The money acquired by those who have thus struggled upward to success is not their only, or indeed their chief reward. When, after years of toil, of opposition, of ridicule, of repeated failure, Cyrus W. Field placed his hand upon the telegraph instrument ticking a message under the sea, think you that the electric thrill passed no further than the tips of his fingers? When Thomas A. Edison demonstrated that the electric light had at last been developed into a commercial success, do you suppose those bright rays failed to illuminate the inmost recesses of his soul?
CHAPTER XXVII
USES OF OBSTACLES
Nature, when she adds difficulties, adds brains.—EMERSON.
Many men owe the grandeur of their lives to their tremendous difficulties.—SPURGEON.
The good are better made by ill,
As odors crushed are sweeter still.
ROGERS.
Though losses and crosses be lessons right severe,
There's wit there ye'll get there, ye'll find no other where.
BURNS.
"Adversity is the prosperity of the great."
"Kites rise against, not with, the wind."