MEMOIRS

of a

ALBERT JAY NOCK

AUTHOR OF “JEFFERSON,” “JOURNEY INTO RABELAIS’S FRANCE,” “FREE SPEECH AND PLAIN LANGUAGE,” ETC.

HARPER & BROTHERS

New York and London

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

—SIR ISAAC NEWTON

MEMOIRS OF A SUPERFLUOUS MAN

Copyright, 1943, by Albert Jay Nock

Printed in the United States of America

All rights in this book are reserved.

No part of the book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address Harper & Brothers

K-Z

PREFACE

To be ignorant of one’s ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.

—AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT.

[Social life in the Grand Siècle] is the school of what is called honour, the universal master who shall be everywhere our guide. Three things we observe there, and find constantly mentioned: that our virtues should be touched with a certain nobleness, our morals with a certain freedom, our manners with a certain politeness. The virtues exhibited in this society are always less what one owes to others than what one owes to oneself; they are not so much a response to an appeal from our fellow-citizens as a mark of distinction between us and them.

The art of aristocrats, the art of enriching life.

—MARY M. COLUM.

I have fought my fight, I have lived my life,

I have drunk my share of wine;

From Trier to Köln there was never a knight

Had a merrier life than mine.

—CHARLES KINGSLEY.

Haec studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis solatium et perfugium praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur.

—CICERO.