14 LETTER-FILES OF S. W. JOHNSON 



few. He had decided once and for all to become a 

 chemist. On February 24, 1849, he wrote home: 



Dear Father. . . . If I stay here it will undoubtedly be 

 with a salary higher than at present. . . . As to California, 

 I think it may do for those who desire to grasp emptiness in 

 the midst of confusion, and when I am caught going thither, 

 I am found stepping on my own ears. 



It is not one of the most encouraging thoughts to entertain, 

 that many years must elapse before I can acquire the educa- 

 tion that I need to begin life with. To become a chemist 

 requires not only intense and laborious application to study, 

 but the expenditure of a great deal of time and a not incon- 

 siderable amount of money. How difficult then to accomplish 

 the required labor when so much time is necessarily devoted 

 to earning the means for supporting expenses. And when I 

 behold myself outstripped by others simply because they have 

 means, I am strongly tempted to repine at the partiality of 

 fortune, but when I read the achievements of Davy, Faraday, 

 Scheele, Klaproth, Liebig, Berzelius and a host of others who 

 have elevated themselves from poverty to the highest stations 

 and shed a halo of glory upon their own names and the age 

 that produced them, by their xealous, self-denying struggles 

 after truth, how am I encouraged to tread cheerfully the path 

 of science, though alone and exposed to the sneers of the 

 vulgar and ignorant yes, and toil on through the obstacles 

 that impede my progress undaunted and persevering, hoping 

 for a good time in the future. What shall be my future 

 course I hardly know. If I remain here I shall carry on my 

 studies and practice as far as possible, but I cannot do much. 

 When I have accumulated a few hundred dollars, I will take 

 a course of instruction in Yale College Laboratory, but until 

 then how long ! But my soul gather thee for the conflict, for 

 the toil, since great is the reward. Enough said, therefore I 

 but I came near forgetting the stockings, shirts, etc. and of 

 these I can only say as long as I have money I shall want 



