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Show 48 DECISION AKD STUBBORNI\ESS. the eases in wh~ch the obtaining of ~he.se is tl:e ,most r desirable there 1s some danger of fmlure and Ie' erse, after suc~ess has lulled caution, and time be~m to blunt the edcre of observation. The man of truly decided char~cter must be one who is capable of taking long and clear views into the future;. but c:1s the past is the only telescope through ~vh1ch the future can be seen, the man of truly ~ec1ded eharacter must be an incessant and also a silent. observer from his youth. The stubbo_rnness wl~1ch often combines with and tend~ to endanger decided c!laracters, has in its nature some resemblance to fat~hsm, or a belief in the certainty of future events, Without <.my evidence, or with very slender evidence from the past ; and through that often leads ~o success, by keeping the thoughts fixed upon one obJect, and thus producing a continual .ten~ency to find out and take advantage of every thmg likely to forward the ~ecomplishment of that object. U~on the same pr~nciple, prophecies made determmedlr, and w1th knowlcdO"e of the means of accomplishment, are made cm~ducive to that accomplishment. Napoleon Bonaparte is, perhaps, the most remarkable ins~ance of decision of character, and also of the ultimate failure of that decision, that occurs in well authenticated history; and therefore his life, if properly written, would be highly instructive. But as times like those which called him forth do not very frequently occur (and the less frequently the better), he can serve as a model or a warning to few. Useful examples may, however, be found iu most places, in men who from small beginnings have risen to eminence by means the most honourable ; and without any of those unforeseen advantages which are usually called points of good luck, or good fortune. Such are some of the advantages that result from observation, duly tempered with thought. vVe shall next show that there is pleasure in the practice , and explain how the works of nature are the grand field for its rxertion. LOVE OF COUNTRY. 49 SECTION II. The Pleasure of observing Nature. 1 T 1s impossible to imagine a happier combination of qualities and circumstances than when that which is of the greatest use to us, at the same time affords us the greatest pleasure; and if it so happen that that , pleasure, insteadofpallingupon the appetite, becomes the more exquisite the more heartily and the longer it is enjoyed, then the happiness thence arising may be considered as the very best that human beings can enjoy. That is the case with the observation of nature: nothing can be more useful than that, foritisthe source of all that we know; nothing can afford higher pleasure, for it is the source of all that we can enjoy: and we can never tire of it-it never can pall on the appetite, because it is always healthful and invigorating in the pursuit, and new at every step we take and at every moment we live. It brings us a two- /fold pleasure: it saves us from misery, and it affords us direct happiness; and there is scarcely an ill in life for which thr.re is not, if we could find it out and apply it, a balm in the creation around us. The Author of that has so tempered the productions of the earth and the waters, and the changes and the appearances of the atmosphere, to the wants of man in every -zone, from the burning equator to the icy pole, that, amid all the varieties of season and climate, the man who knows and loves his country (and knowing it he cannot but love it), thinks his own country the very best; and would migrate in sorrow from the ice-clad rocks of Labrador to the perpetual spring and unchanging verdure of the Atlantie isles. 'fhe Bedouin, who careers over the |
