II.

Now[1], you may be getting a good living in a profession, and yet doing no good _at all_ in the world, but (S. 6, N. 10) quite[2] the contrary. Keep[3] the latter before you as your one object, and you[4] will be right whether you make a living[5] or not; but[6] if you dwell on the other, you’ll very likely drop[7] into mere money-making, and let[8] the world take care of itself, for good or evil. Don’t be in a hurry[9] about finding your work in the world _for yourself_; you are not old enough to (S. 19, N. 7) judge for yourself yet, but just[10] look about you in the place you find yourself in, and try (S. 51, N. 13) to make things[11] a little better and honester there. You’ll[12] find plenty to keep your hand in at Oxford, or wherever else you [may] go. And[13] don’t be led away to think this part of the world important, and that unimportant. Every corner of the world is important. No man knows whether this _part_ or that part is[14] most so, but every man may[15] do some honest work in his own corner.—THOMAS HUGHES, “TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS.”

[1] Now — getting, +Du kannst dir nun aber vielleicht ... verdienen+.

[2] quite = just, +gerade+.

[3] Say ‘Keep the last part of your sentence as your principal aim (+Hauptzweck+, m.) before your eyes (+vor Augen+)’.

[4] Say ‘you will do right’.

[5] Insert +dabei+ after ‘living’.

[6] Say ‘but if you have only the other (to agree with ‘part’) before your eyes’.

[7] to drop into mere money-making, +in bloße Geldmacherei verfallen+.

[8] to let the world take care of itself for good or evil, +die Welt im Guten und im Bösen sich selbst überlassen+.

[9] to be in a hurry, +sich beeilen+; about finding = to find (S. 1, N. 3).

[10] ‘just’, here nur, which place after verb and pronoun; in the place, +an der Stelle+; to find oneself, +sich befinden+.

[11] ‘things’, here = life, with def. art., after which place the adv. ‘there’; honester = more virtuous.

[12] The clause ‘at Oxford — go’ is best placed at the head of the whole passage; to keep your hand in = to do.

[13] And — away, +Laß dich auch nicht dazu verleiten+; to think a thing important, +eine Sache für wichtig halten+.

[14] is most so = is most important.—=When the superlative is used as a predicate, it is generally preceded by +am+= (the preposition +an+ contracted with the definite article, dative case singular, masculine), =and takes the dative termination +en+=; as—This matter is not important, but that is _most important_, +diese Sache ist nicht wichtig, aber jene ist ~am wichtigsten~+.

[15] may — corner = can in his own corner do _something_ good.

_Section 121._

THE STATE[1] OF IRELAND.

(Conclusion of a Speech delivered[2] in the House of Commons in March 1868.)