Books: Family of Minds

THE JAMES FAMILY (706 pp.)—F. O. Matthiessen—Knopf ($6.75).

In 1789, 18-year-old Billy James left Ireland with "a very small sum of money" and a Latin grammar. When he died in 1832, the $3,000,000 he left his heirs (from public utilities and real estate) was the second largest fortune *in the State of New York. One of his 13 children, whose name was Henry, decided to use his inheritance to cultivate his passion for "being" instead of "doing." Wrote he: "I can give ecstatic hours to worship or meditation but moments spent in original deed, such...