No More Learning

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? 210
FRANK.
me a little, the first time we saw him,
by laughing at my triumphal arch, and
calling my bricks--baby bjicks. ,'Eio,iooR
" Now I know the reason,'. ' ' said
Mary, " that you have nefrf played
with the bricks lately. " : /*. o^iodO "
" And a very foolish reason it cKti2
said Frank. " I will conquer ,fthati
foolish feeling. " ". ' v i '. it ob mid
" Look! " said Mary, " here ^
Mrs. Wheeler with the basket filled
with sticks. Good-natured woman!
she likes to show us how useftit/it
will be. " '. ". . . ,. . . '. . . . \rhfr;n
She placed the basket in her chimney
corner; and told Mary and Frank,
that she would never let any body
touch it, but herself and her grandson
George. *. '. . 'i- ' . . o .
When once she had named George,
she could not help going on speaking
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? FRANK.
otihim; she showed the parlour, which
lies haft iiid 'newly white-washed and
floored5giaoA! said,' that every penny he
&ouid earn, Jje laid out in some com-
fort4t>> Ikes 0'nJ i,
" George was talking," continued
sW, *<<" of making for me a little arbour
terfthe^gttrcten; but 1 would not let
him do it, for he does too much for
me, and he can be much better em-
ployed; so I persuaded him to lay
aside all thoughts of the arbour. "
When Frank heard this, a plan of
making: an arbour for Mrs. Wheeler
came into his mind, which he com-
municated to Mary as they were
returning home: and Mary and he
agreed, that they would make use of
some strong and long sallows, which
the gardener had sent them; and for
this purpose, they said, they would give
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? 212
FRANK.
up their plan of making a new arbour
for themselves in their island. This was
an excellent project; but it happened
to this as to many other excellent pro-
jects, that the carrying it into execu-
tion was from day to day postponed:
something was always to be done first;
and delightful rides made Frank quite
forget Mrs. Wheeler's arbour.
During the course of this autumn
and winter, when Frank had learned
to ride tolerably well, his father some-
times took him out riding, when he
went with his friends, or when he
went out on any business, in which
a boy of his age could learn any thing
useful. . ;i i. j. . .
Frank liked the rides best which he
had with his father when he was
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? FRANK.
213
alone; because then he could ask
him all the questions, which he had
treasured up for those happy times.
When his father's friends happened
to ride with them, Frank found it dis-
agreeable to be silent, especially as the
conversation sometimes turned on sub-
jects which did not interest him, and
which he fancied that he could not un-
derstand ; yet he had sense enough to
attend to what was said, and he found,
that he often learned more than he
could have done by talking himself,
even of what he was most anxious to
say;
. ! It happened, in one of these rides,
'that his father was accompanied by
4wdi gentlemen, one was an engineer,
well informed in literature and science,
the other was a country squire, who
had a large estate, was good natured,
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? FRANK.
but very ignorant, and fond of low
company.
The business of this ride was to lay
out anew road, which was to go through
part of that gentleman's estate. In
this business Frank was not inte-
rested, and he thought, as he told
Mary, that it would prove one of his
stupid rides. .
The begiaing was tiresome, for he
could not understand what the engineer
was saying to his father about a trigo-
nometrical survey of Egland, nor of
what the squire said to him about
hounds. He trotted on for miles with-
out any amusement, except talking by
turns to Felix and to his little dog
Pompey, whom he taught to follow
him in his rides.
He was, however, called upon to
listen to a long story, which the squire
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? FRANK.
215
endeavoured to make him understand.
A story, such as people full of their
own affairs, and unused to children,
address' to them for their amusement.
It was the history of a quarrel, about
a dead partridge, between the Squires's
and the Rogers's, which was made up
by a. marriage between Miss Squires,
his mother, and Mr. Rogers, his father,
" upon condition, that the eldest son,
that was to be, should be christened
Squires, which was accordingly done
by rri(C), that is, with me;" said the
puzzled and puzzling squire. " So I
became Squires Rogers, and, in time,
ought to be denominated Squire Squires
Rogers; being that I am Esquire, that
is, a Squire by title -- and Squires by
name -- and I may add, Squire by
nature: but I have never compassed
getting myself called Squire Squires
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? 216
FRANK.
Rogers, on account of the hissing in
common people's mouths; so it came
down to Squires Rogers, and then to
plain Squire Rogers. But this defeated
the intention of the founder," continued
he, " for there is many in the country
this minute, that does not know I am
any thing more than plain Squire
Rogers. I doubt whether even your
father does; but pray do you explain it
to him, my dear. " . >i . ',.
Frank said, that he would if he
could; he thought, however, that this
would be above his capacity; but he
repeated to himself several times,
Squire Squires Rogers, to try whether
he could say it properly, in spite of the
hissing.
His attention had been much dis-
tracted during the latter part of the
squire's story, by some words that he
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? FRANK.
217
overheard of the conversation, on the
other side of him, between the engineer
and his father, about stone stairs,
leading to curious buildings under
ground, which had lately been disco-
vered by some workmen who had been
sinking a well.
The conversation changed before
Frank's attention was released from
the Squires's and the Rogers's, and he
never could find out more.
Presently, his father stopped near
some ruins. The squire told Frank
not to mind that heap of old stones,
but to listen to what he was going to
tell him about a covey of partridges.
Frank, however, escaped this time
from the squire, and rode after his
father, for his curiosity was again ex-
cited by hearing the words, Roman
road and Roman arch; the recollection
vol. i. u
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? 218
FRANK.
of his own triumphal arch gave him
an interest in this subject. He was
surprised to learn, that an arch and a
road, which he now saw, had been
made when the Romans were in Eng-
land.
From the little books of history,
which he had read, he knew that
" the Romans in England once did
sway;" but he had thought of this
only as a circumstance mentioned in
books, and had never so much the
feeling of its being real as now, when
he saw a road and a part of a building,
which had lasted from their time.
The conversation next turned upon
one of those old towers which are called
Caesar's towers, and various facts of
history were mentioned, with some of
which Frank was acquainted; but
what interested him most, was ob-
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? FRANK.
219
serving the respect that was paid to
his father as a man of literature. He
remarked, also, that the squire looked
sulky and ashamed, while they were
talking of Tacitus and Agricola, of
Julius Caesar and Augustus; and when
he was asked some question about a
tower on his own estate, which was
said to have been built in the time of
Augustus Caesar, he said, he thanked
his stars he knew nothing at all of
any of the Caesars since he had left
school, except his dog Caesar, who
was worth them all put together. The
squire was at last obliged to whistle,
and to whip his boot, and talk to little
Pompey. Frank hoped, that when he
grew up to be a man he should never
be in such a condition. They rode on,
and as they went through the county
town, the engineer stopped to look at
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FRANK.
the cathedral, the roof of which wanted
some repair.
When observations were made upon
the different parts of the building, the
columns and Gothic arches, Frank
found, that his knowledge of the dif-
ferent kinds of arches, and of the
orders of architecture, enabled him to
understand part of what was said, and
made him eager to attend, in hopes of
learning more. When they were look-
ing at some headless statues in the
niches of one of the shrines in the
cathedral, and when he heard his
father regret the injury, which had
been done to this cathedral, and to
many others in England, by Cromwell's
soldiers at the time of the civil wars in
England, at least he knew who Crom-
well was: and when he felt his own
ignorance of many other facts in Eng-
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? FRANK.
lish history, which were alluded to,
in looking at the tombs and monu-
ments, he inquired and obtained some
information. But all this time the
squire, as ignorant of the history of
his own country as of that of Rome,
stood yawning at intervals before an
old grave stone, on which was the
name of either Roberts or Rogers;
whose only history seemed to be, that
he had been born and had died.
Frank and his father felt sorry for
the squire, and they quitted the cathe-
dral soon, lest they should weary him
by detaining him longer. They all
remounted their horses, and proceeded
to the place where the new road was
to be laid out. Here they found the
engineer's men waiting for them; they
had brought with them a telescope,
and two boxes, which contained his
v3
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? 222
FRANK.
instruments, and some wooden rods or
staves. Frank had seen and had often
looked through a telescope, and knew
its use, and remembered all he had
read about it. in Sandford and Merton.
The engineer, who had observed that
Frank was intelligent, gave him leave
to look through his glass at the distant
country, and as he saw the manner in
which Frank held it, and applied his
eye to it at the same time, directing it
to the objects which he wished to see,
he said,
" I perceive this is not the first time
you have looked through a telescope.
"
"No," said Frank; "the first time
I could not shut one eye and look with
the other; and I remember I pointed
the telescope sometimes a great way
higher and sometimes a great way
lower than the thing I wanted to see.
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? FRANK.
223
But my father taught me how to hold,
and direct, and steady it; and he let
me try till I could do it all for my-
self. "
" You are very much obliged to your
father, then," said the engineer, " for
teaching you; for in general children,
and indeed grown up people, are terri-
bly awkward the first time they want
to look through a glass. "
As Frank looked through it, he said,
" I see a high hill, over which a
road goes. "
" Yes," said the engineer, " we are
going to change that road, to save
people the trouble of going up that
hill; and I am going to measure the
different heights of the ground. "
He then called to one of his men,
and desired him to bring his theo-
dolite.
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? 224 FRANK.
Frank, who had never before seen
such an instrument, went eagerly to
look at it. But he could not under-
stand its different parts; he saw teles-
copes and brass circles, with many divi-
sions of which he could not guess the
use. He saw a compass : with this he
was acquainted; for his father had
shown him a compass: he watched
the needle as it trembled; and when it
stood still, he knew it pointed to the
north: his curiosity was next excited
by a small glass tube, in which he saw
a bubble that continually moved back-
wards and forwards, whenever the in-
strument was stirred.
He saw the engineer look at this
bubble frequently, and as it were con-
sult it. Frank observed, that the
bubble always went to that end of the
tube which was highest.
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? FRANK.
225
At last, when the instrument was
settled to the engineer's satisfaction,
Frank saw that this bubble stood quite
still, exactly in the middle of the glass
tube; he perceived, therefore, that
its use was to show when the instru-
ment was level. . He asked what this
was. The engineer said it was a spirit
level. He asked what the bubble was,
and why it always ran upwards. The
engineer said that it was a bubble of
air; but he told Frank, that he could
not explain more to him, that he must
go on with his work.
The engineer ordered one of his
assistants to stand on the road at a
certain distance from him, with one of
the staves, which the man held on the
road. On this staff there was a sliding
part, which the man pushed higher or
lower, when the engineer, who looked
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? FRANK.
at it through the telescope, made signs
to him to raise or lower it. When this
was done, the engineer called the man
to him, and noted down the height to
which the slide had been placed on the
staff, and this operation was repeated
at several places.
As Frank had been quite silent, and
had taken care not to be in the way,
the engineer gave him leave to look
through the telescope at the staff; and
told him, that he might call to the man
to raise or lower it till it should be
at its proper height. Frank looked
through the telescope; but, to his
astonishment, he saw the man standing
on his head, and the road seeming to
stand on the man's feet; and when
he called to the man to raise the slide,
he lowered it, or when he called to
him to loWer it, he raised it, doing
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? FRANK.
227
exactly the contrary to what he desired;
at which the squire grew angry, and
began to call the man a blockhead, a
dunce, and an obstinate fool. But
as the man had always done rightly,
when the engineer had spoken to him,
Frank guessed that the fault must be
his own; and as all the objects were
reversed, that is, turned a different way
from what they usually are, he perceived
that he ought to reverse his orders, and
to say higher when it seemed to require
to be lower, and lower when it seemed
to require to be higher.
" I see," said the engineer, stroking
Frank's head, "that your kind father
has taught you better things than
how to hold a telescope, that he has
taught you to be patient, and to believe
that you may be in the wrong, and
ought not to expect to be in the right
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? 228
FRANK.
in a new thing, which you have never
learned. "
Encouraged by these kind words,
Frank said, he wished very much to
know the reason of what he bad seen,
and particularly why the man ap-
peared to stand on his head? But
his father told him, that this could not
be explained till he knew a great deal
more. ' . ' ' ''>><<
" What is the engineer going to do
now 1" asked Frank.
' " He is going to measure the height
and distance of those two mountains,
which you see to the east and to the
west, to your right hand and to your
left. "
Frank observed, that the engineer,
after looking through the telescope,
examined the divisions on the brass
circles ; then changed the position of
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? FRANK. 229
the telescope, and again examined the
divisions; after which he looked satis-
fied, and wrote something in a little
book. And Frank heard him say
several things to his father which he
could not understand, about taking
angles, a base, and a meridian line.
When the engineer seemed to have
done with the instrument, Frank asked
if he might again look through the
itedescope. The engineer nodded, and
went on with his former conversation.
Frank looked, but saw only a mountain
upside down, and Frank said to the
man next to him, " What has your
master been doing? " The man. . 'an-
swered,
. . He was taking the angles. "
And Frank understood no more than
he had done before. The engineer,
turning round at this instant, saw Frank's
vol. i. x
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? FRANK.
curious and distressed look, smiled,
and said,
" My dear, you have a great deal
to learn before you can understand the
meaning of all this. "
The squire asked if he had now
finished his business.
The engineer answered that he had.
"Heaven be praised! " exclaimed
the squire, "we shall have our road---
the rest is all Hebrew to me. It is
amazingly cold standing here: and I
am heartily glad to see that wooden
Harry-long-legs go back again into
its box. "
Frank smiled.
"I never want to know how to do
these troublesome things, these sorts
of scientific puzzles, which a man can
get done for him by paying for," added
the squire.
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? FRANK.
Frank looked at him with surprise;
but there was something droll and
good-humoured in the squire's manner,
which diverted him, and he was glad
that they were to go on with him to
Rogers'-Court, where he cordially in-
vited them to rest and refresh them-
selves; being certain, he said, that
they must be more than half tired to
death, as he was himself, of this tedious
businessi
Rogers'-Court was a handsome old
house, of which the squire was proud,
as he was of all that belonged 46
him.
In showing this house, his ignorance
was still more striking than it had before
appeared. He had a fine library, which
had been left to him lately, as head of the
family, he said, by some great bookish
man of his name, but to him the bookk
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? 232
FRANK.
were of neither use nor pleasure; he
had several fine historical pictures,
in his dining room, and drawing room.
Frank began to ask some questions
about them, but he perceived that the
squire did not even know Darius and
Alexander; he called Alexander a
great Roman general.
While they were looking at the
pictures, two boys, older than he was,
nephews of Squire Rogers, came into
the room with their tutor, and joined
the circle who were examining the
pictures. Frank saw that the boys
and the tutor were laughing behind the
squire's back, at his mistakes. Frank
thought that this was very ill-natured,
and wrong. ' He was shocked at it,
and he would not go near them.
When he gave an account of this
visit to Mary he said, that he took
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? FRANK. 233
care not to ask any more questions,
lest he should expose " the poor squire"
This poor, or rather this rich squire's
ignorance made such an impression
upon Frank, that for a time he talked
of it more than of the engineer s know-
ledge; thinking it, perhaps, rather
more easy to avoid the one than to
obtain the other.
"My dear Mary," said he, "I
must take care not to be an ignorant
man. We will look over our his-
tories of Greece, and Rome, and
England, to-morrow, and see what we
know. "
"Yes," said Mary, "and find out
what we do not know. "
The next morning, as soon as Frank's
Latin lesson was finished, the floor of
x3
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? 234
FRANK.
his mother's dressing room was strewed
with the heads of Roman and of Eng-
lish kings, queens, emperors, and con-
suls. Mary put together the joining
map of the English kings and queens;
Frank holding the box, and giving each
head as she called for it in right suc-
cession. Not a single mistake was
made in her calling. Frank then tried
whether he could do as well with the
Romans; but he made one error. He
called for Tarquinius Superbus (Tarquin
the Proud), before Tarquinius Priscus.
" I always have made that mistake,"
said Frank.
" But you will not make it again,"
said his mother, " if you consider, that
Tarquin the Proud was on account of
his pride and wickedness driven from
the throne and from the country, and
was the last of the kings of Rome. "
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? FRANK. 235
This reason, as Frank found, fixed
the fact in his memory; and he ob-
served, that it was much easier and
better to remember by reason than
merely by rote. While Frank had his
Roman kings, consuls, and emperors,
on one side of the room, and Mary
her English kings and queens on the
floor, at the other; Mary began to
amuse herself with proposing visits
from one set of crowned heads to the
other; but Frank observed, that those
should not visit who did not live at
the same time, for that they would
not know each other's customs. This
led to an inquiry, which ended in
putting a stop to all visiting between
the kings and queens of England and
the kings and consuls of Rome. The
time of Julius Caesar's landing at Deal
was inquired into, and, to please Mary,
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? 236
FRANK.
he and the Emperor Augustus Caesar
were permitted to see Queen Boadicea,
though, as Frank observed, this was
absolutely impossible in reality, be-
cause Queen Boadicea did not live till
eighteen years afterwards.
They went to their little histories of
England, France, and Scotland, and
found all the kings and queens, and
remarkable people, who lived at the
same time; and they amused them-
selves with making out parties for these
personages, and inventing conversa-
tions for them.
They called this playing at contem-
poraries j contemporaries meaning, as
Frank's mother told them, those people
who live at the same time.