Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 127.djvu/332

320 ordinary persons are at their ease when talking to them; and a great many consider that the less intercourse they hold with them the better will it be for their peace of mind. Often they fancy that the stupendous beings cannot take an interest in the matters which most delight ordinary natures. In all this they are very foolish. A weak mind is always benefited when it comes in contact with a strong mind; and it will be found that in numerous cases those who possess the most powerful intellects possess the gentleness and, in many respects, the simplicity of children. Of course, there are so-called clever people who will not condescend to consort with those who are assumed to be humbler mentally than themselves and make a point of snubbing those who will consent to be snubbed by them; but it will be found that these haughty tyrants are, in a general way, impostors and that their arrogant assumption of superiority to most of those with whom they are brought in contact is as unjustifiable as it is abominable. It will be well if those who are now crushed by the position and reputed knowledge of these bullies will take heart, in the event of their doing which it may happen that they will find that their adversaries are — in spite of their store of technical knowledge — as incapable of original thought as they are of consideration for the feelings of others. Unfortunately, many people are not only afraid to have much to do with clever people in their individual capacities, but they look with the most profound suspicion upon much that clever people do. As a great number of clever people are constantly making important discoveries, as they are in the habit of promulgating what appear novel ideas, and as they fail to subscribe to that comfortable doctrine that all that is is for the best and therefore do not argue that every modern institution, whether it be good or bad, should be preserved simply because it is an institution, this is not surprising. But it is to the last degree absurd that men should greet with howls of execration views of things which do not coincide with their notions and appear calculated to revolutionize a great deal of what they are accustomed to. The spirit which led to the persecution of Galileo and impeded the work of George Stephenson is as active as ever, in spite of the fact that experience tells us that the hated theory of to-day becomes the golden rule of to-morrow. Thus it happens that clever people frequently fail to reap the reward of their labours, unless they can be said to be rewarded when, after their bodies have crumbled into dust, statues are erected to their memories and other honours paid them. They scatter the seed while the winter's blast blows about their heads; others reap the harvest in the warm summer's sunshine. Every new idea has to receive a certain amount of abuse ere the popular mind becomes accustomed to it and it is carried into effect. Those who carry it into effect are lucky persons, who secure public approbation upon the strength of what other people have done. At the present time, there are men who are battling with popular prejudice which in the end will be defeated. But those who are waging the war will not gain the prize, which will fall to the lot of those who are now busily engaged in endeavouring to repel the assaults of the warriors.

 

 . — We are not such great growers of fruit as we might be, and as we really ought to be, considering the health-giving properties belonging to this branch of the vegetable kingdom. One who has the welfare of the human race at heart, has lately cast eyes on our neglected railway sidings, and it has occurred to him that they might be utilized by the growing of apple-trees. This is largely done in Belgium and Holland. Anywhere between Maestricht and Mechlin, for instance, you may see the espaliers kept low and neatly trained on wires. "Ask the station-master," says our philanthropist, "if the fruit ever gets stolen. He'll smile and say, 'Some does, perhaps; but there's enough left to pay the orchard company a good dividend.'" Surely we, too, might have limited liability railroad-orchard companies. There are, by the statistical tables of 1873, over sixteen thousand miles of railways in the United Kingdom, and any one caring for such questions may set to work to calculate how many trees could be grown, and how many apples there would probably be, in a good season, for each of us. Cassell's Magazine.