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He upon all occasions carefully separated the idea of the pleasure of possession from that of contemplating any object of taste.' She also mentions that 'he observed, that the happiness that people derive from the cultivation of their understandings is not in proportion to the talents and capacities of the individual, but is compounded of the united measure of these, and of the use made of them by the possessor; this must include good or ill temper, and other moral dispositions.

Some with transcendent talents waste these in futile projects; others make them a source of misery, by indulging that overweening anxiety for fame which ends in disappointment, and excites too often the powerful passions of envy and jealousy; others, too humble, or too weak, fret away their spirits and their life in deploring that they were not born with more abilities.

But though so many lament the want of talents, few actually derive as much happiness as they might from the share of understanding which they possess.

My father never wasted his time in deploring the want of that which he could by exertion acquire.