"The hours which I have idled away, though made miserable by the
consciousness of accomplishing nothing, had been sufficient to make me
master of almost any common branch of study. If, for instance, I had
applied myself to the practice of bookkeeping and arithmetic I might
now have been an expert in those things; or I might have had the
dictionary at my fingers' ends; been a practised, and perhaps an able,
writer; a much better printer; or been able to read and write French,
Spanish, or any other modern or ancient language to which I might have
directed my attention; and the mastery of any of these things now would
give me an additional, appreciable power, and means by which to work to
my end, not to speak of that which would have been gained by exercise
and good mental habits.
"These truths are not sudden discoveries; but have been as apparent for
years as at this present time; but always wishing for some chance to
make a sudden leap forward, I have never been able to direct my mind
and concentrate my attention upon those slow processes by which
everything mental (and in most cases material) is acquired.
"Constantly the mind works, and if but a tithe of its attention was
directed to some end, how many matters might it have taken up in
succession, increasing its own stores and power while mastering them?
"To sum up for the present, though this essay has hardly taken the
direction and shape which at the outset I intended, it is evident to me
that I have not employed the time and means at my command faithfully
and advantageously as I might have done, and consequently, that I have
myself to blame for at least a part of my non-success.
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