For take notice that I did not strop the razor this morning, but only passed it, after the operation, ten or twelve times over the palm of the hand, according to my every day practice. One minute more at least would have been required for stropping. There are many men whose beards render it necessary for them to apply to the strop every day, and for a longer time,—and who are obliged to try first one razor and then another. But let us allow only a minute for this—one minute a day amounts to six hours five minutes in the year; and in fifty years to three hundred and four hours ten minutes,—time enough for an eighth language.
Observe also that some languages are so easy, and others so nearly related to each other, that very much less than half the number of hours allowed in this computation would suffice for learning them. It is strictly true that in the time specified a man of good capacity might add seven more languages to the seven for which that computation was formed; and that a person who has any remarkable aptitude for such studies might in that time acquire every language in which there are books to be procured.
Hé bien, me suis je enfin rendu croyable? Est-on content?1
1 PIRON.
See Reader, what the value of time is, when put out at simple interest. But there is no simple interest in knowledge. Whatever funds you have in that Bank go on encreasing by interest upon interest,—till the Bank fails.
CHAPTER CLVI.
AN ANECDOTE OF WESLEY, AND AN ARGUMENT ARISING OUT OF IT, TO SHOW THAT THE TIME EMPLOYED IN SHAVING IS NOT SO MUCH LOST TIME; AND YET THAT THE POET'S CALCULATION REMAINS OF PRACTICAL USE.
Questo medesimo anchora con una altra gagliardissima ragione vi confermo.