nd severe spirit, hating all innocent pleasures, which despises
the gladness of the skilful as so much personal vanity.

There is also the contempt for skill which comes from the pride of
knowledge. To attain skill _in_ anything a degree of application is
necessary which absorbs more time than the acquisition of knowledge
_about_ the thing, so that the remarkably skilful man is not likely to
be the erudite man. There have been instances of men who possessed both
skill and learning. The American sculptor Greenough, and the English
painter Dyce, were at the same time both eminently skilful in their
craft and eminently learned out of it; but the combination is very rare.
Therefore the possession of skill has come to be considered presumptive
evidence of a want of general information.

But the truth is that professional skill is knowledge tested and
perfected by practical application, and therefore has a great
intellectual value. Professional life is to private individuals what
active warfare is to a military state. It brings to light every
deficiency, and reveals our truest needs. And therefore it seems to me a
matter for regret that you should pass your existence in irresponsible
privacy, and not have your attainments tested by the exigencies of some
professional career. The discipline which such a career affords, and
which no private resolution can ever adequately replace, may be all that
is wanting to your development.

LETTER III.

TO A YOUNG GENTLEMAN WHO WISHED TO DEVOTE HIMSELF TO LITERATURE AS A
PROFESSION.

Byron's vexation at the idea of poetry being considered a
profession--Buffon could not bear to be called a naturalist--Cuvier
would not be called a Hellenist--Faraday's life not professional--The
intellectual life frequently protected by professions outside of
it--Professional work ought to be plain business work--Michelet's
account of the incubation of a book--Necessity for too great rapidity
of production in professional literature--It does not pay to do your
best--Journalism and magazine-writing--Illustration from a sister
art--Privilege of an author to be allowed to write little.

Do you remember how put out Byron was when some reviewer spoke of
Wordsworth as being "at the head of the profession"? Byron's vexation
was not entirely due to jealousy of Wordsworth, though that may have had
something to do with it, nor was it due either to an aristocratic
dislike of being in a "profess