CHAP, xviii. HIS POWER OF WILL. 381 



gether, or, indeed, how I can write at all. My books. 

 I can tell you, were about as few, as my education 

 was brief and homespun. 



" I thought you knew yes, I am sure you knew 

 that any one having the Mind and the Will, need not 

 stick fast even in this world. True, he may not shine 

 so greatly as if he were better polished and better 

 educated ; but he need not sink in the mire alto- 

 gether. 



"You may very likely wonder at what I have 

 been able to do being only a poor souter,* with no 

 one to help me, and but few to encourage me in my 

 labours. Many others have wondered, like yourself. 

 The only answer I can give to such wonderers is, that 

 I had the WILL to do the little that I have accom- 

 plished. 



" If what I have done by myself, unaided and 

 alone and without the help of books, surpasses the 

 credulity of some, what might I not have accomplished 

 had I obtained the help from others which was so 

 often promised me ! But that time is past, and there 

 is no use in saying anything more about it. If I suf- 

 fered privations, I had only myself and my love of 

 Nature to blame." 



He was sometimes told that it was his "pride" 

 which prevented him from being assisted as he should 

 have been. His answer was, that he did not know 

 anything about pride. But if it consisted in not so- 



* Souter a shoemaker. We suior, etq. 



