Page 10 - English

Introduction

by Mark Twain

IN THE APPENDIX TO Croker’s Boswell’s Johnson, one finds this
anecdote:

Cato’s Soliloquy.—One day Mrs. Gastrel set a little girl to repeat to him
[Doctor Samuel Johnson] Cato’s Soliloquy, which she went through very
correctly. The Doctor, after a pause, asked the child—“What was to bring
Cato to an end?”
She said it was a knife.
“No, my dear, it was not so.”
“My aunt Polly said it was a knife.”
“Why, Aunt Polly’s knife may do, but it was a dagger, my dear.”
He then asked her the meaning of “bane and antidote,” which she was
unable to give. Mrs. Gastrel said—
“You cannot expect so young a child to know the meaning of such
words.”
He then said—
“My dear, how many pence are there in sixpence?”
“I cannot tell, sir,” was the half-terrified reply.
On this, addressing himself to Mrs. Gastrel, he said—
“Now, my dear lady, can anything be more ridiculous than to teach a
child Cato’s Soliloquy, who does not know how many pence there are in
sixpence?”

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