328 EETIEEMENT, TO 1897 : OF BOOKS, ETC. 



Simple,' * a great relief between spells of work ' ; the Lives are 

 sometimes of his contemporaries, Leonard Horner, G. H. 

 Eomanes, or Lord Eoberts, or studies of the past like Menerval 

 on Napoleon or Mahan's Nelson ; and Boswell he read anew 

 with enthusiasm. Bryce's * Holy Eoman Empire ' matches 

 Green's ' Short History' ; but while Sir L. Mallet's Free Exchange 

 is illuminating, he cannot make head or tail of the Bimetallism 

 craze. The East and its philosophies are an unfailing lure ; 

 whether ancestor worship as described by Lafcadio Hearne in 

 his ' Korokoro,'.or the relations between the greatest religions 

 of the East and the West as set forth in Lillie's ' Buddhism 

 and Christianity. ' And not least from 1892-94 he enjoyed his 

 1 pick-me-ups,' the successive volumes of the ' Collected Essays ' 

 sent to him by his friend Huxley (see p. 311). This was a pleasure 

 not to be kept to himself, and he used to send on the volumes 

 to appreciative friends such as W. E. Darwin and Mr. La 

 Touche. To the latter he remarks (April 9, 1894) : 



I am glad that Huxley's works have interested you so 

 much. His versatility is indeed wonderful, but not so wonder- 

 ful as his power of rapid assimilation of mental food, in all 

 shapes, and of all kinds. He is about the last of the ' thick 

 and thin ' companions of my younger days. 



To the Bev. J. D. La Touche 



Dec. 28, 1892. 



I am exceedingly sorry to hear of your annoyance with 

 the School board ; but must confess to having some sympathy 

 with the ratepayers. Education is a very good thing in its 

 way, but it is driving the rural population into the towns, 

 raising the price of labor beyond the limits of capital, and the 

 taxes of the poor themselves perhaps out of proportion to 

 the good they derive from it. 



As it is, the well-to-do are spending tens of thousands on 

 the education of their sons, who are after all no better than 

 fit for the plough ! and the sons of the poor are getting the 

 same for nothing at the expense of the well-to-do. I know 

 that I am a blasphemer, and will only add that I am for 

 compulsory reading, writing, arithmetic and cooking, and 

 for a limited extension of higher education, to which the 



