Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 127.djvu/72

60 and each one of whom was desirous of being the first to give general currency to any novel statement. From the eagerness with which each picked up the story only to drop it elsewhere, it generally resulted that no one listened long enough to gain any accurate knowledge of the tale put forward; and thus, a variety of versions being spread, the original inventor's or adapter's object was thoroughly attained. In the bookseller's shop, also, the few men who were constituent parts of the population were accustomed to meet and interchange their ideas or what served them in their stead. But the facilities of obtaining books from London have greatly changed the position of the bookseller's shop in most country towns; where, from having served the purpose of a club, it has descended to occupying at best the position of a circulating library. In some cases the bookseller may also be the editor of the local paper, of which the principles sometimes illustrate strangely the boasted liberty of the English press. A visitor, for example, who was staying for some time in a small country town heard many complaints of a nuisance which a very little effort on the part of the authorities would have removed, and imagined that a paragraph in the local paper might be the best way of calling attention to this circumstance. On asking for the insertion of such a paragraph he was met with an awed and indignant refusal; the reason of which, elicited by severe cross-examination, was given in these words, spoken with a mixture of admiration for the daring of the suggestion and contempt for its ignorance: "Why! it would be censuring the police!"

The notion of the English emulating the Continental police by swooping upon the journal, suppressing it, and imprisoning its staff for sending forth such a paragraph, which would seem to be the origin of this reply, may have arisen from a laudable want of knowledge and consequent exaggeration of the powers and habits of the law's representatives. Where a policeman's province seldom extends beyond parading the streets in solemn dignity, he may well be invested with mystic and terrible attributes, as silent, stately Englishmen were wont to be by the Indian natives under their rule. And it is fair to observe that in the general run of small country towns the police have a remarkably easy time of it, and discharge their duties, which consist mainly in persuading drunken men to go home, and acting as peacemakers when a fight seems likely to set in, with excellent discretion. But it is also to be observed that the quietness which lends a charm to picturesque country towns on moonlit nights, when the outlines of buildings stand out clear against the far-off sky, is apt to be disturbed by sounds of revelry which would not be out of place in a London back slum. The country labourer's notion of enjoying himself does not often go far beyond beer, and when he has enjoyed himself for long, his temper is frequently fractious and his language invariably offensive. But for him, as for the powers of the press, the law has a mysterious terror; and, so long as there is a policeman within sight or reach, the disturbances of a small country town seldom go further than words.

 

 From The Saturday Review.

vulgar tendency to simulate a knowledge about things where the requisite conditions of accurate information are clearly wanting has ever been a theme for philosophic satire. It is the recognition of this tendency which has led the thinking few to despise the opinion of the many as a spurious and counterfeit kind of cognition. From Plato, who distinctly excluded mere opinion from the category of certain knowledge, to the modern idealist who pays no heed to the strongest assurances of common sense, philosophers have made light of prevailing convictions on the ground that they are formed in haste and with no due appreciation of the conditions of a rational certainty. Not only so, but science itself, which might be supposed to maintain a more amicable attitude towards prevailing belief, has long since learnt to imitate philosophy in its contempt for vulgar ideas; and a scientific lecture would now be deemed wanting in spirit and point if it failed to illustrate by some startling example the wide opposition between the habitual inferences of common minds and the verified conclusions of the savant.

Nowhere perhaps does popular belief exhibit its hastiness and inadequacy more conspicuously than in the readiness of most persons to pronounce an opinion respecting the characters and motives of others. The confidence with which many a man and woman will talk about the desires and habits of a comparatively new acquaintance must strike a reflective mind as a signal illustration of the eagerness of mankind to seem wise. There are many whose 