THE LIFE OF A SPORTSMAN 



hedicate me, and bought vigs for me, that I might learn to cut 

 hair, and did many kind things besides ; but his walet and I 

 couldn't agree at all. At last, however, ve had a reg'lar blow 

 up ; and finding that Mr. Vorth backed the walet against me, 

 I vopped him and the walet, and here I am, once more." ' 



' Well,' observed Mr. Beaumont Raby, ' these are extremely 

 amusing stories, and very characteristic of Eton; but let us 

 return to our discussion on the question of choice between the 

 two schools, and also hear what our friend Freemantle has to 

 say on the subject.' 



' Why, if you wish for my opinion,' replied Mr. Free- 

 mantle, 'you shall have it; but, mind ye, it will be one, 

 perhaps, that you Eton and Oxford men — and you, in par- 

 ticular, Beaumont, who brought honours with you from Oxford 

 — may not exactly admire. Scholarsliip, or, if you will, 

 learning, has been rung in my ears as the summum honum 

 — the one thing necessary for man. In fact, to say of a 

 person that he is a scholar, seems to imply every kind of 

 superiority ; and to say that he is no scholar, the reverse. 

 Now, I confess that, after much reflection and much inquiry, 

 I am at a loss to comprehend tlie mighty benehts of what 

 is called fine scholarship. Some advantages it certainly has ; 

 but, perhaps, its disadvantages are greater than we think, 

 and for these reasons: — It too often prevents the excursions 

 of a vigorous understanding, by keeping it in a beaten track, 

 the invariable practice of all great schools ; it perpetuates 

 error, by imposing received opinions upon those who, if they 

 had thought for themselves, would have discovered truth ; it 

 divides the attention, and often fixes it on subjects which 

 are not suited to that particular genius and turn of mind, 

 which nature would have exerted upon some other, the object 

 of her own choice, and with much more advantage. Neither 

 is this all. By loading the memory, it restrains the imagina- 

 tion ; and, by multiplying precepts, it anticipates the judg- 

 ment. Give me the man whose knowledge is derived from 

 the copious sources of his own reason ; whose mind is filled 

 with ideas that spring not from books, but from thought ; 

 whose principles are co-existent, because deduced in a regular 

 ratiocination, and not from scraps of different systems gleaned 

 from the works of others and huddled together without ex- 

 amination. Where is the scholar whose opinion can be said to 



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