Colonial literary journal and weekly miscellany of useful information

Call Number
FRM F3809
Created/Published
Sydney : Printed and published by James Reading and Francis Sandoe, at the General Printing Office, 1844-1845
Issue
Vol. 1 No. 22 (21 November 1844)
Images
16
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Text

COLONIAL  

LITERARY JOURNAL  

AND  

Weekly Miscellany of Useful Information.  

“ NON TUA TE MOVEANT, SED PUBLICA VOTA.”  

Vol. I. No. 22.]  

SYDNEY, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1844.  

[Price 4d.  

ADVANCEMENT IN LIFE.  

The ambition of well-doing is feeling both salutary  

and honourable and, though all are not born to  

attain the first rank, and all cannot expect to reach  

the eminence to which they may aspire, yet no one, if  

guided by right principles, can fail of partial success.  

The many animating examples, placed before us by  

the page of history, of men, pre-eminent in all the  

various departments of learning and science, who have  

risen from the humblest and most unfavourable situ-  

ations, forbid the weakest to despair, for the greater  

merit will be his. Wealth is an object at which all  

aim. In this shadowy pursuit, the poor man may be  

comforted by the reflection, that so far from his po-  

verty being detrimental to him—in country blessed  

with free and liberal institutions—the experience he  

is gaining operates for his greatest benefit. If he com-  

mence life, animated by resolute spirit, and guided  

by good principles, the poor man has chance of  

eventual success, oftentimes superior to the youth  

whose patrimony is considerable. The former learns,  

by experience, the value of the minutest sums, and  

the value of time, which is but wealth, as yet unde-  

veloped, to him; whereas th£ latter squanders heed-  

lessly or unknowingly the one, and, by his consequent  

failure, misspends the other. The progress of the  

former is ever onward; the latter, probably, loses  

daily, and, after all, has to begin afresh, and learn his  

first steps (so to speak) under the tuition of that  

bitter monitress—practical experience.  

“ In fact, fortune, or original good circumstances,  

(as observed by an excellent writer,) appear as re-  

quisites of very unimportant character compared  

with ta ent, 'power of application self-denial and,  

honourable intentions .”  

The above remarks are carried out in so clear and  

able manner in the following observations, that, we  

feel we cannot do better than give them, slightly  

abridged, for the benefit of our readers.  

“ First, there is one great maxim that no youth  

should ever want before his eyes, namely, that hardly  

any thing is beyond the attainment of real merit  

Let man set up almost any object before him on  

entering life, and, if his ambition be of that genuine  

kind which springs from talent, and is not too much  

for his prudence there is strong chance in his favour  

that keen and steady pursuit of the object will make  

him triumph at last. It is very common, when the  

proposal of young man’s entry into life is discussed,  

to hear complaints as to the pre-occupation of every  

field of adventure by unemployed multitudes. There  

may occasionally be some cause for this; but the  

general truth is undeniable, that, in spite of every  

disadvantage, men are rising daily to distinction in  

every profession—the broadest shoulders, as usual,  

making their way best through the crowd. It is the  

slothful and the fearful that generally make such  

complaints and they obviously do so in order to  

assure themselves that they are not altogether wrong  

in continuing to misspend their time. "When we hear  

of the over-crowded state of any proposed profession,  

we are apt to overlook that an immense proportion of  

those engaged in it are destined, by the weakness of  

their character, and want of specific qualifications, to  

make no way for themselves, and must soon be the  

same, so far as rivalry is concerned, as if they had  

never entered it. If the entrant, then, has only  

well-grounded confidence in his own powers of ex-  

ertion and perseverance, he need hardly be afraid  

to enter any profession. With the serious desire of  

well-doing at heart, and some tolerable share of  

ability, he is sure very soon to get ahead of great  

proportion of those already in the field. 'Only let  

him never despair—that is, tell himself it is all in  

vain, in order that he may become idle with good  

conscience—and there is hardly any fear of him.  

Talent. —It is common cry that those who suc-  

ceed best in life are the dullest people, and that talent  

is too fine quality for common pursuits. There can-  

not be greater fallacy than this. It may be true  

that some decidedly stupid people succeed through  

the force of dogged resolution, which hardly any  

man of superior genius could have submitted to. But  

am disposed to dispute, in great measure, the ex-  

istence of talent, where do not find it at once pro-  

ductive of superior address in ordinary affairs, and  

attended by magnanimity which elevates the pos-  

sessor above all paltry and vicious actions. The  

genius which only misleads its possessor from the  

paths of prudence, or renders him ridiculous and  

intolerable member of society, is too much allied to  

Bedlam to be taken into account and in reality there  

is nowhere so much of what is called genius as in the  

mad-houses. The imputation of dulness to man  

who has prospered in life, will be found by impartial  

inquirers, in nine cases out of ten, to be mere  

consolatory appliance to the self-love of one who has  

neither had the talent nor the morality to prosper in  

life himself. Let every man, then, who possesses this  

gift, rejoice in it with all bis heart, and seek by every  

means to give it proper guidance and direction.  

Application is another of the indispensable requi  

Cite

Citation options:
Work identifier

http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2029393824

APA citation

Reading, James & Sandoe, Francis. (1844). Colonial literary journal and weekly miscellany of useful information Retrieved August 6, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2029393824

MLA citation

Reading, James and Sandoe, Francis. Colonial literary journal and weekly miscellany of useful information Sydney: Printed and published by James Reading and Francis Sandoe, at the General Printing Office, 1844. Web. 6 August 2025 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2029393824>

Harvard/Australian citation

Reading, James & Sandoe, Francis. 1844, Colonial literary journal and weekly miscellany of useful information Printed and published by James Reading and Francis Sandoe, at the General Printing Office, Sydney viewed 6 August 2025 http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2029393824

Wikipedia citation

{{Citation
  | author1=Reading, James.
  | author2=Sandoe, Francis.
  | title=Colonial literary journal and weekly miscellany of useful information.
  | year=1844
  | section=2 volumes ; 29 cm.
  | issn=1327-6638
  | issue=Vol. 1 No. 22 (21 November 1844)
  | location=Sydney
  | publisher=Printed and published by James Reading and Francis Sandoe, at the General Printing Office
  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-2029393824
  | id=nla.obj-2029393824
  | access-date=6 August 2025
  | via=Trove
}}

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