Letters to a Friend 



time. I have been keeping up an irregular 

 course of study since leaving Madison, but with 

 no great success. I do not believe that study, 

 especially of the Natural Sciences, is incom 

 patible with ordinary attention to business; 

 still I seem to be able to do but one thing at a 

 time. Since undertaking a month or two ago 

 to invent new machinery for our mill, my mind 

 seems to so bury itself in the work that I am 

 fit for but little else; and then a lifetime is so 

 little a time that we die ere we get ready to live. 

 I would like to go to college, but then I have to 

 say to myself, "You will die ere you can do 

 anything else." I should like to invent useful 

 machinery, but it comes, "You do not wish to 

 spend your lifetime among machines and you 

 will die ere you can do anything else." I should 

 like to study medicine that I might do my part 

 in helping human misery, but again it comes, 

 "You will die ere you are ready or able to do 

 so." How intensely I desire to be a Humboldt ! 

 but again the chilling answer is reiterated ; but 

 could we but live a million of years, then how 



