must use it or it will
wither and die. There are brilliant intellects here which have lost
the capacity to learn. I think that profound knowledge is not for high
heads."

"I wonder just what you mean."

"Oh, the moment you lose humility, you stop learning," the Doctor went
on. "There are two doors to every intellect. One lets knowledge in,
the other lets it out. We must keep both doors in use. The mind is
like a purse: if you keep paying out money, you must, now and then, put
some into your purse or it will be empty. I once knew a man who was a
liberal spender but never did any earning. We soon found that he had
been making counterfeit money. The King's intellects have often put me
in mind of him. They are flush with knowledge but they never learn
anything. They can tell you all you may want to know but it is
counterfeit knowledge."

"How about Lord North?"

"He has nailed up the door. The African zebra is a good student
compared to him. It is a maxim of Walpole and North that all men are
equally corrupt."

"It is a hateful notion!" Jack exclaimed.

"But not without some warrant. You may be sure that a man who has
spent his life in hospitals will have no high opinion of the health of
mankind. He and his friends are so engrossed by their cards and cock
fights and horses and hounds that they have little time for such a
trivial matter as the problems of America. They postpone their
consideration and meanwhile the house is catching fire. By and by
these boys are going to get burned. They think us a lot of
semi-savages not to be taken seriously. Our New England farmers are
supposed to be like the peasants of Europe. The fact is, our average
farmer is a man of better intellect and character than the average
member of Parliament."

"The King's intellects would seem to be out of order," said Jack.

"And too cynical. They think only of revenues. They remind me of the
report of the Reverend Commissary Blair who, having projected a college
in Virginia, came to England to ask King William for help. The Queen
in the King's absence ordered her Attorney-General to draw a charter
with a grant of two thousand pounds. The Attorney opposed it on the
ground that they were in a war and needed the money for better purposes.

"'But, Your Honor, Virginia is in great need of ministers,' said the
commissary. 'It has souls to be saved.'

"'Souls--damn your souls! Make tobacco,' said the Queen's lawyer.

"