CHAPTER IV.
"It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind, that application is the price to be paid for mental acquisitions, and that it is as absurd to expect them without it as to hope for a harvest where we have not sown the seed.
"In everything we do, we may be possibly laying a train of consequences, the operation of which may terminate only with our existence." BAILEY: _Essays on the Formation and Publication of Opinions_.
TIME passed, and autumn was far advanced towards winter; still Maltravers lingered at Como.

He saw little of any other family than that of the De Montaignes, and the greater part of his time was necessarily spent alone.

His occupation continued to be that of making experiments of his own powers, and these gradually became bolder and more comprehensive.

He took care, however, not to show his "Diversions of Como" to his new friends: he wanted no audience--he dreamt of no Public; he desired merely to practise his own mind.

He became aware, of his own accord, as he proceeded, that a man can neither study with such depth, nor compose with much art, unless he has some definite object before him; in the first, some one branch of knowledge to master; in the last, some one conception to work out.