The story of the Kansas farmer, who, with a scraper and a pair of mules, is building a fifty-mile railroad, would indicate that the supply of courageous men is not entirely exhausted.
The farmer who is tackling this tremendous job alone and who is serenely indifferent to all the jeers of his neighbors, scorned to admit defeat when he could not interest any one with capital in the road which he deemed necessary. He went to work with such material as he had at hand and, somehow, even without seeing the man or knowing aught of his project, one can not help sharing the farmer’s belief that he is to “carry the thing through.”
(20)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was kind and courteous to his army, both to officers and soldiers. He shared the toils and hardships of those who were under his command. He gave them, too, their share of the glory which he acquired, by attributing his success to their courage and fidelity. At one time, after some brilliant campaign in Macedonia, some persons in his army compared his progress to the flight of an eagle. “If I am an eagle,” replied Pyrrhus, “I owe it to you, for you are the wings by means of which I have risen so high.”
(21)
ACQUAINTANCES
If we could prove by statistics the number of acquaintances a man had fifty years ago, and those which the modern man has, the difference would be enormous. The tendency is everywhere to enlarge one’s circle—ambitious people with discernment, but the foolish, blindly, without any interest or inclination to guide them. I once heard a woman announce with pride, “I have 2,000 visits to make this winter.” She flaunted this fact before her less favored friends, who had only 1,000 names on their visiting lists. Could there be anything more futile than this thirst for increasing one’s bowing acquaintances? What useless ballast are these interminable lists, in which no place is left for an hour’s intelligent or affectionate intercourse. The habit of going from drawing-room to drawing-room gives certain persons a style in conversation that is as flat as a well-drest stone, not one spontaneous word in it, not an angle, not a defined form!—Dora Melegari, “Makers of Sorrow and Makers of Joy.”
(22)
Acquiescence in Temptation—See [Desires, Inordinate].