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Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946

"More Toasts"

Used occasionally by burglars,
small boys and lovers, the singular power of the window to control our
destiny has not hitherto been recognized. Without windows there would
be no ghost stories, for how could the rain beat on the pane, or the
wind come in short gusts through the cracks? Neither would there be
melodrama, for how could the heroine crouch on the floor if there were
no sudden flashes of lighting or falling snow to gaze at through the
window? What poems have been written by just looking through a window;
and as for literature in general, who does not remember the window
in Thrums? The first thing we look at upon entering a room is the
windows. At night the window is the last thing we adjust, and in the
morning the first we gaze out of. The first window was the beginning
of civilization. Consider the window of a cell, how symbolic it is of
a dwarfed and misdirected life. The composite health of any community
can almost be predicated upon the number of its windows that are kept
open at night.
Then there are the windows of the soul, without which no best seller
would be worth the price of admission.


WISDOM

"Father, have you cut all four of your wisdom teeth?"
"Yes, son.


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