Page:Feeding the Mind.djvu/30

FEEDING THE MIND hurries through book after book, without waiting to digest or arrange anything, gets into that sort of condition, and the unfortunate owner ﬁnds himself far from fit really to support the character all his friends give him.

'A thoroughly well-read man. Just you try him in any subject, now. You can't puzzle him.'

You turn to the thoroughly well-read man. You ask him a question, say, in English history (he is understood to have just finished reading Macaulay). He smiles good-naturedly, tries to look as if he knew all about it, and proceeds to dive into his mind for the answer.

Up comes a handful of very 26