Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Thackerayfood and dairy servants? What loss of animals, and averagecost of purchase? If I interested myself properly life is prodigiously increased. The milkman becomes, aman who does know these things, I say the interest ofabout my pint (or hogshead, whatever it be) of milk, all study to him; the baker a being he curiously and tenderlyexamines. Go, Lewes, and clap a hideous sea-this knowledge would ensue; all this additional interestin life. What is this talk of my friend, Mr. Lewes, about anemone into a glass: I will put a cabman under mine,objects at the seaside, and so forth?* Objects at the and make a vivisection of a butcher. O Lares, Penates,seaside? Objects at the area-bell: objects before my nose: and gentle household gods, teach me to sympathize withobjects which the butcher brings me in his tray: which all that comes within my doors! Give me an interest inthe cook dresses and puts down before me, and over the butcher’s book. Let me look forward to the ensuingwhich I say grace! My daily life is surrounded with objectswhich ought to interest me. The pudding I eat (or ungrateful to my kitchen-chimney not to know the costnumber of the grocer’s account with eagerness. It seemsrefuse, that is neither here nor there; and, between ourselves,what I have said about batter-pudding may be this, and muses on it, will feel, like the writer, ashamedof sweeping it; and I trust that many a man who readstaken cum grano—we are not come to that yet, except of himself, and hang down his head humbly.for the sake of argument or illustration)—the pudding, Now, if to this household game you could add a littleI say, on my plate, the eggs that made it, the fire that money interest, the amusement would be increased farcooked it, the tablecloth on which it is laid, and so beyond the mere money value, as a game at cards forforth—are each and all of these objects a knowledge of sixpence is better than a rubber for nothing. If you canwhich I may acquire—a knowledge of the cost and productionof which I might advantageously learn? To the a new excitement. From sunrise to sleeping you can al-interest yourself about sixpence, all life is invested withways be playing that game—with butcher, baker, coal-* “Seaside Studies.” By G. H. Lewes.287