Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1852-12-31

Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose

That you resolved to Effect Shakespeare.
A weak spirit will be crushed by Che
same nisfortunes which wos,la ronss a
strong one to exertion. The same storm
which fixes more firmly the giant oak, roots
up the tender saplings.
Stroke after stroke fells that
/" Unwedgeable ind gnaried oak"
Effort after effort oyercomes q gnarled, un-
gracious fortune.
Bonaparte once said: 81 have no idea of
merchant acquiring fortune as general
wins battle-at single blow"
This slap-dash way Of acquiring fortune
has been ruinous to very many young mer-
chants. They covet Aladdin's lamp; with
one smart rub they would summer the
genii, and obtain countless treasures.
Disappointed in their sanguinary expec-
tations, and perhaps utterly ruined and
bankrupt, instead of beginning in mode
rate way, with experience for their guide,
they have either entirely forsaken mercan-
tile affairs, or struck another "blow," so
violent that the rebound has crushed them
to the earth.
To know how to wait is the great means
ofsuccess, says modern French writer to
know how to persevere is the surest means
of success in my undertaking, and this in
wolves patientcwAiting.
Perseverance is like taste for olives
when they are not indigenous; it is not
natural gift like genius, it is an acquire
ment. True, some persons more easily con-
tinue steadfast in career than others, but
after all, anybody can persevere if they
only aviu.
When the boy takes his gun, and goes
out in the morning to shoot birds, he re-
solves not to go home with ais game-bag
empty. Miles and "mileses," as Hood says,
he tramps over field and ford, mud and mire,
through the bushes, over hedges and stone
walls, tearing his trousers and his shins,
bruising his hand and blistering his feet
and all for what purpose? Success.
'.all things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than enjoy"
"Men prize the thing ungain'd more than it is"
All? but there are more dragons in the
way to mercantile success, and fiercer ones,
than guarded the golden apples Of the Hes
perides.
eight them, and the cravens Zee, thy boldness is
their panic;
Fear the and thy treacherous heart hath lent their
rank legion"
Stephen Girard, at the age of forty, COM
manded his own sloep. engaged in the coast
ing-trade between New York, Philadelphia,
and New Orleans. He had taken many
steps on the ladder of Fortune since he was
a cabin boy not worth a shilling-but think
of his perseverance in mounting that ladder,
step by step, till he was worth seven or eight
millions of dollars.
The following anecdote of an oriental
sovereign is given by Malcolm, in his His
tory of Persia:
"There was no feature more remarkable
In the character OF Tlmour, than his extra
ordinary perseverance. No difficulties ever
led him to recede from what he had under
taken, and he often persisted in his efforts,
under circumstances that led all around him
to despair. He used, on such occasions, to
relate to bis friends an anecdote of his early
life
"I onee," said he, "was forced to take
shelter from nay enemies in ruined build
ing, where I sat alone many hours. Desir-
ing to divert my mind from its hopeless con-
dition, fixed my observation on an ant that
was carrying grain of corn larger than it.
self up high wall. Numbered the efforts
it made to accomplish this object. The
grain fell sixty-nine times to the ground,
but the insect persevered, and the SEVENTEEN
time it reached the top of the wall. This
sight gave me courage at the moment, and
shall never forget the lesson it conveyed"
This reminds us of Bruce's spider, whose
efforts were nearly as numerous before the
object was accomplished.