"These are vastly more important matters than reading and writing;
which are, so far as I can see, of no use to any fair man, whose word
is his bond, and who deals with honest men. I can reckon up, if I sell
so many cattle, how much has to be paid, and more of learning than that
I want not. Nor do you, and every hour spent on it would be as good as
wasted. As to the monks, Heaven forfend that you should ever become
one. They are good men, I doubt not, and I suppose that it is necessary
that some should take to it; but that a man who has the full possession
of his limbs should mew himself up, for life, between four walls,
passing his time in vigils and saying masses, in reading books and
distributing alms, seems to me to be a sort of madness."
"I certainly do not wish to become a monk, Father, but I thought that I
should like to learn to read and write."
"And when you have learnt it, what then, Oswald? Books are expensive
playthings, and no scrap of writing has ever been inside the walls of
Yardhope Hold, since it was first built here, as far as I know. As to
writing, it would be of still less use. If a man has a message to send,
he can send it by a hired man, if it suits him not to ride himself.
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