108 
LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
say a snake has ^crossed, and they can even deter- 
mine in which direction it travelled by a still more 
shadowy mark made by its tail. 
I have sometimes thought, that the difference 
between the intellectual capacity of one individual 
and that of another, is much less than is generally 
supposed. There are certain conventional chan- 
nels, into which we expect- the mental energies to 
be directed, and if we do not find them in these, 
we are apt to conclude them altogether wanting. 
You shall take two boys in a school. One is the 
first boy in the first class ; he repeats his lesson 
without a mistake ; the pedagogue pats his head, 
and prophesies that he will be a councillor. The 
other of the same age, with the same chances, is 
the last boy of the last class ; he perceives no agree- 
ment at all between the verb and the nominative 
case j you can scarcely convince him by argument 
that two and two make four. One of these is 
called a bright genius, the other is branded as a 
stupid dunce. But take these lads into the fields 
and lanes. The stupid one is expert at all games 
and exercises ; is acquainted with every bird by 
sight ; knows the colour, size, shape, and number 
of the eggs of each ; can lay his paw upon all the 
nests in the neighbourhood; can ride, swim, trap a 
mole, shoot a hawk, hook a trout, like a professed 
adept. The genius is become a mope ; he sees no 
pleasure in all this ; can’t learn it when he tries ; 
knows as much about it when he leaves off as 
when he began ; is out of his element^ — a, fish out 
of water. The tables are turned. So it is with 
these boys of mine : they know little which in the 
cultivated society of crowded cities is thought 
worth knowing, or called knowledge at all ; but 
