5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



art. The works without which, we are told at book-auctions, " no 

 gentleman's library can be considered complete," are especially the 

 objects of this adoration. The " Rambler," for example, is one of 

 them. I was once shut up for a week of snow-storms in a mountain 

 inn, with the " Rambler " and one other publication. The latter was 

 a " Shepherd's Guide," with illustrations of the way in which sheep are 

 marked by their various owners for the purpose of identification : 

 " Cropped near ear, upper key bitted far, a pop on the head and an- 

 other at the tail head, ritted, and with two red strokes doAvn both 

 shoulders," etc. It was monotonous, but I confess that there were 

 times when I felt it some comfort in having that picture-book to fall 

 back upon, to alternate with the " Rambler." 



The essay, like port wine, I have noticed, requires age for its due 

 appreciation. Leigh Hunt's "Indicator" comprises some admirable 

 essays, but the general public have not a word to say for them ; it 

 may be urged that that is because they had not read the " Indicator." 

 But why, then, do they praise the " Rambler " and Montaigne ? That 

 comforting word, " Mesopotamia," which has been so often alluded to 

 in religious matters, has many a parallel in profane literature. 



A good deal of this mock worship is of course due to abject cow- 

 ardice. A man who says he doesn't like the " Rambler " runs, with 

 some folks, the risk of being thought a fool ; but he is sure to be 

 thought that, for something or another, under any circumstances ; 

 and, at all events, why should he not content himself, when the " Ram- 

 bler " is belauded, with holding his tongue and smiling acquiescence ? 

 It must be conceded that there are a few persons who really have read 

 the " Rambler," a work, of course, I am merely using as a type of its 

 class. In their young days it was used as a school-book, and thought 

 necessary as a part of polite education ; and, as they have read little 

 or nothing since, it is only reasonable that they should stick to their 

 colors. Indeed, the French satirist's boast that he could predicate the 

 views of any man with regard to both worlds, if he were only supplied 

 with the simple data of his age and his income, is quite true in the gen- 

 eral with regard to literary taste. Given the age of the ordinary indi- 

 vidualthat is to say of the gentleman "fond of books, but who has 

 really no time for reading " and it is easy enough to guess his literary 

 idols. They are the gods of his youth, and, whether he has been 

 " suckled in a creed outworn " or not, he knows no other. These per- 

 sons, however, rarely give their opinion about literary matters, except 

 on compulsion ; they are harmless and truthful. The tendency of 

 society in general, on the other hand, is not only to praise the " Ram- 

 bler " which they have not read, but to express a noble scorn for those 

 who have read it and don't like it. 



I remember, as a young man, being greatly struck by the indepen- 

 dence of character exhibited by Miss Bronte in a certain confession 

 she made in respect to Miss Austen's novels. It was at a period when 



