A noble
sentence, however, from the Idler came into his mind--his mother had
a copy of the Idler in her bedroom, and read and re-read it, and
oftentimes quoted it to her husband and her son--"He that has
improved the virtue or advanced the happiness of one fellow-creature
. . may be contented with his own performance; and, with respect to
mortals like himself, may demand, like Augustus, to be dismissed at
his departure with applause." He reflected that he, an ironmonger's
son, was not born to save the world, and if the great Dr. Johnson
could say what he did, with how little ought not a humble Cowfold
tradesman to be satisfied! We all of us have too vast a conception
of the duty which Providence has imposed upon us; and one great
service which modern geology and astronomy have rendered is the
abatement of the fever by which earnest people are so often consumed.
But George's meditations all through that night were in the main
about his wife, and as soon as he reached his shop in the morning,
the first thing he did was to write a note to her telling her to come
home. This she did, although her mother and father objected, and
George found her there at dinner-time.
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