No. 488, St. George's Chapel.

* * * * *


THE MARCH OF MIND.

(_To the Editor_.)

It is generally supposed that the extensive search after, and diffusion of,
knowledge, is in a great measure peculiar to these present times. It seems
therefore to me a very curious thing to find a learned man and an
accomplished courtier protesting against book-learning as an evil, so far
back as the year 1646, and a curious thing he himself appears to have
thought it, introducing his opinion as a "paradox" until he explains. In
this explanation we find the same opinion that is now strenuously insisted
on by Mr. Cobbett, namely, that a man who properly understands his own
business or employment, though he have nothing of literature, is by no
means to be accounted ignorant.

The letters of James Howell, Esq. are well known as fluent examples of the
best style of writing of his day, and as repositories of many curious
facts and intelligent remarks. The following letter appears to be
addressed to Lord Dorchester--

"My Lord,--The subject of this letter may, peradventure, seem a paradox to
some, but not, I know, to your Lordship, when you are pleased to weigh
well the reasons. Learning is a thing that hath been much cried up, and
coveted in all ages, especially in this last century of years, by people