THE ENTOMOLOGISTS 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 223.] SATURDAY, JANUARY 12, 1861 [Price Id. 
PERSEVERANCE. 
Perseverance is “ the act or state of 
persisting in anything undertaken ; con- 
tinued pursuit or prosecution of any 
business or enterprise begun.” 
Can this quality be cultivated? 
surely it can. 
“ By perseverance,” observes a writer, 
“ is meant a steadfastness in pursuing 
the same study, and studying and car- 
rying out the same plans from week 
to week. Some will read or hear of 
a plan which somebody has pursued 
with great success, and at once con- 
clude that they will do so. The plan 
will be adopted without consideration, 
then talked about as a fine affair, and 
in a few days thrown aside for some- 
thing else.” 
“ The man,” it has been remarked, 
“who is perpetually hesitating which 
of two things be will do first, will do 
neither. The man who resolves, but 
suffers his resolution to be changed 
by the first counter-suggestion of a 
friend, who fluctuates from opinion to 
opinion, from plan to plan, and veers 
like a weathercock to every point of 
the compass with every breath of 
caprice that blows, can never accom- 
plish anything great or useful. Instead 
of being progressive in anything, he 
will be at best stationary, and more 
probably retrograde in all.” 
Perseverance may be made habitual ; 
and he who fails to persevere may, in 
like manner, acquire a habit of not 
persevering. Hence, if perseverance be 
a desirable quality, it is of extreme 
importance that the habit of persevering 
be acquired and assiduously culti- 
vated. 
Why is not perseverance more com- 
mon ? It is felt burdensome and 
irksome to continue steadily working 
on at the same pursuit for a lengthened 
period of time ; hut a habit of not per- 
severing renders this feeling of irksome- 
ness more frequent and even more 
distressing; it aggravates the com- 
plaint. It is analogous to a drunkard 
persisting in drinking because he has 
already drunk too much. 
Whatever task is undertaken let it 
be accomplished ; persist, persevere, and 
it will be accomplished. 
Perseverance without quickness will 
always be found, in the long run, to 
a 
