y of Socrates, of Galileo, of Hampden, and
of Washington. What great things had these men done by constancy,
in opposition to the wills and prejudices of the outside world! How
triumphant they now appeared to have been in fighting against the
enormous odds which power had brought against them! And how pleasant
now were the very sounds of their names to all who loved their
fellow-creatures! In some moments of private thought, anxious as
were now my own, they too must have doubted. They must have asked
themselves the question, whether they were strong enough to carry
their great reforms against the world. But in these very moments the
necessary strength had been given to them. It must have been that,
when almost despairing, they had been comforted by an inner truth,
and had been all but inspired to trust with confidence in their
cause. They, too, had been weak, and had trembled, and had almost
feared. But they had found in their own hearts that on which they
could rely. Had they been less sorely pressed than was I now at this
present moment? Had not they believed and trusted and been confident?
As I thought of it, I became aware that it was not only necessary for
a man to imagine new truths, but to be able to endure, and to suffer,
and to bring them to maturity. And how often before a truth was
brought to maturity must it be necessary that he who had imagined
it, and seen it, and planned it, must give his very life for it,
and all in vain? But not perhaps all in vain as far as the world
was concerned; but only in vain in regard to the feelings and
knowledge of the man himself. In struggling for the welfare of his
fellow-creatures, a man must dare to endure to be obliterated,--must
be content to go down unheard of,--or, worse still, ridiculed, and
perhaps abused by all,--in order that something afterwards may remain
of those changes which he has been enabled to see, but not to carry
out. How many things are requisite to true greatness! But, first
of all, is required that self-negation which is able to plan new
blessings, although certain that those blessings will be accounted as
curses by the world at large.

Then I got up, and as I walked about the room I declared to myself
aloud my purpose. Though I might perish in the attempt, I would
certainly endeavour to carry out the doctrine of the Fixed Period.
Though the people might be against me, and regard me as their
enemy,--that people for whose welfare I had done it all,--