a book
and a knife; principal and interest are gone, and book-seller and cutler
are enriched. But the schoolboy is enriched also, and may help his
school-fellows next day with knife and book, instead of lying in bed and
incurring a debt to the doctor.]

139. The enervating influence of luxury, and its tendencies to increase
vice, are points which I keep entirely out of consideration in the
present essay; but, so far as they bear on any question discussed, they
merely furnish additional evidence on the side which I have taken. Thus,
in the present case, I assume that the luxuries of civilized life are in
possession harmless, and in acquirement serviceable as a motive for
exertion; and even on those favourable terms, we arrive at the
conclusion that the nation ought not to indulge in them except under
severe limitations. Much less ought it to indulge in them if the
temptation consequent on their possession, or fatality incident to their
manufacture, more than counter-balances the good done by the effort to
obtain them.

* * * * *

Note 6th, p. 74.--"_Economy of literature._"

140. I have been much impressed lately by one of the results of the
quantity of our books; namely, the stern impossibility of getting
anything understood, that required patience to understand. I observe
always, in the case of my own writings, that if ever I state anything
which has cost me any trouble to ascertain, and which, therefore, will
probably require a minute or two of reflection from the reader before it
can be accepted,--that statement will not only be misunderstood, but in
all probability taken to mean something very nearly the reverse of what
it does mean. Now, whatever faults there may be in my modes of
expression, I know that the words I use will always be found, by
Johnson's dictionary, to bear, first of all, the sense I use them in;
and that the sentences, whether awkwardly turned or not, will, by the
ordinary rules of grammar, bear no other interpretation than that I mean
them to bear; so that the misunderstanding of them must result,
ultimately, from the mere fact that their matter sometimes requires a
little patience. And I see the same kind of misinterpretation put on
the words of other writers, whenever they require the same kind of
thought.

141. I was at first a little despondent about this; but, on the whole, I
believe it will have a good effect upon our literature for some time to