sister--the friend--the whole living earth, he fled to a poem on
Solitude, or stanzas upon Fame. Maltravers said to himself, "I will
never be an author--I will never sigh for renown--if I am to purchase
shadows at such a price!"



CHAPTER IV.

"It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind, that application
is the price to be paid for mental acquisitions, and that it is
as absurd to expect them without it as to hope for a harvest
where we have not sown the seed.

"In everything we do, we may be possibly laying a train of
consequences, the operation of which may terminate only with
our existence."

BAILEY: /Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions/.

TIME passed, and autumn was far advanced towards winter; still
Maltravers lingered at Como. He saw little of any other family than
that of the De Montaignes, and the greater part of his time was
necessarily spent alone. His occupation continued to be that of making
experiments of his own powers, and these gradually became bolder and
more comprehensive. He took care, however, not to show his "Diversions
of Como" to his new friends: he wanted no audience--he dreamt of no
Public; he desired merely to practise his own mind. He became aware, of
his own accord, as he proceeded, that a man can neither study with such
depth, nor compose with much art, unless he has some definite object