The Unlettered Learned. 



CRUDITY of diction is not always indicative 

 of crudity of thought. The latter has been 

 longer in the world than language, for the prime 

 val savage was not without the elements of 

 mind when gestures and grunts were his sole 

 means of expression. To rebel is as human as 

 to err, and he who defies grammar is not neces- 

 sarily a fool. How often we hear it said, " Oh, 

 he's an uneducated man," and so pay no serious 

 attention to what this " unfortunate" may have 

 to say. It may happen that we suffer more 

 than he does by such assumed superiority. The 

 round of the seasons can effect as much as a 

 college curriculum to an open-eyed man. Not 

 in the same direction, not with equal artistic 

 finish, but fool himself who sets down the un- 

 tutored student of the out-door world as little 

 better than a fool. By syntax and prosody we 

 cannot solve the problem of an oak-tree, or 

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