ONE STEP AT A TIME.
I ONCE stood at the foot of a Swiss mountain, which towered up from the foot of the Vispbach Valley to a height of ten thousand feet. It looked like a tremendous pull to the top. But I said to myself, "Oh, it will require but one step at a time!" Before sunset I stood on the summit enjoying the magnificent view of the peaks around me, and right opposite to me flashed the icy crown of the Weisshorn, which Professor Tyndall was the first man to discover, by taking one step at a time.
Every boy who would master a difficult study, every youth who hopes to get on in the world, must keep this motto in mind. When the famous Arago was a schoolboy, he got discouraged over mathematics. But one day he found on the waste leaf of the cover of his textbook a short letter from D'Alembert to a youth discouraged like himself. The advice, which D'Alembert gave was,
"Go on, sir, go on." "That little sentence," says Arago, "was my best teacher in mathematics."
He did push on steadily until he became the greatest mathematician of his day by mastering one step at a time.
THE SWISS GOOD-NIGHT.
AMONG the lofty mountains and elevated valleys of Switzerland, the Alpine horn has another use besides that of sounding the far famed Ranz des Vaches, or cow song; and this is of a very solemn and impressive nature. When the sun has set in the valley, and the snowy summits of the mountains gleam with golden light, the herdsman who dwells upon the highest habitable spot takes his horn, and pronounces clearly and loudly through it, as through a speaking trumpet, "Praise the Lord God!" as soon as the sound is heard by the neighboring herds men, they issue from their huts, take their Alpine horns, and repeat the same words. This frequently lasts a quarter of an hour, and the call resounds from all the mountains and rocky cliffs around. Silence settles over the scene. All the herdsmen kneel and pray with uncovered heads. Meantime, it has become quite dark.
"Goodnight!" at last calls the highest herdsman through his horn. "Goodnight!" again resounds from all the mountains, the horns of the herdsmen and the rocky cliffs. The mountaineers then retire to their dwellings and to rest.