Observations placeholder
Crosse, Andrew – Hoblegees and the Model Republic
Identifier
026641
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Memorials, Scientific and Literary of Andrew Crosse, the Electrician – Cornelia and Andrew Crosse
The two children [Andrew and his brother] were both very imaginative, and I have often heard Mr. Crosse say that they lived quite in a world of their own. They created a new language, and peopled their world with creatures like large fir cones, whom they called hoblegees; they used to imagine themselves pursued through the long passages of Fyne Court by these beings, whose mode of locomotion was something quite eccentric. They were not objects of horror. I have often been amused at the details I heard of their "Model Republic." Truly
"Heaven lies about us in our infancy."
Mingled with this childish nonsense were glimpses of profound wisdom. They made peculiar laws, language, and institutions, and the whole idea was pursued with an earnestness which made these fancies seem almost more truthful than actual realities. This waking-dream world continued to exist for several years in the brains of the two boys; but having no Gibbon to record its decline and fall, like greater things, it passed away.