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. 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. Good Heaven! what other reward can you ask! "But is it
not a reproach upon the economy of Providence that such a one, who is
a mean, dirty fellow, should have amassed wealth enough to buy half a
nation?" Not in the least. He made himself a mean, dirty fellow, for
that very end. He has paid his health, his conscience, and his liberty
for it. Do you envy him his bargain? Will you hang your head in his
presence, because he outshines you in equipage and show? Lift up your
brow with a noble confidence, and say to yourself, "I have not these
things, it is true; but it is because I have not desired, or sought
them; it is because I possess something better. I have chosen my lot!
I am content, and satisfied." The most characteristic mark of a great
mind is to choose some one object, which it considers important, and
pursue that object through life. If we expect the purchase, we must
pay the price.'

'There is a pretty passage in one of Lucian's dialogues, where Jupiter
complains to Cupid, that