They throw good things off as sparks; I
collect them and turn them into warmth. But I could not do this if I
did not sometimes throw out a spark or two myself.
Not only would Agamemnon be nothing without the vates sacer but there
are always at least ten good heroes to one good chronicler, just as
there are ten good authors to one good publisher. Bravery, wit and
poetry abound in every village. Look at Mrs. Boss [the original of
Mrs. Jupp in The Way of All Flesh] and at Joanna Mills [Life and
Letters of Dr. Butler, I, 93]. There is not a village of 500
inhabitants in England but has its Mrs. Quickly and its Tom Jones.
These good people never understand themselves, they go over their own
heads, they speak in unknown tongues to those around them and the
interpreter is the rarer and more important person. The vates sacer
is the middleman of mind.
So rare is he and such spendthrifts are we of good things that people
not only will not note what might well be noted but they will not
even keep what others have noted, if they are to be at the pains of
pigeon-holing it. It is less trouble to throw a brilliant letter
into the fire than to put it into such form that it can be safely
kept, quickly found and easily read. To this end a letter should be
gummed, with the help of the edgings of stamps if necessary, to a
strip, say an inch and a quarter wide, of stout hand-made paper.
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