Part 97

The words ‘I think, Brown’ are best placed at the head of the passage; Comp. S. 64, N. 11; to mix up, +vermengen+.

+auf den Tisch stellen+.

to get clear about a thing, +sich über etwas klar werden+. I cannot get clear about that, +ich kann mir darüber nicht klar werden+;—ought = should.

Use the 2nd pers. sing., and read carefully S. 1, N. 3, and S. 87, N. 6, which will enable you to construe this passage. The adverbial clause ‘in the same breath’ (= in one breath) must be placed after the predicate ‘talk’; to talk of a thing, +von etwas sprechen+.

Section 120.

DO GOOD IN YOUR OWN SPHERE OF ACTION.

II.

Now, 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 the contrary. Keep the latter before you as your one object, and you will be right whether you make a living or not; but if you dwell on the other, you’ll very likely drop into mere money-making, and let the world take care of itself, for good or evil. Don’t be in a hurry 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 look about you in the place you find yourself in, and try (S. 51, N. 13) to make things a little better and honester there. You’ll find plenty to keep your hand in at Oxford, or wherever else you go. And 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 most so, but every man may do some honest work in his own corner.—THOMAS HUGHES, “TOM BROWN’S SCHOOL DAYS.”

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

quite = just, +gerade+.

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

Say ‘you will do right’.

Insert +dabei+ after ‘living’.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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~+.

may — corner = can in his own corner do something good.

Section 121.

THE STATE OF IRELAND.

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

We must all endeavour to get rid of passion in discussing this church question, which, I am sorry to say, is, of all others, the most calculated to create passion. We are all, I believe, of one religion. I do not know (S. 51, N. 13), but I suppose there will come a time in the history of the world, when men will be astonished that Catholic and Protestant, Churchman and Nonconformist, had so much animosity and suspicion against each other.

I accept and believe in a very grand passage which I once met with in the writings of the illustrious founder of the colony and (S. 10, N. 9) state of Pennsylvania, that “the humble, meek, merciful, just, pious, and devout souls are everywhere of one religion; and when death (S. 3, N. 2) has taken off the mask, they will know one another, though the diverse liveries they wear make them strangers.”