... that all this time I really did not know what I knew. Boys are greatly influenced by their surroundings, and in those days every one about me never spoke of Transcendentalism or "Germanism," or even "bookishness," without a sneer. I was borne by a mysterious inner impulse which I could not resist into this terrible whirlpool of belles- lettres, occulta, facetiae, and philosophy; but I had, God knows, little cause for pride that I read so ... — Memoirs • Charles Godfrey Leland
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