The Broad Highway

Whereas books were once a power, they are, of late,degenerated into things of amusement with which to kill an idle hour, and be promptly forgotten the next."

"Yet the great books remain," said the Tinker.

"Yes," said I; "but who troubles their head over Homer or Virgil

these days--who cares to open Steele's 'Tatler,' or Addison's

'Spectator,' while there is the latest novel to be had, or

'Bell's Life' to be found on any coffee-house table?"

"And why," said the Tinker, looking at me over a piece of bacon

skewered upon the point of his jack-knife, "why don't you write a

book?"

"I probably shall some day," I answered.

"And supposing," said the Tinker, eyeing the piece of bacon

thoughtfully, "supposing nobody ever reads it?"

"The worse for them!" said I.

Thus we talked of books, and the making of books (something of

which I have already set down in another place) until our meal

was at an end.

"You are a rather strange young man, I think," said the Tinker,

as, having duly wiped knife, and fork, and plate upon a handful

of grass, I handed them back.

"Yet you are a stranger tinker."

"How so?"

"Why, who ever heard of a tinker who wrote verses, and worked

with a copy of Epictetus at his elbow?"

"Which I don't deny as I'm a great thinker," nodded the Tinker;

"to be sure, I think a powerful lot."

"A dangerous habit," said I, shaking my head, "and a most unwise

one!"

"Eh?" cried the Tinker, staring.

"Your serious, thinking man," I explained, "is seldom happy--as a

rule has few friends, being generally regarded askance, and is

always misunderstood by his fellows. All the world's great

thinkers, from Christ down, were generally misunderstood, looked

at askance, and had very few friends."

"But these were all great men," said the Tinker.

"We think so now, but in their day they were very much despised,

and who was more hated, by the very people He sought to aid, than

Christ?"

"By the evil-doers, yes," nodded the Tinker.

"On the contrary," said I, "his worst enemies were men of

learning, good citizens, and patterns of morality, who looked

upon him as a dangerous zealot, threatening the destruction of

the old order of things; hence they killed him--as an agitator.

Things are much the same to-day. History tells us that Christ,

or the spirit of Christ, has entered into many men who have

striven to enlighten and better the conditions of their kind, and

they have generally met with violent deaths, for Humanity is very

gross and blind."