iligent, and desirous
to perform the tasks in which they are engaged, so as to satisfy the
demands of their masters and parents, and to advance honourably in the
path that is recommended to them. And a considerable proportion put
themselves on the defensive, and propose to their own minds to perform
exactly as much as shall exempt them from censure and punishment, and no
more.

Now I say of the former, that they cannot accomplish the purpose they
have conceived, unless so far as they are aided by a sentiment of
self-reverence.

The difference of the two parties is, that the latter proceed, so far
as their studies are concerned, as feeling themselves under the law of
necessity, and as if they were machines merely, and the former as if
they were under what the apostle calls "the law of liberty."

We cannot perform our tasks to the best of our power, unless we think
well of our own capacity.

But this is the smallest part of what is necessary. We must also be in
good humour with ourselves. We must say, I can do that which I shall
have just occasion to look back upon with satisfaction. It is the
anticipation of this result, that stimulates our efforts, and carries
us forward. Perseverance is an active principle, and cannot continue
to operate but under the influence of desire. It is incompatible with
languor and neutrality. It implies the love of glory, perhaps of that
glory which shall be attributed to us by others, or perhaps only of that
glory which shall be reaped by us in the silent chambers of the mind.
The diligent scholar is he that loves himself, and desires to have
reason to applaud and love himself. He sits down to his task with
resolution, he approves of what he does in each step of the process, and
in each enquires, Is this the thing I purposed to effect?

And, as it is with the unfledged schoolboy, after the same manner it is
with the man mature. He must have to a certain extent a good opinion
of himself, he must feel a kind of internal harmony, giving to the
circulations of his frame animation and cheerfulness, or he can never
undertake and execute considerable things.

The execution of any thing considerable implies in the first place
previous persevering meditation. He that undertakes any great
achievement will, according to the vulgar phrase, "think twice," before
he buckles up his resolution, and plunges into the ocean, which he has
already surveyed with anxious glance while he remained on shore. L