Chapter 4

APPLICATION AND PERSEVERANCE. Great results attained by simple means—Fortune favours 94–117 the industrious—“Genius is patience”—Newton and Kepler—Industry of eminent men—Power acquired by repeated effort—Anecdote of Sir Robert Peel’s cultivation of memory—Facility comes by practice—Importance of patience—Cheerfulness—Sydney Smith—Dr. Hook—Hope an important element in character—Carey the missionary—Anecdote of Dr. Young—Anecdote of Audubon the ornithologist—Anecdote of Mr. Carlyle and his MS. of the ‘French Revolution’—Perseverance of Watt and Stephenson—Perseverance displayed in the discovery of the Nineveh marbles by Rawlinson and Layard—Comte de Buffon as student—His continuous and unremitting labours—Sir Walter Scott’s perseverance—John Britton—Loudon—Samuel Drew—Joseph Hume