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 mind, which is a garden given you to cultivate, and which is capable of bringing forth beautiful flowers and fruits, virtues and accomplishments, for the glory of and the benefit of your neighbour.

The more knowledge you acquire, if it is for those ends, the more good you can do and the more good you can gain. It is true that the ignorant and unlettered have often pleased and become great Saints, but then it was not through their own act that they were ignorant of such knowledge as you have the chance of gaining.

Listless idleness becomes a wretched habit in those who give way to it. It grows upon them, makes them a burden to others and a burden to themselves, and takes away that noble spirit of independence which in its proper bounds is one of the greatest charms of character. It hardens the heart or fills it with too-late regrets for opportunities wasted and for ever lost.

Whatever you do, put your heart into it.