I speak of the best among my
fellow-passengers; for in the steerage, as well as in the saloon,
there is a mixture. Those, then, with whom I found myself in
sympathy, and of whom I may therefore hope to write with a greater
measure of truth, were not only as good in their manners, but
endowed with very much the same natural capacities, and about as
wise in deduction, as the bankers and barristers of what is called
society. One and all were too much interested in disconnected
facts, and loved information for its own sake with too rash a
devotion; but people in all classes display the same appetite as
they gorge themselves daily with the miscellaneous gossip of the
newspaper. Newspaper-reading, as far as I can make out, is often
rather a sort of brown study than an act of culture. I have myself
palmed off yesterday's issue on a friend, and seen him re-peruse it
for a continuance of minutes with an air at once refreshed and
solemn. Workmen, perhaps, pay more attention; but though they may
be eager listeners, they have rarely seemed to me either willing or
careful thinkers. Culture is not measured by the greatness of the
field which is covered by our knowledge, but by the nicety with
which we can perceive relations in that field, whether great or
small. Workmen, certainly those who were on board with me, I found
wanting in this quality or habit of the mind.
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