each of the world's ten largest libraries; the
salary of every officer of the United-States Government; the average
duration of life in a man, elephant, lion, horse, anaconda, tortoise,
camel, rabbit, ass, etcetera-etcetera; the age of every crowned head
in Europe; each State's legal and commercial rate of interest; and how
long it takes a healthy boy to digest apples, baked beans, cabbage,
dates, eggs, fish, green corn, h, i, j, k, l-m-n-o-p, quinces, rice,
shrimps, tripe, veal, yams, and any thing you can cook commencing with
z. It's a fascinating study. But it's not my favorite.

'The proper study of mankind is man.
* * * * *
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!'

"I love to study human nature. That's my favorite study! The art of
reading the inner human nature by the outer aspect is of immeasurable
interest and boundless practical value, and the man who can practise
it skilfully and apply it sagaciously is on the high road to fortune,
and why? Because to know it thoroughly is to know whom to trust and
how far; to select wisely a friend, a confidant, a partner in any
enterprise; to shun the untrustworthy, to anticipate and turn to our
personal advantage the merits, faults, and deficiencies of all, and to
evolve from their character such practical results as we may choose
for our own ends; but a thorough knowledge is attained only by
incessant observation and long practice; like music, it demands a
special talent possessed by different individuals in variable quantity
or not at all. You, gentlemen, all are, what I am not, commercial
tourists. Before you I must be modest. You, each of you, have been
chosen from surrounding hundreds or thousands for your superior
ability, natural or acquired, to scan the human face and form and know
whereof you see. I look you in the eye--you look me in the eye--for
the eye, though it does not tell all, tells much--it is the key of
character--it has been called the mirror of the soul--

'And looks commercing with the skies,
Thy rapt soul sitting in thine eyes.'

And so looking you read me. You say to yourself, 'There's a man with
no concealments, yet who speaks not till he's spoken to; knows when to
stop, and stops.' You note my pale eyebrows, my slightly prominent and
pointed chin, somewhat over-sized mouth; small, well-spread ears,
faintly aquiline nose; fine, thin, blonde hair, a dep