The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-10-06
worked away by himself with a stead-

AAOAO W00 OAIO RCApOA WAO uN0 OOS served all these proceedings with as- tonishment and disapproval. This was Briggs, the English gardener, who took care of my place. think he had an idea that I was violating the laws of the Church of England in some way, scarcely know how. On one occasion, when I happened to be in Madras, Ulysses discovered, by ap- pealing to him for the meaning of cer- tain words and phrases, that all mor- tals were not endowed with the same fund of information that I happened to possess. No sooner did he find out that Briggs knew less about such mat ters than he did himself than he began to treat him with open contempt, slowly bringing up his eye-glass and inspecting him with cold hauteur whenever he happened to come in sight.
 "That there helephant," Briggs complained to me, "do treat me most harrogant, sir. I didn't never expect to come this 'ere"
 spoke to Ulysses about the matter and demonstrated with him.
 "I cannot understand it," he wrote in reply. "I asked the man about 'Scopenhauer's Four fold Root of Rea- son. to which found reference in a volume of essays by Frederic Harrison. He said he had never heard of any such root. Can he not read and talk as you do and as all mortals do? How does it happen that he is ignorant of these thipgs?"
 explained to him that only small part of the human race cared to inter- est itself in affairs of the intellect, and that millions of men were still in the condition of unhappy mental blind ness from which he had SO recently emerged. He was aghast at this state ment, but it did not tend to re- -estab- fish Briggs in his respect.
 It was now the season of the year when l was accustomed to make tour among the neighboring coffee plantations, to estimate and bid on the crops. I was not able to take Ulysses with me conveniently, SO left him in the care of Briggs and Ab- kar. To Briggs gave the key to my library, with orders to supply Ulysses with whatever he might demand, and l prepared for my pupils use q cata- logue of all the books in my collection. The library was chiefly made up of works of history, philosophy and crit icism, admirably suited to the special taste of Ulysses.
 My absence lasted during a period of nearly three months, and on my re- turn found Ulysses almost in con- dition of "must," or insanity. He had read all, or nearly all, the books that l had placed on the list, and had gained through that extraordinary memory of his an immense mass of fact and opinion. He was now suf- fering from intellectual dyspepsia. Il consulted him about his troubles, and got in reply an avalanche of questions on every variety of subject. His con- fidence in my knowledge was, appar- ently, unlimited. It would have been source of inexpressible qualification to me if could have shared it.
 I was not unmindful of the fate which had befallen poor Briggs, nev- ertheless I felt it my duty to help Ulysses out of his difficulties. did not imagine that his questions would occasion me much trouble, and if they should, l thought myself the possessor of sufficient savoir dire to get out of it in some way. avoided some things by merely assuring him that he would understand them better when he had read more. Whenever I essayed an answer to any of his interrogatories, he had an unpleasant habit of pinnirg me down to exact statements and def nite opinions. I had never appreci- | ated the extent and variety of my ig- norance until it was subjected to this | test, although Ulyssess attitude to- ward me was always that of pupil to | teacher, yet l saw at times traces of the Socratic method in the long series of questions which he put to me, and I was compelled, not infrequently, to squirm out of some inconsistency in most undignified fashion.
 This inquisition continued for a number of days after my return, and could not close my eyes to the fact | that was failing to hold my own in the estimation of Ulysses. From 8 cyclopedia of literature, which hap pened to be in my library, Ulysses had stored his mind with an enormous fund of information on subjects of which I was completely ignorant. In this field l was continually falling into traps. There were also translations of Comte and Hegel, to which he had devoted considerable study, but checkmated him there by talking learned nonsense, which was sure he could not dis tiDguish from deep metaphysics. It was evident, however, that he was be- ginning to appreciate that something was the matter.
 Although he had not come to the