ontagious, and carries others along with it. His stronger nature
awes weaker natures into silence, or inspires them with his own will and
purpose.

The persistent man will not be baffled or repulsed by opposition.
Diogenes, desirous of becoming the disciple of Antisthenes, went and
offered himself to the cynic. He was refused. Diogenes still persisting,
the cynic raised his knotty staff, and threatened to strike him if he
did not depart. "Strike!" said Diogenes; "you will not find a stick
hard enough to conquer my perseverance." Antisthenes, overcome, had not
another word to say, but forthwith accepted him as his pupil.

Energy of temperament, with a moderate degree of wisdom, will carry a
man further than any amount of intellect without it. Energy makes the
man of practical ability. It gives him VIS, force, MOMENTUM. It is the
active motive power of character; and if combined with sagacity and
self-possession, will enable a man to employ his powers to the best
advantage in all the affairs of life.

Hence it is that, inspired by energy of purpose, men of comparatively
mediocre powers have often been enabled to accomplish such extraordinary
results. For the men who have most powerfully influenced the world have
not been so much men of genius as men of strong convictions and enduring
capacity for work, impelled by irresistible energy and invincible
determination: such men, for example, as were Mahomet, Luther, Knox,
Calvin, Loyola, and Wesley.

Courage, combined with energy and perseverance, will overcome
difficulties apparently insurmountable. It gives force and impulse to
effort, and does not permit it to retreat. Tyndall said of Faraday, that
"in his warm moments he formed a resolution, and in his cool ones
he made that resolution good." Perseverance, working in the right
direction, grows with time, and when steadily practised, even by the
most humble, will rarely fail of its reward. Trusting in the help of
others is of comparatively little use. When one of Michael Angelo's
principal patrons died, he said: "I begin to understand that the
promises of the world are for the most part vain phantoms, and that to
confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value, is the
best and safest course."

Courage is by no means incompatible with tenderness. On the contrary,
gentleness and tenderness have been found to characterise the men,
not less than the women, who have done the most courageous deeds. Sir
Charles