chivalry is not gone by. This is as knightly a deed as poet
ever chronicled.

A mouse that dwelt near the abode of a great magician was kept in such
constant distress by its fear of a cat, that the magician, taking pity
on it, turned it into a cat itself. Immediately it began to suffer
from its fear of a dog, so the magician turned it into a dog. Then it
began to suffer from fear of a tiger. The magician therefore turned it
into a tiger. Then it began to suffer from fear of hunters, and the
magician said in disgust: "Be a mouse again. As you have only the
heart of a mouse, it is impossible to help you by giving you the body
of a nobler animal."

Men who have dared have moved the world, often before reaching the
prime of life. It is astonishing what daring to begin and perseverance
have enabled even youths to achieve. Alexander, who ascended the
throne at twenty, had conquered the known world before dying at
thirty-three. Julius Caesar captured eight hundred cities, conquered
three hundred nations, and defeated three million men, became a great
orator and one of the greatest statesmen known, and still was a young
man. Washington was appointed adjutant-general at nineteen, was sent
at twenty-one as an ambassador to treat with the French, and won his
first battle as a colonel at twenty-two. Lafayette was made general of
the whole French army at twenty. Charlemagne was master of France and
Germany at thirty. Conde was only twenty-two when he conquered at
Rocroi. Galileo was but eighteen when he saw the principle of the
pendulum in the swinging lamp in the cathedral at Pisa. Peel was in
Parliament at twenty-one. Gladstone was in Parliament before he was
twenty-two, and at twenty-four he was Lord of the Treasury. Elizabeth
Barrett Browning was proficient in Greek and Latin at twelve; De
Quincey at eleven. Robert Browning wrote at eleven poetry of no mean
order. Cowley, who sleeps in Westminster Abbey, published a volume of
poems at fifteen. N. P. Willis won lasting fame as a poet before
leaving college. Macaulay was a celebrated author before he was
twenty-three. Luther was but twenty-nine when he nailed his famous
thesis to the door of the bishop and defied the pope. Nelson was a
lieutenant in the British Navy before he was twenty. He was but
forty-seven when he received his death wound at Trafalgar. Charles the
Twelfth was only nineteen when he gained the battle of Narva; at
thirty-six, Cortez wa