Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1910. HEROISM OF PERSEVERANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10134, 7 December 1910, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1910. HEROISM OF PERSEVERANCE.

The "heroism of perseverance" is the subject of an interesting article in the Liverpool Weekly Mercury, a few extracts from which may perhaps induce some not "to faint by the way," but "be up and doing, still achieving, still pursuing." It points out that all scientific discoverers and inventors are heroes of perseverance. Newton, Watt, Arkwright, Darwin, Edison, and the rest have they not been heroic in pursuing science through weary watches of the night, until they have conquered? Lord Kelvin's heroism, (a writer in an interesting article in the Liverpool Weekly Mercury points out) was chiefly displayed in his perseverance in connection with the laying of the Atlantic cabkv This, as everybody knows, proved a failure in 1858, but, mainly on account of Lord Kelvin's heroic determination and pertinacity, the cable was successfully completed in 1866. One of Kelvin's friends. then spoke of him as another Columbus, watching the quivering magnet of his""galvanometer as Columbus, four centuries before, had ivfltched the compass needle on hi? 'bin, There rtre two phases

of heroism—that of impulse and that i of sustained endurance, of per sever- | ance in teetli of difficulties and anta- j , o-onisms to the hour of triumph. True ft may he that all heroic perseverance takes its rise in a noble impulse, like the river that rises in a moorland spring. Supreme and controlling aims descend upon the mind in the' form of intuitions and inspirations. You get a vision or the remote, sunlit, or suh-capped height which you feel you must climb in your own interest and for benefit to I your fellow-creatures. It comes to you mysteriously and in the least likely circumstances, and lingers with you 'as a master of light of all your seeing in after days. You may be no senilis, no Columbus, no inventor, no poet, not even the descendant of a poet. You have received your vision. Perhaps it took shape as something you discerned in manufacture, or trade, or politics that was needed in order to cure disonso and prevent death. Or it may be it was c.ily the vision of the beautiful face of a virtuous young woman, of faithful wedlock, of healthy children in a happy home. Let it bo what it might, that vision kindled a fire of noble impulse within yon, which burnt out selfishness, and lust. I and cowardice, and indolence, and gave you an aim in life, and developed your perseverance until you discovered in experience what Arnold meant when he sang of tasks willed in hours of insight being fulnlled m hours of gloom. x,ie writer deplores the decadence of the system of apprenticeship, which compelled youths to persevere in learning their trade and continues:—The chief historical cause of Britain's success in commerce has been the old-fashioned, patient, thrifty, persevering, heroic, British craftsmanship in the hands of proud artisan?, who wowd rather lose their dinner and go without a Sunday hat than bo'responsible for any kind of inferior work. Sport may train brave men for us—say golf, bowling, lawn tennis, and even the pastime of cards. Let the game, whatever form it may assume, be played with perseverance, with a determination to master its secrets ,to get to the top or thereabouts,, and the discipline will make you energetic and brave for sustained endurance of fortune's slings and arrows. The person who has no serious aim in lite is the least merry, and the most- miserable of mortals under the moon. Burial in Westminster monuments in public places, are due to heroes of perseverance, whose biographies guide and inspire the coming generations. But are there no heroes or heroines among the hidden working class and among, the poor, whose' sufferings and triumphs are never blazoned on any scroll of time? They, too, have their rewards. Through doleful avenues of struggle and pain and loss,, where the effort to accomplish a worthy aim never flags, they reach the highest experiences of thought and emoI tion.; •