Then there falls upon him,--in the midst of that labour which for its success especially requires that a man's heart shall be light, and that he be always at his best,--doubt and despair.

If there be no chance, of what use is his labour?
Were it not better done as others use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, and amuse himself after that fashion?
Thus the very industry which alone could give him a chance is discarded.

It is so that the young man feels who, with some slight belief in himself and with many doubts, sits down to commence the literary labour by which he hopes to live.
So it was, no doubt, with Thackeray.

Such were his hopes and his fears;--with a resolution of which we can well understand that it should have waned at times, of earning his bread, if he did not make his fortune, in the world of literature.

One has not to look far for evidence of the condition I have described,--that it was so, Amaryllis and all.