ourselves only--useless to all others as to ourselves! Learning,
like love, like money, derives its true value from its circulation."

"And you circulate yours, my dear sir. What do we not owe you in
Charlemont? What do I not owe you, over all?"

"Love, my son--love only. Pay me that. Do not desert me in my old
age. Do not leave me utterly alone!"

"I will not, sir--I never thought to do so."

"But," said the old man, "to resume. Why did I fail is still the
question. Because I had not been taught those lessons of steady
endurance in my youth which would have strengthened me against failure,
and enable me finally to triumph. There is a rich significance in
what we hear of the Spartan boy, who never betrayed his uneasiness
or agony though the fox was tearing out his bowels. There is a
sort of moral roughening which boys should be made to endure from
the beginning, if the hope is ever entertained, to mature their
minds to intellectual manhood. Our American Indians prescribe the
same laws, and in their practice, very much resemble the ancient
Spartans. To bear fatigue, and starvation, and injury--exposure,
wet, privation, blows--but never to complain. Nothing betrays so
decidedly the lack of moral courage as the voice of complaint. It
is properly the language of woman. It must not be your language.
Do you understand me, William?"

"In part, sir, but I do not see how I could have helped being what
I am."