to be an excellent shot, to ride well to hounds, and to play
billiards with great skill. I wish to say nothing against any of these
accomplishments, having an especially hearty admiration and respect for
all good horsemen, and considering the game of billiards the most
perfectly beautiful of games; still, the fact remains that to do these
things as well as some young gentlemen do them, we must devote the time
which they devote, and if we regularly give nine hours a day to graver
occupations, pray, how and where are we to find it?

LETTER III.

TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN WHO LIVED MUCH IN FASHIONABLE SOCIETY.

Some exceptional men may live alternately in different
worlds--Instances--Differences between the fashionable and the
intellectual spirit--Men sometimes made unfashionable by special
natural gifts--Sometimes by trifling external circumstances--Anecdote
of Ampere--He did not shine in society--His wife's anxieties about his
material wants--Apparent contrast between Ampere and Oliver Goldsmith.

You ask me why there should be any fundamental incompatibility between
the fashionable and the intellectual lives. It seems to you that the two
might possibly be reconciled, and you mention instances of men who
attained intellectual distinction without deserting the fashionable
world.

Yes, there _have_ been a few examples of men endowed with that overflow
of energy which permits the most opposite pursuits, and enables its
possessors to live, apparently, in two worlds between which there is not
any natural affinity. A famous French novelist once took the trouble to
elaborate the portrait of a lady who passed one half of her time in
virtue and churches, whilst she employed the other half in the wildest
adventures. In real life I may allude to a distinguished English
engraver, who spent a fortnight over his plate and a fortnight in some
fashionable watering-place, alternately, and who found this distribution
of his time not unfavorable to the elasticity of his mind. Many
hard-working Londoners, who fairly deserve to be considered intellectual
men, pass their days in professional labor and their evenings in
fashionable society. But in all instances of this kind the professional
work is serious enough, and regular enough, to give a very substantial
basis to the life, so that the times of recreation are kept daily
subordinate by the very necessity of circumstances. If you had a
profession, and were obliged to follow i