It follows that my estimate of the human race is the duplicate of my estimate of myself.
I am not proposing to discuss all of the peculiarities of the human race, at this time; I only wish to touch lightly upon one or two of them.

To begin with, I wonder why a man should prefer a good billiard-table to a poor one; and why he should prefer straight cues to crooked ones; and why he should prefer round balls to chipped ones; and why he should prefer a level table to one that slants; and why he should prefer responsive cushions to the dull and unresponsive kind.

I wonder at these things, because when we examine the matter we find that the essentials involved in billiards are as competently and exhaustively furnished by a bad billiard outfit as they are by the best one.

One of the essentials is amusement.

Very well, if there is any more amusement to be gotten out of the one outfit than out of the other, the facts are in favor of the bad outfit.