"Entire affection scorneth nicer hands." When
the professor is above this mechanical part of his business, it may have
become a _stalking-horse_ to other worldly schemes, but is no longer
his _hobby-horse_ and the delight of his inmost thoughts--
"His shame in crowds, his solitary pride!"
I used sometimes to hurry through this part of my occupation, while the
Letter-Bell (which was my dinner-bell) summoned me to the fraternal
board, where youth and hope
"Made good digestion wait on appetite
And health on both"--
or oftener I put it off till after dinner, that I might loiter longer
and with more luxurious indolence over it, and connect it with the
thoughts of my next day's labours.
The dustman's-bell, with its heavy, monotonous noise, and the brisk,
lively tinkle of the muffin-bell, have something in them, but not much.
They will bear dilating upon with the utmost license of inventive prose.
All things are not alike _conductors_ to the imagination. A learned
Scotch professor found fault with an ingenious friend and arch-critic
for cultivating a rookery on his grounds: the professor declared
"he would as soon think of encouraging a _froggery_.
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