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��Stools, and that, without the piety of fanatics, neither had they that noble and stoical independence necessary to the lofty tempers of the higher sort of literary men (though not to hack-writers or poetasters, who, like actors, having in themselves no substance, are not capable of superiority to popular opinion). I knew that the wise scholar must be as self-denying and devoted as the poor preachers. In short, according to the Bible phrase, we cannot serve God and Mammon. . . .
I had employed myself the same self-denial, though with a struggle, and I knew, therefore, that I could pre- sent the subject in a light so strong as not easily to be obscured. Others who seemed to stand on my ground objected only to the creed (or no creed) you had adopted, but would have been satisfied if you had adopted theirs. But, as I, like Bayle, was a universal protest ant, I could present the subject, also, in a universal application. Still, had you disagreed with me, it would have made no change in my friendship for you, because that had been earned by the reciprocity of years and the affection you still enter- tained for me. Your present position, however, I regard with respect as a highly useful and therefore honorable one, and think it even less unpleasant than most other ways of getting a living. All modes of earning one's bread are but mere drudgery, for people pay others for doing that which is troublesome to themselves, but what is pleasant to do they are loth to commit to other hands, still less to pay them for it. You may, therefore, be sure that you at present have in all respects my sympathy and affection, and even the more as holding the honorable relation of husband and father, a condition which, while it takes nothing from friendship, at all times constitutes in both sexes a more important claim to the confidence of
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