While in Mansfield, I transcribed what I could see of Laura’s essay on ambition. The paper was folded (why? Isn’t that a bad thing?), and the following had been crossed out, so I couldn’t tell you (and I didn’t ask to see more) if the essay from These Happy Golden Years is something that exists in Laura’s handwriting. If there are errors, they are as I saw them:
Ambition denotes a desire of preferrment, or of honor. It is also used to denote an inordinate desire of power, or eminence, of an accompanied with the rise of alleal means to obtain the object. The word ambition is had its origin in the practice of Roman candidates for office, who merit about the city to solicit votes…
