f its high ambition, but never again was the lost digamma
so nearly in its grasp. If it still meets upon its midnight labors, a
toothless member boasts of that night of its topmost glory, and those
who have gathered to his words rap their stale unprofitable mugs upon
the table.

It would be unjust to assume that you are so poor a student as myself.
Doubtless you are a scholar and can discourse deeply of the older
centuries. You know the ancient works of Tweedledum and can
distinguish to a hair's breadth 'twixt him and Tweedledee. Learning is
candy on your tooth. Perhaps you stroke your sagacious beard and give
a nimble reason for the lightning. To you the hills have whispered how
they came, and the streams their purpose and ambition. You have
studied the first shrinkage of the earth when the plains wrinkled and
broke into mountain peaks. The mystery of the stars is to you as
familiar as your garter. If such depth is yours, I am content to sit
before you like a bucket below a tap.

At your banquet I sit as a poor relation. If the viands hold, I fork a
cold morsel from your dish....

But modesty must not gag me. I do myself somewhat lean towards
knowledge. I run to a dictionary on a disputed word, and I point my
inquiring nose upon the page like a careful schoolman. On a spurt I
pry into an uncertain date, but I lack the perseverance and the
wakefulness for sustained endeavor. To repair my infirmity, I
frequently go among those of steadier application, if haply their
devotion may prove contagious. It was but lately that I dined with a
group of the Cognoscenti. There were light words at first, as when a
juggler carelessly tosses up a ball or two just to try his hand before
he displays his genius--a jest or two, into which I entered as an
equal. In these shallow moments we waded through our soup. But we had
hardly got beyond the fish when the company plunged into greater
depth. I soon discovered that I was among persons skilled in those
economic and social studies that now most stir us. My neighbor on the
left offered to gossip with me on the latest evaluations and
eventuations--for such were her pleasing words--in the department of
knowledge dearest to her. While I was still fumbling for a response,
my neighbor on the right, abandoning her meat, informed me of the
progress of a survey of charitable organizations that was then under
way. By mischance, however, while flipping up the salad on my fork, I
dropped a morsel o