_Altro diletto che 'mparar, non provo_.

It may even be that they to some extent still follow their old wishes
and aims, trifling with them, as it were, for the sake of appearances;
all the while really and seriously looking for nothing but
instruction; a process which lends them an air of genius, a trait of
something contemplative and sublime.

In their search for gold, the alchemists discovered other
things--gunpowder, china, medicines, the laws of nature. There is a
sense in which we are all alchemists.




CHAPTER II.

OUR RELATION TO OURSELVES.--SECTION 4.


The mason employed on the building of a house may be quite ignorant of
its general design; or at any rate, he may not keep it constantly in
mind. So it is with man: in working through the days and hours of his
life, he takes little thought of its character as a whole.

If there is any merit or importance attaching to a man's career, if he
lays himself out carefully for some special work, it is all the more
necessary and advisable for him to turn his attention now and then
to its _plan_, that is to say, the miniature sketch of its general