Letters to a Young Man, and Other Papers

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1854. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... LETTERS TO A YOUNG MAN TVIIOSE EDUCATION HAS BEEN NEGLECTED. LETTER I. ? My Deab Sib, When I had the pleasure of meeting you at Ch , for the second time in my life, I was much concerned to remark the general dejection of your manner. I may now add, that I was also much surprised; your cousin's visit to me, having made it no longer a point of delicacy to suppress that feeling. General report had represented you as in possession of all which enters into the worldly estimate of happiness, -- great opulence, unclouded reputation, and freedom from unhappy connections. That you had the priceless blessing of unfluctuating health, I know upon your own authority. And the concurring opinions of your friends, together with my own opportunities for observation, left me no room to doubt that you wanted not the last and mightiest among the sources of happiness -- a fortunate constitution of mind, both for moral and intellectual ends. So many blessings as these, meeting in the person of one man, and yet all in some mysterious way defeated and poisoned, presented a problem too interesting both to the selfish and the generous curiosity of men -- to make it at all wonderful, that at that time and place you should have been the subject of much discussion. Now and then some solutions of the mystery were hazarded: in particular I remember one from a young lady of seventeen, who said with a positive air, 'That Mr. M 's dejection was well known to arise from an unfortunate attachment in early life,' which assurance appeared to have great weight with some other young ladies of sixteen. But upon the whole, I think that no, account of the matter was proposed at that time which satisfied myself, or was likely to satisfy any reflecting person. At length the visit of your cou...