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.
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