subjects. In Bohemia a certain sect was formed, made up of thrifty, honest and hard-working peasants, who believed in God and named themselves deists. This offended the Emperor and he gave instructions to have them brought to justice; those who determined to stand by their belief were to receive twenty-five lashes "not because they are deists," said Joseph, "but because they declare themselves to be something which they do not comprehend." The lash did not prove effective, so he deported them.
(2335)
PERSEVERANCE
The gentlest and least noticed efforts if repeated persistently enough will have their effect in due time. This is a lesson to be learned by those who are trying forward movements of reform:
In a gun-factory a great bar of steel,
weighing five hundred pounds, and eight feet
in length, was suspended vertically by a
very delicate chain. Near by a common
bottle-cork was suspended by a silk thread.
The purpose was to show that the cork
could set the steel bar in motion. It seemed
impossible. The cork was swung gently
against the steel bar, and the steel bar remained
motionless. But it was done again
and again and again for ten minutes, and
lo! at the end of that time the bar gave
evidence of feeling uncomfortable; a sort
of nervous chill ran over it. Ten minutes
later, and the chill was followed by vibrations.
At the end of half an hour the
great bar was swinging like the pendulum of
a clock. (Text.)
(2336)
It is not clear that Paganini owed much to any one but himself—his indomitable perseverance and his incessant study. His method is to be noted. For ten or twelve hours he would try passages over and over again in different ways with such absorption and intensity that at nightfall he would sink into utter prostration through excessive exhaustion and fatigue. Tho delicate, like Mendelssohn, he ate at times ravenously and slept soundly. When about ten he wrote twenty-four fugues, and soon afterward composed some violin music, of such difficulty that he was unable at first to play it, until incessant practise gave him the mastery.—H. R. Haweis, "My Musical Memories."
(2337)
I once thought I would like to test the perseverance of a large moth in performing its first upward journey; and as it was one from a chrysalis to be found in nature at the foot of a tree that attains some considerable height, I was, of course, prepared to exercise a little patience myself.
As soon as the moth had emerged, I placed it at the bottom of a window curtain that hung about eight feet high to the floor. In less than half a minute it had reached the top and was struggling hard to get still higher. I took it down and again placed it at the bottom. Up it went as fast as before, and this was repeated nine times with exactly the same result.—W. Furneaux, "Butterflies and Moths.
(2338)
"Years of fruitless and apparently hopeless toil had almost determined the directors of the London Missionary Society to abandon altogether the work at Tahiti. Dr. Haweis, chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon, one of the founders of the society, and the father and liberal supporter of the South Sea Mission, earnestly opposed such abandonment of the field, and backed his arguments by a further donation of a thousand dollars. The Rev. Matthew Wilks, the pastor of John Williams, declared that he would sell the clothes from his back rather than give up the mission, and proposed, instead, a season of special prayer for the divine blessing. Such a season was observed; letters of encouragement were written to the missionaries, and—mark it!—while the vessel was on her way to carry these letters to Tahiti, another ship passed her in mid-ocean, which conveyed to Great Britain, October, 1813, the news that idolatry was entirely overthrown on the island, and bore to London the rejected idols of the people." (Text.)—Pierson, "The Miracles of Missions."
(2339)
A young girl sat singing at the piano. "Sing it again," said the singing teacher, and the tired girl sang it again and again and again. "But you do not sing it properly, and I question if you will ever make a great singer." But the little girl tried hard and practised the next day and the next; the next week and the next; the next year and the next. One day she stood before 5,000 men and women, and she sang till she seemed to take them out of themselves and to carry them up in the clouds of enchantment, over
