Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1866-02-09
from the Home Gazette,

The most successful men in the world have
been fatal;sts. BY this term we mean that
they have believed in the ultimate success Of
their undertakings. Caesar, Napoleon, Crom
well, Jackson, (both Andrew and Stonewall,3
Mahomet, and others memorable for the aS-
complishment Of great works were men who
acted upon the firm bcliefin their certain sue
cess. 1t is very easy to see E,hy this has been
so unfailing rule. The man Who under
takes any enterprise must either succeed or
fail. He makes up his mind once for all as
to his course, and all that remains is to go
on with his work. His plan is drawn, his
scheme is complete. He now looks entirely
to the result lie believes Mat result UiU GER
tainly tollow if he continues firm and steady
to the last. Hence he never falters, never
yields to fear, never entertains the question
of failure at all. And while sometimes he
does fail, still in vast majority Of cases he
succeeds. This mar il braze he Possesses
the true spirit Of faith, which is courage
Without faith you are the most pitiful ofcow-
ards. And Why? Because you distrust
yourself, you distrust the world, and you ac-
tually and seriously treat with contempt the
infallible God himself You are always
afraid You are ever on the lookout for dis
aster. You are perpetually signing, {" All,
If I could only succeed p You never omit,
even by accident, that conditioned f.
You are firmly fixed in the opinion that moth
ing is sure in this world When you express
an intention to go to any place you are very
particular to insert some qualification, such
as g if ive," or &c if my health viii permit :"
You are always enlisted on the side of doubt,
of dissent of fear If your neighbor builds
a new house, you hopelessly assent that he
may possibly get it paid for some day but
you are really afraid that he won't--you don't
see how he can raise the money. When some
one suggests to you that you are paying large
house rent, and that you had better buy or
build house for yourself, you answer de-
spondingly that you have not the means of
paying for it, Your friend returns that you
have a good salary-that you can pay in in
stalments. You rejoin that it's true your
salary is good, but your family expenses are
large. He suggests that you will be able to
curtail those expenses when you pay no rent
You close the discussion by assuring him that
your nedItn Is very pooT-tnaI you con thlnK
you will last beyond this season, and that
when you die you don't want to leave your
family in debt. Then you are profoundly
respondent. You eons der it as your duty
to lengthen your countenance, to look stead
fastly upon the ground, to speak in very weak
and pitiful tones, and to believe yourself a
much injured and profoundly suffering man.
The brave and sensible spirit doesn't fol-
low this rule. He believes that the world
will move on tomorrow just as it did yester-
day. He acts On the presumption that he
will certainly 1--we until his time comes to die
that his health will be as good next month as
it was last month that his salary will be paid
hereafter Che came as heretofore that, in
short, God will not especially stop the ordi-
nary course of events in nature, for the spe-
cial purpose of destroying him, poor man.