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Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1809-1894

"The Professor at the Breakfast-Table"

Meant for a linguist.--Invaluable
information. Will invest in grammars and dictionaries immediately.--I
have nothing against the grand total of my phrenological endowments.
I never set great store by my head, and did not think Messrs. Bumpus and
Crane would give me so good a lot of organs as they did, especially
considering that I was a dead-head on that occasion. Much obliged to them
for their politeness. They have been useful in their way by calling
attention to important physiological facts. (This concession is due to
our immense bump of Candor.)
A short Lecture on Phrenology, read to the Boarders at our
Breakfast-Table.
I shall begin, my friends, with the definition of a Pseudo-science. A
Pseudo-science consists of a nomenclature, with a self-adjusting
arrangement, by which all positive evidence, or such as favors its
doctrines, is admitted, and all negative evidence, or such as tells
against it, is excluded. It is invariably connected with some lucrative
practical application. Its professors and practitioners are usually
shrewd people; they are very serious with the public, but wink and laugh
a good deal among themselves.


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