Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

An Apology for Idlers 1 1 5
There is certainly some chill and arid know-
ledge to be found upon the summits of
formal and laborious science ; but it is all
round about you, and for the trouble of
looking, that you will acquire the warm and
palpitating facts of life. While others are
filling their memory with a lumber of words,
one-half of which they will forget before the
week be out, your truant may learn some
really useful art : to play the fiddle, to know
a good cigar, or to speak with ease and
opportunity to all varieties of men. Many
who have "plied their book diligently," and
know all about some one branch or another
of accepted lore, come out of the study with
an ancient and owl -like demeanour, and
prove dry, stockish, and dyspeptic in all
the better and brighter parts of life. Many
make a large fortune, who remain under-
bred and pathetically stupid to the last.
And meantime there goes the idler, who
began life along with them — by your leave,
a different picture. He has had time to
take care of his health and his spirits ; he