"The dogma is one of repetition; a ritual nonsense is uttered, in a loud voice; and suitable tests for the conforming of other scientists and the rest of the citizenry are performed by these, who-working scientists, educators, politicians, critics of all forms-now will swear they are behaving scientifically. William James met one such, in the person of a lady from Boston. As F. O. Matthiessen tells it, James was presenting one of his lucid, cogent arguments, and paused to say ironically, "That is like asking 'What holds the world up?"" The lady from Boston, impatient with all the talk, answered with clipped decision, "A rock." James wanted to take this farther-"What holds the rock up?" he asked. The lady said, "Another rock." "And that rock," James pursued, "what holds it up?" The lady stiffened. "Young man," she said in a voice that a dog-hater might use on an off-bounds Pekinese, "let me make myself clear: it's rocks, all the way!""