[Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist by Charles Brockden Brown]@TWC D-Link bookMemoirs of Carwin the Biloquist CHAPTER VI 6/21
To ascertain this question, I ventured, at length, to recall his attention to the subject of his last letter, and to enquire whether subsequent reflection had made any change in his views. He said that his views were too momentous to be hastily taken up, or hastily dismissed; the station, my attainment of which depended wholly on myself, was high above vulgar heads, and was to be gained by years of solicitude and labour.
This, at least, was true with regard to minds ordinarily constituted; I, perhaps, deserved to be regarded as an exception, and might be able to accomplish in a few months that for which others were obliged to toil during half their lives. Man, continued he, is the slave of habit.
Convince him to-day that his duty leads straight forward: he shall advance, but at every step his belief shall fade; habit will resume its empire, and tomorrow he shall turn back, or betake himself to oblique paths. We know not our strength till it be tried.
Virtue, till confirmed by habit, is a dream.
You are a man imbued by errors, and vincible by slight temptations.
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