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375
The Book of the Damned
·
Charles Fort
174
I'm
in
the
state
of
mind
of
a
savage
who
might
find
upon
a
shore,
washed
up
by
the
same
storm,
buoyant
parts
of
a
piano
and
a
paddle
that
was
carved
by
cruder
hands
than
his
own:
something
light
and
summery
from
India,
and
a
fur
overcoat
from
Russia--or
all
science,
though
approximating
wider
and
wider,
is
attempt
to
conceive
of
India
in
terms
of
an
ocean
island,
and
of
Russia
in
terms
of
India
so
interpreted.
Though
I
am
trying
to
think
of
Russia
and
India
in
world-wide
terms,
I
cannot
think
that
that,
or
the
universalizing
of
the
local,
is
cosmic
purpose.
The
higher
idealist
is
the
positivist
who
tries
to
localize
the
universal,
and
is
in
accord
with
cosmic
purpose:
the
super-dogmatist
of
a
local
savage
who
can
hold
out,
without
a
flurry
of
doubt,
that
a
piano
washed
up
on
a
beach
is
the
trunk
of
a
palm
tree
that
a
shark
has
bitten,
leaving
his
teeth
in
it.
So
we
fear
for
the
soul
of
Dr.
Gray,
because
he
did
not
devote
his
whole
life
to
that
one
stand
that,
whether
possible
or
inconceivable,
thousands
of
fishes
had
been
cast
from
one
bucket.
So,
unfortunately
for
myself,
if
salvation
be
desirable,
I
look
out
widely
but
amorphously,
indefinitely
and
heterogeneously.
If
I
say
I
conceive
of
another
world
that
is
now
in
secret
communication
with
certain
esoteric
inhabitants
of
this
earth,
I
say
I
conceive
of
still
other
worlds
that
are
trying
to
establish
communication
with
all
the
inhabitants
of
this
earth.
I
fit
my
notions
to
the
data
I
find.
That
is
supposed
to
be
the
right
and
logical
and
scientific
thing
to
do;
but
it
is
no
way
to
approximate
to
form,
system,
organization.
Then
I
think
I
conceive
of
other
worlds
and
vast
structures
that
pass
us
by,
within
a
few
miles,
without
the
slightest
desire
to
communicate,
quite
as
tramp
vessels
pass
many
islands
without
particularizing
one
from
another.
Then
I
think
I
have
data
of
a
vast
construction
that
has
often
come
to
this
earth,
dipped
into
an
ocean,
submerged
there
a
while,
then
going
away--Why?
I'm
not
absolutely
sure.
How
would
an
Eskimo
explain
a
vessel,
sending
ashore
for
coal,
which
is
plentiful
upon
some
Arctic
beaches,
though
of
unknown
use
to
the
natives,
then
sailing
away,
with
no
interest
in
the
natives?
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