Thus we are brought round to the same position--that the attempt to
monopolize Heaven's best gifts to man, must be a very small affair--
that the individual best consults his own attainments in knowledge,
after the sublimest sense of the term, by consulting the progress of
his neighbors and the race; just as the single drop in the Mississippi
sees its best hope of speedily reaching the ocean, in whatever gives
onward impulse to the whole current.

The thought receives force from the consideration, that here
emphatically is that knowledge, which he who increaseth beyond the
average increase, increaseth sorrow. A saying of so much currency must
have some foundation in reality. And yet is not knowledge commended to
us as one of the richest sources of enjoyment?

"Happy the mortal, who has traced effects
To their first cause."

Where is the reconciling link between these seeming contradictions?

Now eminence in any of the received sciences, or branches of
literature, has rich capabilities of affording happiness. To penetrate
the depths of mathematics, chemistry, or astronomy--to revel in the
stores of ancient lore;--all such pursuits generally become more
delightfully attractive, the further one advances; or, after the
ancient indefinite use of terms, _knowledge_ might be taken for the
just proportionate training of all the faculties, in distinction from
the teaching, which impresses so many items of truth. And such
education preeminently fits one to pass time happily.

The maxim in question then applies emphatically to the forethought,