Brave Men and Women: Their Struggles, Failures and Triumphs

Struggle, failure, triumph: while triumph is the thing sought, struggle has its joy, and failure is not without its uses. "It is not the goal," says Jean Paul, "but the course which makes us happy." The law of life is what a great orator affirmed of oratory--"Action, action, action!" As soon as one point is gained, another, and another presents itself. "It is a mistake," says Samuel Smiles, "to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failure." He cites, among others, the example of Cowper, who, through his diffidence and shyness, broke down when pleading his first cause, and lived to revive the poetic art in England; and that of Goldsmith, who failed in passing as a surgeon, and yet wrote the "Deserted Village" and the "Vicar of Wakefield." Even when one turns to no new course, how many failures, as a rule, mark the way to triumph, and brand into life, as with a hot iron, the lessons of defeat!