All this while he had been led about as a creature without a will, a chattel, an instrument.

In his maturity he awoke, and found himself poor in health, poor in purse, poor in useful knowledge, and hampered on all sides.

At the first nod of opportunity he broke away from his prison, and strove to atone for his wasted youth by a life of useful labor; while at the same time he sought to lighten the gloom of his narrow scholarship by freely partaking of modern ideas.

But his utmost endeavor still left him far from his goal.

In business, nothing prospered with him.