He was not prepared to make a living even in America, where the day laborer eats wheat instead of rye.

Apparently the American flag could not protect him against the pursuing Nemesis of his limitations; he must expiate the sins of his fathers who slept across the seas.

He had been endowed at birth with a poor constitution, a nervous, restless temperament, and an abundance of hindering prejudices.

In his boyhood his body was starved, that his mind might be stuffed with useless learning.

In his youth this dearly gotten learning was sold, and the price was the bread and salt which he had not been trained to earn for himself.
Under the wedding canopy he was bound for life to a girl whose features were still strange to him; and he was bidden to multiply himself, that sacred learning might be perpetuated in his sons, to the glory of the God of his fathers.