ONE of the unquenchable cravings of the human consciousness is a desire for success. This desire may be vacillating, may incline first in one direction, then in another, or it may be fixed upon a few things, or for a time upon a single object; but once having their thought directed toward some goal, men love to win. Hope of success stimulates to the most strenuous effort, and it often seems that no price is too high to pay, no sacrifice too great to make, at the demand of its alluring promise.
One of the most painful experiences of human consciousness is failure. To attempt without achieving, to give thought and time and expend effort and money for the attainment of some purpose without gaining it, to work along some line of activity without reaching the point aimed for, is bitter indeed. Almost as bitter is the apprehension of such experience, and few mortals escape this apprehension, this fear of failure with its attendant suffering; for it not only overshadows the weary path of those who seem to fail as well as of those to whom failure ever appears as a possibility not far distant, but it often clouds the happiness of those who seem to achieve great things.
