Excerpt from English WritersThe physical and mental world presents some strange facts. One great law is, that the greater the obstacle the greater the success. The refining fire purifies gold, the irritation of the oyster forms the pearl, the fierce wind-storms toughen the giant oak. The great life is made greater by the obstacles thrown athwart its path, and genius succeeds never so well as patient, persevering work.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.