bringing, his entomological studies, his _intellectual
resiliency_, so deftly utilized by the Society of Jesus--all these
came gradually into view, and we found truth, which is perfected
praise, emanating from the babe by whom, I had been assured, we were
to be bored to distraction.

We realize only too little what has been lost through the decay of
conversation. "_Come, let us reason together._" And "letters" are only
a form of reasoning together adapted to our special needs, gaining
perhaps some added pathos from the implied separation of kindred
souls, and a further value from the permanence and potential artistry
of the form itself. It is not incumbent upon us to be very deep in the
eighteenth century to remark that, with conversation, letter-writing
dwindles and dies before the rush of mechanism and trade. It is easy
to see the reason of this. Mechanism and trade are expressions of
dissatisfaction with one's circumstances. Men used machines to make
and carry commodities, not because they felt the exquisite joy of
making, or the still higher joy of giving, but because they, or their
wives, wanted larger houses, more splendid equipages, more sumptuous
provender. Conversation, on the other hand, implies leisure and
contentment of mind. I do not mean idlers and persons of no ambition.
Neither of these classes ever wrote letters or shone in conversations.

So, musing upon my friend's hasty screed, I wonder how I am, in very
truth, to give him of my best. True, I know from that hint that he is
fighting with beasts at Ephesus to get his play into working, or
rather playing order. This is sufficient to make me forgive my friend.
But consider in future, _mon ami_, that your letters are the only
conversation I can enjoy out here, for the heroes with whom I toil
know not the art.

XI

The transition of a great nation from barbarism to an elementary form
of culture is always interesting. So, too, is the same transition in
the case of a "great profession." In 1840, when the propulsion of
ships by means of a steam-driven screw opened a new era in maritime
history, the "practical man" in the engineering trade was an
uneducated savage. Possessing no trade union, no voice in Parliament,
no means of educating himself in the intricate theory of the machinery
he helped to build, the mechanic of sixty years ago was regarded
by those above him in the social scale merely as a "hand." When,
therefore, steamships became common