Had not my youthful mind, says Cicero, "from many precepts, from many
writings, drunk in this truth, that glory and virtue ought to be the
darling, nay, the only wish in life; that, to attain these, the torments
of the flesh, with the perils of death and exile, are to be despised;
never had I exposed my person in so many encounters, and to these daily
conflicts with the worst of men, for your deliverance. But, on this head,
books are full; the voice of the wise is full; the examples of antiquity
are full: and all these the night of barbarism had still enveloped, had it
not been enlightened by the sun of science."
The poet tells us that
"The many fail: the one succeeds." [1]
But this is scarcely true. All succeed who deserve, though not perhaps as
they hoped. An honorable defeat is better than a mean victory, and no one
is really the worse for being beaten, unless he loses heart. Though we may
not be able to attain, that is no reason why we should not aspire.
I know, says Morris,
"How far high failure overleaps the bound
Of low successes.
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