If any one has kindly attended to this discourse, without desiring to be
a failure, he has only to turn the advice outside in. He has only to be
studious of the very best literature, observant, careful, original, he
has only to be himself and not an imitator, to aim at excellence, and not
be content with falling a little lower than mediocrity. He needs but
bestow the same attention on this art as others give to the other arts
and other professions. With these efforts, and with a native and natural
gift, which can never be taught, never communicated, and with his mind
set not on his reward, but on excellence, on style, on matter, and even
on the not wholly unimportant virtue of vivacity, a man will succeed, or
will deserve success. First, of course, he will have to "find" himself,
as the French say, and if he does _not_ find an ass, then, like Saul the
son of Kish, he may discover a kingdom. One success he can hardly miss,
the happiness of living, not with trash, but among good books, and "the
mighty minds of old." In an unpublished letter of Mr. Thackeray's,
written before he was famous, and a novelist, he says how much he likes
writing on historical subjects, and how he enjoys historical research.
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