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LETTER VI. 



SAVANTS — THE R£SE1>A OR MIGNONETTE — THE MARSH-MALLOW AND THE 

 BAOBAB. 



Savants are men, ■who, in their greatest success, only contrive to get 

 deeper into the mud than other people. — Language of Science, and the 

 Language of Old Associations, 



A. BEISK shower having driven me in from the garden, I sit 

 me down quietly then in my study, and amuse myself with a 

 species as curious as any of those we shall have opportunities 

 of observing in either your voyage or mine. I propose saying 

 a little about savants. 



You cannot but remember that smiling portion of your 

 life, full of gaiety, sports, and affections — ^I mean childhood; 

 that childhood always too soon given up to pedants, who 

 aggravate children for ten years, in order to render them 

 aggravating for the rest of their lives. 



