"Ah why
Should life all labor be?" [3]
There is a time for all things, says Solomon, a time to work and a time to play: we shall work all the better for reasonable change, and one reward of work is to secure leisure.
It is a good saying that where there's a will there's a way; but while it is all very well to wish, wishes must not take the place of work.
In whatever sphere his duty lies every man must rely mainly on himself. Others can help us, but we must make ourselves. No one else can see for us. To profit by our advantages we must learn to use for ourselves
"The dark lantern of the spirit
Which none can see by, but he who bears it."
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that honest work is never thrown away. If we do not find the imaginary treasure, at any rate we enrich the vineyard.
"Work," says Nature to man, "in every hour, paid or unpaid; see only that thou work, and thou canst not escape the reward: whether thy work be fine or coarse, planting corn or writing epics, so only it be honest work, done to thine own approbation, it shall earn a reward to the senses as well as to the thought: no matter how often defeated, you are born to victory. The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." [4]
Nor can any work, however persevering, or any success, however great, exhaust the prizes of life.
The most studious, the most successful, must recognize that there yet remain
"So much to do that is not e'en begun,
So much to hope for that we cannot see,
So much to win, so many things to be." [5]