The further we proceed with the investigation the more satisfied we
become that the original man was three of number, one of him being the
bookseller, who established friendly relations between the other two of
him, saying: "I will serve you both by inciting both a demand and a
supply." So then the author did his part, and the reader his, which I
take to be a much more dignified scheme than that suggested by Darwin
and his school of investigators.
By the very nature of their occupation booksellers are broad-minded;
their association with every class of humanity and their constant
companionship with books give them a liberality that enables them to
view with singular clearness and dispassionateness every phase of life
and every dispensation of Providence. They are not always practical,
for the development of the spiritual and intellectual natures in man
does not at the same time promote dexterity in the use of the baser
organs of the body, I have known philosophers who could not harness a
horse or even shoo chickens.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once consumed several hours' time trying to
determine whether he should trundle a wheelbarrow by pushing it or by
pulling it. A. Bronson Alcott once tried to construct a chicken coop,
and he had boarded himself up inside the structure before he discovered
that he had not provided for a door or for windows. We have all heard
the story of Isaac Newton--how he cut two holes in his study-door, a
large one for his cat to enter by, and a small one for the kitten.
This unworldliness--this impossibility, if you please--is
characteristic of intellectual progression. Judge Methuen's second
son is named Grolier; and the fact that he doesn't know enough to come
in out of the rain has inspired both the Judge and myself with the
conviction that in due time Grolier will become a great philosopher.
The mention of this revered name reminds me that my bookseller told me
the other day that just before I entered his shop a wealthy patron of
the arts and muses called with a volume which he wished to have rebound.
"I can send it to Paris or to London," said my bookseller. "If you have
no choice of binder, I will entrust it to Zaehnsdorf with instructions
to lavish his choicest art upon it."
"But indeed I HAVE a choice," cried the plutocrat, proudly. "I noticed
a large number of Grolier bindings at the Art Institute last week, and
I want something of the same kind myself. Send the book to Grolier,
and tell him to do his prettiest by it, for I can stand the expense, no
matter what it is."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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