I spent last week at Harvard doing research in the archives of William James, the psychologist, philosopher, psychical researcher, brother of Henry James, and all around interesting person. He was a brilliant, charming, self-defeating, deeply strange man (exhibit A: he believed taking a high dose of nitrous oxide helped him finally understand Hegel ). That mixture of qualities comes across vividly in his papers.

What doesn’t, at least at first, is that he was a talented visual artist. In fact, before he became a psychologist, William James dreamed of being a professional painter.…