I shall not say much about the wages. A writer can live by
his writing. If not so luxuriously as by other trades, then
less luxuriously. The nature of the work he does all day
will more affect his happiness than the quality of his dinner
at night. Whatever be your calling, and however much it
brings you in the year, you could still, you know, get more
by cheating. We all suffer ourselves to be too much
concerned about a little poverty; but such considerations
should not move us in the choice of that which is to be the
business and justification of so great a portion of our
lives; and like the missionary, the patriot, or the
philosopher, we should all choose that poor and brave career
in which we can do the most and best for mankind. Now
Nature, faithfully followed, proves herself a careful mother.
A lad, for some liking to the jingle of words, betakes
himself to letters for his life; by-and-by, when he learns
more gravity, he finds that he has chosen better than he
knew; that if he earns little, he is earning it amply; that
if he receives a small wage, he is in a position to do
considerable services; that it is in his power, in some small
measure, to protect the oppressed and to defend the truth.
So kindly is the world arranged, such great profit may arise
from a small degree of human reliance on oneself, and such,
in particular, is the happy star of this trade of writing,
that it should combine pleasure and profit to both parties,
and be at once agreeable, like fiddling, and useful, like
good preaching.
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