Human virtues are plants which never strike a deep root
unless shaken by misfortune. Virtue consists in
the directing of our intellectual and physical energies
to a praiseworthy end; but if our energies be
naturally feeble, or dwindle and wither away through
lack of exercise, our virtue, by a necessary consequence,
must become dwarfish and insignificant, and
utterly incapable of exciting enthusiastic sympathy
in those who behold its meek and timid bearing.

The Lives of Celebrated Travelers III (James Augustus St. John, 1832)

James Augustus St. John was a traveler and biographer. He was an opinionated fellow. Here he is speaking of the traveller Peter Simon Pallas (1741-1818), a squirmy little fellow who insufficiently directed energies to praiseworthy ends. Quite the naturalist, though.