A young friend came lately, in great dejection and discouragement, to ask some advice respecting the obstacles which he had encountered in reading the Iliad. 'I am now studying,' said he, 'the catalogue of the Grecian fleet; and I am exceedingly puzzled to find out the exact situation of all the places which Homer mentions, and to trace all the nations and tribes to which the Grecian army is referred. I have studied carefully all the notes of Heyne and Clarke, but these are not full enough.' 'And why do you wish to trace them?' The young student was mute with surprise: 'This is a strange question,' muttered he to himself, 'to come from a teacher, and an admirer of Homer!' 'What, Sir, must I not _study out_ all the proper names? I supposed I could not be a good scholar without it.' '_Why should you?_ If you will think of this question, and give me a satisfactory answer, I will set myself at once to helping you.' 'But why did the commentators study so much upon these things?' 'That is another question for you to think of; and instead of answering it myself, I will wait for you to give me your best conjecture on the subject.' The poor fellow was amazed. Never had he been more entirely confounded: 'My teacher asks me, why should I learn it! How strange!' Such were his thoughts, as he returned to his studies. In a few days he called again. He seemed not to know how to begin the conversation. 'Well, have you made out an answer to the questions which startled you so much?' 'Why, Sir; I cannot say that I am able to give any satisfactory answer.' 'Well then, my young friend, I charge you not to spend time and strength in searching for the situation of Homer's Nisyrus, Crapathus, and Casus, until you give some valid reason for so doing. As to the commentators, what will not men do for fame? How many labors have men performed with this motive, which were not only useless, but pernicious?' Such a reply was indeed unexpected. The young pupil seemed at once bewildered, and relieved from anxiety, by such a _paradoxical_ sentiment. His mind had imbibed the common feeling that, _mental_ labor never constitutes an abuse of time. The maxim, 'No item of knowledge is contemptible,' had misled his mind, and he had been accustomed to feel that _learning_ must be great and good. There is a sense, in which it may be truly said that nothing in the universe of God is despicable, except moral evil. The most minute portion of matter--the slightest organization--the obscurest fact in nature--is worthy of the notice of Mind. But are there not choices to be made? Is EVERY man justified in spending his life in the comparing of the blades of grass, or the pebbles of the sand? No work of human skill is to be despised; and yet who may sit down to cut paper, or tie knots, as the business of his life?