SELF-CONCEIT AND VANITY. 285 



try to give some kind of explanation, satisfactory or other- 

 wise, of every remarkable appearance or phenomena which 

 they chanced to observe, especially when the questions 

 which arose in connection with them related to branches 

 of knowledge which John, in the course of his education, 

 had not yet reached. He was very willing to open before 

 him, from time to time, glimpses of fields of investigation 

 to the very boundaries of which he had not yet attained. 



There was a double advantage in this. In the first place, 

 the bringing to his view in this way curious and interest- 

 ing questions connected with scenes which he had not be- 

 gun to study, and of the very nature of which he had but 

 little idea, expanded his ideas in respect to the vast extent 

 of the field of knowledge which he had yet to explore, and 

 increased his interest in going forward. Then, in the sec- 

 ond place, showing him the boundlessness of the field be- 

 fore him tended to prevent his becoming vain and con- 

 ceited in thinking of the acquisitions that he had already 

 made. 



I say only that it tended to produce this last good re- 

 sult, for it is almost impossible to accomplish it entirely. 

 Boys like John, who take a great interest in learning all 

 they can, and who, of course, make rapid progress in learn- 

 ing, almost always, for a time, become more or less conceit- 

 ed. It is not at all surprising that it should be so, since 

 their appreciation of what is contained within the little 

 field which they have already explored is necessarily so 

 much more vivid and distinct than any conceptions which 

 they can form of what is before them in the boundless re- 

 gions into which they have not yet entered. 



About twenty or thirty miles above New York the river 

 expands into a broad and spacious lake, called the Tappan 

 Sea. 



" We are coming to the Tappan Sea," said John. " Let 



