Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/127

 THE RANDALL FAMILY II9

come as he deserves. He gets something, however, for conducting the choir at church, and has such sincerity about his tastes that, for the exercise of them, he would at all times be contented with a bare living. Indeed, the Dr., as I think, grazes in fatter pasture than any of our other artists. James Reed is in his new house, which seems to fit him exactly. I spent an evening with him some time ago, and had a very pleasant talk. He does not seem to be in any way altered. I have lately made acquaintance with a bright young fellow, the grandson of Gedney King, a former well known citizen of this place. He has a great passion for pictures, especially etchings — takes out his note book and spends the whole evening in setting down the names of masters, their schools, coun- tries, and styles. It is a pleasure to instruct a person who goes into the thing with so much gusto, and I enjoy his pleasure in what he examines. I suppose that you, also, have pupils that are a pleasure to teach ; and, truly, it must be more pleasant to instruct the intelligent without a fee than to get a good salary from fools. Most of my acquaintances seem to be among the boys, who, partly because they take more cheerful views of life (so, conse- quently, of death), and partly because they have less to conceal or are less able to conceal, are more agreeable to me than the men. But I have not yet got down so low as to take to those very small children of whom the Bible so highly commends the imitation, and whom I prefer to leave in the domain of blubberings, diapers, and dirty noses. I partially agree with Montaigne that most of mankind become befogified so early that to oblige one to wait till twenty-five before receiving an office is to abandon affairs to the stupid ; and here Swift's satire of the Struld- bruggs is in point. Most people I have known are greedy

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