I Got There. Why Am I Not Happy?
A passage from Schopenhauer on wanting something from a distance, then finding it insufficient once it is ours.
Writing
How Long Must I Stand by My Decision?
A passage from On Liberty on leaving a commitment, and what we owe to people who have relied on it.
If I Were in Their Place
A passage from The Theory of Moral Sentiments on another person's grief and anger, and the limits of imagining ourselves in their place.
Twenty Years Away, in the Next Street
The opening of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Wakefield”: a man leaves his wife but spends twenty years living in the next street.
You May Sit on the Bench, but Not Sleep
From “The Carter and the Carpenter” in Jack London’s The People of the Abyss: two sleepless men look for somewhere to spend the night.
The Bottle Must Be Sold at a Loss
A selection from Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Bottle Imp”: a bottle grants wishes, but its owner must sell it at a loss before dying.
The Watchmaker Who Made a Butterfly
The butterfly’s unveiling in Hawthorne’s “The Artist of the Beautiful”: Owen shows his friends the result of years of work.
The Guest Who Couldn't Leave
A story by Stephen Leacock: a guest wants to leave, his hosts ask him to stay, and each goodbye becomes harder.
An Honest Man, Except for Other People's Umbrellas
A comic essay by A. G. Gardiner: conscience finds room for somebody else's umbrella and the book we never returned.
At the Bank, I Become an Idiot
A story by Stephen Leacock: opening a simple account becomes a succession of attempts to look composed, each worse than the last.
A Map as Large as the Country
A map so exact that there is nowhere to unfold it: a conversation from Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.
A Library of All Whispers
Babbage imagines the air as a library of past speech: a passage from his scientific and theological speculation of 1838.
All Your Ages in One Body
Portraits at different ages as sections of a four-dimensional being: the Time Traveller’s explanation in H. G. Wells’s novel.
I Can’t Recall the Name, but That Isn’t It
The name is forgotten, yet another name will not fit: William James on an active gap in consciousness.
An Orchestra for Tomorrow’s Weather
A hall shaped like the world, with people solving equations instead of playing instruments: Lewis Fry Richardson’s scientific fantasy of 1922.
A House Whose Past You Can Smell
A house, nightfall and a landscape recognized through smell: three paragraphs from Helen Keller’s lived world.
Armor That Can See
Eyes scattered across shell plates: a historical account of chiton eyes in The Cambridge Natural History, 1895.
The Loom of Time
Two sailors weave a mat; warp, woof and the stroke of a hand become necessity, free will and chance. A passage from Moby-Dick.
A World Inside a Teacup
In a teacup’s blue figures, distance cannot shrink people and one step can cross a river: the opening of Charles Lamb’s “Old China.”
A Past Created by Music
Grief for events that did not happen to us, the memory of a love we never had: Gilbert speaks in Oscar Wilde’s “The Critic as Artist.”
Cages for Listening
Lafcadio Hearn on an insect-seller’s stall, and an art of listening a passing traveller might mistake for a toy.
From a Flower to an Unseen Moth
Darwin follows the nectar at the bottom of a flower to the proboscis of a moth he has not seen: a passage from his orchid book.
Riding a Tree in a Storm
From a tree-top, the forest becomes a sea of motion and light for John Muir: a passage from The Mountains of California.
Pharaoh Is Sold for Balsams
A passage from Thomas Browne: bodies preserved for eternity, only to become merchandise.
Sharp Teeth Do Not Make a Monster
A passage from John Ruskin on the difference between a merely disgusting creature and a monster that seems alive.
When Murder Is Reviewed Like a Painting
Thomas De Quincey’s black satire: an imaginary society’s lecture demands composition, light and shade from murder.
Why Do We Enjoy Fear, but Not Nausea?
A selection from the discussion of Glad to Be Sad: where does enjoyment of unpleasant experiences stop?
When a Bowl Becomes a Face
Wardle and colleagues on illusory faces in objects: how can the same image remain both a face and an object?
Can We Shake Hands with Our Own Body?
Petkova and Ehrsson on the body-swapping illusion: what makes a body feel like our own?
Who Ploughed the Earth Before the Plough?
Darwin on earthworms: from plugging their burrows to the soil passing through their bodies.
Do We See Light, or Dust?
John Tyndall describes an experiment in which clearing the air makes a luminous beam’s path go dark.
Why Does Soot Make a Flame Bright?
A passage from Faraday’s The Chemical History of a Candle: how the particles that blacken a ceiling give a flame its brilliance.
How Do Machines Have Children?
A passage from Samuel Butler’s Erewhon: a satirical argument about mechanical reproduction and the humans who make it possible.
Why Does a Child Fight a Chair?
A passage from Stevenson’s Child’s Play: a story that needs a body, a chair and the things in a room to happen.
Why Isn't a Giant Just a Bigger Person?
A passage from D’Arcy Thompson’s On Growth and Form: why changing size changes the rules for bodies and bridges.
The Embarrassment of Chasing a Hat
A passage from Chesterton: why is running a pleasure in a game, but an embarrassment when the wind takes a hat?
Who Invented London's Fog?
A passage from Oscar Wilde's dialogue The Decay of Lying, turning the idea that painting imitates nature on its head.
I Spare the Spider, but Still Loathe It
The opening of Hazlitt's On the Pleasure of Hating: a spared spider and the hostility that survives restraint.
Work That Does Not Count
A passage from Women and Economics, on the difference between useful work, wages and economic independence.
Receiving a Gift Is Not So Simple
A passage from Gifts, on giving, receiving and the dependence that can accompany them.
When Thought Is Broken Apart
A passage from On Noise, on concentration and the sound that makes thinking harder before we even notice it.
Who Gets to Make Us Wait?
The complete text of Before the Law, about a gatekeeper and a man waiting for permission to enter.
The Freedom of Being Unknown
A passage from The Metropolis and Mental Life, on the distance required by life among a multitude of people.
When Help Takes Over
A passage from On Liberty, on helping another person while leaving the final decision with them.
Why Don’t We Leave a City We Don’t Like?
On the cost of leaving a life we have built, from money and work to relationships and attachment to place.
Nobody Made Me
A passage from An Apology for Idlers, on a life that has little left to enjoy outside work.
Secondhand Desires
A passage from The Theory of Moral Sentiments, on the models we follow in seeking respect and admiration.
Alone, but Not Abandoned
A passage from the seventh of the Letters to a Young Poet, on solitude and learning to love.
When the Audience Leaves
A passage from The Principles of Psychology, on the different social selves we have in the eyes of different groups.
The Price of Being Seen
A passage from the dress chapter of The Theory of the Leisure Class, on the cost of appearing respectable.
The Illusion of Choice
Rollo May on anonymity, mass media and the need to be seen, from Love and Will.
The Apple Falls Too..
Excerpts from Seneca’s Letter 78 to Lucilius, on illness, friendship and the courage to keep living.
Economics with Everything
Friedrich August von Hayek on the limits of human knowledge and the difference between designing society and nurturing growth.
Why Is Life in the Capital More Expensive?
The story of a city where creating more opportunities can make everyday life harder.