The critics,
too, will condemn because of our weakness; but this defect I at once
concede. The severest critic could not possibly be so severe as I am
upon myself. I KNOW my failings. He, probably, would miss many of
them. But, again I urge that men are not to be debarred by reason of
weakness from doing what little good may lie within reach of their
hands. Had we attempted to save scholars and thinkers we should have
deserved the ridicule with which no doubt we shall be visited. We
aspired to save nobody. We knew no salvation ourselves. We ventured
humbly to bring a feeble ray of light into the dwellings of two or
three poor men and women; and if Prometheus, fettered to his rock,
dwelt with pride on the blind hopes which he had caused to visit
mortals, the hopes which "stopped the continued anticipation of their
destiny," we perhaps may be pardoned if at times we thought that what
we were doing was not altogether vanity.
CHAPTER VII--QUI DEDIT IN MARI VIAM
From time to time I received a newspaper from my native town, and one
morning, looking over the advertisements, I caught sight of one which
arrested me. It was as follows:-
"A Widow Lady desires a situation as Daily Governess to little
children.
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