sees nothing except through the crack. So Leon, knowing much,
knew less than he thought he did; and many ideas which he believed to
be mature, and original products of his own brain, were but
reflections of the authors whose works he had read, and whose
deductions he had adopted, because he had read nothing by other
writers contradicting them. Therefore he was exactly in that mental
condition which would make him a good pupil, because he would be a
disputative one. The student who accepts the teaching of his master
without question, will acquire but a meagre grasp of knowledge, while
he who adopts nothing antagonistic to his own reason, until his reason
has been satisfied, may be more troublesome, because less docile, but
his progress will be more real.

That Leon had very decided convictions upon many topics, and that he
would argue tenaciously in defence of his views, would not at all
militate against his learning. Those ideas which were most firmly
fixed in his mind, could readily be dislodged, if erroneous, for the
very reason that they were not truly original with himself. Having
adopted the teaching of one book, he could certainly be made to accept
opposite theories, if another book, with more convincing arguments,
should be brought to his notice.

For these reasons, it might be said that his mind was in a plastic
condition, ready to be moulded into permanent thoughts. With such a
teacher as Dr. Medjora, he would learn whatever the Doctor taught; he
would adopt whatever theories the Doctor wished. Under the control of
another master he might become the antithesis of what the Doctor would
make of him. Therefore it may be truly said that when he accepted Dr.
Medjora's offer, he sealed his fate, as surely as when Faust
contracted with Mephisto.

Just as he had gleaned the ideas of authors, so also his conception of
cities, and city life, had been taken from books. He had read works of
travel, and thought that he was quite familiar with travelling. He was
consequently astonished to find how much at variance with the real,
were his notions. When he found himself aboard of _The Puritan_, that
palatial steamboat of the Fall River line, he was dazed by the
magnificence and luxury, thus seen for the first time in his life. But
later in the night, when he and the Doctor sat upon the upper deck, as
they swiftly glided through the moonlit waters of Long Island Sound,
he was so enraptured at this broader view of the Univers