Don't despair, if you are a duffer, for you may cure yourself of it, if you will only _think_ and _take your time_.

If we are not quick-witted, it does not follow we have no wits, and if we only use them carefully, we shall be no greater duffers than some of our sharp fellows.
The great philosopher Newton once appeared in the light of a great duffer.

He had a cat, and that cat had a kitten, and these two creatures were continually worrying him by scratching at his study door to be let either in or out.

A brilliant idea occurred to the philosopher--he would make holes in the bottom of his door through which they might pass in or out at pleasure without troubling him to get up and open the door every time.

And thereupon he made a big hole for the cat and a little hole for the kitten, as if both could not have used the big hole! Well, you say, one could fancy Billy Bungle doing a thing like that, but what an extraordinary error for a philosopher to fall into! It was, but the reason in both cases is alike.