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.Our buildings, if they are less durable so far as actual solidity is concerned, arenevertheless less liable to perish than the pyramids.We no longer rely merely upon huge blocks of stone which are brought together by thesuperhuman toil of laboring thousands.Our efforts go farther than this.Our great achievements are accomplished not by forcealone, but by persevering intelligence, that is to say by the assiduity and continuity oflabor. 77If we no longer leave to our descendants works that bear mute witness to sheer strengthtoiling in the service of imperial pride, we strive to leave them a reminder of the progressof which our legitimate ambition has been the motive power.One must not cry out that genius is not within the reach of all the world and that the menare rare indeed who can hope to associate their names with a great work.There is not one of us who has not a mission to fulfill.For some of us this may be to preserve intact the names and the fortunes of our ancestors.By others, and these are by far the most numerous, this fortune has to be acquired.As far as a name is concerned they can repeat the celebrated phrase of a marshal of thefirst empire:"We are our own ancestors!"That is to say that if our names have never become illustrious it is therefore left to us togive them a luster which shall render them immortal by its fame.Of this number are the men of science, the inventors--all those, in fact, who, basing theirhopes upon the value of reiterated efforts, march steadily onward until they reach thecoveted goal.It may be objected at this point that we are speaking now only of the pick of mankind, andthat the great majority of men do not carry within them the ability that could make themfamous.But how frequently we meet men who either through idleness, through carelessness, orthrough instability of purpose neglect to put to the proper use the gifts with which naturehas endowed them.Have we not all read that the discovery of the law of gravity was due to the fall of anapple, which, one day, became detached from the tree and dropt at the feet of Newton?Yet this incident has been repeated, through all the centuries, many millions of times everyday, and still this common sight had never until then aroused the thought of a singleperson.But this little incident, so absolutely ordinary in itself, produced in the brain of the scientista flood of light, due to the influence of the dominant idea, which, with a rare perseverance,continually haunted his thoughts.One of the most striking examples of the enormous effect of a dominant idea followed outwith dogged tenacity is furnished us by Galileo, who preserved in the recesses of his brain 78for several years the idea of the measuring of time, which was suggested to him when hewas only eighteen years old.At this period, his attention, already alert, was attracted by the act of an attendant in thechurch at Pisa, who, after having replenished the lamp of the sanctuary with oil, allowed itto swing to and fro without disturbing its balance.It was not until fifty years later that he actually embodied his persevering meditations inpractical form.What would have happened if in the impetuosity of his eighteenth year he had endeavoredto put into realized form what his observation had suggested to him?One might suppose, without being accused of pessimism, that it would have beenimpossible for him at that age to devise a solution as complete as that which he was ableto prepare after long years of study along allied lines and an extended period of ponderingover the idea.To those who are lacking in ordinary courage it will be fair to remark that theperseverance which enables us to accomplish a result, that is to say to realize our dreams,is most frequently due to a series of efforts which at last become a habit.By this means they lose their difficulty for us, for constant repetition renders them quiteeasy.Then with the joy of success there mingles that which is always born of the feeling of dutyaccomplished and of progress realized.What more is needed to render agreeable in the present the toil which paves the way forthe comfort and peace of the future?For most of us, perseverance has no other goal but this.It is the means for achieving thesuccess that means a fortune to us, that is to say which ensures the security of our futurelives.Only for a few commonplace minds is fortune merely the satisfaction of avarice.The ease of soul that comes from the realization of one's ambitions is quite unknown tothem [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]