112 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



creed he then proclaimed, so visionary and fanciful to that generation, is to-day 

 the cherished hope of the world. 



A further analysis of the fanaticism that has happily affected human destiny, 

 reveals the quality of resolute tenacity. In all the realm of action what victories- 

 have followed the man who knew how to cling to his purpose ! What obstacles 

 have yielded to his defiant will? "There is no difficulty to him that wills." 

 Repulse gives him strength. Advance tightens his lips. The unexpected finds 

 him prepared. Over the disaster he flies the banner of hope. Beyond the hour, 

 whether it be cruel with tempests or flaming with light, he beholds enthroned the 

 object of his desires, and toward it he presses with unswerving resolution. 



The dreamer of Bedford jail saw poor Pilgrim diverted from his noble 

 path by a pleasant arbor on the slope of an arduous hill, and all along his journey 

 images of delight and visages of despair intimidated or allured him. Not as the 

 man whose life when spent passes from an erratic and meteoric course into 

 the steady and benign radiance of a fixed star. The good he would do, the 

 benevolence he would create, so absorbed and overpowered all other tendencies 

 that temptation rarely assailed and never overcame his dominant desire. 



Longfellow exclaims : 



" O, Palissy, within thy breast 

 Burned the hot fever of unrest; 

 Thine was the prophet's vision, thine 

 The exultation, the divine 

 Insanity of noble minds 

 That never falters nor abates. 

 But labors and endures and waits, 

 Till all it hath forseen it finds. 

 Or what it cannot find, creates." 



Genius without this " tendency to persevere" is certain to faiL It runs 

 well for a season, but anon it falls out by the way. 



The man who never forgets a benefit, how he is loved ! The most ignoble 

 mind admires fidelity — friendship. The world pays homage to the man who 

 clings to a friend. It despises him who measures his action to another by the 

 sordid reflection, "How will this affect my future?" He who profits by an- 

 other's baseness, yet mutters to himself the old saying' " I love the treason, I 

 loathe the traitor." There are no passages in history so repulsive as those which 

 bring before us the betrayal of a friend or patron by the ambitious or insincere 

 man. The " Art thou in health, my brother, " of Joab, the dagger of Brutus, the 

 kiss of Judas, the gilded treachery of Marlborough, the unholy revenge of Arnold, 

 with what aversion does the historian and poet dwell upon them. 



This quality of endurance illumines the good cause with radiance, and even 

 when it touches a bad one it evokes a degree of wonder. Such is the effect of 

 the picture Milton limns of Satan drawing himself above the fiery billows and 

 resting his " unblest feet" on land that ever " burned with solid fire, " there to 



