What we cannot accomplish by strength, we may by ingenuity and
industry. A man of sagacity and penetration, upon meeting with a few
difficulties, does not drop his pursuits, but if he cannot succeed in
one way, sets his mind to work upon another, and does not hesitate
about stepping out of the old beaten track which had been thoughtlessly
pursued in a roundabout way by thousands before him. The present
state of the world, enlightened by arts and sciences, is a proof that
difficulties seemingly unsurmountable, and undertakings once imagined
to be impossible, have been accomplished; and this ought to be kept in
mind as a spur to continued exertion: for we are not acquainted with
the strength of our own minds till we exercise them, nor to what length
our abilities will carry us, till we put them to the trial.
“What is discovered only serves to shew,
That nothing’s known to what is yet to know.”
The man who enriches the present fund of knowledge with some new and
useful improvement, does an honour to himself, and ought invariably
to be rewarded by the public: for, like a happy adventurer by sea,
he discovers as it were an unknown land, and imports an additional
treasure to his own country.
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