BEGINNING AND LEAKNING 189 



that one sees how very many are the things that want 

 knowing. And the more ignorant the questioner, the 

 more difficult it is to answer helpfuUy. When one 

 tnows, one cannot help presupposing some sort of 

 knowledge on the part of the querist, and where this 

 is absent the answer we can give is of no use. The 

 ignorance, when fairly complete, is of such a nature 

 that the questioner does not know what to ask, and 

 the answer, even if it can be given, falls upon barren 

 ground. I think in such cases it is better to try 

 and teach one simple thing at a time, and not to 

 attempt to answer a number of useless questions. It 

 is disheartening when one has tried to give a careful 

 answer to have it received with an Oh ! of boredom or 

 disappointment, as much as to say. You can't expect 

 me to take all that trouble ; and there is the still more 

 unsatisfactory sort of appMcant, who phes a string of 

 questions and will not wait for the answers ! The real 

 way is to try and learn a Httle from everybody and 

 from every place. There is no royal road. It is no 

 use asking me or any one else how to dig — I mean 

 sitting indoors and asking it. Better go and watch a 

 man digging, and then take a spade and try to do it, 

 and go on trying till it comes, and you gain the knack 

 that is to be learnt with all tools, of doubling the power 

 and halving the effort; and meanwhile you vWl be 

 learning other things, about yom* own arms and legs 

 and back, and perhaps a Httle robin will come and 

 give you moral support, and at the same time keep a 



