"Knowledge for the million,"[11] is the "_fin de siècle_"[12] cry of the hour. But "life is real, life is earnest,"[13] and we have no time to study original thinkers such as CONFUCIUS and TUPPER. "_Altiora Peto_"[14] is a saying for the leisured class only. The mass must get its wisdom second-hand and concentrated. If "reading maketh a full man,"[15] this kind of reading maketh a man to burst. Hence the "sad in sweet"[16] of the book of quoted platitudes. Yet, of course, "there are great ways of borrowing. Genius borrows nobly."[17] And it is well to have "the courage of" other people's "opinions." But reading is not all. You must "use your head."[18] And you must, and can, keep it too. For a good man's head is not like a seed-cake that passes in the using. And, again, remember the proverb that "manners makyth man"; though this is not the true cause of the over-population of our islands. In social life much will depend on the way in which you behave to others. "Never lose your temper, and if you do, at any rate hold your tongue, and try not to show it"[19]--except, one may add, to a doctor. Many people cannot say "No!" Others early learn to say "No!" when asked to do disagreeable things. "_Mens sana in corpore_ sano." If the last word is pronounced _Say No_, this constitutes a word-play. There are some bad word-plays in SHAKSPEARE. I disapprove of humour, new or old. "No man who knows what his income is, and what he is spending, will run into extravagance."[20] PLUTARCH tells us of a man whose income was £500, and he spent £5000 a year knowingly. This must have been an exceptional case. There is an obscure dictum that "money is the root of all evil." "Gold! gold!"[21] said an ill-known poet, and, on the other hand, "Hail, independence!"[22] said another. "If thou art rich, thou'rt poor"[23] is on the face of it an untruth. [Footnote 1: "Principia Latina."] [Footnote 2: Goldsmith.] [Footnote 3: Burns.] [Footnote 4: "Essay on Man."] [Footnote 5: Lubbock.] [Footnote 6: Lubbock.] [Footnote 7: "Punch."] [Footnote 8: Macaulay.] [Footnote 9: Lubbock.] [Footnote 10: Shakspeare.] [Footnote 11: Calverley.] [Footnote 12: Oscar Wilde.] [Footnote 13: Longfellow.] [Footnote 14: Lawrence Oliphant.] [Footnote 15: Bacon.] [Footnote 16: Browning.] [Footnote 17: Emerson.] [Footnote 18: Lubbock.] [Footnote 19: Lubbock.] [Footnote 20: Lubbock.] [Footnote 21: Park Benjamin.] [Footnote 22: Churchill.] [Footnote 23: Shakspeare.] * * * * * [Illustration: A PRECISIAN. _Professor Erasmus Scoles_ (_of Epipsychidion Villa, St. John's Wood_). "CAN YOU TELL ME, CONSTABLE, WHETHER THERE ARE ANY MORE--ER--_ATLANTES_ TO COME UP TO-NIGHT?" _D. 134._ "ANY MORE '_OW MUCH?_"] * * * * * OF VAIN COLOURS.