know a large number of highly--that is broadly--educated persons, who
are desperately dull. 'But would they have been less dull,' it may be
asked, 'if they were also ignorant?' Yes, I believe they would. They
have swallowed too much for digestions naturally weak; they have become
inert, conceited, oppressive to themselves and others--Prigs. And I
think that even clever young people suffer in a less degree from the
same cause. Some one has written, 'Information is always useful.' This
reminds me of the married lady, fond of bargains, who once bought a
door-plate at a sale with 'Mr. Wilkins' on it. Her own name was Jones,
but the doorplate was very cheap, and her husband, she argued, _might_
die, and then she might marry a man of the name of Wilkins. 'Depend upon
it, everything comes in useful,' she said, 'if you only keep it long
enough.'

This is what I venture to doubt. I have myself purchased several
door-plates (quite as burthensome, but not so cheap as that good
lady's), which have been of no sort of use to me, and are still on hand.




_STORY-TELLING._


The most popular of English authors has given us an account of what
within his experience (and it was a large one) was the impression among
the public at large of the manner in which his work was done. They
pictured him, he says,

as a radiant personage whose whole time is devoted to idleness and