The Human Chord

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Human Chord, by Algernon BlackwoodThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online atwww.gutenberg.netTitle: The Human ChordAuthor: Algernon BlackwoodRelease Date: April 11, 2004 [EBook #11988]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HUMAN CHORD ***Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.THE HUMAN CHORDBY ALGERNON BLACKWOOD1910To those who hear.Chapter IIAs a boy he constructed so vividly in imagination that he came to believe in the living reality of his creations: foreverybody and everything he found names—real names. Inside him somewhere stretched immense playgrounds,compared to which the hay-fields and lawns of his father's estate seemed trivial: plains without horizon, seas deepenough to float the planets like corks, and "such tremendous forests" with "trees like tall pointed hilltops." He had only toclose his eyes, drop his thoughts inwards, sink after them himself, call aloud and—see.His imagination conceived and bore—worlds; but nothing in these worlds became alive until he discovered its true andliving name. The name was the breath of life; and, sooner or later, he invariably found it.Once, having terrified his sister by affirming that a little man he had created ...