Immense
masses of it in London are the merest slavery, and it is as
mechanical as the daily journey of the omnibus horse. There is no
possibility of relieving it, and all the ordinary copybook advice of
moralists and poets as to the temper in which we should earn our
bread is childish nonsense. If a man is a painter, or a physician,
or a barrister, or even a tradesman, well and good. The maxims of
authors may be of some service to him, and he may be able to
exemplify them; but if he is a copying clerk they are an insult, and
he can do nothing but arch his back to bear his burden and find some
compensation elsewhere. True it is, that beneficent Nature here, as
always, is helpful. Habit, after a while, mitigated much of the
bitterness of destiny. The hard points of the flint became smoothed
and worn away by perpetual tramping over them, so that they no longer
wounded with their original sharpness; and the sole of the foot was
in time provided with a merciful callosity. Then, too, there was
developed an appetite which was voracious for all that was best. Who
shall tell the revulsion on reaching home, which I should never have
known had I lived a life of idleness! Ellen was fond of hearing me
read, and with a little care I was able to select what would bear
reading--dramas, for example.
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