Experience amply shows that nothing valuable is to be attained without
labor. Exceptional cases apart, the rule of life is that what costs us
nothing is little worth, and that what is esteemed among men is the
prize of effort and self-denial. The rich harvest which rewards the
husbandman is the fitting sequel to a year of watchful and provident
exertion; the successful merchant reaches his envied fortune by the
closest vigilance combined with the most skilful calculation; whilst the
splendid structure of knowledge which the student aspires to rear is
only built up by long years of patient and sustained devotion.
Yet it is possible that labor may end in disappointment. Mere capacity
of working carries with it no guarantee of ultimate success. For one may
be always working, and yet may achieve little. “One thing to-day,
another to-morrow,” indicates a fickleness of temper which has rendered
many an active life well-nigh useless. Labor to be effective must be
steady. Energy must be under the guidance of purpose. It is the resolute
concentration, and not the fitful ebullition of effort, which surmounts
all obstacles. The fabled contest of speed between the hare and the
tortoise expresses in a homely way the truth which is patent to general
observation, that the cause of failure in any pursuit is more commonly
to be found in want of perseverance than in want of ability.
Most readers are familiar with the incident in the life of Robert Bruce,
strongly illustrative of the virtue of perseverance. The King, almost
despairing of success in his efforts to restore freedom to his country,
was lying one day in his little cabin, when his attention was caught by
a spider. The little animal, hanging at the end of a long thread of its
own spinning, was trying to swing itself from one beam in the roof to
another, for the purpose of fixing the line for its web. Not till the
seventh attempt did it succeed; but its success encouraged the King to
make one effort more. His perseverance met with its reward; for, as he
had never before gained a victory, so he never afterwards suffered any
serious defeat.
If, then, perseverance is the secret of success in life, it is surely
worth while for all to cultivate this virtue. The effort may be trying
and painful at first, but repetition gradually makes it easy, and even
pleasant. We should enter on the path of effort betimes, too, before
habits of self-indulgence have been acquired, which renders perseverance
impossible. Nothing is more certain than that this virtue is amongst the
most precious legacies which maturer years can inherit from a laborious
and well-spent youth.—_James Currie._