Part 17 (1/2)

Only thoughts that breathe in words that burn can kindle the spark slu in the heart of another

Rare consecration to a great enterprise is found in the work of the late Francis Parkman While a student at Harvard he deterlish in North Aave his life, his fortune, his all to this one great object Although he had, while a material for his history, ruined his health and could not use his eyes more than five minutes at a time for fifty years, he did not swerve a hair's breadth froave to the world the best history upon this subject ever written

After Lincoln had walked six ra after another while he studied the precious prize

Gilbert Becket, an English Crusader, was taken prisoner and became a slave in the palace of a Saracen prince, where he not only gained the confidence of his hter By and by he escaped and returned to England, but the devoted girl deterlish language--_London_ and _Gilbert_; but by repeating the first she obtained passage in a vessel to the great metropolis, and then she went fro the other--”Gilbert” At last she came to the street on which Gilbert lived in prosperity The unusual crowd drew the fanized her, and took to his arms and home his far-come princess with her solitary fond word

Theenthusiasm Youth sees no darkness ahead,--no defile that has no outlet,--it forgets that there is such a thing as failure in the world, and believes thatall these centuries for hiy and beauty

Of what use was it to forbid the boy Handel to touch ato school, lest he learn the gaht intervieith a dumb spinet in a secret attic The boy Bach copied whole books of studies by ht, for want of a candle churlishly denied Nor was he disheartened when these copies were taken froarret, and plundered the family cat for bristles to make his brushes

It is the enthusiase cannot untie ”People ssley; ”that enthusiash, perhaps unconscious that it is partly their own fault that they ever lost it”

How much the world owes to the enthusiashteen, and at nineteen gained a e

”The most beautiful works of all art were done in youth,” says Ruskin

”Alreat has been done by youth,” wrote Disraeli ”The world's interests are, under God, in the hands of the young,” says Dr Trumbull

It was the youth Hercules that performed the Twelve Labors

Enthusiastic youth faces the sun, it shadows all behind it The heart rules youth; the head, manhood Alexander was a mere youth when he rolled back the Asiatic hordes that threatened to overwhelm European civilization almost at its birth Napoleon had conquered Italy at twenty-five Byron and Raphael died at thirty-seven, an age which has been fatal to er

Robroke were ministers almost before they were men Gladstone was in Parliareatest discoveries before he enty-five Keats died at twenty-five, Shelley at twenty-nine

Luther was a triulish poet ever equaled Chatterton at twenty-one Whitefield and Wesley began their great revival as students at Oxford, and the forland before he enty-four Victor Hugo wrote a tragedy at fifteen, and had taken three prizes at the Acadeained the title of Master before he enty

Many of the world's greatest geniuses never saw forty years Never before has the young man, who is driven by his enthusiase of youngwouid and the passive bow

But if enthusiasm is irresistible in youth, how hty had ten tiht and power that any lory of age is only the glory of its enthusiasm, and the respect paid to white hairs is reverence to a heart fervent, in spite of the torpid influence of an enfeebled body The ”Odyssey” was the creation of a blind old ious zeal of an old man, Peter the Hermit, rolled the chivalry of Europe upon the ranks of Islae of Venice, won battles at ninety-four, and refused a crown at ninety-six Wellington planned and superintended fortifications at eighty Bacon and Huasp Wise old Montaigne was shrewd in his gray-beard wisdoout and colic

Dr Johnson's best work, ”The Lives of the Poets,” ritten when he was seventy-eight Defoe was fifty-eight when he published ”Robinson Crusoe” Nerote new briefs to his ”Principia” at eighty-three

Plato died writing, at eighty-one Tohty-six Galileo was nearly seventy when he wrote on the laws of hty-five Mrs Somerville finished her ”Molecular and Microscopic Science” at eighty-nine

Humboldt completed his ”Cosmos” at ninety, a month before his death

Burke was thirty-five before he obtained a seat in Parliament, yet he made the world feel his character Unknown at forty, Grant was one of the enerals in history at forty-two Eli Whitney enty-three when he decided to prepare for college, and thirty when he graduated froreat industrial future for the Southern States What a poas Bishty!

Lord Palmerston was an ”Old Boy” to the last He becaland the second tihty-one Galileo at seventy-seven, blind and feeble, orking every day, adapting the principle of the pendulue Stephenson did not learn to read and write until he had reached fellow's, Whittier's, and Tennyson's best as done after they were seventy

At sixty-three Dryden began the translation of the ”Aeneid” Robert Hall learned Italian when past sixty, that he inal Noah Webster studied seventeen languages after he was fifty

Cicero said well that ood

With enthusiasm we may retain the youth of the spirit until the hair is silvered, even as the Gulf Streaes thine heart,--towards youth? If not, doubt thy fitness for thy work”