nd pigs' feet, and
ribs of beef described. I don't myself; but it is a free country, and
vivid and accurate portraiture of these delicacies may constitute the
main charm of literature for some readers, possibly. But Realism wants
to take its pots and pans into the parlor: it always overdoes things. "A
daisy by the river's brim a yellow daisy was to him, and it was nothing
more." Well, what else should it be?--But perhaps I have not got that
right. Pass on to our next head.

Truth is not always simple--by no means always. Often she is highly
complex, and as much mixed as I was just now; and then you don't know
where she is, or what she is, and it gets to be all guesswork. One says,
Here, and another says, There: the philosophers upset each other's
schemes in turn, the theologians hurl reciprocal excommunications, the
scientists of to-day laugh at those of last year. If Pilate meant it
this way, we owe him some sympathy and respect. "Speak the truth and
shame the devil," they say. Bah! [I think this expletive ought to be
spelt _Baa_.] When you know what the truth is, you are more likely to
shame your friends, and become obnoxious and ridiculous. And in most
cases you don't know, and if you suppose you do, you are mistaken. I
have thought out a way of approximating Truth on a large scale, and more
nearly than most succeed in doing; but this is a big topic, and I had
better keep it to entertain Hartman with.

O yes; I was to explain why I sometimes use roundabout methods even with
him. If you tell all you know to everyone you meet, or disclose your
real character, it will generally be a waste of good material which
might better be economized. By the way, what _is_ my real character? How
should I know? One sees one side of it, another another. I see all that
have turned up yet, but there may be many more, thus far latent; and how
am I to harmonize them all, and take the average of a succession of
phenomena? I am complex, like Truth.

But I must not interrupt myself any more. Let us fall back on the
utilitarian basis of ethics. You see, if I had talked like this to Jim
when we met last May, he would have put himself on guard and begun to
study me, whereas I wanted to draw him out--as I did. I have no
objection to people studying me when I don't care to study them; but
when there is anything to be done for them you have got to understand
them first, and to this end it is best to appear simple and not distract
their minds fr