tions. Deep thinkers are notoriously absent,
for thought requires abstraction from what surrounds us, and it is hard
for them to be denied the liberty of dreaming. An intellectual person
might be happy as a stone-breaker on the roadside, because the work
would leave his mind at liberty; but he would certainly be miserable as
an engine-driver at a coal-pit shaft, where the abstraction of an
instant would imperil the lives of others.

In a recent address delivered by Mr. Gladstone at Liverpool, he
acknowledged the neglect of culture which is one of the shortcomings of
our trading community, and held out the hope (perhaps in some degree
illusory) that the same persons might become eminent in commerce and in
learning. No doubt there have been instances of this; and when a
"concern" has been firmly established by the energy of a predecessor,
the heir to it may be satisfied with a royal sort of supervision,
leaving the drudgery of detail to his managers, and so secure for
himself that sufficient leisure without which high culture is not
possible. But the _founders_ of great commercial fortunes have, I
believe, in every instance thrown their _whole_ energy into their trade,
making wealth their aim, and leaving culture to be added in another
generation. The founders of commercial families are in this country
usually men of great mother-wit and plenty of determination--but
illiterate.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] The word "disinterested" is used here in the sense explained in
Part II. Letter III.

[13] "This work has at any rate the character of having come into the
world like every really living creation. It has been produced by the
heat of a gentle incubation."

PART XII.

_SURROUNDINGS._

LETTER I.

TO A FRIEND WHO OFTEN CHANGED HIS PLACE OF RESIDENCE.

An unsettled class of English people--Effect of localities on the
mind--Reaction against surroundings--Landscape-painting a consequence
of it--Crushing effect of too much natural magnificence--The mind
takes color from its surroundings--Selection of a place of
residence--Charles Dickens--Heinrich Heine--Dr. Arnold at Rugby--His
house in the lake district--Tycho Brahe--His establishment on the
island of Hween--The young Humboldts in the Castle of Tegel--Alexander
Humboldt's appreciation of Paris--Dr. Johnson--Mr.
Buckle--Cowper--Galileo.

I find that there is a whole class of English subjects (you belong to
that class) of whom it