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Some who follow the narrative of his experience may wonder at the midnight darkness of Mr . Dagley ; but nothing was easier in those times than for an hereditary farmer of his grade to be ignorant , in spite somehow of having a rector in the twin parish who was a gentleman to the backbone , a curate nearer at hand who preached more learnedly than the rector , a landlord who had gone into everything , especially fine art and social improvement , and all the lights of Middlemarch only three miles off . As to the facility with which mortals escape knowledge , try an average acquaintance in the intellectual blaze of London , and consider what that eligible person for a dinner - party would have been if he had learned scant skill in “ summing ” from the parish - clerk of Tipton , and read a chapter in the Bible with immense difficulty , because such names as Isaiah or Apollos remained unmanageable after twice spelling . Poor Dagley read a few verses sometimes on a Sunday evening , and the world was at least not darker to him than it had been before . Some things he knew thoroughly , namely , the slovenly habits of farming , and the awkwardness of weather , stock and crops , at Freeman’s End — so called apparently by way of sarcasm , to imply that a man was free to quit it if he chose , but that there was no earthly “ beyond ” open to him . CHAPTER XL . Wise in his daily work was he : To fruits of diligence , And not to faiths or polity , He plied his utmost sense . These perfect in their little parts , Whose work is all their prize — Without them how could laws , or arts , Or towered cities rise ? In watching effects , if only of an electric battery , it is often necessary to change our place and examine a particular mixture or group at some distance from the point where the movement we are interested in was set up . The group I am moving towards is at Caleb Garth’s breakfast - table in the large parlor where the maps and desk were : father , mother , and five of the children . Mary was just now at home waiting for a situation , while Christy , the boy next to her , was getting cheap learning and cheap fare in Scotland , having to his father’s disappointment taken to books instead of that sacred calling “ business . ” The letters had come — nine costly letters , for which the postman had been paid three and twopence , and Mr . Garth was forgetting his tea and toast while he read his letters and laid them open one above the other , sometimes swaying his head slowly , sometimes screwing up his mouth in inward debate , but not forgetting to cut off a large red seal unbroken , which Letty snatched up like an eager terrier . The talk among the rest went on unrestrainedly , for nothing disturbed Caleb’s absorption except shaking the table when he was writing . Two letters of the nine had been for Mary . After reading them , she had passed them to her mother , and sat playing with her tea - spoon absently , till with a sudden recollection she returned to her sewing , which she had kept on her lap during breakfast . “ Oh , don’t sew , Mary ! ” said Ben , pulling her arm down . “ Make me a peacock with this bread - crumb . ” He had been kneading a small mass for the purpose .
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