You must not stop to enlarge your mind, polish
your taste, or refine your sentiments; but must keep on in one beaten
track, without turning aside to the right hand or the left. "But,"
you say, "I cannot submit to drudgery like this; I feel a spirit above
it." 'Tis well; be above it then; only do not repine because you are
not rich. Is knowledge the pearl of price in your estimation? That too
may be purchased by steady application, and long, solitary hours of
study and reflection. "But," says the man of letters, "what a hardship
is it that many an illiterate fellow, who cannot construe the motto on
his coach, shall raise a fortune, and make a figure, while I possess
merely the common conveniences of life." Was it for fortune, then,
that you grew pale over the midnight lamp, and gave the sprightly
years of youth to study and reflection? You then have mistaken your
path, and ill employed your industry. "What reward have I then for all
my labor?" What reward! A large comprehensive soul, purged from vulgar
fears and prejudices, able to interpret the works of man and God. A
perpetual spring of fresh ideas, and the conscious dignity of superior
intelligence.
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