PATIENCE

I SAW the proprietor of a large garden stand at his fence, and call over to a poor neighbor, “Would you like some grapes?” “Yes, and very thankful to you,” was the ready answer. “Well, then, bring your basket.” The basket was quickly brought and handed over the fence. The owner took it and disappeared among the vines; but I marked that he was depositing in it all the while, rich and various clusters from the fruitful labyrinth in which he had hid himself. The woman stood at the fence, the meanwhile, quiet and hopeful. At length he reappeared with a well-replenished basket, saying, “I have made you wait a good while, but, you know, the longer you have to wait, the more grapes.” So it is, with the great Giver of all gifts—the longer He makes me wait, the more He gives.

A lady in Switzerland, addressing a peasant who was working in his garden very early in the season, said: “I fear the plants which have come forward rapidly will yet all be destroyed by frost.” “God has been our father a great while,” was the reply.

“Patient waiting no loss,” has been made the maximal title of an instructive volume, and “let patience have her perfect work,” was one of the admirable suggestions of ancient wisdom. The history of every great achievement, and the realization of every grand idea, is the record of a corresponding patience on the part of the hero arid the thinker. But for the large possession of this sublime quality, humanity must have succumbed to a thousand obstacles which have been gloriously overcome. The discoverer, the reformer—the benefactor of whatever class—has each in turn, since the world began, learned through ins own experience the truth of the poet’s line,

“They nobly win who watch and wait,”

and the story of any one of them is mainly the story of all. Patience is a lofty, a divine attribute.

Every man that has cultivated fruit, knows that no tree can bear very rich the first year. The first year a tree bears, the fruit is of the lowest quality; the second year it is a little better; the fourth year it is better yet; and it continues to improve every year until the tenth; and then you begin to know what is the best thing that the tree can do. Trees have to go through a maturing process of ten years duration, before they can bear fruits of the highest flavors. So it is with man in the accomplishment of any good purpose. It is not until he has borne the fruits of industry, economy and good management in his profession or pursuit, whatever it may be, year after year, that he can bring them forth in their highest state of development. The tree must be planted and protected for a long time before it will bear any fruit at all, then it must continue to grow and to mature and produce year after year before it will yield its richest and most valuable harvest. And the wealth of its productions depend greatly too upon nurture and care, yet time can not be dispensed with.

One of the requisites for the successful training of children at home, or in the school-room, is patience. Every teacher and mother will find her labors made easy by the constant exercise of this cardinal virtue. Children are won by kind words; but cross looks and harsh tones deter them from seeking our sympathy or giving us their confidence. The mother or teacher should regard the sports of children as a blessing, join in their innocent amusements, and draw from them some useful lesson for their future consideration. They should learn to look up to her as a friend in whom they could confide, who will bear patiently with their childish follies, and in kindness seek to improve whatever may be amiss in their manners or morals.

Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. God’s will is manifested in the way a man is made up. Some are fitted for one thing, and some for another: and the first thing for a man to find out is what he is good for, if it takes him half his life. And it is where, when a man seeks the things that are within the sphere of his faculties; it is where when a man seeks right things that are attainable by him; it is where, when a man uses proper instrumentalities, the result is delayed—it is there that patience is needed. Under such circumstances men have a right to expect results in proportion to their exertions. They have a right to look for effects from the causes which they operate.

There will however be cases where the best exertions put forth in the best manner, are not crowned with immediate success. But this does not change the laws of success. The general law of summer is the growth and ripening of fruits and grains; and yet there is a law of storms and cold weather; and the tumultuous seasons throughout the summer may cut short the harvest and prevent the ripening of the fruit at the usual time. We must have patience and perhaps correct our calculations for another year. If you take the voyages from New York to Liverpool, you may say that the average time of the voyage of smart sailing vessels, through summer and winter is twenty-one days; but this period of three weeks is often departed from, and the time required for a voyage is sometimes four weeks, sometimes six weeks, and sometimes eight weeks. The relation between means and ends is so definite and so constant as to justify labor, and hope, and expectation; but in particular instances there may be a great disproportion of results. A man must not therefore be discouraged, if he does not get at a certain time the things which he seeks. He must make allowance for a change in circumstances.

Be and continue poor, young man, while others around you grow rich by fraud and dishonesty; bear the pain of defeated hopes, while others gain the accomplishment of theirs by flattery; forego the gracious pressure of the hand for which others cringe and crawl; wrap yourself in your own virtue, and seek a friend and your daily bread. If you have, in such a course grown gray with unblemished honor bless God and die.

There is an old Latin proverb, (Festina lente) which says, “hasten slowly.” It is rarely that we find two words which express so much, or contain more food for thought. He that is hasty fishes in an empty pond.

“Slum all rash acts. Let moderation mark
Each enterprise in which you may embark;
And from your mind ne’er let there be effaced
The old, yet startling proverb, ‘haste makes waste.’

Do not be in a hurry to get rich. Gradual gains are the only natural gains; and they who are in haste to be rich, break over sound rules, fall into temptations and distress of various sorts, and generally fail of their object. There is no use of getting rich suddenly. The man who keeps his business under his control, and saves something from year to year, is always rich. At any rate, he possesses the highest enjoyment which riches are able to afford.

Progress of any kind is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once, and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step. Christ did not count his converts by thousands, nor yet by tens, but he counted them by units, saying, “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” He valued individuals; and yet at last shall he welcome his redeemed as an innumerable multitude, whom no man can number.

There are men who grow rapidly rich by the force of perspicacity, a singleness of purpose, and an energy of will, which would have made them distinguished in any department of human life, in any pursuit to which they may have been directed; upon such men we ought not to look with envy, but with respect, and, while we should admire them the more, we ought not to think of ourselves the less, for all the great pecuniary difference, as long as we have been fast in our integrity in every strait, and in every temptation.

But suppose we have failed a dozen times, who knows but that it may be with us as it has been with multitudes before us, that past adversities are the foundations, constitute the elements, of future success, the very schoolings to great accomplishments.

Let every man, then, be diligent, and abide his time in patience, remembering that the race is not commonly, in practical life, to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; and that ultimate and permanent success, is the pretty sure reward of him, who has patience, diligence, and a great heart.

Every man must patiently abide his time. He must wait.  It is not in listless idleness; not in useless pastime, not in querulous defection; but in constant, steady, cheerful endeavor, ‘always willing, fulfilling and accomplishing his task, that when the occasion comes he may be equal to the occasion. The talent of success is doing nothing more than what you can do well, without a thought of fame. If it comes at all it will come because it is deserved, and not because it is sought after.

I am surprised, said a certain old lady, that the little boys will knock the apples off the trees; when if let alone, they would so soon fall of themselves. I am surprised that men should kill each other so much, when in time they would all die of themselves. I am surprised that the girls will go after the young men so far, when otherwise they would much quicker come for them of their own accord.

Hundreds have attempted the definition of genius. When Sir Isaac Newton was asked for it, he replied, “Patience and Work.” Sir Isaac would spend whole months in the examination of a single numerical relation, or the bearings of an angle of incidence, and if he was not then perfectly satisfied, other months were consumed in the same studies. Demosthenes, when wishing to make a great effort, would retire to some secret place, with his head shaved, so that decency, if his love of glory failed, should prevent his appearance in public, and there, in bald-headed solitude, the orator forged his rhetorical thunderbolts, and with a new growth of locks, his beloved Athens received a new speech, which, to this day, is the delight of the scholar and the model of the greatest declaimers. The illustrious Fox pored over the mighty Greek for years; Brougham even yet makes him a close study. A celebrated English judge copied the text books of his profession no less than five times. Cuvier, the Prince of Naturalists, passed weeks in the examination of a single bone. What immense labor Agassiz must have gone through! What years of toil were those of Herschell!

The most beneficent operations of nature are the result of patience. The waters slowly deposit their rich alluvium; the fruits are months in their growth and perfecting;

To be wise we must diligently apply ourselves, and confront the same continuous application which our forefathers did; for labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable.  We must be satisfied to work energetically with a purpose, and wait the results with patience. Buffon has even said of patience, that it is genius,—the power of great men, in his opinion, consisting mainly in their power of continuous working and waiting. All progress, of the best kind, is slow; but to him who works faith fully and in a right spirit, be sure that the reward will be vouchsafe in its own good time. “Courage and industry,” says Granville Sharpe, “must have sunk in despair, and the world must have remained unimproved and unornamented, if men had merely compared the effect of a single stroke of the chisel with the pyramid to be raised, or of a single impression of the spade with the mountains to be leveled.” We must continuously apply ourselves to right pursuits, and we cannot fail to advance steadily, though it may be un consciously.

Hugh Miller modestly says, in his autobiography, “The only merit to which I lay claim is that of patient research,—a merit in which whoever wills may rival or surpass me; and this humble faculty of patience, when rightly developed may lead to more extraordinary developments of idea than even genius itself.

Sir Astley Cooper, one of the most skillful and deserving in the medical ranks, in the first year of his practice netted only five guineas; in the second, £26; in the third, £64; in the fourth, £96; in the fifth, £100; in the sixth, £200; in the seventh, £400; in the eighth, £600; and in the ninth, £1,100. The highest amount he ever received in any one year was £21,000, but for many years his average income was over £15,000, or $75,000.

Patience is a good nag, says the proverb. Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. Always have a good stock of patience laid by, and be sure you put it where you can easily find it. Cherish patience as your favorite virtue. Always keep it about you. You will find use for it oftener than for all the rest. Moderation is the silken string running through the pearl-chain of all virtue. He who is impatient to become his own master is most likely to become merely his own slave. You can do anything if you will only have patience; water may be carried in a sieve, if you can only wait till it freezes. Those who at the commencement of their career, meet with less applause than they deserve, not unfrequently gain more than they deserve at the end of it; though having grounds at first to fear that they were born to be starved, they often live long enough to die of a surfeit.

Patience is a most necessary qualification for business; many a man would rather you heard his story than granted his request. You must seem to hear the unreasonable demands of the petulant unmoved, and the tedious details of the dull untried. That is the east price that a man must pay for a high station.

He hath made a good progress in business that hath thought well of it beforehand. Some do first, and think afterwards. Precipitation ruins the best laid designs; whereas patience ripens the most difficult, and renders the execution of them easy. That is done soon enough which is done well.  Soon ripe,  soon rotten. He that would enjoy the fruit, must not gather the flower. He calls to patience, who is patience itself; and he that gives the precept enforces it by his own example. Patience affords us a shield to defend ourselves, and innocence denies us a sword to defend others. Knowledge is power, but it is one of the slowest because one of the most durable of agencies. Continued exertion, and not hasty efforts, that lead to success. What cannot be cured must be endured.  How poor are they that have not patience!

For violent fires soon burn out themselves:
Small showers last long, but sudden storms are short;
He tires betimes that spurs too fast betimes
With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder.