two languages is incomparably more
complete, in the sense of practical possession, than our fossilized
knowledge of Latin, and he reads them almost as we read English,
currently, and without translating. He has the heartiest enjoyment of
good literature; there is evidence in his pictures of a most intelligent
sympathy with the greatest inventive writers. Without having a
scientific nature, he knows a good deal about anatomy. He has not read
Greek poetry, but he has studied the old Greek mind in its architecture
and sculpture. Nature has also endowed him with a just appreciation of
music, and he knows the immortal masterpieces of the most illustrious
composers. All these things would not qualify him to teach a grammar
school, and yet what Greek of the age of Pericles ever knew half so
much?

This for the acquisition of knowledge; now for the development of
faculty. In this respect he excels us as performing athletes excel the
people in the streets. Consider the marvellous accuracy of his eye, the
precision of his hand, the closeness of his observation, the vigor of
his memory and invention! How clumsy and rude is the most learned pedant
in comparison with the refinement of this delicate organization! Try to
imagine what a disciplined creature he has become, how obedient are all
his faculties to the commands of the central will! The brain conceives
some image of beauty or wit, and immediately that clear conception is
telegraphed to the well-trained fingers. Surely, if the results of
education may be estimated from the evidences of skill, here are some of
the most wonderful of such results.

FOOTNOTE:

[1] According to M. Taine. I have elsewhere expressed a doubt about
polyglots.

PART IV.

THE POWER OF TIME.

LETTER I.

TO A MAN OF LEISURE WHO COMPLAINED OF WANT OF TIME.

Necessity for time-thrift in all cases--Serious men not much in danger
from mere frivolity--Greater danger of losing time in our serious
pursuits themselves--Time thrown away when we do not attain
proficiency--Soundness of former scholarship a good
example--Browning's Grammarian--Knowledge an organic whole--Soundness
the possession of essential parts--Necessity of fixed limits in our
projects of study--Limitation of purpose in the fine arts--In
languages--Instance of M. Louis Enault--In music--Time saved by
following kindred pursuits--Order and proportion the true secrets of
time-thrift--A waste of time to