David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ What consoles me for my slowness and heaviness, or whatever people please to call it, is that assuredly whatever I leave undone is what I am unable to do. I have good projects, but a thousand circumstances rule me and absolutely master me. Happily I am not ashamed of anything in particular, and I love always, and above all things, the One Thing Needful [la seule chose necessaire] . Let us love that with a singular love, my dear sir. What the world values above it is infinitely beneath it. ”

“ The greatest obstacle to the progress of classical literature, and to the pleasure it has the power to give, is that those who teach the classics to our youth are deficient in neatly-expressed and well-grounded ideas, in diligence, in preparation, in a lively predilection for teaching. ”

“ For what remains, when a full hundred trumpets would stun me with the call to march in quick time, I would always go at my own pace. I was born perverse, and I do not move any further than at the time I feel inclined, though I always have a very sincere desire to go forward. This declaration applies to all written composition; as to giving lessons viva voce in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, I am always ready, and such occupation never fails to give me pleasure. ”