He who would bound the possibilities of
human knowledge by the limitations of present acquirements would take the
dimensions of the infant in ordering the habiliments of the adult. It is
the province of knowledge to speak and it is the privilege of wisdom to
listen. Will the Professor have the kindness to inform me by what steps
of gradual development the ring and the loadstone, which were but
yesterday the toys of children and idlers, have become the means of
approximating the intelligences of remote continents, and wafting
emotions unchilled through the abysses of the no longer unfathomable
deep?
--This, you understand, Beloved, is only a conventional imitation of the
Doctor's style of talking. He wrote in grand balanced phrases, but his
conversation was good, lusty, off-hand familiar talk. He used very often
to have it all his own way. If he came back to us we must remember that
to treat him fairly we must suppose him on a level with the knowledge of
our own time. But that knowledge is more specialized, a great deal, than
knowledge was in his day. Men cannot talk about things they have seen
from the outside with the same magisterial authority the talking dynasty
pretended to. The sturdy old moralist felt grand enough, no doubt, when
he said, "He that is growing great and happy by electrifying a bottle
wonders how the world can be engaged by trifling prattle about war or
peace.
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