debilitated.

"To make it beautiful we must be its master, then we may attempt
its conquest.

"It is thus that all great men act; before adopting an illusion, as
truth, they have assured themselves of the means by the aid of which they
were permitted first to hope for its transformation and afterward be
certain of their power to discipline it.

"Illusion then changes its name and becomes the Ideal.

"Instead of remaining an inaccessible myth, it is transformed into an
entity for the creation of good.

"It is no longer the effort to conquer the impossible, which endeavor
saps our vital forces; it is a contingency which study and common sense
strip of all aleatory principles, in order to give a form which becomes
more tangible and more definite every day.

"We have nothing more to do with sterile efforts toward gaining an object
which fades from view and disappears as one approaches it.

"It is no longer the painful reaching out after an object always growing
more indistinct as we draw near it.

"It is through conscious and unremitting effort that we attain the
happy expression of successful endeavor and realize the best in life,
for slow ascension in winning this best leaves no room for satiety in
this noble strife.