_Who are “the uneducated?”_--What is meant by _uneducated_, in a time
when books have come into the world; come to be household furniture in
every habitation of the civilized world. In the poorest cottage are
books; is one book, wherein for several thousands of years the spirit of
man has found light, and nourishment, and an interpreting response to
whatever is deepest in him; wherein still, to this day, for the eye that
will look well, the Mystery of Existence reflects itself, if not
resolved, yet revealed, and prophetically emblemed; if not to the
satisfying of the outward sense, yet to the opening of the inward sense,
which is the far grander result. “In books lie the creative Phoenix’
ashes of the whole Past.” All that men have devised, discovered, done,
felt, or imagined, lies recorded in books; wherein whoso has learned the
mystery of spelling printed letters, may find it, and appropriate
it.--_Edinburgh Review._
A veteran dramatist now alive, distinguished for the oddness of his
humour, being required to state his grounds of exemption from serving in
the militia, actually wrote on the official paper, “Old, lame, and a
coward!”