It sees things neither as they are, nor as they are
glorified and transfigured by hope and health and faith; but, in the
apathy of that idling introspection which betrays a genius for misery,
it pronounces effort to be vanity, and despairingly dismisses knowledge
as delusion. "Despair," says Donne, "is the damp of hell; rejoicing is
the serenity of heaven."
Now contrast this mental disgust, which proceeds from mental debility,
with the sunny and soul-lifting exhilaration radiated from mental
vigor,--a vigor which comes from the mind's secret consciousness that it
is in contact with moral and spiritual verities, and is partaking of the
rapture of their immortal life. A spirit earnest, hopeful, energetic,
inquisitive, making its mistakes minister to wisdom, and converting the
obstacles it vanquishes into power,--a spirit inspired by a love of the
excellency and beauty of knowledge, which will not let it sleep,--such
a spirit soon learns that the soul of joy is hid in the austere form of
Duty, and that the intellect becomes brighter, keener, clearer, more
buoyant, and more efficient, as it feels the freshening vigor infused
by her monitions and menaces, and the celestial calm imparted by her
soul-satisfying smile. In all the professions and occupations over which
Intellect holds dominion, the student will find that there is no grace
of character without its corresponding grace of mind.
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