San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-06-01
CHAPTER w.
THE EDUCATION OF A PHILOSOPHERS.

THE EDUCATION OF PHILOSOPHER.
The installation of the adopted stable boy
was thus happily effected, and the wheels
of life continued to run smoothly in the doc
tors house. Jean-Marie did his horse and
carriage duty in the morning; sometimes
helped in the homework; sometimes walked
abroad with the doctor, to drink wisdom
from the fountain head; and was introduced
at night to the sciences and the dead tongues
He retained his singular placidity of mind
and manner; he was rarely in fault; but he
made only very partial progress in his
studies, and remained much of q stranger in
the family.
The doctor was a pattern of regularity.
All forenoon he worked on his great book,
the Comparative Pharmacopeia, or His
torical Dictionary of all Medicines" which
as yet consisted principally of slips of paper
and pins. When finished, it was to fill many
personable volumes and to combine anti
quarian interest with professional utility.
But the doctor was studious of literary graces
and the picturesque; an anecdOte, touch of
manners, a moral qualification, or a sound
ing epithet was sure to be IGeferred before a
piece of science; a little more, and he would
have written the Comparative Pharma-
copoeia" in verse; The article "Mummia,"
for instance, was already complete, though
the remainder of the work had not progressed
beyond the letter A. 1t was exceedingly
copious and entertaining, written with
quaintness and color, exact, erudite, a lit
erary article; but it would hardly have af-
forded guidance to a practicing physician Of
today. The feminine good sense of his wife
had led her to point this out with uncom-
promising sincerity; for the dictionary was
duly read aloud to her, betwixt sleep and
waking, as it proceeded toward an infinitely
distant completion; and the doctor was a lit
tie sore on the subject of mummies, and some
times resented an allusion with asperity
After the midday meal and proper pc
riod of digestion he walked, sometimes alone,
sometimes accompanied by Jean-Marie; for
madame would have preferred any hardship
rather than walk.
She was, as l have said, a very busy per-
son, continually occupied about material
comforts and ready to drop asleep over a
novel the instant she was disengaged. This
was the less Objectionable, as she never
snored or grew distempered in complexion
when she slept. On the contrary, she looked
the very picture of luxurious and appetizing
ease, and woke without start to the perfect
possession of her faculties. am afraid she
was greatly an animal, but she was very
nice animal to have about In this way she
had little to do with JEAN Marie; but the
sympathy which had been established between
them on the first night remained unbroken.
They held occasional conversations, mostly
on household matters. To the extreme disap-
pointment of the doctor, they occasionally
sailed off together to that temple of debas-
,r,l1 MoIo
and he, both in their Sundays best, drove
twice a month to Fontainebleau and re-
turned laden with purchases, and, in short,
although the doctor still continued to regard
them as irreconcilably antipathetic, their re-
lation was as intimate, friendly and conf
Dental as their natures suffered.
l fear, however, that in her heart of hearts,
madame kindly despised and pitied the boy.
She had no admiration for his class of vir-
tues; she liked smart, polite, forward,
roguish sort of boy, cap in hand, light of
foot, meeting the eye; she liked volubility,
charm, a little vice-the promise Of a second
DR.. Desprez. And it was her indefeasible
belief that Jean-Marie was dull. ''Poor dear
boy" she had said once, chow sad it is that
he should be so stupid" She had never re-
peated that remark, for the doctor had ragged
like wild bull, denouncing the brutal blunt
ness of her mind, bemoaning his own fate to
be so unequally mated with an ass, and what
touched Anastasie more nearly, menacing
the table china by the fury of his gesticula-
tions But she adhered silently to her opin-
ion; and when Jean Marie was sitting, stolid,
blank, but not unhappy, over his unfinished
tasks, she would snatch her opportunity in
the doctors absence, go over to him, put her
arms about his neck, lay her cheek to his,
and communicate her sympathy with his
distress. do not mind" she would say;
81, too, am not at all clever, and can assure
you that it makes no difference in life"
The doctors view was naturally different.
That gentleman never wearied of the sound
of his own voice, which was, to say the truth,
agreeable enough to hear. He now had a
listener, who was not so cynically Indifferent
as AnastaSie, and who sometimes put him on
his mettle by the most relevant objections.
Besides, was he not educating the boy! And
education, philosophers are agreed, is the
most philosophical of duties. What can be
more heavenly to poor mankind than to have
ones hobby grow into duty to the state!
Then, indeed, do the ways of life become
ways Of pleasantness. Never had the doctor
seen reason to be more content with his en-
dowments. Philosophy flowed smoothly from
his lips. He was 50 agile dialectician that
he could trace his nonsense, when challenged,
back to some root in sense, and prove it to be
a sort of flower upon his system. He slipped
out of antinomies like fish, and left his dis.
cipe marveling at the rabbits depth.
Moreover, deep down in his heart the doc.
tor was disappointed with the i'll success of
hi o,l,r H.,
by 80 acute an observer for his aptitude, and
alone he yNafb oF Loo H., -