at
enthusiasm alone seemed to give strength to his body.

Indifference never leads armies that conquer, never models statues that
live, nor breathes sublime music, nor harnesses the forces of nature,
nor rears impressive architecture, nor moves the soul with poetry, nor
the world with heroic philanthropies. Enthusiasm, as Charles Bell says
of the hand, wrought the statue of Memnon and hung the brazen gates of
Thebes. It fixed the mariner's trembling needle upon its axis, and
first heaved the tremendous bar of the printing-press. It opened the
tubes for Galileo, until world after world swept before his vision, and
it reefed the high topsail that rustled over Columbus in the morning
breezes of the Bahamas. It has held the sword with which freedom has
fought her battles, and poised the axe of the dauntless woodman as he
opened the paths of civilization, and turned the mystic leaves upon
which Milton and Shakespeare inscribed their burning thoughts.

Horace Greeley said that the best product of labor is the high-minded
workman with an enthusiasm for his work.

"The best method is obtained by earnestness," said Salvini. "If you
can impress people with the conviction that you feel what you say, they
will pardon many shortcomings. And above all, study, study, study!
All the genius in the world will not help you along with any art,
unless you become a hard student. It has taken me years to master a
single part."

There is a "go," a zeal, a furore, almost a fanaticism for one's ideals
or calling, that is peculiar to our American temperament and life. You
do not find this in tropical countries. It did not exist fifty years
ago. It could not be found then even on the London Exchange. But the
influence of the United States and of Australia, where, if a person is
to succeed, he must be on the jump with all the ardor of his being, has
finally extended until what used to be the peculiar strength of a few
great minds has now become characteristic of the leading nations.
Enthusiasm is the being awake; it is the tingling of every fiber of
one's being to do the work that one's heart desires. Enthusiasm made
Victor Hugo lock up his clothes while writing "Notre Dame," that he
might not leave the work until it was finished. The great actor
Garrick well illustrated it when asked by an unsuccessful preacher the
secret of his power over audiences: "You speak of eternal verities and
what you know to be true as if you hardly beli