bass, and the notes of it are heard even in the other
kind of history. These deep tones guide the formation of opinion, and
opinion rules the world. Hence philosophy, rightly understood, is a
material force of the most powerful kind, though very slow in its
working. The philosophy of a period is thus the fundamental bass of
its history.

The NEWSPAPER, is the second-hand in the clock of history; and it is
not only made of baser metal than those which point to the minute and
the hour, but it seldom goes right.

The so-called leading article is the chorus to the drama of passing
events.

Exaggeration of every kind is as essential to journalism as it is to
the dramatic art; for the object of journalism is to make events go
as far as possible. Thus it is that all journalists are, in the very
nature of their calling, alarmists; and this is their way of giving
interest to what they write. Herein they are like little dogs; if
anything stirs, they immediately set up a shrill bark.

Therefore, let us carefully regulate the attention to be paid to this
trumpet of danger, so that it may not disturb our digestion. Let us
recognize that a newspaper is at best but a magnifying-glass, and very
often merely a shadow on the wall.

The _pen_ is to thought what the stick is to walking; but you walk
most easily when you have no stick, and you think with the greatest
perfection when you have no pen in your hand. It is only when a man
begins to be old that he likes to use a stick and is glad to take up
his pen.

When an _hypothesis_ has once come to birth in the mind, or gained a
footing there, it leads a life so far comparable with the life of an
organism, as that it assimilates matter from the outer world only when
it is like in kind with it and beneficial; and when, contrarily, such
matter is not like in kind but hurtful, the hypothesis, equally with
the organism, throws it off, or, if forced to take it, gets rid of it
again entire.

To gain _immortality_ an author must possess so many excellences that
while it will not be easy to find anyone to understand and appreciate
them all, there will be men in every age who are able to recognize
and value some of them. In this way the credit of his book will be
maintained throughout the long course of centuries, in spite of the
fact that human interests are always changing.

An author like this, who has a claim to the continuance of his life
even with posterity, can only be a man who, o