A boy of
fifteen is generally a great deal more sure of what he thinks
he knows than a man of fifty.
You ask the boy a question and he will probably answer you right
off, with great assurance; he knows all about it. Ask a man of
large experience and ripe wisdom the same question, and he will
say, "Well, there is much to be said about it. I am inclined on
the whole to think so and so, but other intelligent men think
otherwise."
When I was a small boy, I traveled from central Massachusetts to
western New York, crossing the river at Albany, and going the
rest of the way by canal. On the canal boat a kindly gentleman
was talking to me one day, and I mentioned the fact that I had
crossed the Connecticut River at Albany. How I got it in my head
that it was the Connecticut River, I do not know, for I knew my
geography very well then; but in some unaccountable way I had it
fixed in my mind that the river at Albany was the Connecticut,
and I called it so.
"Why," said the gentleman, "that is the Hudson River."
"Oh, no, sir!" I replied, politely but firmly.
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