XIII. Perseverance, firmness, fortitude, constancy, courage and calmness, manfulness, dignity of mind, self-esteem and consistency, are each the same in principle and only different terms applied to a different degree of intensity or different relations and circumstances, or they stand to each other in the relation of principle and application, or, lastly, they are very nearly akin to one another, and one can hardly be imagined to exist without the other.

If we have made up our mind to be just, that is, to do what is right, (ex æquo et bono jus constat, quod ad veritatem et at utilitatem communem videtur pertinere) (1), we cannot adhere to our purpose without perseverance. Every purpose and object in life, through all spheres of action, require their proportionate degree of perseverance; the tillage of the ground requires its degree of perseverance, in the same manner as the study of a science, the diffusion of a great truth or other benefit to mankind, the carrying of a great measure or the delivery of a country from foes, foreign or domestic, do in their respective spheres; and the greater the object is which we feel in conscience bound to obtain, the greater is likewise the effort necessary for its attainment. To break a road over the high Alps, or pave it through morasses, requires greater labor than the laying out of a path over even ground, and the shedding light of truth in ages of darkness calls for stronger minds and firmer souls than the application of well-established truths to some single case. This no one ever denied; yet in practice we are apt to forget it. Difficulties, derision, clamor, defeats, or the despair of receiving due acknowledgment, are apt to dishearten sometimes the best and wisest. Yet had not lady Montagu or Jenner persevered, the one in introducing inoculation, the other, in proving the benefit of vaccination, despite of all lampoons, derision and the outcry of fanaticism against them, men would, to this day, perhaps, be subject to one of the most malignant diseases. Had not Frederic the Great of Prussia persevered in promoting the cultivation of the potato against a riotous opposition in several parts of his dominions, many individuals would have suffered famine in later times. They trusted to the truth or justice of their cause, and that, as Napoleon expressed it, "public opinion would come round again."

But, let us ask here, at once, is this return of public opinion, this acknowledgment of truth, a comfort to which man may look forward as an unfailing reward, which in the end cannot escape him? It is undoubtedly and happily true, that respecting public measures, in far the greater number of cases, the gradual acknowledgment of truth and justice will supersede passionate excitement and infatuation, and, still more, a man or a measure will gather additional strength from such a return of public opinion after having been deprived of it for a period. A citizen never wields greater power than when he has firmly stood the trial, unmoved and calm, and when public opinion returns to him, not he to it. Yet it is equally true that your life may pass in darkness, the best intentions may be misunderstood or reviled, and what is not true may, by repetition, acquire the appearance of substantiated fact. A man may tell the truth like Marco Polo, and yet like him be decried as a liar to his grave; century after century may hold him up as an impostor, until after the lapse of ages his strict veracity may be at length firmly established. We ought not to deceive ourselves; appearances may in

some cases be so strong against us, and by accident or whatever other cause, evidence to the contrary may be so totally destroyed, that the truth can never be known. A bitter fate indeed. And what then? Then, indeed, nothing is left except what is still the last and highest support, that derived from Him who is the inspiring motive of all noble and heroic actions. Your conscience remains, and even a heathen said, "justice and honesty are truly commendable in their own nature."

(1) Ad Herenn.

(2) Marco Polo, a Venetian, in the thirteenth century, went by land to China, where he resided many years. On his return he gave an account of his and his father's travels, which he composed when prisoner. He was totally disbelieved, proverbially called a liar, and mentioned by his fellow-citizens by nicknames only, which expressed their contempt. The various late embassies to that country, however, and the accounts of those, who have personal knowledge of it, confirm in a surprising manner Polo's veracity. See, among other works, Davis, The Chinese.

XIV. That the citizen be honestly and firmly persevering, requires that his purpose be good, his cause just, that he adapt his means to the purpose, and his purpose to his means; that he concentrate his means for the one great object in view, that he be ever mindful that repeated and uninterrupted action may compensate for the absence of great power, and that in cases of the greatest trial, when the struggle comes at the last between nearly balanced powers, a trifle must decide.

The first of these positions is clear, for perseverance is power and may be, and has frequently been, employed in the service of wicked ends. The second is, perhaps, equally clear, yet a forgetfulness of this rule has

disheartened many well-intentioned men, while in other cases presumptuous men have frittered away their talents and gifts, which otherwise might have been employed to excellent purposes, and they themselves have ended with a disappointed temper which is ever apt to betray men into acts of injustice, or entangle them even in nefarious designs projected by men more prudent and less principled. We have seen in several previous passages that without a degree of enthusiasm, and inspired love of the Good, men are in want of a principal inducement to be good; utility alone is insufficient to guide or support us. This enthusiasm however must be balanced by modesty, which will teach us that we should not assume our opinion as the sole guide, and that we must temper our desires and endeavors according to the respective spheres of action in which it has pleased a higher hand to place us. Not a few have injured the best causes because their ambition went beyond their talent, and they would not suffer the first place to be occupied by an abler man; or because they strove for objects wholly unattainable. The canvass which a vessel carries must be in proportion to the hull and cargo. A distinguished man, who was more variously endowed than most men, and most active throughout his life, one of the master-men of his age, Leonardo da Vinci, took the sentence of Terence: "If that cannot be, which thou wilt, will that, which can be " (1), for the motto of his life. He went farther and says: Wise is he that guides his will by that which he cannot perform. (2)

The third principle-to concentrate our strength upon one great object-is equally important; for a man cannot fight two battles at one time, and it is true in the moral

world as in the physical, that a force effects most in a straight line, and loses, the more obliquely it is applied. Singleness of purpose lends great strength. The clear perception of what we want, and in what way we ought to direct our endeavors, increases with it. And, again, in order to attain singleness of purpose it is important that we should clearly present to ourselves what it is we essentially strive for. No man takes good aim at an object enveloped in dimness. Timür, who will be allowed to have effected mighty things, enumerates among the twelve maxims, which he had laid down for himself, and advises his successors to follow, this as the eighth: "I acted with resolution; and on whatever undertaking I resolved, I made that undertaking the only object of my attention: and I withdrew not my hand from that enterprise, until I had brought it to a conclusion. (3) Quid vult, valde vult, said Cicero, of Brutus.

Fourthly, Repeated and uninterrupted action may compensate for the absence of power. The ancients said proverbially: Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed sæpe cadendo. And likewise, firm perseverance may effect much with small means. They were but crazy vessels in which Columbus discovered the new world and Ross reached the north pole. It is the natural course of things that few great objects are brought about at once; radical changes never. The ideas, of which the ultimate changes are but the manifestations, must make their way from within outward, from below upward and for this it is necessary both that a beginning, however insignificant, be made, and if once made, that it be followed up by steady action. As Demosthenes was laughed at when he first spoke, but by perseverance became the greatest orator, so there are few great ideas