« quoth Adams, »that should be
in the East Indies by right.« - »O ho! you are a pretty Traveller,« cries the
Host, »and not know the Levant. My service to you, Master; you must not talk of
these things with me! you must not tip us the Traveller; it won't go here.«
»Since thou art so dull to misunderstand me still,« quoth Adams, »I will inform
thee; the travelling I mean is in Books, the only way of travelling by which any
Knowledge is to be acquired. From them I learn what I asserted just now, that
Nature generally imprints such a Portraiture of the Mind in the Countenance,
that a skilful Physiognomist will rarely be deceived. I presume you have never
read the Story of Socrates to this purpose, and therefore I will tell it you. A
certain Physiognomist asserted of Socrates, that he plainly discovered by his
Features that he was a Rogue in his Nature. A Character so contrary to the
Tenour of all this great Man's Actions, and the generally received Opinion
concerning him, incensed the Boys of Athens so that they threw Stones at the
Physiognomist, and would have demolished him for his Ignorance, had not Socrates
himself prevented them by confessing the Truth of his Observations, and
acknowledging that tho' he corrected his Disposition by Philosophy, he was
indeed naturally as inclined to Vice as had been predicated of him. Now, pray
resolve me, - How should a Man know this Story, if he had not read it?« »Well
Master,« said the Host, »and what signifies it whether a Man knows it or no? He
who goes abroad as I have done, will always have opportunities enough of knowing
the World, without troubling his head with Socrates, or any such Fellows.« -
»Friend,« cries Adams, »if a Man would sail round the World, and anchor in every
Harbour of it, without Learning, he would return home as ignorant as he went
out.« »Lord help you,« answered the Host, »there was my Boatswain, poor Fellow!
he could scarce either write or read, and yet he would navigate a Ship with any
Master of a Man of War; and a very pretty knowledge of Trade he had too.«
»Trade,« answered Adams, »as Aristotle proves in his first Chapter of Politics,
is below a Philosopher, and unnatural as it is managed now.« The Host look'd
stedfastly at Adams, and after a Minute'