Perseverance, worthily directed, and steadily maintained, has uniformly commanded respect, and not seldom, admiration. Even when the object has been of secondary importance, praise has rarely been withheld from the man who has pursued it with unfaltering energy. But praise has risen into plaudits and paeans, which have resounded through empires, and have been repeated in successive ages, when the purpose has been as noble as the perseverance. How often, in history and poetry, has the course of Columbus, as, through years of self-denial, misrepresentation, disappointment, and toil, he made his way from court to court, and from kingdom to kingdom—from Genoa to Portugal, to Venice, to Spain—been held forth for universal commendation. Who that is capable of appreciating the moral sublimity of such a mind, has not done homage to Newton, as from the most familiar facts of daily observation, he patiently climbed the loftiest heights of science, securing each step of his adventurous course as he proceeded, nor ever pausing in his upward movement, until his demonstrations had landed him upon the highest point which genius had yet attained, and presented at a single survey the harmonious movements of the vast universe?