They will not pause to hear
Montesquieu remind them that "democracy is virtue" or to hear Homer speak
of virtue as the ancients conceived it.'
But, on the other hand, and there is another side, they will give up
private business, eating, and all to stop a patent dishonesty, to improve
the mail service, to discuss the smoke nuisance that happens to be choking
their throats, or get rid of the beggar at the door, or to go to a ball
game.
They do not there in any great number appreciate the wonderful,
indefatigable, disinterested efforts of scholars, artists, poets, in the
narrower sense--the wisdoms of seeming idleness or leisure. On the other
hand, I am sure that the poetry and prophecy of those who (again in the
language of the son of Sirach) are "building the fabric of the world" are
not appreciated either in Paris or Chicago, partly because of convention
and inadequate representation in the old world, and because of the smoke
and noise and the thought of the "unwrought iron" in the new world.
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