A GOOD WORD FOR WINTER. 



" nV /TEN scarcely know how beautiful fire is," says 

 J3_l_ Shelley ; and I am apt to think there are a 

 good many other things concerning which their knowl- 

 edge might be largely increased without becoming burden- 

 some. Nor are the}^ altogether reluctant to be taught, 

 — not so reluctant, perhaps, as unable, — and education 

 is sure to find one fylcrum ready to her hand by which 

 to get a purchase on them. For most of us, I have no- 

 ticed, are not without an amiable willingness to assist at 

 any spectacle or entertainment (loosely so called) for 

 which no fee is charged at the door. If special tickets 

 are sent us, another element of pleasure is added in a 

 sense of privilege and pre-eminence (pitiably scarce in 

 a democracy) so deeply rooted in human nature that I 

 have seen people take a strange satisfaction in being 

 near of kin to the mute chief personage in a funeral. It 

 gave them a moment's advantage over the rest of us 

 whose grief was rated at a lower place in the procession. 

 But the words " admission free " at the bottom of a hand- 

 bill, though holding out no bait of inequality, have 3'et 

 a singular charm for many minds, especially in the coun- 

 try. There is something touching in the constancy with 

 which men attend free lectures, and in the honest 

 patience with which they listen to them. He who pays 

 may yawn or shift testily in his seat, or even go out with 

 an awful reverberation of criticism, for he has bought the 

 right to do any or all of these and paid for it. But gra- 



