And this need cause us no surprise when we consider how much of the
great work in letters and in art is directly due to the writer possessing
in full measure the gift of sympathy.

People with this gift, even if they are without the faculty of expression,
are beloved by those about them, which must bring them happiness.

Till he was over fifty Dr. Johnson's life was a weary struggle with
poverty. He wrote _Rasselas_ under the pressure of an urgent need of
money to send to his dying mother. His wife died some few years
earlier. I have always thought that the sad reflections he put into the
mouth of an old philosopher towards the end of the story were indeed
the true expressions of his own tired heart:--

"Praise," said the sage with a sigh, "is to an old man an empty
sound. I have neither mother to be delighted with the reputation
of her son, nor wife to partake the honours of her husband.

"I have outlived my friends and my rivals. Nothing is now of much
importance; for I cannot extend my interest beyond myself. Youth
is delighted with applause, because it is considered as the
earnest of some future good, and because the prospect of life is
far extended; but to me, who am now declining to decrepitude,
there is little to be feared from the malevolence of men, and yet
less to be hoped from their affection or esteem. Something they
may take away, but they can give me nothing. Riches would now be
useless, and high employment would be pain. My retrospect of life
recalls to my view many opportunities of good neglected, much time
squandered upon trifles, and more lost in idleness and vacancy. I
leave many great designs unattempted, and many great attempts