Chap. III.]

CULTIVATION OF THE MIND.

285

which can be regarded, in any degree, as leisure time, is consum-ed by a burthensome correspondence. Besides all this, he hashis family to take care of, as well as other men. It is plain, thathe has no more leisure for the liberal cultivation of his mind, in-dependent of his immediate profession, than if he had been em-ployed the same number of hours in mechanical or manual labor.One of the most common complaints of professional men, in allthe professions, is, that they have no time for reading ; and itmay well be believed, that there are many such, of very respec-table standing, who do not, in any branch of knowledge uncon-nected with their immediate professions, read the value of anoctavo volume in the course of a season. *

This subject will receive still further illustration, if I brieflyadvert to a few individuals, who, from the most adverse influencesof birth and fortune, have risen to the highest eminence of usefuldistinction. The story of Demosthenes, and the extraordinaryobstacles, of almost every kind, which he overcame on his way todistinction, — ill health, obscure origin, defective utterance, andprominent personal infirmities, are known not only to every class-ical scholar, but to every reader of general history and biography.

u Quem mirabantur AthenseTorrentem, et pleni nioderantem fVtena theatri.” f

Cicero, too, J won the distinction which he acquired, by his loveof knowledge, his courage, his industry, his self-denial, and hisperseverance. Cato, the celebrated Roman censor, learned theGreek language when very far advanced in life. To come,however, at once to late limes, with which we shall, perhaps,have more sympathy,—Laplace, the celebrated French mathe-matician and physical astronomer, who, in these sciences, un-questionably ranks next to Sir Isaac Newton, was the son of afarmer in Normandy. The celebrated German metaphysician,Kant, was the son of a harness-maker, who lived in the suburbs

* At least, such is the opinion of one so well qualified to judge as Mr. EdwardEverett, the present Governor of Massachusetts, expressed in his FranklinLecture, delivered at Boston, 14th November, 1831, to which several paragraphsof this chapter are considerably indebted,t Juvenal, Sat. X. 127.

t Called by Juvenal, “novus Arpinas ignobilis,” Sat. VIII. 237.