it and skimmed it over to excellent purpose. Might not the student
afford some Hebrew roots, and the business man some of his half-crowns,
for a share of the idler's knowledge of life at large, and Art of
Living?

*****

Nay, and the idler has another and more important quality than these. I
mean his wisdom. He who has much looked on at the childish satisfaction
of other people in their hobbies, will regard his own with only a very
ironical indulgence. He will not be heard among the dogmatists. He will
have a great and cool allowance for all sorts of people and opinions. If
he finds no out-of-the-way truths, he will identify himself with no
very burning falsehood. His way takes him along a by-road, not much
frequented, but very even and pleasant, which is called Commonplace
Lane, and leads to the Belvedere of Commonsense. Thence he shall command
an agreeable, if no very noble prospect; and while others behold the
East and West, the Devil and the sunrise, he will be contentedly aware
of a sort of morning hour upon all sublunary things, with an army of
shadows running speedily and in many different directions into the great
daylight of Eternity.

*****

I begin to perceive that it is necessary to know some one thing to the
bottom--were it only literature. And yet, sir, the man of the world is a
great feature of this age; he is possessed of an extraordinary mass and
variety of knowledge; he is everywhere at home; he has seen life in all
its phases; and it is impossible but that this great habit of existence
should bear fruit.

*****

I am sorry indeed that I have no Greek, but I should be sorrier still if
I were dead; nor do I know the name of that branch of knowledge which
is worth acquiring at the price of a brain fever. There are many sordid
tragedies in the life of the student, above all if he be poor, or
drunken, or both; but nothing more moves a wise man s pity than the case
of the lad who is in too much hurry to be learned.

*****

'My friend,' said I, 'it is not easy to say who know the Lord; and it
is none of our business. Protestants and Catholics, and even those who
worship stones, may know Him and be known by Him; for He has made all.'

*****

Cheylard scrapes together halfpence or the darkened souls in Edinburgh;
while Balquhidder and Dunrossness bemoans the ignorance of Rome. Thus,
to the high entertainment of the angels, do we pelt each other with
evangelists, like schoolboys bickering in the s