ugh, and closer acquaintance with life's
sterner realities renders one singularly impatient with the literature
of life's frillings. I do not notice, however, that it makes one less
susceptible to the really fine and strong things of literature and art.

It is true that one drops into dialect when excited; that one's manners
suffer in conventional correctness. I suppose I know how to behave
fairly correctly; I was well taught at all events; but my manners never
have been and never will be so good, so considerate as Tony's. 'Tisn't
in me.

It is true that one becomes much coarser. One acquires a habit of
talking with scandalous freedom about vital matters which among the
unscientific educated are kept hid in the dark--and go fusty there. But
I do not think there is much vulgarity to be infected with here.
Coarseness and vulgarity are incompatibles. It was well said in a book
written not long ago, that "Coarseness reveals but vulgarity hides."
Vulgarity is chiefly characteristic of the non-courageous who are
everlastingly bent on climbing up the social stairs. Poor people are
hardly ever vulgar, until they begin to 'rise' into the middle class.

[Sidenote: _WISDOM_]

It is true that, so far as knowledge goes, one is bound to be cock o'
the walk among uneducated people--which, alone, is bad for a man. But
knowledge is not everything, nor even the main thing. Wisdom is more
than knowledge: it is _Knowledge applied to life, the ability to make
use of the knowledge well_. In that respect I often have here to eat a
slice of humble-pie. For all my elaborate education and painfully
gained stock of knowledge, I find myself silenced time after time by
the direct wisdom of these so-called ignorant people. They have
preserved better, between knowledge and experience, that balance which
makes for wisdom. They have less knowledge (less mental dyspepsy too)
and use it to better purpose. It occurs to one finally that, according
to our current standards, the great wise men whom we honour--Christ,
Plato, Shakespeare, to name no more--were very ignorant fellows.
Possibly the standards are wrong.

[Sidenote: _DIFFERENTIAL EVOLUTION_]

To live with the poor is to feel oneself in contact with a greater
continuity of tradition and to share in a greater stability of life.
The nerves are more annoyed, the thinking self less. Perhaps the
difference between the two kinds of life may be tentatively
expressed--not necessarily accounted for--i