"  It  is  plain  that  if  I  am  to  do  aught  beyond  the  mere
drudgery  of  my  profession,  for  profit  of  others  or  of  myself;
if  I  am  to  ripen  and  to  produce  any  fruit  of  study,  and  to  con-
struct any  image  or  memorial  of  my  mind  and  thoughts,  it
must  be  done  or  be  begun  quickly.  To  this  I  have  admoni-
tion in  all  things.  High  time  —  if  not  too  late  —  it  is  to
choose  between  the  two  alternatives  —  to  amuse  —  scarcely
amuse,  (for  how  sad  and  ennuyant  is  mere  desultory  reading !)
such  moments  of  leisure  as  business  leaves  me,  in  various
random  reading  of  good  books,  or  to  gather  up  these  moments,
consolidate  and  mould  them  into  something  worthy  of  myself,
which  may  do  good  where  I  am  not  known,  and  live  when  I
shall  have  ceased  to  live  —  a  thoughtful  and  soothing  and  rich
printed  page.  Thus  far  ^-  almost  to  the  Aristotelian  term  of
utmost  mental  maturity  —  I  have  squandered  these  moments
away.  They  have  gone — not  in  pleasure,  nor  the  pursuit  of
gain,  nor  in  the  trivialities  of  society  —  but  in  desultory  read-
ing, mainly  of  approved  authors  ;  often,  much,  of  the  grandest
of  the  children  of  Light  —  but  reading  without  method  and


196  MEMOIE  OF  EUTUS   CHOATE.  [Chap.  VI.
