Perseverance in the steady pursuit of a laudable and lawful object, is
almost a sure path to eminence. It is a thing which seems to be inherent
in some, but it may be cultivated in all. Even those children who seem to
be either indolent like the sloth, or changeful as the butterfly, by the
skilful training of a watchful parent, may be endowed with the habit of
perseverance. The following anecdotes may aid in illustrating to youth
the nature and value of this virtue. The celebrated Timour the Tartar,
after a series of the most brilliant victories, was at length conquered
and made captive. Though confined in a prison, whose massive walls and
thick iron bars discouraged every attempt to escape, he still strove at
each chink and crevice to find some way of deliverance. At length, weary
and dispirited, he sat down in a corner of his gloomy prison, and gave
himself up to despair. While brooding over his sorrows, an ant, with a
piece of wood thrice as large as itself, attracted his attention. The
insect seemed desirous to ascend the perpendicular face of the wall, and
made several attempts to effect it. But after reaching a little
elevation, it came to a jutting angle of the stone, and fell backward to
the floor. But again, again, and again the attempt was renewed. The
monarch watched the struggles of the insect, and in the interest thus
excited forgot his own condition. The ant persevered, and at the sixtieth
trial surmounted the obstacle. Timour sprang to his feet, exclaiming, "I
will never despair--perseverance conquers all things!"
A similar anecdote is told of Robert Bruce, the restorer of the Scottish
monarchy. Being out on an expedition to reconnoitre the enemy, he had
occasion to sleep at night in a barn. In the morning, still reclining his
head on a pillow of straw, he beheld a spider climbing up a beam of the
roof. The insect fell to the ground, but immediately made a second essay
to ascend. This attracted the notice of the hero, who with regret saw the
spider fall a second time from the same eminence. It made a third
unsuccessful attempt. Not without a mixture of concern and curiosity, the
monarch twelve times beheld the insect baffled in its aim; but the
thirteenth essay was crowned with success. It gained the summit of the
barn; and the king, starting from his couch, exclaimed, "This despicable
insect has taught me perseverance! I will follow its example. Have I not
been twelve times defeated by the enemy's superior force? On one fight
more hangs the independence of my country!" In a few days his
anticipations were fully realised, by the glorious result, to Scotland,
of the battle of Bannockburn.
A few years since, while travelling in an adjacent state, I came to a
little valley, surrounded by rocky and precipitous hills. In that valley
was a single house. It was old, and, by its irregularity of form, seemed
to have been built at various periods. It was, however, in good
condition, and bespoke thrift and comfort. Not a shingle was missing from
the roof, no dangling clapboards disfigured its sides, no unhinged blinds
swung idly in the wind, no old hats were thrust through the windows. All
around was tidy and well-conditioned. The woodhouse was stored with tall
ranges of hickory, the barns were ample, and stacks of hay without
declared that it was full within. The soil around, as I have said, was
rocky, but cultivation had rendered it fertile. Thriving orchards, rich
pastures and prolific meadows, occupied the bed of the valley and the
rugged sides of the hills. I was struck with the scene, and when I
reached a village at the distance of two or three miles, I made some
inquiries, where I learnt the story of the proprietor. He was originally
a poor boy, and wholly dependent upon his own exertions. He was brought
up as a farmer, and began life as a day labourer. In childhood he had
read that "procrastination is the thief of time." He did not at first
understand its meaning, and pondered long upon this desperate thief who
bore the formidable title of PROCRASTINATION. It was at length explained
to him; but the struggles he had made to comprehend the adage fixed it
deep in his mind. He often thought of it, and, feeling its force, it
became the ruling maxim of his life. Following its dictates with
inflexible _perseverance_, he at length became proprietor of the little
valley I have described. Year by year it improved under his care, and at
the period of which I am speaking, he was supposed to be worth at least
twenty thousand dollars.
Such is the force of perseverance. It gives power to weakness, and opens
to poverty the world's wealth. It spreads fertility over the barren
landscape, and bids the choicest fruits and flowers spring up and
flourish in the desert abode of thorns and briars. Look at Boston! Where
are the three hills which first met the view of the pilgrims as they
sailed up its bay? Their tops are shorn down by man's perseverance. Look
at the granite hills of Quincy? Proudly anchored in the bosom of the
earth, they seem to defy the puny efforts of man, but they are yielding
to man's perseverance. Forbidden and hopeless as they would appear to the
eye of indolence and weakness, they are better than the treasures of Peru
and the gem-strewn mountains of Brazil, to a people endowed with the
hardy spirit of perseverance! They are better, for, while they enable
them to command the precious metals yielded by other climes, they cherish
a spirit and a power which all the gold of Golconda could not
purchase.--_Fireside Education, by S. G. Goodrich._