66 BOUNTY THAT ENRICHES. 



The object of all our honourable exertions is, that 

 we may stand higher than our fellows, not by 

 thrusting them down, but by raising ourselves up ; 

 and we nowhere get the vantage-ground so much 

 or so certainly as when we are in a condition for 

 making discoveries that may, and must, be useful to 

 them. The making of the discovery, so far from 

 impoverishing us, puts us more in the way of 

 making fresh discoveries ; and when we communi 

 cate it to others, that takes nothing from us, while 

 it gives us the highest of all pleasures, that of 

 being benefactors, and benefactors in a way and to 

 an extent, to and in which the objects of it could 

 not benefit themselves. Thus, the observation of 

 nature is not only a never-failing resource to us 

 amid all contingencies and ills of life, but it gives us 

 means of elevating ourselves, which we can obtain 

 no other way. If we are rich and bountiful and if 

 we are the one, it is our duty and should be our 

 pleasure to be the other we are restrained and 

 limited within a certain measure in our benefactions ; 

 and if we exceed that measure, we not only destroy 

 our means of continuing to be bountiful, but directly 

 and immediately bring upon ourselves those miseries 

 from which we sought to relieve others. If we 

 have gold, it can be weighed, whatever its amount 

 may be ; if we have notes and bonds, they can be 

 counted; if we have acres or even provinces of 

 land, they can be measured ; and, take but one 

 grain from the gold, one farthing from the notes, or 

 one inch from the acres or the provinces, and the 

 remainder is less by the quantity so taken. But 

 when we are rich in observation, and when, in con- 

 sequence of that, the gift which we can give is use- 

 ful practical knowledge (and it never is so unless 

 the foundation of it is in the study of nature), we 

 really become richer by the very process of giving 

 away. The exercise of our powers is not only the 

 enjoyment of life, it is life itselfa real and grow- 



