At 04:46 PM 5/2/97 -0400, Everett Emerson wrote: >One of the disappointments of my life was examining the Autobiographical >Dictations at the Mark Twain Papers. They show Mark Twain being very >self-indulgent. I do not expect to see an edition of the so-called >autobigraphy published in my lifetime, and though I expect to feel many >disappointments at the end of my life, seeing that publication will not be >one of them. See the account in my THE AUTHENTIC MARK TWAIN, written >before Kiskis's magisterial edition. You have phrased the issue so clearly -- Twain is not to be compared to the average person, who indulges in herd mentality, herd snobbishness, and herd disdain of complex ideas of freedom...and reproduces prodigiously! .. his personal life should be lived according to the standards of mental herd animals now that the curtain is falling...We can be part of the tyranny of the majority...Enforce the categorical imperative - "I do not do it, therefore you should not do it." My formula for life is right....yours is suspect... Of course, by that standard, we would not have any of his writing. Self indulgence, the herd states, is only allowed in the pleasures of conformity. Or maybe the formula for great mental accomplishment varies from person to person in varying situations. That's a start. The best arguments are on this side of the question. The other side can make points but after the first few they are all evil and against our Constitution, modern philosophy, and self-determination. I hope you don't agree with the herd mentality on this? The Masons are not God's only law-givers...far from it. Mike