Con/onnify to Environment 



Surely, surely, slumber is more sweet than toil, the shore 

 Than labor in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave, and oar, 

 Oh, rest ye, brother mariners, we will not wander more." 



Moreover, the mere wish to attain, the dream 

 of it, the thought that wc will some day arouse 

 ourselves, are all alike useless and dangerous. 

 Even half-hearted efforts are not enough. Says 

 Carlyle of Burns: 



*' It was clear to Burns that he had talent 

 enough to make a fortune, could he but rightly 

 have willed this; It was clear also that he willed 

 something far different, and therefore could not 

 make one. Unhappy It was that he had not the 

 power to choose the one and reject the other, 

 but must halt forever between two opinions, two 

 objects; making hampered advancement toward 

 either. But it is so with many men; we ' long 

 for the merchandise, yet would fain keep the 

 price ' — and so stand chaffering with fate. In 

 vexatious altercation, till the night come and 

 our fair Is over! " 



But Locke, Milton, and others had " two 

 things which Burns wanted, both which, It seems 

 to us, are Indispensable for such men. They 

 had a true religious principle of morals, and a 

 single, not a double, aim in their activity. . . . 



13 179 



