Matheson Collection > Popular tales of the west Highlands > Volume 4

2 POSTSCRIPT.
corners to pick out that which suits his own purpose,
and nothing else. From new materials so gathered,
such a man will build up a structure of his own ; and
there is much to be learned from one who so treats
another's work.
Then comes one with more extended views, who
has studied the question, and knows a great deal about
it, and is conscious of power, and who views the new
work all round and round, and turns it upside down
and inside out, and throws a new light upon it — the
electric light of superior knowledge. But the eyes of
such men are apt to be dazzled by excess of light ; they
have looked at so many large objects that they over-
look the small ; their vision is telescopic, they can see
microscopic details; and a short-sighted theorist, with
his dim lamp, will poke out many things which he of
the great light and the strong eyes will never see. But
whoever reviews a book fairly, teaches something to its
author, and he who knows most about the subject
teaches most.
Then come friends — -one with pleasant praise, which,
if he be a wise man, is a valued reward and a whole-
some cordial ; then one with unpleasant dispraise,
which, if wisely administered and well taken, may be a
useful tonic ; then one who picks out the worst bit, for
which no one has a good word, and says it is the very
thing which he should have expected, and he shakes
hands and departs radiant with the consciousness of a
compliment well turned. One says the work is learned,
perhaps because he has not tried to understand it ;
another more truly says that it is not. One says that
it is too long, another that it is too short ; one, that
it should all be written over again, another, that it