same price
by which every thing great and good is obtained, namely, steady
dependence upon voluntary and self-originating effort, and upon the
practice of self-examination, sincerely aimed at and rigorously
enforced. But how is this to be expected from youth? Is it not to demand
the fruit when the blossom is barely put forth, and is hourly at the
mercy of frosts and winds? To expect from youth these virtues and
habits, in that degree of excellence to which in mature years they may
be carried, would indeed be preposterous. Yet has youth many helps and
aptitudes for the discharge of these difficult duties, which are
withdrawn for the most part from the more advanced stages of life. For
youth has its own wealth and independence; it is rich in health of body
and animal spirits, in its sensibility to the impressions of the natural
universe, in the conscious growth of knowledge, in lively sympathy and
familiar communion with the generous actions recorded in history, and
with the high passions of poetry; and, above all, youth is rich in the
possession of time, and the accompanying consciousness of freedom and
power. The young man feels that he stands at a distance from the season
when his harvest is to be reaped; that he has leisure and may look
around, and may defer both the choice and the execution of his purposes.
If he makes an attempt and shall fail, new hopes immediately rush in and
new promises. Hence, in the happy confidence of his feelings, and in the
elasticity of his spirit, neither worldly ambition, nor the love of
praise, nor dread of censure, nor the necessity of worldly maintenance,
nor any of those causes which tempt or compel the mind habitually to
look out of itself for support; neither these, nor the passions of envy,
fear, hatred, despondency, and the rankling of disappointed hopes, (all
which in after life give birth to, and regulate, the efforts of men and
determine their opinions) have power to preside over the choice of the
young, if the disposition be not naturally bad, or the circumstances
have not been in an uncommon degree unfavourable.

In contemplation, then, of this disinterested and free condition of the
youthful mind, I deem it in many points peculiarly capable of searching
into itself, and of profiting by a few simple questions, such as these
that follow. Am I chiefly gratified by the exertion of my power from the
pure pleasure of intellectual activity, and from the knowledge thereby
acquired?