“Think for a moment of the labors involved on the part of men who had nothing but rudimentary means at their disposal in bringing to a successful conclusion these gigantic works which occupied the lives of generations of toilers.”
It is impossible not to be struck with the power that comes from perseverance when one finds oneself face to face with the monuments of antiquity.
The gigantic sphinxes, which seem to defy the march of time, and which could pass in this world of ours as emblems of the eternal; the pyramids which have resisted the attacks of the elements for so many thousands of years, are above everything else monuments erected by the hand of man to the glory of perseverance.
Think for a moment of the labors involved on the part of men who had nothing but rudimentary means at their disposal in bringing to a successful conclusion these gigantic works which occupied the lives of generations of toilers.
Across the years, through the passing and the reappearing of untold companies of workmen, the dominant idea persisted unmoved, that of leaving to the people who should come after them their monument to the might of a nation.
This is the lesson above all others that should be drawn from this colossal effort so happily realized.
Without a doubt will-power, ingenuity, and endurance all had their part in this work of the Titans.
But all these qualities were mere satellites of the one dominating virtue–perseverance.
Of what use would have been all the toil of a single reign if the Pharaoh who came after had not continued the work of his predecessor?
Before long the scattered blocks of granite, buried under the shifting sands of the desert, would have rejoined in oblivion the ruins of cities, once famous all over the world, but whose very sites are no longer to be traced.
“We have established to-day a far different conception of the value of time and of human life.
Our buildings, if they are less durable so far as actual solidity is concerned, are nevertheless less liable to perish than the pyramids.
We no longer rely merely upon huge blocks of stone which are brought together by the superhuman toil of laboring thousands.
Our efforts go farther than this. Our great achievements are accomplished not by force alone, but by persevering intelligence, that is to say by the assiduity and continuity of labor.
If we no longer leave to our descendants works that bear mute witness to sheer strength toiling in the service of imperial pride, we strive to leave them a reminder of the progress of which our legitimate ambition has been the motive power.
One must not cry out that genius is not within the reach of all the world and that the men are rare indeed who can hope to associate their names with a great work.
There is not one of us who has not a mission to fulfill.
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