Publisher's Synopsis
""It does not do," said a friend of mine, "to think about boots." For my own part, I have al-ways been particularly inclined to look at boots, and think about them. I have an odd idea that most general questions can be expressed in terms of foot-wear-which is perhaps why cobblers are often such philosophical men. Accident it may be, gave me this persuasion. A very considerable part of my childhood was spent in an underground kitchen; the window opened upon a bricked-in space, surmounted by a grating before my fa-ther's shop window. So that, when I looked out of the window, instead of seeing-as children of a higher upbringing would do-the heads and bod-ies of people, I saw their under side. I got ac-quainted indeed with all sorts of social types as boots simply, indeed, as the soles of boots; and only subsequently, and with care, have I fitted heads, bodies, and legs to these pediments."
