, 1875-06-23

Enthusiastically to carry learning and wisdom
embroidered on the shirt-bosom and coat-sleeves;
to sit in q reading room engrossed in abstruse
mental speculations to be absent in company
and to run taught of all acknowledged customs
and forms to promote the publication of an
tique works, which no one troubles himself to
read to be a Member Of learned Societies,
where the one group is literally unable to un-
derstand a word of what the other one says to
partake ia learned meetings, where the speak"
ers have but 10 minutes to prepare themselves
to deal with questions, which otherwise require
the e~xertions of a whole lifetime ;-these are
some of the freaks or peculiarities in which this
sort of lmp0rtance now -a-dayS finds pleasure.
Official Importance is a monopoly. 10 sit
upstairs in an Office and the whole life through
pass resolutions in caaeS, begets Importance, as
it were, by a generate GquiU0ca. Nay, merely
to sit copying what others have written, not to
mention COMMISSIONING, is a thing which expe-
rience has shown that no Ofice-man can stand
unaffected; even the Walters or Office, Mes
seugers, whose business it is to sit all day long
in narrow closets, behind glass doors, get IN
fected with the disease, and assume an air OF
Importance, as if on their shoulders rested the
whole conduct of official business. The char
a~cteristic symptom of Official Importance is
Cfrcuml0c0tioA. The man who in private life
may be very sensible and practical, energetic
and free of fuss, is quite another being when
ON official duties The demon Of Importance
besets him he finds difficulties every where
he sees frightful spectres in high daytime he
can not get into his head that the business be-
fore him may be expedited at once and without
round about delays. But the imposing effect
would all be lost, if an official case were to be
disposed of simply and unassumingly, like any
other business concern. "N888h T. says he,-
and throws an awful, dark blight over all your
courage, if you should be preposterous enough
to suit. yOug department or expectations in
accordance 4 With common sense. The case
ma& %duly and properly submitted in official
form a legion Of apparently deaf authorl-
ties or instances, must be "heard' first; and
while the grass is growing, the horse dies.
How many hecatombs are not daily sacrificed
in this manner on the altar of Official Impor-
tanoe For the rest, you must know, no
business can be done rer6aHy with Official I'M
p~ortance nc, you must acrite and your letter
reaches only alter having first passed through an
almost interminaGle succession of hands so
that already from age the letter will have ao-
CURED the requisite degree of importance.
Every thing and every step is difficult OF &C.
cess and tedious. Per aydud ad astrG. Al
though Official Importance has eyes, ears, nose
and mouth, still it can neither see, hear, smell
or taste, before the matter, whatever it chances
to be, has been officially "served up All the
world, including4he Everyday Mr.. DldrichSen,
know, for instance, that here and there are de-
fects, which could easily be remedied, impro-
prieties that could be removed by a stroke OF
the pen - the Officially -Important Mr..
Didrichsen sees nothing at all of it. The
Everyday Mr.. Didrichsen passes the Canal regu-
larry every day on his way to and from home
he knows to a point how dangerous it is that a
portion of the protection -bulwarks is away
but-the Oficially,Important Mr.. Didrichsen
gazes in perfect amazement, is utterly astound-
ed, when sny one tells him of it by word of
mouth the fact has not been officially reported,
consequently be knows nothing of it; until
some dark night il comes to pass that Mr.. Ev-
eryday Didrichsen and Mr.. Officially Important
Didriohsen both fall head foremost into the wa
Ter below, and have to be taken up like a
drowned rat. Then the bulwarks are repair
ed.
Without being able to shew any reliable con-
nection between the two phenomena, yet, l
have in private life often had occasion to no.
tice this sort of Importance combined with a
stout, robust constitutional condition TO
which Official Importance is By no means ex-
c~lusively confined. Idealists say that 1t is the
Importance which produces the stoutness;
Materialists on the other hand say, it is this
physical ensbonposnt, together with a certain
asthmatic tendency, which produces the In
portsnce. Be this as it may, these peculiaritles
are frequently found in company with each