t, like an ample shield,
Can take in all, and verge enough for more;
Fate was not mine, nor am I Fate's:
Souls know no conquerors.
_Dryden_.

CHAPTER VI.

STAYING POWER.

"Never give up, there are chances and changes,
Helping the hopeful, a hundred to one;
And, through the chaos, High Wisdom arranges
Ever success, if you'll only hold on.
Never give up; for the wisest is boldest,
Knowing that Providence mingles the cup,
And of all maxims, the best, as the oldest,
Is the stern watchword of 'Never give up!'"

Be firm; one constant element of luck
Is genuine, solid, old Teutonic pluck.
_Holmes_.

Success in most things depends on knowing how long it takes to
succeed.--_Montesquieu_.

The power to hold on is characteristic of all men who have accomplished
anything great; they may lack in some other particular, have many
weaknesses or eccentricities, but the quality of persistence is never
absent from a successful man. No matter what opposition he meets or what
discouragement overtakes him, drudgery cannot disgust him, obstacles
cannot discourage him, labor cannot weary him; misfortune, sorrow, and
reverses cannot harm him. It is not so much brilliancy of intellect, or
fertility of resource, as persistency of effort, constancy of purpose,
that makes a great man. Those who succeed in life are the men and women
who keep everlastingly at it, who do not believe themselves geniuses,
but who know that if they ever accomplish anything they must do it by
determined and persistent industry.

Audubon after years of forest life had two hundred of his priceless
drawings destroyed by mice.

"A poignant flame," he relates, "pierced my brain like an arrow of fire,
and for several weeks I was prostrated with fever. At length physical
and moral strength awoke within me. Again I took my gun, my game-bag, my
portfolio, and my pencils, and plunged once more into the depths of the
forests."

All are familiar with the misfortune of Carlyle while writing his
"History of the French Revolution." After the first volume was ready for
the press, he loaned the manuscript to a neighbor, who left it lying on
the floor, and the servant girl took it to kindle the fire. It was a
bitter disappointment, but Carlyle was not the man to give up. After
many months of poring Over hundreds of volumes of authorities and scores
of manuscripts, he reproduc