The gentlest and least noticed efforts if repeated persistently enough
will have their effect in due time. This is a lesson to be learned by
those who are trying forward movements of reform:
In a gun-factory a great bar of steel, weighing five hundred
pounds, and eight feet in length, was suspended vertically by a
very delicate chain. Near by a common bottle-cork was suspended
by a silk thread. The purpose was to show that the cork could
set the steel bar in motion. It seemed impossible. The cork was
swung gently against the steel bar, and the steel bar remained
motionless. But it was done again and again and again for ten
minutes, and lo! at the end of that time the bar gave evidence
of feeling uncomfortable; a sort of nervous chill ran over it.
Ten minutes later, and the chill was followed by vibrations.
At the end of half an hour the great bar was swinging like the
pendulum of a clock. (Text.)
(2336)
* * * * *
It is not clear that Paganini owed much to any one but
himself--his indomitable perseverance and his incessant study.
His method is to be noted. For ten or twelve hours he would
try passages over and over again in different ways with such
absorption and intensity that at nightfall he would sink into
utter prostration through excessive exhaustion and fatigue. Tho
delicate, like Mendelssohn, he ate at times ravenously and slept
soundly. When about ten he wrote twenty-four fugues, and soon
afterward composed some violin music, of such difficulty that he
was unable at first to play it, until incessant practise gave
him the mastery.--H. R. HAWEIS, “My Musical Memories.”
(2337)
* * * * *
I once thought I would like to test the perseverance of a large
moth in performing its first upward journey; and as it was
one from a chrysalis to be found in nature at the foot of a
tree that attains some considerable height, I was, of course,
prepared to exercise a little patience myself.
As soon as the moth had emerged, I placed it at the bottom of
a window curtain that hung about eight feet high to the floor.
In less than half a minute it had reached the top and was
struggling hard to get still higher. I took it down and again
placed it at the bottom. Up it went as fast as before, and this
was repeated nine times with exactly the same result.--W.
FURNEAUX, “Butterflies and Moths.”
(2338)
* * * * *
“Years of fruitless and apparently hopeless toil had almost
determined the directors of the London Missionary Society to
abandon altogether the work at Tahiti. Dr. Haweis, chaplain to
the Countess of Huntingdon, one of the founders of the society,
and the father and liberal supporter of the South Sea Mission,
earnestly opposed such abandonment of the field, and backed
his arguments by a further donation of a thousand dollars. The
Rev. Matthew Wilks, the pastor of John Williams, declared that
he would sell the clothes from his back rather than give up
the mission, and proposed, instead, a season of special prayer
for the divine blessing. Such a season was observed; letters
of encouragement were written to the missionaries, and--mark
it!--while the vessel was on her way to carry these letters to
Tahiti, another ship passed her in mid-ocean, which conveyed
to Great Britain, October, 1813, the news that idolatry was
entirely overthrown on the island, and bore to London the
rejected idols of the people.” (Text.)--PIERSON, “The
Miracles of Missions.”
(2339)
* * * * *
A young girl sat singing at the piano. “Sing it again,” said the
singing teacher, and the tired girl sang it again and again and
again. “But you do not sing it properly, and I question if you
will ever make a great singer.” But the little girl tried hard
and practised the next day and the next; the next week and the
next; the next year and the next. One day she stood before 5,000
men and women, and she sang till she seemed to take them out of
themselves and to carry them up in the clouds of enchantment,
over seas of melody, into an ecstasy of delight, until the
people wept from the excess of their emotions. That girl was
Lillian Nordica.--JAMES T. WHITE, “Character Lessons.”
(2340)
* * * * *
A pious woman, when it was decided to close the prayer-meeting
in a certain village, declared it should not be, for she would
be there if no one else was. True to her word, when, the
next morning, some one asked her jestingly, “Did you have a
prayer-meeting last night?” “Ah, that we did!” she replied.
“How many were present?” “Four,” she said. “Why, I heard you
were there all alone.” “No, I was the only one visible; but the
Father was there, and the Son was there, and the Holy Spirit was
there, and we were all agreed in prayer.” Before long others
took shame to themselves at the earnest perseverance of the poor
woman, the prayer-meeting was revived and the church prospered.
(Text.)
(2341)
See CRIMINALS, TRACING; PERSISTENCE.
=Perseverance in Saving=--See PERSISTENCE IN DOING GOOD.
=Perseverance, Unexampled=--See AERIAL ACHIEVEMENT.