* * * * *
PHILOSOPHY AND CONSISTENCY.
Among all the fine things Mrs. Barbauld wrote, she never wrote
anything better than her essay on the Inconsistency of Human
Expectations. 'Everything,' says she, 'is marked at a settled price.
Our time, our labor, our ingenuity, is so much ready money, which
we are to lay out to the best advantage. Examine, compare, choose,
reject; but stand to your own judgment; and do not, like children,
when you have purchased one thing, repine that you do not possess
another, which you would not purchase. Would you be rich? Do you think
_that_ the single point worth sacrificing everything else to? You may
then be rich. Thousands have become so from the lowest beginnings by
toil, and diligence, and attention to the minutest articles of expense
and profit. But you must give up the pleasures of leisure, of an
unembarrassed mind, and of a free, unsuspicious temper. You must learn
to do hard, if not unjust things; and as for the embarrassment of a
delicate and ingenuous spirit, it is necessary for you to get rid of
it as fast as possible.
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