Litchfield enquirer., 1836-03-17
From the NeW MO~'hty M0gnsi"e.

ccN 10 swear m prInt. But pISi haIh someW hat more poliIeDeSS in it, and we rec sent the imperIinence of this dogma in no harsIer note oi exclamation. IL is the be- gotten conceit of a junction of two silly >k"llS-lhe laying together of a pair of fD"l- Ish heads. single sensible caput would never have con. eived i.. lts,rkes at the principle of Selt depcndence-it tends to make d man droop, and ralter, and fancy himself lame, when he is nmbIe as the wInd' by nature. It takes him out of the way to borrow his neighbours worm eaten cru'ch, when he reedeth only his own good spirit as prep. 1t induces him to divide bis solitude with a companion, by way of doubling it. It is an odd mode of dimin- lshng ones weakness, to ask friend to lend us the equal force of his. A halo is rarely struck out by knocking one head against another; you may rub two blocks or wood together for long time before you will get flame by the friction. Wha, if two negatives make an affirmative, (which is perhaps tue paren, axiom of the elderly child we are dissecling,) does it follow tina, nohodies shall be somebody! Are we, therefore, to understand tllat there is more mental richness in couple of ordinary Smiths, than there was in him who lavish ed upon us the "Weath of Nations 2" Take two Thompsons, and try them at poem; we know of one who shall out Thompson the pair.
 We remember a school boy saying tha, two mulls are as good as spin,' and this top maxim may, for augh, we can tell, have helped to give an er:ing bias to our after notions, and to lead us to the conclusion that two heads are better than one. But even school boy will not be brought to admit that o o are superior to I. He sees at once tha, this is rather a roundabout way of coming to a straight s!roke-You will not make him believe that two tortoises can run faster than stag, lcl them double their not persuade him that brace of ducks, stuffed after the sagest fashion, may be of more value than the goose with golden eggs nor shall you teach him, after you have once taught him his letters, that a pair of one pound notes, marked lorged,' will procure him more comhls than a solid shining sovereign-Whv, the first story he laughs at when he has bought his first jest book is that of our almost ante-delnvian acquaintance, (so might he well be, for he was Irish, and Ireland is beyond question, PreAdamte,) who thought to have the dis tance between Barnet and London, by di- vidng the miles with his pedestrian part ner; (you will meet with the anecdo,e in the las, original farce And yet, when he has grown up, we would have him believe that double head is not so thick as single one; and that the object which is invisible to two blind eyes, may be plainly seen by four-To say this, is simply to assert, that a man is all the sincerer for being dnuble led faced that two bad voices in duet are infinitely sweeter than a sweet one singing alone. When we hear human being 4nake such an allegation, we might call him an alligator, and be as true to him as he is to truth.
 Lucky it is for us all, that those who have most truly instructed, most deeply de. lighted US, looked scornfulIy on this doc ,rine, and comrIacen,Iy on themselves Fortunate for ,I,ce-oh best of worlds that we have seen-,hat Shakespeare did not fling down his pen in the middle of his mighty task, and go forth to take counsel of the commentator. touching the folly of Lear and the wisdom of the Fool most fortunate that he never went about to catch the whisperings of that ancient and most impudent insinuator, yclept Advice Gratis!
 Happy, too, that thy Milton was vain enough to think his own head as worthy
 of trust as the heads of two of his critics,
 and to fancy he could hear the far on har-
 mony of fame, even though he scrupled to
 tag his lines according to other peoples tunes.
 four are better than two, and the monster
 ranks higher than man. Then had H ydra hundred times more brain than Homer.- Let no discreet heart think it. There is one prcdicament in which two skulls may be better than ODe--in boat going against the tide. Two hats, we grant may be bei- ter than one yet one is enough at a time.
 It is so with the head. It should bc sole and self relying. We like to wear ours in single bIcssedness on our own shoulders, and not let it banker after place on other people's. To seek strength and confidence so. is to flatier ourselves that we are in ex- ceIIcnt health because we have the doctor always with us. Are two doctors better than one? No; the summoning of the second physician is the snmmoning of the bell iollcr. Or two wives-at dime !! Ask at the Old Bailey. All the nonsense of the notion comes to this assumption, that every hat one meets is equally inhabited. and that head is a head all the world over. The fallacy is exposed in every room we