It is probable that, if circumstances had not eventually diverted his mind from the pursuit, he would have attained excellence, and left behind him some enduring monument of his powers, for he had an imagination to conceive, and that yet rarer endowment, a hand capable of giving life, body, and reality to the conceptions of his mind; perhaps he wanted one thing, the want of which is but too often fatal to the sons of genius, and without which genius is little more than a splendid toy in the hands of the possessor--perseverance, dogged perseverance, in his proper calling; otherwise, though the grave had closed over him, he might still be living in the admiration of his fellow-creatures.

O ye gifted ones, follow your calling, for, however various your talents may be, ye can have but one calling capable of leading ye to eminence and renown; follow resolutely the one straight path before you, it is that of your good angel, let neither obstacles nor temptations induce ye to leave it; bound along if you can; if not, on hands and knees follow it, perish in it, if needful; but ye need not fear that; no one ever yet died in the true path of his calling before he had attained the pinnacle.

Turn into other paths, and for a momentary advantage or gratification ye have sold your inheritance, your immortality.

Ye will never be heard of after death.
"My father has given me a hundred and fifty pounds," said my brother to me one morning, "and something which is better--his blessing.

I am going to leave you." "And where are you going ?" "Where?
to the great city; to London, to be sure." "I should like to go with you." "Pooh," said my brother, "what should you do there?
But don't be discouraged, I dare say a time will come when you too will go to London." And, sure enough, so it did, and all but too soon.
"And what do you purpose doing there ?" I demanded.
"Oh, I go to improve myself in art, to place myself under some master of high name, at least I hope to do so eventually.