XXI. 



THE STEAM-CULTIVATOR.' 



WHAT an irresistible tendency there is amongst men 

 to draw each other in caricature ! How prone we are 

 to magnify those features in which the character of 

 another differs from our own ! I doubt not that if 

 Mr. Greening had described our late interviews ( ( if 

 the lion had been the sculptor '), our readers would 

 have been at least as much amused, the other way. I 

 should like much to see the ' per contra ' that he 

 would have drawn out. 



I am justly led to this conclusion because my notes 

 of our further conversations show how completely I 

 had underrated both his interest, and his penetration, 

 in the subject I had so suddenly broached before him ; 

 taking it too readily for granted, that a thoroughly 

 practical man, like himself, could not stretch his ima- 

 gination to the point required to make him enter into 

 my views, or the suggestions I had made. 



This was far from being the case. He had heard, 

 o 2 



