Part 9 (2/2)

O G.o.d! he is worse than a murderer! How can he answer for it to his country? The blood of the slain is upon him; the curse of widows and orphans; the curse of Heaven!”

His emotions were awful. After a while he cooled a little, and sat down, and said: ”This must not go beyond this room. General St. Clair shall have justice. I looked through the despatches, saw the whole disaster, but not all the particulars. I will receive him without displeasure; I will hear him without prejudice. He shall have full justice!”

The second incident is told as follows: In 1775, at Cambridge, the army was dest.i.tute of powder. Was.h.i.+ngton sent Colonel Glover to Marblehead for a supply of that article, which was said to be there. At night the colonel returned, found Was.h.i.+ngton in front of his headquarters, pacing up and down. Glover saluted. The general, without returning his salute, asked, roughly: ”Have you got the powder?” ”No, sir.” Was.h.i.+ngton broke out at first with terrible severity of speech, and then said: ”Why did you come back, sir, without it?” ”Sir, there is not a kernel of powder in Marblehead.” Was.h.i.+ngton walked up and down a minute or two, in great agitation, and then said: ”Colonel Glover, here is my hand, if you will take it and forgive me. The greatness of our danger made me forget what is due to you and to myself.”

Such victories as these show self-control at its very best; and they ought to make us all see its value and importance.

[Footnote: See Seeley's ”Story of Was.h.i.+ngton” (1893), and the excellent article in Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. VI., pp.

376-382.]

XIV.

PEKSEVERANCE.

MEMORY GEMS.

Every n.o.ble 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.

But there is a higher outlook. Life is in a sense a battle; certainly there is an unending struggle within ourselves to make the better part rule the worse. Perseverance is the master impulse of the firmest souls, and holds the key to those treasure-houses of knowledge from which the world has drawn its wealth both of wisdom and of moral worth.

Great men never wait for opportunities; they make them. Nor do they wait for facilities or favoring circ.u.mstances; they seize upon whatever is at hand, work out their problem, and master the situation. A young man determined and willing, will find a way or make one. Great men have found no royal road to their triumph. It is always the old route, by way of industry and perseverance.

Bunyan wrote his ”Pilgrim's Progress” on the untwisted papers used to cork the bottles of milk brought for his meals. Gifford wrote his first copy of a mathematical work, when a cobbler's apprentice, on small sc.r.a.ps of leather; and Rittenhouse, the astronomer, first calculated eclipses on his plow handle.

”Circ.u.mstances,” says Milton, ”have rarely favored famous men. They have fought their way to triumph through all sorts of opposing obstacles. The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given to him. This is success, and there is no other.”

Paris was in the hands of a mob; the authorities were panic-stricken, for they did not dare to trust their underlings. In came a man who said, ”I know a young officer who has the courage and ability to quell this mob.” ”Send for him; send for him,” said they. Napoleon was sent for, came, subjugated the mob, subjugated the authorities, ruled France, then conquered Europe.

One of the first lessons of life is to learn how to get victory out of defeat. It takes courage and stamina, when mortified and embarra.s.sed by humiliating disaster, to seek in the wreck or ruins the elements of future conquest. Yet this measures the difference between those who succeed and those who fail. You cannot measure a man by his failures.

You must know what use he makes of them.

Always watch with great interest a young man's first failure. It is the index of his life, the measure of his success-power. The mere fact of his failure has interest; but how did he take his defeat? What did he do next? Was he discouraged? Did he slink out of sight? Did he conclude that he had made a mistake in his calling, and dabble in something else?

Or was he up and at it again with a determination that knows no defeat?

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