Year: 1871




behaves with kindness and civility to
him. the vain fool sets him down as an
admirer. IF a woman smiles at him
good naturedly, he takes it for granted
she is distractedly in love with him,
aud makes greater fool than ever in
consequence. Aud yet, after all, the
vain fool is the last of the species one
would wish to see die out.


The proud fool is almost as happy in
his opinion of himself as the vain fool
IN his belief in the opinion OF others
concernin. him. i'ut the proud fools
happiness is not Of lively, expansive,
social kind, like that of the other. No,
\ proud fool is solemn, slow, senten-
tious aud reserved. He is often suspi-
cious, too You may laugh without fear
ut a vain fool--it would never enter his
head that you were laughing at him /;
but beware how you indulge your
mirth in the presence Of a proud fool.
Ii he, did not know exactly what you
were laughing at, be would take it for
granted that you laughed at him, aud
would he venomous against you In the
future. He is not without a nervous
fear that he is uuderrated, and his life
is a continuous effort to keep up his
own dignity. He acts the part Of a
great man to himself; he looks on at
his own performance and anp'suds
The proud fool is the most unpopular
of the whold genus, because the little
mind that he has is always occupied
with himself. If he would send it
abroad to give it an airing, he might
perhaps cease to be a fool; for he Is
not without the germs OF good sense,
and only pride foods all, aud will not
suffer them tn grow.


The learned fool is tedious and ridi-
cnlous, without having any suspicion Of
the fact lie lives in the pleasing de-
lusion that the reading of books Is
Synonymous with the acquisition OF
know ledge. Few people read 80 much
and apprehend 50 little of the meaning
of what they read. He prides himself
upon being a man of vast reading. aud
viii talk away In a sort of boaki-h mo-
sale, so that You would say ne had
picked M q great quantity of valuable
matter in bis studies. The only thin.
he is thoroughly mas, er Of is the use OF
big words lie imposes upon women
and simple minded persons by his ter
rible setting forth of uuheard oi epi
thets lie draweth the thread OF
his verbosity finer th1n the staple. ot
his argument aud as to his qHota-
ton, from dead and living tongue~, You
would swear he had been at great
fcast Of languagcs and had stolen the
scraps There is no hsrm in the learned
fool but he is likely to talk you dead


The taIkstive fool may not be the
worst Of fools but bic is decidedly one
oi the most unpleasant. The clspper Of
IA bell. the continual flowing of water.
gives but faint conception Of the wishy
washy flow of his everlasting talk
Windy, fro'hy, insane, vapid, sense
less, and scmi-ariculate, lie will go on
for ever, without breathing pauses or
full stops. IL is useless to wait for
something to come out at nothing
will come.


The stupid fool is the acme and
crown, the ne pins nltro Of fooIishnc.s.
This is that subimity of denseness,
that pure, Opaque stupidity, against
which, as Schiller says, "the Gods
fight in vain But, after all, what
would we do without the fools As
genial Lamb says, Let us cherish the
fools, lest in the Improvement of the
1acc, like the Dodo, they become
extinct"