, 1874-01-04
OUR DUAL LIVES.
II.

/
OUR DUAL LIVES.
| II.
BY PROF. WILLIAM MATHEWS, OF THE UNIVERSITY
| OF CHICAGO.
Another Of the remarkable contrasts between
| the outer and the inner man is the discrepancy
| wo often notice between the profession one fol-
lows in public, and tho private tustes which he
| cultivates and cherishes. "Blessed is the man
that hath hobby!" said Lord Brougham; and
Brougham himself, who ranged all the fields OF
| politics, philosophy; science, and literature, =
| who had go many hobbies that ''Science WAS his
forte, and omniscience his foible, was bur
| 1esque Of his own doctrine. Could We know how
every man OF our acquaintance, who has regu-
lar calling by which he pays his butchers bills,
passes his 1eisure-hours, We should often be sur
t priscd to find
HOW SLIGHT CLUE
ones public character affords to tho proro>,nder
sympathies OF lis nature. Some Of the most
drudging, business-devotcd men in the
community, apparently think and talk Of
nothing but ''2 per cent a month nor "corner
lots, s,"-we ehould find in private indulging in
some taste, such as q love for pictures or be1es-
lettrcs, which argues totally different charac-
ter beneath the eurfaee. 4 merchant who is
noted for the keenness with which he pursues
every means Of money making, and the inde1i-
bility with which he insists on the last cent Of
his dues, is found to be overtowing with zeal
for the cause Of temperance, education, missions,
or sume other Of kindred character, for which
he liz ready to pour ont his money like water.
How often tho plodding, b1nck-letter lawyer,
who eeemingly hns not thought beyond
the hard. dry technica1ities Of Coke or
Littleton, is known BY his boson-friends
to DO an ardent loYer Of literature,
ind to spend his 1elsure-hoars in
drawing from the pure wells Of English unde-
fled" or in distilling tile sweetness OF the
Greek and Roman spring! Perhaps thia
"gowned vu1ture," as old Burton would term
him, whom the million suppose to be perpetually
busy in e1asperating the chickering's Of Doc and
Roe, and blowing up every little spark OF @ dis-
puto into blazing quarrel, is deeply interested
in some phi1authropic movement -some Chris
tian-Association, or Freedmen 's-Aid-C Connnis-
sion, or Orphan-Asylum, or PubEc-Library
moycment, and divides his leisure-time between
tho study Of his fevorite authors and the prepa-
ration Of elaborate articles on the enterprise
for the roviews, magazines, or newspapers. Per-
heps hiH hobby is
GaEEE-TEs1A.iEST TRANSLATION,
and, after toiling all day to convict Rafferty,,
he flies on the wings OF steam to some enuggery
in the outskirts OF the town, where, surrounded
by copies of the Sinait1c and other manuscripts,
and all the English, German, and American
Commentaries, piled up on floor and table, he
mny detect some fales rendering Of q Greek
particle, or hit upon 8 happier reading OF an
Il .f..11 n1,.f
than the battling of cut-throat's lawyers. Per-
haps this '' hired master of tongue~fence is
picture-fancicr, who is profoundly impressed
with the gories Of art, and ia learned in oils and
varnishes; who drops often into Butters' auction
room, and mods his head to the knight Of the
hammer, at the cost Of $50 q nod who descants
bY tho hour On his Bierstadt, or his Vandyke
Of whom "an undoubted original" hangs
in his parlor, sups With Holbein or Titan
confronting him on the wall, and dreams ali
night Of the mysterious gloom Of Rembrandt,
the Bavageness Of Salvador Rosa, and the "cor-
regiosity Of Cor1eggio." Perhaps, again, his
hobby is autographs,-old letters, scraps Of
paper, dy-leaves from books, and bits OF franked
enyelopes,-which he keeps under lock and key.
lest Bridget should take them for litter, and
consign them to the fire, or convert them into
1aHp-l6ntere. tf, lasIly, no may Do
PAss1oSATELY FOND OF MUSIC;
giving private concerts in his own parlor often
gcraping away himself on the violin, or putting
at the trombone, or humping on the piano; and
dinning the ears Of his friends with. eternal
praises OF Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and
Beethoven,-of Martini and Rhigini, and all the
others that end in mi, and fifty more whom to
pronounce wero to dislocato ones jaws, but
whom to hear is Elyslum.
There are few persons who are not familiar
with moro or fower instances OF men who have
thus an inner self strongly contrasting with
their outer sell, something noblcr or meaner
than tho visible man,-something which makes
him think more highly Of himself than the world
thinks Of him, or which, if known, would make
him the target of universal ridicule and scorn.
Some years ago, one of the best eutomologists
in Chicago WIS common workman in cabinet
makers shop. To-day, one of the
PnorouNDEsT AND BEsr-aEAD hETApHTs1c1ASs
in the same city is German educated in the best
German and Scotch universities, who earns the
leisure which he spends in brooding over the
mysteries of our spiritual being by selling, as
clerk, Coats 7ests, and trowsers for the physical
man. The most extensive book-Dub1isher in
Great Britain, whose publications. would Of
themselves form large private library, We know
to be rose-fancier, who has in his gardon, just
out Of London, 5000 distinct species of roses,
for many Of which he has sent to the farthest.
corners Of the globe, and paid fabulous sums.
4 single rose-tree has cost him 81 500. When
one Sisits . public Office, ho is often greatly
struck by the mechanical regularity OF the scene.
The oficials look like automata, or pieces Of
c1ock-work wound up to do certain duties and
he can scarcely persuade himself that they hare
under their waistcoats hearts beating with the
same passions az his own. Yet, perhaps, there
is not one Of these stiff, formal~looking beings,