How many people are like birds with clipped wings! Life holds them enchained by some handicap. They feel they can never rise, and the temptation comes to settle down to despair or lassitude. But the spirit need not be earthbound. Its range is not restricted or its possibilities limited by physical handicap. Though he could not hear, Beethoven gave the world some of its finest music; Milton's blindness did not affect the noble range of his soul's vision. History has many instances of those who overcame handicaps because they lived in the spirit. Their souls were touched by an eternal flame, and any defect of body could not dim the light that was in them.
Sir Walter Scott is a brilliant example of grace and grit. He overcame lameness and misfortune, and instead of being crushed in spirit and defeated, he won out.
Charles P. Steinmetz, who rivaled Thomas A. Edison in his discoveries and inventions in the field of electrical engineering, was greatly deformed. He did most of his work half standing, half leaning upon a stool. However, he did not allow his handicap to embitter or discourage him. He knew he would have to fight his way. There was no personal popularity, no pleasant social contacts to speed him along. He tortured his brain into headaches and his eyes into burning balls of pain. Time after time he was defeated and undone, but Steinmetz kept climbing until he became the greatest electrical wizard of his time.
The march of progress is the conquering of impossibilities. The mountain that cannot be climed may be tunneled
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