PAX

Excerpt ( concluding paragraph )

DISLIKES

By Oliver Wendel Holmes

Library Edition – The Wit and Humor of America – vol III – Funk and Wagnell's Company 1907

Holmes is reflecting upon people he dislikes and concludes:

There is one blameless person whom I can not love and have no excuse for hating. It is the innocent fellow-creature, otherwise inoffensive to me, whom I find I have involuntarily joined on turning a corner. I suppose the Mississippi, which was flowing quietly along, minding its own business, hates the Missouri for coming into it all at once with its muddy stream. I suppose the Missouri in like manner hates the Mississippi for diluting with its limpid, but insipid current the rich reminiscences of the varied soils through which its own stream has wandered. I will not compare myself to the clear of the turbid current. But I will own that my heart sinks when I find all of a sudden I am in for corner confluence, and I cease loving my neighbor as myself until I can get away from him.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle