"Is this our ultimate stage, or starting place
To try man's foot, if it will creep or climb,
'Mid obstacles in seeming, points that prove
Advantage for who vaults from low to high,
And makes the stumbling-block a stepping-stone?"
Even though the goal be not reached, to have willed deliberately here the first step may prove to have been not wholly unavailing.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Quoted by Fr. Joseph Rickaby, S.J., in Scholasticism, p. 121.
[2] Wayside Sketches, p. 135.