230 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



know nothing of college life beyond vague 

 hearsay ; but, although it seemed to be ex- 

 pected, I never trembled in the courts of classic 

 greatness. It is no part of evolution that all 

 men should be of one pattern. There are oak- 

 trees and people who live in their company, and 

 smaller folk who linger in the shade of shrub- 

 bery ; there are toilers in the field as well as in 

 the town, and the place of each is equally well 

 defined. Homer, in the library, for him who 

 loves Homer ; but the thrush's song, in the 

 tangle of green brier, is sufficient for my needs. 

 I may be less a man, but is this being less not a 

 part of the scheme of the world ? I do not feel 

 my littleness. But I would speak of others, not 

 of myself. 



Lack of guidance derived from books is not 

 a synonyme of mental inferiority or degradation, 

 as some would put it. The "ignoramus" who 

 cannot speak correctly can send the bullet of 

 his thought straight home, if he does use as a 

 means of so doing an obsolete flint-lock musket 

 instead of the improved Winchester rifle. We 

 pay too little attention to the fact that a man's 

 purpose is accomplished, and criticise too much 



