150 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



and which I commend again to all beginners namely, 

 of philosophy. 



" The mind," says an old author, " like the body, 

 must digest before it can ' assimilate.' The hungry 

 dog bites your fingers as he takes your morsel : but 

 the food becomes flesh, and the want is forgotten, 

 with the giver." 



And so I have found it : and so, no doubt, have 

 others. No sooner is a new thought imparted, than 

 it sets up for itself, and denies its pedigree. " Why, ' 

 that is exactly what / told you three years ago, when 

 you came &c. ! " you feel on the point of rap- 

 ping out, struck with amazement. 



Spare your breath ! and your reproach. He cannot 

 remember anything but what he now knows. He for- 

 gets that he ever thought otherwise ! Tell him, now, 

 something new, and you will see again the same deri- 

 sive smile, the same look of idle wonder, aye of con- 

 tempt, at your fanciful, ideal, ' theoretic ' notions : 

 and twice twelvemonths hence, when your idea has 

 taken root and become a fact, the scene of to-day will 

 be acted over again. Then go to your Library, large 

 or small, and look back over the history of the 

 world; and you will see that the annals of human 

 invention and discovery are the true history of Mar- 



