s you and me have another quarrel, that will return me to the public eye.” On this day Mill, no dummy, responded, in effect, “Well, let’s not.” Like everything I have read of yours, it is both instructive and interesting; and if ... I sometimes differ from you, it is always as from a thinker, and from one whose canons of thought are not fundamentally different from my own. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
A report from Walt Whitman: “Specimen Days”
Devoted the main part of the day to Armory-square hospital; went pretty thoroughly through wards F, G, H, and I; some fifty cases in each ward. In ward F supplied the men throughout with writing paper and stamp’d envelope each; distributed in small portions, to proper subjects, a large jar of first-rate preserv’d berries, which had been donated to me by a lady — her own cooking. Found several cases I thought good subjects for small sums of money, which I furnish’d. (The wounded men often come up broke, and it helps their spirits to have even the small sum I give them.) My paper and envelopes all gone, but distributed a good lot of amusing reading matter; also, as I thought judicious, tobacco, oranges, apples, &c. Interesting cases in ward I; Charles Miller, bed 19, company D, 53d Pennsylvania, is only sixteen years of age, very bright, courageous boy, left leg amputated below the knee; next bed to him, another young lad very sick; gave each appropriate gifts. In the bed above, also, amputation of the left leg; gave him a little jar of raspberries; bed 1, this ward, gave a small sum; also to a soldier on crutches, sitting on his bed near.... (I am more and more surprised at the very great proportion of youngsters from fifteen to twenty-one in the army. I afterwards found a still greater proportion among the southerners.)
Evening, same day, went to see D. F. R., before alluded [Page 715] to; found him remarkably changed for the better; up and dress’d — quite a triumph; he afterwards got well, and went back to his regiment. Distributed in the wards a quantity of note-paper, and forty or fifty stamp’d envelopes, of which I had recruited my stock, and the men were much in need. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
“Specimen Days”
FIFTY HOURS LEFT WOUNDED ON THE FIELD Here is a case of a soldier I found among the crowded cots in the Patent-office. He likes to have some one to talk to, and we will listen to him. He got badly hit in his leg and side at Fredericksburgh that eventful Saturday, 13th of December. He lay the succeeding two days and nights helpless on the field, between the city and those grim terraces of batteries; his company and regiment had been compell’d to leave him to his fate. To make matters worse, it happen’d he lay with his head slightly down hill, and could not help himself. At the end of some fifty hours he was brought off, with other wounded, under a flag of truce. I ask him how the rebels treated him as he lay during those two days and nights within reach of them — whether they came to him — whether they abused him? He answers that several of the rebels, soldiers and others, came to him at one time and another. A couple of them, who were together, spoke roughly and sarcastically, but nothing worse. One middle- aged man, however, who seem’d to be moving around the field, among the dead and wounded, for benevolent purposes, came to him in a way he will never forget; treated our soldier kindly, bound up his wounds, cheer’d him, gave him a couple of biscuits and a drink of whiskey and water; asked him if he could eat some beef. This good secesh, however, did not change our soldier’s position, for it might have caused the blood to burst from the wounds, clotted and stagnated. Our soldier is from Pennsylvania; has had a pretty severe time; the wounds proved to be bad ones. But he retains a good heart, and is at present on the gain. (It is not uncommon for the men to remain on the field this way, one, two, or even four or five days.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1866
Volum e II o f Samuel Bailey’s ON THE RECEIVED TEXT OF SHAKESPEARE’S DRAMATIC WRITINGS AND ITS IMPROVEMENT, the initial volume of which had appeared in 1862. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
1870
January 18, Tuesday: After living for a considerable period as a recluse Samuel Bailey died, leaving a fortune of more than £80,000 to the town trustees of Sheffield for public use.
“MAGISTERIAL HISTORY” IS FANTASIZING, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY
“Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project Samuel Bailey HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: May 30, 2014 HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX
SAMUEL BAILEY SAMUEL BAILEY
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with