142 NEW ENGLAND WINTER. 



Scripture be fulfilled ? " Of making many 

 books " there surely would be an end, 

 and that speedily. I venture to think, 

 moreover, that a man may never have set 

 foot beyond the boundaries of his native 

 city, and yet prove a reasonably competent 

 guide to its streets and by-ways. His in- 

 formation is circumscribed, but such as it 

 is, it is precise and to the point. Though 

 he assure you soberly that the principal 

 thoroughfare of his tenth-rate town is more 

 magnificent than any in New York or Lon- 

 don, you may none the less depend upon 

 him to pilot you safely out of its most in- 

 tricate and bewildering corner. Indeed, he 

 might fairly claim membership in what is, 

 at present, one of the most flourishing of 

 intellectual guilds : I mean the sect of the 

 specialists ; whose creed is that one may 

 know something without knowing every- 

 thing, and who choose for their motto : Re- 

 main ignorant in order that you may learn. 

 In this half - developed world there is 

 nothing "so perfect as to be past a liability 

 to drawbacks and exceptions. The best of 

 . beef is poisonous to some eaters, and straw- 

 berries are an abomination to others ; and 



