STUDY. 
529 
STUDY. 
By  Mr.  Joseph  Ince. 
Half  the  intellect  of  London  has  arrived  there  with  a  few 
shillings  and  a  carpet-bag.  Its  great  writers,  statesmen, 
merchants,  adventurers  of  every  kind,  down  to  its  great  Chemists, 
have  travelled  on  the  same  stage-coach.  Family  distress, 
narrowed  opportunities,  and  sometimes  actual  want,  have  been 
the  best  heritage  of  many  of  our  illustrious  men.  It  is  for  us 
with  a  laudable  ambition  to  follow  their  example,  and  to  act  in 
our  turn  as  they  have  done  before  ;  in  furtherance  of  which  ob- 
ject a  theory  is  offered,  and  its  practical  results  worked  out, 
addressed  exclusively  to  those  assistants  who  have  little  time,  no 
competent  advisers,  and  no  friends.  Such  an  one  on  first  being 
introduced  to  the  subject,  would  infallibly  remark,  "  These  ex- 
cellent discourses  read  very  nice  on  paper,  difficulties  surmounted 
make  great  men,  but  I  am  nothing  but  a  Druggist's  assistant ; 
I  have  early  and  late  hours,  while  my  time  is  not  my  own.  The 
tide  of  fortune  might  roll  my  way  in  vain,  for  I  have  business 
to  attend  to,  pills  to  roll  out,  and  physic  to  make  up.  Besides, 
I  have  a  strong  notion  that  retail  Pharmacy  contracts  the  mind ; 
drugs  and  success  in  life  form  no  amalgam.  If  some  good  friend 
would  kindly  leave  me  a  legacy,  or  people  have  no  medicine  after 
eight  o'clock,  I  might  perhaps  then  read  a  little,  do  something, 
and  improve."  Of  course  after  this  statement  you  naturally 
feel  better,  so  now  will  you  just  let  me  give  you  my  quiet  mind. 
What  makes  success  ?  and  who  are  the  men  who  gain  it  ?  Every 
one  knows  who  fail.  Give  a  man  plenty  of  time  and  sufficient 
money,  and  he  will  in  general  make  no  use  of  the  first,  and 
waste  the  second.  Great  natural  opportunities,  an  easy  access 
to  society,  friends,  a  crowd  of  teachers,  a  ready-made  position 
involving  no  struggle,  and  no  anxiety,  shut  out  for  ever  the  most 
distant  hope  of  extrication  from  such  a  Capuan  luxury.  It  is 
a  fatality  to  be  born  with  white  kid  gloves.  To  all  this  there 
are  bright  exceptions,  but  so  few  that  they  only  prove  the  rule, 
nor  do  these  remarks  apply  to  hereditary  rank,  where  habitual 
cultivation  and  contact  with  elevating  circumstances  produce 
noble  specimens  to  the  contrary.  The  past  is  the  great  teacher 
for  the  present,  nor  is  there  a  more  consoling  thought,  than 
34 
