than a
Society such as that of the French peasantry, for example, where nobody
is expected to know anything. It is well for Society itself that it
should profess a deep respect for classical learning, for the great
modern poets and painters, for scientific discoverers, even though the
majority of its members do not seriously care about them. The pretension
itself requires a certain degree of knowledge, as gilding requires a
certain quantity of gold.

The evil effects of these affectations may be summed up in a sentence.
They diminish the apparent value of the realities which they imitate,
and they tend to weaken our enthusiasm for those great realities, and
our ardor in the pursuit of them. The impression which fashionable
society produces upon a student who has strength enough to resist it, is
a painful sense of isolation in his earnest work. If he goes back to the
work with courage undiminished, he still clearly realizes--what it would
be better for him not to realize quite so clearly--the uselessness of
going beyond fashionable standards, if he aims at social success. And
there is still another thing to be said which concerns you just now very
particularly. Whoever leads the intellectual life in earnest is sure on
some points to fail in strict obedience to the exigencies of fashionable
life, so that, if fashionable successes are still dear to him, he will
be constantly tempted to make some such reflections as the
following:--"Here am I, giving years and years of labor to a pursuit
which brings no external reward, when half as much work would keep me
abreast of the society I live with, in everything it really cares about.
I know quite well all that my learning is costing me. Other men outshine
me easily in social pleasures and accomplishments. My skill at billiards
and on the moors is evidently declining, and I cannot ride or drive so
well as fellows who do very little else. In fact I am becoming an old
muff, and all I have to show on the other side is a degree of
scholarship which only six men in Europe can appreciate, and a
speciality in natural science in which my little discoveries are sure to
be either anticipated or left behind."

The truth is, that to succeed well in fashionable society the higher
intellectual attainments are not so useful as distinguished skill in
those amusements which are the real business of the fashionable world.
The three things which tell best in your favor amongst young gentlemen
are