TO A YOUNG FRIEND AT COLLEGE.

Fredley Farm, July 29, 1806.

WELL! you have left St. Paul's, and have settled yourself at Cambridge, with your heart full of hopes and brave resolutions. You well know that I not only wish, but that I am anxious for, your success in life; and I have confidence in your capacity. However, my favourable anticipations arise chiefly from your being aware that your station in society must depend entirely on your own exertions. Luckily you have not to overcome the disadvantage of expecting to inherit, from your father, an income equal to your reasonable desires; for, though it may have the air of a paradox, yet it is truly a serious disadvantage when a young man, going to the bar, is sufficiently provided for.

"Vitam facit beatiorem

Res non parta, sed relicta,"

says Martial, but not wisely; and no young man should

believe him.

The Lord Chief Justice Kenyon once said to a rich friend asking his opinion as to the probable success of a son, "Sir, let your son forthwith spend his fortune;

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marry, and spend his wife's; and then he may be

expected to apply with energy to his profession."

In your case I have no doubts, but such as arise from my having observed that, perhaps, you sometimes may have relied rather too much on the quickness of your talents, and too little on diligent study. Pardon me for owning this, and attribute my frankness to my regard.

It is unfortunate when a man's intellectual and his moral character are not suited to each other. The horses in a carriage should go the same pace and draw in the same direction, or the motion will be neither pleasant nor safe.

Buonaparte has remarked of one of his marshals, "that he had a military genius, but had not intrepidity enough in the field to execute his own plans;" and of another he said, "He is as brave as his sword, but he wants judgment and resources; neither," he added, “ is to be trusted with a great command."

This want of harmony between the talents and the temperament is often found in private life; and, wherever found, it is the fruitful source of faults and sufferings.

Perhaps there are few less happy than those who are ambitious without industry; who pant for the prize, but will not run the race; who thirst for truth, but are too slothful to draw it up from the well.

Now this defect, whether arising from indolence or from timidity, is far from being incurable. It may, at least in part, be remedied by frequently reflecting on the endless encouragements to exertion held out by our own experience and by example.

"C'est des difficultés que naissent les miracles."

It is not every calamity that is a curse, and early adversity especially is often a blessing. Perhaps Madame de Maintenon would never have mounted a throne had not her cradle been rocked in a prison. Surmounted obstacles not only teach, but hearten us in our future struggles; for virtue must be learnt, though unfortunately some of the vices come, as it were, by inspiration. austerities of our northern climate are thought to be the cause of our abundant comforts; as our wintry nights and our stormy seas have given us a race of seamen, perhaps unequalled, and certainly not surpassed by any in the world.

The

"Mother," said a Spartan lad going to battle, "my

"sword is too short."

but it must be owned

only to a Spartan boy.

"Add a step to it," she replied; that this was advice to be given

They should not be thrown into

the water who cannot swim-I know your buoyancy, and I have no fears of your being drowned.

TO THE SAME.

Fredley Farm, August 3, 1806.

You should not listen to ****, but prefer, without hesitation, a life of energy to a life of inaction. There are always kind friends enough ready to preach up caution and delay, &c. &c. Yet it is impossible to lay down any general rules of a prudential kind. Every case must be judged of after a careful review of all its circumstances; for if one, only one, be overlooked, the decision may be injurious or fatal. Thus there ever will be many conflicting reasons for and against a spirit of enterprise and a habit of caution.

Those who advise others to withstand the temptations of hope will always appear to be wiser than they really are; for how often can it be made certain that the rejected

and untried hazard would have been successful? Besides,' those who dissuade us from action have corrupt but powerful allies in our indolence, irresolution, and cowardice. To despond is very easy, but it requires works as well as faith to engage successfully in a difficult undertaking.

There are, however, few difficulties that hold out against real attacks; they fly, like the visible horizon, before those who advance. A passionate desire and an unwearied will can perform impossibilities, or what seem to be such to the cold and the feeble. If we do but go on, some unseen path will open among the hills.

We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged by the apparent disproportion between the result of single efforts and the magnitude of the obstacles to be encountered. Nothing good nor great is to be obtained without courage and industry; but courage and industry must have sunk in despair, and the world must have remained unornamented and unimproved, if men had nicely compared the effect of a single stroke of the chisel with the pyramid to be raised, or of a single impression of the spade with the mountain to be levelled.

All exertion too is in itself delightful, and active amusements seldom tire us. Helvetius owns that he could.