INTRODUCTORY. 
VII 
charges him with doing little beyond writing a 
few books, as if that might not be a great thing; 
but a life so steadily directed from the first to¬ 
ward the highest ends, gaining as the fruits of 
its fidelity such a harvest of sanity, strength, 
and tranquillity, and that wealth of thought 
which has been well called u the only conceiva¬ 
ble prosperity,” accompanied, too, as it naturally 
was, with the earnest and effective desire to 
communicate itself to others, — such a life is the 
worthiest deed a man can perform, the purest 
benefit he can confer upon his fellows, compared 
with which all special acts of service or philan¬ 
thropy are trivial. 
H'. G*. O. Blake. 
