s stands free and
unabashed, while the man who does not know stands baffled and
embarrassed. In a chemical laboratory the man who knows chemistry moves
about with ease and freedom, while the man who does not know chemistry
stands fixed in one spot, fearing to move lest he may cause an
explosion. To the man who knows astronomy the sky at night presents a
marvelous panorama full of interest and inspiration, to the man who is
ignorant of astronomy the same sky is merely a dome studded with dots of
light.

=Rome.=--The man who lacks knowledge of history is utterly bewildered
and ill at ease in the Capitoline Museum at Rome. All about him are
busts that represent the men who made Roman history, but they have no
meaning for him. Nero and Julius Caesar are mere names to him and, as
such, bear no relation to life. Cicero and Caligula might exchange
places and it would be all one to him. He takes a fleeting glance at the
statue of the Dying Gaul, but it conveys no meaning to him. He has
neither read nor heard of Byron's poem which this statue inspired. He
sees near by the celebrated Marble Faun, but he has not read Hawthorne's
romance and therefore the statue evokes no interest. In short, he is
bored and uncomfortable, and importunes his companions to go elsewhere.

When he looks out upon the Forum he says it looks the same to him as any
other stone quarry, and he roundly berates the shiftlessness of the
Romans in permitting the Coliseum to remain when the stone could be used
for building purposes, for bridges, and for paving. The Tiber impresses
him not at all for, as he says, he has seen much larger rivers and,
certainly, many whose water is more clear. In the Sistine Chapel he
cannot be persuaded to give more than a passing glance at the ceiling
because it makes his neck ache to look up. The Laocooen and Apollo
Belvedere he will not see, giving as a reason that he is more than tired
of looking at silly statuary. He feels it an imposition that he should
be dragged around to such places when he cares nothing for them. His
evident boredom is pathetic, and he repeatedly says that he'd far rather
be visiting in the corner grocery back home, than to be spending his
time in the Vatican.

=Contrasts.=--In this, he speaks but the simple truth. In the grocery he
has comfort while, in the Vatican, he is in bondage. His ignorance of
art, architecture, history, and literature reduces him to thralldom in
any place that exemplifies these