angling with the parish overseers--"

"Ah," interrupted the Frenchman, laughing; "if I have driven you to this
point, I will go no further. Every state of life has its duties; every
man must be himself the judge of what he is most fit for. It is quite
enough that he desires to be active, and labours to be useful; that he
acknowledges the precept, 'Never to be weary in well-doing.' The divine
appetite once fostered, let it select its own food. But the man who,
after fair trial of his capacities, and with all opportunity for their
full development before him, is convinced that he has faculties which
private life cannot wholly absorb, must not repine that Human Nature
is not perfect, when he refuses even to exercise the gifts he himself
possesses."

Now these arguments have been very tedious; in some places they have
been old and trite; in others they may appear too much to appertain to
the abstract theory of first principles. Yet from such arguments, _pro_
and _con_, unless I greatly mistake, are to be derived corollaries
equally practical and sublime,--the virtue of Action, the obligations of
Genius, and the philosophy that teaches us to confide in the destinies,
and labour in the service, of mankind.

CHAPTER VI.

I'LL tell you presently her very picture;
Stay--yes, it is so--Lelia.
_The Captain_, Act V. sc. I.

MALTRAVERS had not shrunk into a system of false philosophy from wayward
and sickly dreams, from resolute self-delusion; on the contrary, his
errors rested on his convictions: the convictions disturbed, the errors
were rudely shaken.

But when his mind began restlessly to turn once more towards the duties
of active life; when he recalled all the former drudgeries and toils
of political conflict, or the wearing fatigues of literature, with its
small enmities, its false friendships, and its meagre and capricious
rewards,--ah, then, indeed, he shrank in dismay from the thoughts of
the solitude at home! No lips to console in dejection, no heart to
sympathize in triumph, no love within to counterbalance the hate
without,--and the best of man, his household affections, left to wither
away, or to waste themselves on ideal images, or melancholy remembrance.

It may, indeed, be generally remarked (contrary to a common notion),
that the men who are most happy at home are the most active abroad. The
animal spirits are necessary to healthful action; and dejection and the
sense of solitude will t