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rn- The Pleasures of Walking
tags: refx, #readingnotes
book: The pleasures of Walking
author: (editor) Edwin V. Mitchell
date: November 12, 2013 11:08:37 AM
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p91
From On going on a journey by William Hazlitt:
All that part of map that we do not see before us is blank. The world in our conceit of it is not much bigger than a nutshell. It is not one prospect expanded into another, county joined to county, kingdom to kingdom, lands to seas, making an image voluminous and vast; -- the mind can form no larger idea of space than the eye can take in at a single glance. The rest is a name written in a map, a calculation of arithmetic. For instance, what is the true signification of that immense mass of territory and population, known by the name of China to us? An inch of pasteboard on a wooden globe, of no more account than a China orange! **Things near us are seen of the size of life: things at a distance are diminished to the size of the understanding.** We measure the universe by ourselves, and even comprehend the texture of our own being only piecemeal. In this way, however, we remember an infinity of things and places. The mind is like a mechanical instrument that plays a great variety of tunes, but it must play them in succession. One idea recalls another, but it at the same time excludes all others. In trying to renew old recollections, we cannot as it were unfold the whole web of our existence; we must pick. out the single threads. So in coming to a place where we have formerly lived, and with which we have intimate associations, every one must have found that the feel ing grows more vivid the nearer we approach the spot, from the mere anticipation of the actual impression:
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