"Your letter seems to me entirely too occupied with your own private world and rather self-indulgent. I am saying this to you so that you seek some more realistic expression of your desire to do more than vegetate in a retrograde environment. This requires courage to deal with real problems and to undertake hardship and serious effort in their behalf. If you wish to study, then study and do not moon about wishing to do so. Manual labour is no great tragedy; it is the failure to take oneself less seriously which marks immaturity. I hope you will consider this."