to endure labor and pain and
exile, since he had found "in brevi labore diuturnam requiem, in levi
dolore immensum gaudium, in angusto exilio patriam amplissimam."

LETTER II.

TO AN UNDISCIPLINED WRITER.

Early indocility of great workers--External discipline only a
substitute for inward discipline--Necessity for inward
discipline--Origin of the idea of discipline--Authors peculiarly
liable to overlook its uses--Good examples--Sir Arthur
Helps--Sainte-Beuve--The central authority in the mind--Locke's
opinion--Even the creative faculty may be commanded--Charles
Baudelaire--Discipline in common trades and professions--Lawyers and
surgeons--Haller--Mental refusals not to be altogether
disregarded--The idea of discipline the moral basis of the
intellectual life--Alexander Humboldt.

Sir Arthur Helps, in that wise book of his "Thoughts upon Government,"
says that "much of the best and greatest work in the world has been done
by those who were anything but docile in their youth." He believes that
"this bold statement applies not only to the greatest men in Science,
Literature, and Art, but also to the greatest men in official life, in
diplomacy, and in the general business of the world."

Many of us who were remarkable for our indocility in boyhood, and
remarkable for nothing else, have found much consolation in this
passage. It is most agreeable to be told, by a writer very eminent both
for wisdom and for culture, that our untowardness was a hopeful sign.
Another popular modern writer has also encouraged us by giving a long
list of dunces who have become illustrious.

Yet, however flattering it may be to find ourselves in such excellent
company, at least so far as the earlier half of life may be concerned,
we cannot quite forget the very numerous instances of distinguished
persons who began by submitting to the discipline of school and college,
and gained honors and reputation there, before encountering the
competition of the world.

The external discipline applied by schoolmasters is a substitute for
that inward discipline which we all so greatly need, and which is
absolutely indispensable to culture. Whether a boy happens to be a dunce
at school or a youth of brilliant promise, his future intellectual
career will depend very much on his moral force. The distinguished men
who derived so little benefit from early discipline have invariably
subjected themselves to a discipline of another kind