[Footnote: See Seeley's "Story of Washington" (1893), and the excellent article in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. VI., pp. 376-382.]
XIV.
PEKSEVERANCE.
MEMORY GEMS.
Every noble work is at first impossible.—Carlyle
Victory belongs to the most persevering.—Napoleon
Our greatest glory is, not in never falling, but in rising every time we
fall.—Goldsmith
Success in most things depends on knowing how long it takes to succeed.
—Montesquieu
Perseverance is failing nineteen times and succeeding the twentieth.
—Dr J. Anderson
Perseverance depends on three things,—purpose, will, enthusiasm. He who has a purpose is always concentrating his forces. By the will, constantly educated, the hope and plan are prevented from evaporating into dreams, and a little gain is all the time being added. Enthusiasm keeps the interest up, and makes the obstacles seem small. Young people often call perseverance plodding, and look with impatience on careful, steady efforts of any kind. It is plodding in a certain sense, but by it the mountain is scaled; whereas the impetuous nature soon tires, or is injured, and the climb is over, half-finished. The founders of New England did not believe in "chances." They did believe in work. The young man who thinks to get on by mere smartness and by idling, meets failure at last.