CHAPTER XVII.
STICK.
Patience is the courage of the conqueror; it is the virtue, _par excellence_, of Man against Destiny, of the One against the World, and of the Soul against Matter.

Therefore this is the courage of the Gospel; and its importance, in a social view--its importance to races and institutions--cannot be too earnestly inculcated.
-- BULWER.
Perpetual pushing and assurance put a difficulty out of countenance, and make a seeming impossibility give way.
-- JEREMY COLLIER.
To bear is to conquer fate.
-- CAMPBELL.
The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blenches, the thought that never wanders,--these are the masters of victory.
-- BURKE.
Let us, then, be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.
-- LONGFELLOW.
"How long did it take you to learn to play ?" asked a young man of Geradini.

"Twelve hours a day for twenty years," replied the great violinist.

Layman Beecher's father, when asked how long it took him to write his celebrated sermon on the "Government of God," replied, "About forty years." "If you will study a year I will teach you to sing well," said an Italian music teacher to a pupil who wished to know what can be hoped for with study; "if two years, you may excel.

If you will practice the scale constantly for three years, I will make you the best tenor in Italy; if for four years, you may have the world at your feet." Perceiving that Caffarelli had a fine tenor voice and unusual talent, a teacher offered to give him a thorough musical education free of charge, provided the pupil would promise never to complain of the course of instruction given.