was his ambition. And we, who knew him better than others, felt that it was
a prophetic ambition, and we honored and trusted him accordingly.
G. S. Hillard.


XXIX.

THE DANGER OF EXCLUSIVE DEVOTION TO BUSINESS.

This is a world of inflexible compensations. Nothing is ever given away,
but everything is bought and paid for. If, by exclusive and absolute
surrender of ourselves to material pursuits, we materialize the mind, we
lose that class of satisfactions of which the mind is the region and the
source. A young man in business, for instance, begins to feel the
exhilarating glow of success, and deliberately determines to abandon
himself to its delirious whirl. He says to himself, I will think of nothing
but business till I shall have made so much money, and then I will begin a
new life. I will gather round me books and pictures and friends. I will
have knowledge, taste, and cultivation,--the perfume of scholarship, and
winning speech, and graceful manners. I will see foreign countries, and
converse with accomplished men. I will drink deep of the fountains of
classic lore. Philosophy shall guide me, history shall instruct, and poetry
shall charm me. Science shall open to me her world of wonders. I shall
remember my present life of drudgery as one recalls a troubled dream when
the morning has dawned.

He keeps his self-registered vow. He bends his thoughts downward and nails
them to the dust. Every power, every affection, every taste, except those
which his particular occupa tion calls into play, is left to starve. Over
the gates of his mind he writes in letters which he who runs may read, "No