V.

"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 before
him; in the first, some one branch of knowledge to master; in the last,
some one conception to work out. Maltravers fell back upon his boyish
passion for metaphysical speculation; but with what different
results did he now wrestle with the subtle schoolmen, now that he had
practically known mankind. How insensibly new lights broke in upon him,
as he threaded the labyrinth of cause and effect, by which we seek to
arrive at that curious and biform monster--our own nature. His
mind became saturated, as it were, with these profound studies and
meditations; and when at length he paused from them, he felt as if
he had not been living in solitude, but had gone through a process of
action in the busy world: so much juster, so much clearer, had become
his knowledge of himself and others. But though these researches
coloured, they did not limit his intellectual pursuits. Poetry and the
lighter letters became to him not merely a relaxation, but a critical
and thoughtful study. He delighted to penetrate into the causes that
have made the airy webs spun by men's fancies so permanent and powerful
in their influence over the hard, work-day world. And what a lovely
scene--what a sky--what an air wherein to commence the projects of that
ambition which seeks to establish an empire in the hearts and memories
of mankin