Word: evenness
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...tobacco, in wine, and in society, all serve as touchstones, to be applied to him by one or another of his friends. Mere acquaintances judge you by your gait, your clothes, the sound of your voice, the tie of your cravat, and the smoothness of your hair. And even in this they do not seem to be consistent, often applying the test in an exactly opposite manner to different persons. But however that may be, believe me, there is not one of your pet oddities that does not go a great way in the estimate that some one forms...
...upon what strikes me as being a very serious error in our present system. It has become generally admitted in Europe, that one gains more from his University course if he spends his time on one department of study, than by "spreading" himself over a variety of subjects. And even here it is gradually getting to be acknowledged that a thorough education is better than a superficial one. Now, no one will maintain that a thorough education can be gained by electing one or two courses in each department that appears on the scheme. Yet how often this is done...
...state law, constitutional law and history, finance, and diplomacy (a rather ambiguous word), the graduate should go before an examining board at Washington to obtain a certificate of fitness for office. Armed with this certificate, he is to go before the people and take his chances for election; and even if he were not elected, the general culture of the community would be elevated by the presence of such a learned person. A knowledge of the subjects suggested is indeed valuable to a statesman, but unless one has genius, tact, and experience, - things that no college course can give...
...seems altogether undesirable. It would cause an immense amount of inconvenience without giving any compensating gain in time. The time allotted for breakfast would be shortened nearly one half, since, in order to reach chapel, one must get to breakfast at least as early as half past seven; and even then there would be no enjoyment of the meal, but a rapid shovelling process, alike disagreeable and detrimental, would take place. Should we fail, by reason of a morning nap or otherwise, to reach the hall before this early hour, either breakfast or chapel must be sacrificed. A modifying suggestion...
...fault may lie in my own stupidity; for I confess that even yet I cannot see the connection between politics and chimney-pots, or between personal allusions to the character of prominent politicians and good taste in architecture. When I go voluntarily into a political meeting, knowing that I am to hear a speaker who holds views opposed to my own, I am bound to sit still and listen courteously to whatever he may have to say, and it is my own fault if I hear anything I don't like, But when I go to a lecture on Fine...