Advice to a Young Man upon First Going to Oxford | Page 2

bed to lie on, and, during these
twenty-nine years of troubles and of punishments, writing and
publishing, every week of my life, whether in exile or not, eleven
weeks only excepted, a periodical paper, containing more or less of
matter worthy of public attention; writing and publishing, during _the
same twenty-nine years_, a grammar of the French and another of the
English language, a work on the Economy of the Cottage, a work on
Forest Trees and Woodlands, a work on Gardening, an account of
America, a book of Sermons, a work on the Corn-plant, a History of the
Protestant Reformation; all books of great and continued sale, and the
last unquestionably the book of greatest circulation in the whole world,
the Bible only excepted; having, during _these same twenty-nine
years_ of troubles and embarrassments without number, introduced into
England the manufacture of Straw-plat; also several valuable trees;
having introduced, during _the same twenty-nine years_, the cultivation
of the Corn-plant, so manifestly valuable as a source of food; having,
during the same period, always (whether in exile or not) sustained a
shop of some size, in London; having, during the whole of the same
period, never employed less, on an average, than ten persons, in some
capacity or other, exclusive of printers, bookbinders, and others,
connected with papers and books; and having, during these twenty-nine
years of troubles, embarrassments, prisons, fines, and banishments,
bred up a family of seven children to man's and woman's state.

5. If such a man be not, after he has survived and accomplished all this,
qualified to give Advice to Young Men, no man is qualified for that
task. There may have been natural _genius_: but genius alone, not all
the genius in the world, could, without something more, have
conducted me through these perils. During these twenty-nine years, I
have had for deadly and ever-watchful foes, a government that has the
collecting and distributing of sixty millions of pounds in a year, and
also every soul who shares in that distribution. Until very lately, I have
had, for the far greater part of the time, the whole of the press as my
deadly enemy. Yet, at this moment, it will not be pretended, that there
is another man in the kingdom, who has so many cordial friends. For as
to the friends of ministers and the great, the friendship is towards the
power, the _influence_; it is, in fact, towards those taxes, of which so
many thousands are gaping to get at a share. And, if we could, through
so thick a veil, come at the naked fact, we should find the subscription,
now going on in Dublin for the purpose of erecting a monument in that
city, to commemorate the good recently done, or alleged to be done, to
Ireland, by the DUKE of WELLINGTON; we should find, that the
subscribers have the taxes in view; and that, if the monument shall
actually be raised, it ought to have selfishness, and not gratitude,
engraven on its base. Nearly the same may be said with regard to all the
praises that we hear bestowed on men in power. The friendship which
is felt towards me is pure and disinterested: it is not founded in any
hope that the parties can have, that they can ever profit from professing
it: it is founded on the gratitude which they entertain for the good that I
have done them; and, of this sort of friendship, and friendship so
cordial, no man ever possessed a larger portion.
6. Now, mere genius will not acquire this for a man. There must be
something more than _genius_: there must be industry: there must be
perseverance: there must be, before the eyes of the nation, proofs of
extraordinary exertion: people must say to themselves, 'What wise
conduct must there have been in the employing of the time of this man!
How sober, how sparing in diet, how early a riser, how little expensive
he must have been!' These are the things, and not genius, which have
caused my labours to be so incessant and so successful: and, though I
do not affect to believe, that every young man, who shall read this work,
will become able to perform labours of equal magnitude and

importance, I do pretend, that every young man, who will attend to my
advice, will become able to perform a great deal more than men
generally do perform, whatever may be his situation in life; and, that he
will, too, perform it with greater ease and satisfaction than he would,
without the advice, be able to perform the smaller portion.
7. I have had, from thousands of young men, and men advanced in
years also, letters of thanks for the great benefit which they have
derived from my labours. Some