FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  
for he never lost sight of the instructive feature of the voyage. None of his party were scientists in a technical sense in the studies which occupied them, though Dr. Hawkes and Professor Giroud were such in their occupation at home; but they were all well-educated persons in the ordinary use of the term. They were not Egyptologists, philosophers, theologians, zoologists, biblical critics, ethnologists, or devoted to any special studies; they were ordinary seekers after knowledge in all its varieties. The everyday facts, events, and scenes, as presented to them in their present migratory existence, were the staple topics of thought and study. Though none of the party ascended to the higher flights of scientific inquiry, the commander endeavored to make use of the discoveries and conclusions of the learned men of the present and the past. He was eminently a practical man, and practical knowledge was his aim; and he endeavored to lead the conferences in this direction. The building of the piers at Port Said, and the construction of the canal, as meagrely described by the magnate of the Fifth Avenue, were the kind of subjects he believed in; and he had a sort of mild contempt for one who could discourse learnedly over a polype, and did not know the difference between a sea mile and a statute mile. "Do you believe in the explanation of that Dutchman you mentioned, Captain Ringgold?" asked Mr. Woolridge, at the close of the conference. "What Dutchman?" inquired the commander. "I do not remember that I alluded to any Dutchman." "I mean the man who says that Pharaoh's army perished in the lake where the weeds and papyrus grew," the magnate explained. "Brugsch? He was not a Dutchman; he was a German." "It is all the same thing; I have been in the habit of calling a German a Dutchman." "If you will excuse me, Mr. Woolridge, I think it is a very bad habit," added the commander with a deprecatory smile. "A German is not a Dutchman, any more than a Dutchman is a German; and I should as soon think of calling a full-blooded American a Chinaman, as a German a Dutchman." "Of course you are right, Captain, though I am not alone in the use of the word," replied the magnate. "But it is more common among uneducated people than with people of even fair education. I do not accept Brugsch's explanation, but cling to the Bible story as I learned it in my childhood. I don't think Brugsch's explanation comes under the hea
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128  
129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Dutchman
 

German

 

Brugsch

 
explanation
 
commander
 
magnate
 

endeavored

 

calling

 

learned

 

studies


present
 
practical
 

Captain

 

Woolridge

 

knowledge

 

ordinary

 

people

 

Pharaoh

 

feature

 

perished


childhood
 

explained

 

instructive

 
papyrus
 

remember

 
mentioned
 
Ringgold
 

scientists

 

voyage

 

alluded


inquired

 

conference

 
American
 
Chinaman
 

blooded

 
uneducated
 

replied

 

common

 

education

 

excuse


deprecatory

 

accept

 
events
 

scenes

 
presented
 
everyday
 

varieties

 

special

 
seekers
 

migratory