ician should be supposed better qualified to
give an opinion than a boot-black or a barber. Here, therefore, "let us
breathe," as Shakspeare says, "and happily introduce a course of
learning and ingenious studies," in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XII.

OF THE MARCH OF MIND.

"_Smith._ The clerk of Chatham: he can write, and read, and cast
accompt.

_Cade._ O monstrous!

_Smith._ We took him setting of boys' copies.

_Cade._ Here's a villain!

_Smith._ H'as a book in his pocket with red letters in't.

_Cade._ Nay, then, he's a conjuror.

* * * * *

_Cade._ Dost thou use to write thy name? or hast thou a mark to
thyself, like an honest man?

_Clerk._ Sir, I thank God, I have been so well brought up that I
can write my name."--_Shakspeare._

"Hail, wedded love"--"and all that sort of thing."

_Milton and Matthews._

It may well be imagined that the appearance of such a flourishing
literary manifesto as that set forth in the preceding chapter, created
an uncommon sensation in the village. The ladies admired the distiches
of poetry with which the pompous proclamation was so plentifully
sprinkled, and the gentlemen, not being conversant with those
convenient _helps_, the "_Elegant Extracts_," supposed of course that
the advertisers must be persons of considerable erudition. Indeed,
the thing took wonderfully, and nothing was thought of, or talked of,
by ambitious mothers, and those opening rose-buds, their daughters,
for the full period of nine days, but the new "Institute," or
"Seminary"--the old-fashioned word "school" never being once mentioned.
Nor were the lords of creation unmindful of the good fortune in which
they were so soon to rejoice. Various situations were proposed and
discussed, for the site of a new edifice which would doubtless be
required within a twelve-month, and real estate rose exorbitantly in
every vicinity thus designated. A charter from the Legislature was
of course to be applied for, and several meetings of those who were
to form the Board of Trustees, were held to adjust the details.
The privileges of a college were to be obtained, with the power
of conferring the same degrees upon female students, as upon
males--forgetting, in their ardor, that the constitution of _female_
Bachelors and Masters of Arts would be a misnomer in any other country
than Ireland. In one word, there was to be no other classical
ins