Begin! Begin! Begin!!!

Whatever people may think of you, do that which you believe to be
right. Be alike indifferent to censure or praise.--PYTHAGORAS.

I dare to do all that may become a man:
Who dares do more is none.
SHAKESPEARE.

For man's great actions are performed in minor struggles. There are
obstinate and unknown braves who defend themselves inch by inch in the
shadows against the fatal invasion of want and turpitude. There are
noble and mysterious triumphs which no eye sees, no renown rewards, and
no flourish of trumpets salutes. Life, misfortune, isolation,
abandonment, and poverty are battlefields which have their
heroes.--VICTOR HUGO.

Quit yourselves like men.--1 SAMUEL iv. 9.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE WILL AND THE WAY

"I will find a way or make one."

Nothing is impossible to the man who can will.--MIRABEAU.

The iron will of one stout heart shall make a thousand quail:
A feeble dwarf, dauntlessly resolved, will turn the tide of battle,
And rally to a nobler strife the giants that had fled.--TUPPER.

In the lexicon of youth which fate reserves for a bright manhood there
is no such word as fail.--BULWER.

When a firm and decisive spirit is recognized, it is curious to see how
the space clears around a man and leaves him room and freedom.--JOHN
FOSTER.

"As well can the Prince of Orange pluck the stars from the sky, as
bring the ocean to the wall of Leyden for your relief," was the
derisive shout of the Spanish soldiers when told that the Dutch fleet
would raise that terrible four months' siege of 1574. But from the
parched lips of William, tossing on his bed of fever at Rotterdam, had
issued the command: "_Break down the dikes: give Holland back to
ocean!_" and the people had replied: "Better a drowned land than a lost
land." They began to demolish dike after dike of the strong lines,
ranged one within another for fifteen miles to their city of the
interior. It was an enormous task; the garrison was starving; and the
besiegers laughed in scorn at the slow progress of the puny insects who
sought to rule the waves of the sea. But ever, as of old, Heaven aids
those who help themselves. On the first and second of October a
violent equinoctial gale rolled the ocean inland, and swept the fleet
on the rising waters almost to the camp of the Spaniards. The next
morning the garrison sallied out to attack their enemies, but the
besiegers had fled in terror under