Power? Listen, my dear Doctor: I
really believe that if it suited my pleasure I could shoot a slater off
the roof, and the affair would have no unpleasant results. Fame and
immortality? My name is perhaps somewhat better known than Goethe's.
Wherever I desire to appear, I am far more of a lion than the greatest
poet and scholar, and every Prince Hochstein is sure of two lines in
the encyclopaedia and larger historical works, even if he has done
nothing except to be born and to die at a reasonable age. So, for what
should I strive?"
"For satisfaction with yourself," replied Dr. Backer, "and that you
will find only when you earn what you inherited from your ancestors, in
order to possess it, as Father Goethe says."
Satisfaction with himself--certainly! But to attain it is the greatest
art of life. The prince might gain it if he devoted himself earnestly,
not merely in a half-absent dilettante fashion, to some art, science,
or useful avocation. Only it required a self-discipline of which,
unfortunately, he was incapable. In all pursuits requiring dexterity,
all sciences, the first steps are laborious, wearisome, and apparently
thankless, and the Canaan which they promise is reached only after
weary wandering through the desert.
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