back into history, first of all, to find out the course of study that
produced Newton, Humboldt, Darwin, Shakespeare, Dante, Edison, Clara
Barton, and the rest of them. If a roast-beef diet is responsible
for Shakespeare, surely we ought to produce another Shakespeare,
considering the excellence of the cattle we raise. I can easily
discover the constituent elements of the beef pudding of which Samuel
Johnson was so fond by writing to the old Cheshire Cheese in London.
Of course, this plan of mine seems not to take into account the
Lord's work to any large extent. But that seems to be the way of us
vocationalists. We seem to think we can do certain things in spite
of what the Lord has or has not done.

The one danger that I foresee in all this work that I have planned is
that it may produce overstimulation. Some one was telling me that
the trees on the Embankment there in London are dying of arboreal
insomnia. The light of the sun keeps them awake all day, and the
electric lights keep them awake all night. So the poor things are
dying from lack of sleep. Macbeth had some trouble of that sort,
too, as I recall it. I'm going to hold on to the vocational
stimulation unless I find it is producing pedagogical insomnia. Then
I'll resign from the band and take a long nap. I'll continue to
advocate pudding, pastry, and pie until I find that they are not
producing the sort of men and women the world needs, and then I'll
beat an inglorious retreat and again espouse the cause of orthodox
beefsteak.




CHAPTER XI