niverse, distinguished
pleaders who had defeated justice while they established points of
law, writers of books upon subjects of which they knew enough to
mislead their readers, purveyors of luxuries which had added nothing
to human health or strength, physicians and apothecaries who had
pretended to knowledge which they knew that they did not
possess,--these all, as the contents of their boxes bore witness
against them, were thrust back into the rejected herd.

There were some whose account stood better, as having at least
produced something of real merit, but they were cast on the point of
wages: modest excellence had come badly off; the plausible and
unscrupulous had thriven and grown rich. It was tragical, and
evidently a surprise to most of us, to see how mendacious we had been:
how we had sanded our sugar, watered our milk, scamped our
carpentering and mason's work, literally and metaphorically; how in
all things we had been thinking less of producing good work than of
the profit which we could make out of it; how we had sold ourselves to
tell lies and act them, because the public found lies pleasant and
truth expensive and troublesome. Some of us were manifest rogues, who
had bought cheap and sold dear, had used false measures and weights,
had made cotton pass for wool, and hemp for silk, and tin for silver.
The American peddler happened to be in the party, who had put a rind
upon a grindstone and had sold it as a cheese. These were promptly
sifted out and placed with their fellows; only persons whose services
were on the whole greater than the pay which they had received were
allowed their certificates. When my own box was opened, I perceived
that though the wages had been small, the work done seemed smaller
still; and I was surprised to find myself among those who had passed.

The whistle of a train was heard at this moment, coming in upon the
main line. It was to go in half an hour, and those who had been turned
back were told that they were to proceed by it to the place where they
had been originally going. They looked infinitely relieved at the
news; but before they started, a few questions had to be put to them,
and a few alterations made which were to affect their future. They
were asked to explain how they had come to be such worthless
creatures. They gave many answers, which came mainly to the same
thing. Circumstances had been against them. It was all owing to
circumstances. They had been badly brough