170 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



CCCI.XXIII 



People never will recollect, that mere learning and 

 mere cleverness are of next to no value in life, while 

 energy and intellectual grip, the things that are 

 inborn and cannot be taught, are everything. 



In my opinion a man's first duty is to find a way 

 of supporting himself, thereby relieving other people 

 of the necessity of supporting him. Moreover, the 

 learning to do work of practical value in the world, 

 in an exact and careful manner, is of itself a very 

 important education, the effects of which make them- 

 selves felt in all other pursuits. The habit of doing 

 that which you do not care about when you would 

 much rather be doing something else, is invalu- 

 able. 



Success in any scientific career requires an 

 unusual equipment of capacity, industry and energy. 

 If you possess that equipment you will find leisure 

 enough after your daily commercial work is over, 

 to make an opening in the scientific ranks for your- 

 self. If you do not, you had better stick to com- 

 merce. 



Nothing is less to be desired than the fate of a 

 young man, who, as the Scotch proverb says, in 

 ' trying to make a spoon spoils a horn,' and becomes 

 a mere hanger-on in literature or in science, when he 

 might have been a useful and a valuable member of 

 Society in other occupations. 



