ndomitable energy and persuasiveness of Mr.
Field, who worked day and night almost without food or sleep, the whole
project would have been abandoned. Finally a third attempt was made,
with such success that the whole cable was laid without a break, and
several messages were flashed through nearly seven hundred leagues of
ocean, when suddenly the current ceased.

Faith now seemed dead except in the breast of Cyrus W. Field, and one
or two friends, yet with such persistence did they work that they
persuaded men to furnish capital for yet another trial even against
what seemed their better judgment. A new and superior cable was loaded
upon the _Great Eastern_, which steamed slowly out to sea, paying out
as she advanced. Everything worked to a charm until within six hundred
miles of Newfoundland, when the cable snapped and sank. After several
attempts to raise it, the enterprise was abandoned for a year.

Not discouraged by all these difficulties, Mr. Field went to work with
a will, organized a new company, and made a new cable far superior to
anything before used, and on July 13, 1866, was begun the trial which
ended with the following message sent to New York:--

"HEART'S CONTENT, July 27.

"We arrived here at nine o'clock this morning. All well. Thank God!
the cable is laid and is in perfect working order.

"CYRUS W. FIELD."

The old cable was picked up, spliced, and continued to Newfoundland,
and the two are still working, with good prospects for usefulness for
many years.

In Revelation we read: "He that overcometh, I will give him to sit down
with me on my throne."

Successful men, it is said, owe more to their perseverance than to
their natural powers, their friends, or the favorable circumstances
around them. Genius will falter by the side of labor, great powers
will yield to great industry. Talent is desirable, but perseverance is
more so.

"How long did it take you to learn to play?" asked a young man of
Geradini. "Twelve hours a day for twenty years," replied the great
violinist. Lyman Beecher when asked how long it took him to write his
celebrated sermon on the "Government of God," replied, "About forty
years."

A Chinese student, discouraged by repeated failures, had thrown away
his book in despair, when he saw a poor woman rubbing an iron bar on a
stone to make a needle. This example of patience sent him back to his
studies with a new determination, and he became one of the three