198 INDOOR STUDIES 



who believe the race culminated in the Greeks over 

 two thousand years ago. After the earth has been 

 thoroughly subdued and possessed by the dominant 

 races, as it will be in a few hundred /ears more, 

 this topmost branch of the tree will probably begin 

 to fail in vitality and fruitfulness. But just what 

 form the decline will take can be only a matter of 

 speculation. We only know that all things have 

 their periods, and are safe in inferring that the life 

 of the globe as a whole will have its period, just 

 as surely as any tree in the forest or any plant in 

 the fields has its period. Why should it not be 

 so? We know any and every single form perishes; 

 why should not the earth itself grow old and die ? 

 The life of a man is typical of the life of the earth. 

 The stages of an orb's life, say the astronomers, 

 are stages of cooling. So are the stages of man's 

 life. It is a process of cooling and hardening from 

 youth to age. Think of the gaseous, nebulous 

 youth out of which the man is gathered and consoli- 

 dated! riery, stormy, vapory, at first, then cold, 

 hard, sterile at last. 



II 



DR. JOHNSON AND CAELTLE 



Glancing at a remark in the London "Times," 

 the author of "Obiter Dicta," in his late essay on 

 Dr. Johnson, asks : " Is it as plain as the ' old hill 

 of Howth' that Carlyle was a greater man than 

 Johnson ? Is not the precise contrary the truth 1 " 

 There are very many people, I imagine, who would 



