fancied I knew, I should not have missed my way as I have done, but should have arrived at something; and lest my children should do the same, I am determined that they shall remain in ignorance."

"And become drunkards, and bad characters; for what else can they then be?" exclaimed Toinette warmly. "Ah, Jacque, Jacque! when my poor stepfather reproached you for having a spirit of contradiction, was he far from wrong? Whose is the fault, yours or your masters', if the instruction which they have given you has not been of any use to you?”

"Come, here you are, like M. Grandville, demanding the why of the thing."

"Not only do I ask you," continued Toinette, "but I will tell you, if you like."

"Oh, indeed you would do me a great service."

"Well," cried Toinette, becoming more and more animated, "I will only repeat what Father Mercier, worthy man, has said to me hundreds and hundreds of times with regard to you'When a man goes through life without an aim, he travels far, and never arrives."

"Oh!" exclaimed Jacque Denoyer, "there is, nevertheless, a place at which we all arrive, and that is the grave."

"Yes, undoubtedly," replied Toinette; "but we arrive there more or less creditably according as we have ill or well discharged our duties in this world; and it is the duty of every one so to conduct himself as to be useful to himself and others."

"So then you mean to say that all that was wanting to me to succeed was a steady purpose?"

"I only say," replied Toinette, "that we poor people, whose only wealth is in our labour, must have a trade."

"Is not that the very thing I say?"

"Have a moment's patience. It is true we must have a trade. But during those years in which we are not able to do much, it is well for our parents to have schools to send us to. Here we acquire, whilst young, the love and the habit of industry; we obtain the means of employing hereafter our leisure hours in acquiring, without leaving our trade, knowledge relative to that trade, which will enable us to distinguish ourselves afterwards from workmen of the same kind-- 27

"Unless, indeed," added Jacque Denoyer, "that our only object is to amuse ourselves, and that we read simply for the pleasure of reading, like some one we know. You guess whom I mean?"

Toinette was silent, and hung down her head over her work. Jacque Denoyer was silent also. What his wife had just been saying gave him much food for thought. In spite of himself, he felt not only that she might be right, but that she was right. Jacque Denoyer passed for a very learned man in the village of Juilly le Chatel, only about a mile distant from the house of

M. Grandville; and to say the truth, he knew a great variety of things, but, as has been seen, it did not make him wiser or richer, simply because in his youth, in spite of the advice of M. Imbert, who would gladly have pushed him on in the world, he had neither a determined aim nor perseverance enough to follow it. The day after his conversation with Toinette, Jacque Denoyer went to the orchard of old Thomas for some graffs, and as he went along, he thought of what his wife had said to him the evening before.

"Well, I really believe my wife has found out the answer to this droll sort of enigma," said he to himself. "I see the thing which is meant. It is to have some distinct aim or end in view, and to bring the will to bear on it, so as not to fall through by the way. A very good idea this, no doubt; but what can a poor fellow like me have to do with an aim or a will?" And that inward voice, which seldom deceives us, answered-"Every man, having a will, may give himself an aim, and, by the persevering exertion of that will, he may reach it sooner or later." Jacque Denoyer at this moment arrived at old Thomas's door, and immediately entered the house.

"You have come just in the nick of time," said he. "Look! here is a packet of papers which I have just received, and which I cannot read, for I am not more learned to-day, as far as reading goes, than I was in my cradle. Ah, if there had been a school in the village in my time, as there is now! Decipher that for me, if you please. Well, I am determined nothing shall be spared in the education of my boy. I have charged the schoolmaster to give him extra lessons if necessary. I wish him to know how to read and write like a notary, even though I may have nothing to put by at the end of the year. Yes, Master Denoyer, not to know how to read or write is to be at the mercy of everybodyof the bad as well as the good, and there are but too many of the former. Education is a real treasure-it is useful everywhere, and at every age."

Amongst the papers that Jacque Denoyer was given to read, there were letters which gave great pleasure to old Thomas. "Why do I not know how to write!" cried he; "I would myself answer my old masters, who are so kind to our children.” "I will answer for you, if you like," said Jacque Denoyer. "Ah, that is delightful! You will do me a great service." When the answers were finished, Jacque Denoyer read them out to old Thomas, who appeared at once pleased and dissatisfied. "It is very well said," exclaimed he; "much better than I could say it myself; and yet, after all, Master Denoyer, it is not what I feel here"-and he laid his hand upon his heart-"no, nor exactly what I am thinking of here”—and he touched his forehead. "It seems to me like another language; but for all that, I am just as much obliged to you."

Returning home, Jacque Denoyer could not help thinking of

what Thomas had just been saying, and for the first time it occurred to him that persons who did not know how to read or write were much to be pitied, that they were in the hands of others, and that, even with the best possible intentions, no one, when answering for them, could make them speak as they themselves would speak.

To this thought succeeded many others. At last Jacque Denoyer asked himself if he would wish to deprive his children of a knowledge the value of which he himself had felt so many times?-if he could condemn them to remain all their life in ignorance?—if, in short, he would not be delivering them, bound hand and foot, to be imposed on by every quack, knave, and impostor, at a time when means of instruction were held out on every side at a time when men of intellect, the friends of human nature, were endeavouring, like the genial light of heaven, to dispel the clouds of ignorance, looking upon them as charged with every evil which can afflict mankind? "Yes; but, butsaid Jacque Denoyer, remembering the use he had made of his natural and acquired powers. For a moment he was ready to reproach his parents, his masters, and M. Imbert, for not having been more strict with him; but then he felt that he could blame no one but himself for not having become what he might have been. He had got enough of warning. "We shall see," said he, opening the little garden gate. Some minutes after, he was at his work, and, with all the address of a first-rate gardener, was ingrafting what he had brought from his old friend's orchard.

IV.

Sir," said Jacque Denoyer to his master, who had stopped to look at his work, "surely no one would be in want if, as you and my wife Toinette wish to persuade me, it were enough to have an aim and a will; for, after all, sir, the aim of every one is to gain a livelihood, and to live as well as possible."

"Undoubtedly," replied M. Grandville. "But if a man's will is less determined after the first few steps; if he wavers at the first obstacles, and then turns aside to some path that appears to him more easy, and then again to another, and so on to the end; that is to say, till he is no longer able to put one leg before the other, he will certainly have travelled far, but without arriving anywhere; and this is the history of more than three-fourths of mankind. The man, on the contrary, who has a determined aim and a firm will, does every day what ought to be done to attain this end: it is the one object of his thoughts. He does not permit circumstances, which have more or less influence over his lot, to discourage him. The path he has taken is the one which will conduct him to his end. He follows it obstinately, or rather perseveringly. The strength of his will sustains him. He closes

his ear to indolence as to the instigations of self-love. He makes use of his acquired knowledge to smooth the difficulties which he meets, and, distrustful of himself, keeps strict guard over himself. If circumstances not to be controlled oblige him to change his path, he still carries with him, into his new career, the same courage, the same perseverance, till the end-which man, born to labour and to suffer, ought to place before him—is attained; that is, till he arrives at the end of his career, without having been burdensome to any one, and after having been useful to those depending on him.”

"It is quite true," said Jacque Denoyer, shaking his head; "I must grant that; but it is very difficult, sir, especially when one is young.

"Jacque Denoyer, it is as the twig is bent the tree is inclined. It is in youth man receives those impressions, and that happy or unfortunate direction, the impress and feeling of which he preserves all his life. We ought constantly to repeat to the child an aim and a will, and constantly point out to him that, without an aim and without a will, man is nothing, does nothing, and will attain to nothing. The trade, profession, or calling, is but the means of arriving at an end. But these means are all-powerful, if we perseveringly use them-if we endeavour to carry them out to the utmost extent. You must not fancy, Jacque, that after a certain age it is not possible to acquire this will, in which consists all our strength. In youth, in order to form a will, we must obey. In riper age, in order to give ourselves a will, we need only will. You, for example, Jacque, have lost the season of your youth, and many opportunities which were presented to you; now you can take warning by your past errors. Know how to will, and you and your family will enjoy the only true happiness which exists here below. Have a firm will, and you will employ your already-acquired knowledge in acquiring more. Books will give you new ideas on gardening. Books will place before you all that refers to the care required by that most noble and useful of animals-the horse. You will learn to improve my fruit and kitchen gardens. You will multiply the horses of the Norman breed that I have just got. By increasing your master's revenue, you will enable him to do much more for you than his present fortune would permit. Your children will be brought up in the house. They will choose a trade; they shall be assisted in their apprentice fee, and aided in their establishment when they arrive at a proper age. Toinette and you, grown old in my service, will find protectors for your old age, and friends for your boys, in my children when I am no more. Behold the end, Jacque! Now your own will is all that is wanting."

As he pronounced these words, M. Grandville went away and continued his walk.

"The worthy man!" said Jacque Denoyer, gazing after him for some time; then drying his moistened eyelids with the back

of his hand, began to cut the tree which he had just grafted. "If every one would speak in that way," added Jacque Denoyer, 66 we should know the reason of things, and then they would become easy. Come, courage! The end is there, as M. Grandville said; now only the will is wanting, and, with God's help, it shall not be long so."

M. Grandville was kind enough often to converse with his gardener. Their conversation always turned upon serious subjects-such, for instance, as the direction to be given to that early education which commences, if we may so speak, from the cradle; and upon the profit which men may derive from the happy and unhappy circumstances which mark the course of a long life. "In whatever condition our lot may be cast," said M. Grandville one day, 66 we shall always be able to get on if we have an aim and a will; and we shall always be respectable if we respect ourselves, and if the seeds of a pure morality have been developed in our heart. Yes, Denoyer, I am, as you have been told, the son of a peasant; and, thank God, I have never been foolish enough to be ashamed of it. A kind patron did for me what M. Imbert wished to do for you. Like you, I distinguished myself at the school where he had placed me. He was a notary at Bar-upon-Seine. He brought me home with him, and made me work in his study, which did not please me at all. He perceived my repugnance, and said to me, 'Grandville, now that you have received a certain education, and acquired a taste for a higher grade of life, you will find it hard to resign yourself to merely following the plough. If the profession of the law does not suit you, look well around you, and see what you would wish to embrace; but once having decided, let nothing induce you to change. Your father cannot leave you anything; your mother is getting old; you have a sister. If I am pleased with you, I will do more for you than you hope. Reflect, consider; consult your father, and decide.'

"I consulted my father; I reflected; I weighed the matter," continued M. Grandville; "and courageously I laid aside those books of science which had made me so happy, and surrounded myself only with law books. At my hours of recreation only I studied botany and natural history, of which I was passionately fond, and I often said to myself, How happy the rich must be! They can read whatever they like, and have cabinets full of curiosities out of the three kingdoms of nature. Then I little suspected that books and knowledge are less valued by the rich than might be expected. But I knew by experience that books and scientific pursuits ought only to be used as a recreation by him who must have a profession, and that his daily studies ought to have reference only to that profession. At the time of the Revolution of 1789, for I date very far back," continued M. Grandville, smiling, "I was the head clerk of M. Delaroche. This good old man perished in a riot, on account of the high price of corn. All France was fearfully convulsed. The notaries, with whom were