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word pecunia . If an ox were his property, and he 
wished to get needles and thread at the store, he thought 
it would be inconvenient and impossible soon to go on 
mortgaging some portion of the creature each time to 
that amount. He could defend many institutions better 
than any philosopher, because, in describing them as 
they concerned him, he gave the true reason for their 
prevalence, and speculation had not suggested to him 
any other. At another time, hearing Plato’s definition 
of a man, — a biped without feathers, — and that one ex¬ 
hibited a cock plucked and called it Plato’s man, he 
thought it an important difference that the knees bent 
the wrong way. He would sometimes exclaim, “ How 
I love to talk ! By George, I could talk all day ! ” I 
asked him once, when I had not seen him for many 
months, if he had got a new idea this summer. “ Good 
Lord,” said he, “ a man that has to work as I do, if he 
does not forget the ideas he has had, he will do well. 
May be the man you hoe with is inclined to race; then, 
by gorry, your mind must be there; you think of weeds.” 
He would sometimes ask me first on such occasions, if 
I had made any improvement. One winter day I asked 
him if he was always satisfied with himself, wishing to 
suggest a substitute within him for the priest without, 
and some higher motive for living. “ Satisfied! ” said 
he; 66 some men are satisfied with one thing, and some 
with another. One man, perhaps, if he has got enough, 
will be satisfied to sit all day with his back to the fire 
and his belly to the table, by George ! ” Yet I never, 
by any manoeuvring, could get him to take the spiritual 
view of things; the highest that he appeared to con¬ 
ceive of was a simple expediency, such as you might 
expect an animal to appreciate; and this, practically, is 
