and Latin books you can now read with ease. Can you open Demosthenes at a venture, and understand him? Can you get through an oration of Cicero, or a satire of Horace, without difficulty? What German book do you read to make yourself master of that language? And what French books do you read for your amusement? Pray give me a particular and true account of all this; for I am not indifferent as to any one thing that relates to you. [Same date.]
Lazy Minds.—There are two sorts of understandings;
one of which hinders a man from ever
being considerable, and the other commonly makes
him ridiculous; I mean the lazy mind, and the
trifling, frivolous mind. Yours, I hope, is neither.
The lazy mind will not take the trouble of going to
the bottom of anything; but, discouraged by the difficulties
(and everything worth knowing or having
is attended with some), stops short, contents itself
with easy and, consequently, superficial knowledge,
and prefers a great degree of ignorance to a small
degree of trouble. These people either think or represent
most things as impossible; whereas few
things are so to industry and activity. [July 26, 1748.]
Resolution.—But difficulties seem to them (lazy
